Larger than life

Anette & Per October 2nd, 2010

Gothenburg Botanical Gardens

The day was amazing! We really wanted an autumn wedding and we got it. It was a little cloudy and grey, but the nature was burning its leaves in colors of red, orange and yellow and the air was crisp and a little chilly. We had decorated the spot were the ceremony took place in the park, with bunting and lanterns filled with lit candles. It was so lovely seeing all our family and friends gathered together. And it was also the first time our parents met, even though we've been together for eight years!

After the ceremony we went down to our venue which was located right in the park. We had decorated the place with lots of antique books, brass lanterns, skeletal keys, crystal vases and the assorted cogs and wheels. I collected all these items over more than six months time, searching through flea markets and second hand stores. It was the most fun ever! The wedding was overall DIY, almost everything was made by us. Per made new labels for the wine bottles with matching made up whimsical stories on the back, and every guest went home with a different packet of tea, also with a adherent small story. The escort cards had small vintage skeleton keys tied to them, and the table numbers were excerpts from Jeff Noon's wonderfully wierd book Automated Alice - a little flirt with the fact that my Bachelorette's Party had the most amazing 'Anette in Wonderland' theme.

My mother and her husband had made the most wonderful buffet for our dinner. Sad to say, I was all too wound up to manage to eat more than a few bites. Everyone else ate though, until they couldn't move and then we had some more lovely wine and somehow managed to eat some delicious cake. After this we talked and laughed and sang Singstar and drank bubbly wine until we almost fell asleep were we sat.

We had talked about going to a hotel for the night, but we decided against it early in our planning, and it was the best thing ever to get to fall asleep in our own bed. This I could recommend to everyone!

I keep feeling I haven't got words enough to express how I feel about being married to my darling Per. I've never been one for dreaming about the big princess wedding - and I'm utterly happy we didn't had a big one - but somehow it feels like we're in some secret club now, him and me. It's awesome.

Who am I?

Actually, I've been trying to do a presentation of myself for almost half an hour now. This is so much harder than I thought it would be.

The big stuff is easy. I'm 29 and live in Sweden. A sociology student at Gothenburg University and newly married to the boy of my dreams, my best friend.

I'm quite nerdy, ranging from sci-fi books, movies, comics, board gaming and hours and hours of tv-series galore.

I knit. And crochet. And find these things more than helpful when trying to wind down. I could easily spend several evenings alone in the sofa with my knitting and listening to an audiobook.

I'm not really shy, but I find it hard to connect with people in public environments, especially in classrooms and at work. I'm not sure I like the 'me' I show them but it's at the same time hard to know when and how it happens. I think it's some kind of remnant from my nerdy youth, but since I haven't got problems in the social area when I'm with my friends this isn't really a problem at all. But it's really interesting when you're starting to think about how you present yourself to others.

Me and my husband (that's the first time I'm addressing him as such, whee!) are thinking of moving abroad in a couple of years. He's working on his doctoring degree right now, and after what I've heard , he might get a job in Australia, Canada, or the northern US. I've said I'm with him as long as we'll end up somewhere where they speak english. Exciting!

I'm not at all sure where life will take me. But I'll probably like it, I usually do.

This is me, hello!

The strangeness of it all

Life is wierd. The wedding (the wedding!) is over at last and it was lovely and utterly exhausting. Both me and P has spent the days since the Big Event mostly sleeping. We've joked about how we enter marriage and somehow manage to go directly to old age, 'cause boy, have we ever gone to sleep by nine PM before? No sirre. And not ever for seven days straight.

So, what has changed? Well, absolutely nothing and everything, all at once. We are still best friends and are mostly goofing around like we always do, but at the same time.. something is new. We have done something. One of those somethings that in some strange way goes above and beyond ourselves. I really can't explain it. I guess it could be the feeling you get when you accomplish things that are really important to you. Like getting that job that you actually is qualified for, or getting that university degree at last (still working on that one), or perhaps becoming a parent.

Well. I never did manage to document the wedding planning, but now when I'm well on the other side of it I think this is better. This is my life as it is now.

So.

Here we go again.