Sweden Barn Wedding

Thanks to Google I now know where Västerbotten is located. Before today, I had no idea. It is in Sweden and it is the setting of this very simple and intimate summer barn wedding.

By christmas time 2013 we decided that the year 2014 would be the year we finally would get married and at the same time celebrate 20 years together. 15 years earlier we got engaged on a bridge in Venize so we had a lot of time to think things over.

That the wedding should take place by the ocean was decided early on since we found a beautiful place by my family’s cottage. At first we were planning to have a small intimate wedding with barbecue theme but as the planning went on the guest list grew. After new years eve we sent out save the date cards and since I like the layout we made a template in Publisher to see how all the prints would look. The color theme was coral-pink, olive green and cream white. Our inspiration for the wedding details and decorations was taken from our interest in old houses, second hand and flea markets and we got a lot of ideas from the Internet and Pinterest.

Early on we decided to have BBQ and got in contact with Michael Hansen as Hansens Catering in Brännland outside of Umeå. As desert we wanted an ice cream bar instead of a wedding cake. Jonas built it from old wood boards with some help from friends and family.

It was hard finding a venue with the right look and feeling for the wedding theme – rustic BBQ with a touch of northern Sweden. But after some consideration we decided to clean out the barn loft at my parents yard. 75 years of active farming, hay and dust disappeared with lots of hard work and the barn came out great.

The invitation cards followed the same theme as the save the date cards and in the end we had 54 guests to send out invitations to. A very time consuming thing to fold and make envelopes out of a wallpaper with a flower pattern. The wallpaper was also used for holding the napkins and to make some small signs.

By springtime we were planing the schedule of the wedding party and started the decoration of the barn with some rag rugs, light strands, old glass bottles and cans. As cloths for the tables we used IKEA bed sheets and strips of jute cloth and to put on top we found some small crocheted flowers that was made by my deceased grandmother for a bedspread that was never finished.

The coffee cups with flower patterns were heirlooms and some were borrowed to get enough for all the guests. The tables, chairs and dinnerware where borrowed from a nearby school.

The food was served outside and old doors, lamp strands and handwritten signs helped set the atmosphere.

The wedding day started with decorating the barn with flowers and our sisters made my hair and makeup. We arrived at the ceremony in a Russian sidecar motorcycle by the brand Dnepr. The wedding officiant is a dear friend of ours and under the ceremony Sara Persson sang two songs, “Utan dina andetag” (Kent) and “För kärlekens skull” (Ted Gärdestad).

After the ceremony the bridal toast was held at the beach and then the guests where decided in three groups and got to ride a hay carriage by tractor and compete in a pentathlon. It made the guest easier to get to know each other, set the mood and the party was a great success.

Since we loved the planing of all the decorations we had put a lot of time into getting the right feel into it. And with lots of help from our friends and family, glorious weather, happy guests, lots of great food and happy games the day turned out to be a success and exactly as we had in mind.