Eco Wedding

Want to get married without making an impact on the world? Looking for ecological food for your wedding? Needing tips on how to make your wedding more eco friendly?

Look no more! Check out these sites: Eco Bride (in Swedish only) and Eco Wedding . Full of ideas, and tips for ecologically aware brides.

Also check out The Natural Weeding Company, a directory of companies and products that are ethical, eco-friendly, vintage, organic, green, handmade or local, in the UK.

And as a last tip: Hällsnäs, a lovely wedding venue just outside of Göteborg in Sweden. They arrange eco friendly weddings, and even if you're not getting married, check out the lovely pictures. Enjoy!

Photo by Jina Lee.

Logotype from hallsnas.se.

What a wedding!

The bride looked absolutely stunning, the guests were fabulous, the people cheered and applauded and neither the groom nor the bride hesitated when reading the vows in church. It was really pretty, and we watched the wedding ceremony on a big screen in the middle of central Stockholm. Afterwards we tried to watch the happy couple who went to the city in a horse-drawn carriage, but there were so many people lining the streets, wanting to see and vawe. I managed to get a few seconds of film, but that was all.

The peak of the evening was Prince Daniel's speech to his wife, Crown Princess Victoria. It was one of the most beautiful, well written, thought-out speeches I've ever heard, and the applauses didn't want to stop. It was such an utter declaration of love, and of course I cried like a baby. ;)

All the best wishes to H. R. H. Crown Princess Victoria and her new husband H. R. H. Prince Daniel!

Tomorrow, tomorrow...

I love you, tomorrow. You're only a day away....

So, tomorrow is finally the big day. The Royal Wedding. I'll of course be there to wave to the happy couple after the ceremony, and I'll report some more on Sunday.

Mr. Daniel Westling's coat of arms, from www.royalcourt.se.

Star Wars Wedding

If you're a Star Wars Fan, and you happen to be in Florida in August, be sure to check out Star Wars Celebration V, a (what seems to be) huge convention for Star Wars fans. At the convention, you can actually choose to get married, Star Wars style. Choose between a "light side" or a "dark side" ceremony and enjoy yourselves! (Please note that the ceremony isn't legally binding. ;)

Wedding at IKEA?

IKEA is running a campaign right now, where you connect to their campaign site through your Facebook account, propose to the love of your life, and the funniest/best proposal wins the couple a 50 guest reception, complete with food, decorations, flowers and everything.

I think it's a fun idea, so if you're about to propose; check out their site! :)

Picture from IKEA's campaign site.

Speculations were correct, unfortunately

The speculations about H. R. H. Princess Madeleine and Mr. Jonas Bergström having problems in their relationship, unfortunately seem to have been true. A few days ago, the Royal Court announced that the young couple will separate. That means only one royal wedding will be held in the near future, so that gives me another few years to try to land the account of the next one. ;) I don't mean to be disrespectful, I feel sorry for Princess Madeleine, but I'm sure she will find happiness soon!

Ice cream wedding

I've been meaning to write a blog post about ice cream. Not only because I simply LOVE ice cream, but also due to the fact that the whole of Sweden wants to ride the wedding wave created by the royal wedding to come. GB Glace, Sweden's largest ice cream manufacturer, have a clown, Clovve, as their mascot. Clovve will get married to Clovina, at Sweden's largest amusement park, Liseberg, on the 16th of May. Cute idea, and to honor their marriage (or possibly to sell more ice cream ;) GB Glace have come up with a special wedding ice cream cone; "Bröllopsstruten". And kanal 5 (a TV station) has created a whole campaign site, and will live stream the wedding on their site on the 16th.

Picture from GB Glace.

So, why I decided to write the ice cream post just today was that I saw (on Facebook, thanks to Anders Sporring) that 7Eleven/GB Glace give out one free ice cream cone per person (they have 5000 to give out) if you log on to their site using your Facebook account. Then you enter your phone number and get an SMS coupon that can be used in 7Elevens all over the country. (On the site they also have a counter, that counts down so you can see how many of the 5000 free ice creams are left.)

So, first they have a campaign to draw more attention to GB Glace (Clovve getting married). Then they give out free samples to even more strengthen the brand and make people love it. Clever. They even get your email address and phone number; you give them up voluntarily, because you know you'll be getting one of their delicious ice creams, for FREE! Even more clever.

Picture from GB Glace.

But what happened next is a short tale on how marketing campaigns make people (me) buy something they maybe didn't need.

I'm on a no sugar/no carb diet. I do it for multiple reasons, but I try, as best as I can, to keep sugar/carb intake as low as possible. So I don't buy ice cream. But then I saw the offer on Facebook, and thought: "Wow, a free ice cream. I can't pass on that, diet or no diet." I went to the site, entered my information while my mouth was watering form the thought of the ice cream. I got the SMS coupon sent to my phone, and went off to the nearest 7Eleven. Since I am in Stockholm right now, you're never far from one. On the way there, I call my husband, to tell him about this great offer. He had (of course) already seen it on Facebook and said; "but here in the north, were we live, we don't have any 7Elevens, so I won't bother." We had a short argument about whether he was right or not (and I must admit that I think he was), but this also made my craving for ice cream even bigger. I arrive at my 7Eleven, happy, thinking about the smooth ice cream running down my throat, only to find that they were all out of the wedding cone, Bröllopsstruten. Total disappointment. So, I take the next best route; I buy another ice cream. Of course I am disappointed, but I still have my coupon, I'll get my free ice cream another day, and I also have another delicious ice cream to munch away at right now, in the sun.

Picture from 7Eleven.

So GB Glace and 7Eleven "win". I fell for a cheap PR trick, went into the store, and came out with something I really didn't need or was planning on buying. Good job! ;)

Now, enjoy your ice creams out there, and I'll try to be present at Clovve and Clovinas wedding to give you a report.

(And yes, Liseberg wins too, since I'm actually considering paying the entrance fee just to go watch a fictional wedding... ;)

(And of course you can "like" Clovve on Facebook...)

Picture from Clovve's page on Facebook.

Royal wedding web

Yesterday, the Swedish Royal Court released the royal wedding web. A web site with information about H. R. H. the Crown Princess Victoria's wedding to Mr. Daniel Westling. Check it out if you're curious about the program or anything else.

No royal wedding

For those of you who were hoping for double royal weddings this year, it looks like you might be disappointed. H. M. the Queen announced to a Swedish newspaper that Her Royal Highness Princess Madeleine won't be getting married to Jonas this year, as previously planned, due to many issues around the royal family.

In my opinion, this is probably better for Princess Madeleine. She gets more time to plan her wedding and she will hopefully not have to worry about two royal weddings being too much for guests, family and the country of Sweden.

Unfortunately this statement also causes a lot of speculations about the young couple breaking up etc, but let's hope that's not the case.

My previous post about H. R. H. Princess Madeleine and Jonas.

Picture from Wikimedia Commons.

Courageux

Last week I went to Åre Guld, the jewellery store in Åre, to talk to Magnus who owns the shop. Magnus is also a jewellery designer who designs for a brand called Courageux, and I thought I'd just share some of his ring designs with you. Enjoy!

Åre Wedding Village

I've started up a new project in Åre, called Bröllopsbyn (The Wedding Village). In, and around Åre, all suppliers needed to plan and have a beautiful and unique wedding, are present. Åre has photographers, hair dressers, flower shops, a wedding planner, hotels, restaurants, caterers, activities suppliers, jewelers, churches and gorgeous surroundings. Simply put; whatever you need to create your dream wedding.

I got an idea from Anna, at Hotel Diplomat Åregården, to try to gather all suppliers, and market Åre as the perfect Wedding Village. So I contacted a few of the suppliers, and we decided to try to apply for some fundings from the Leader program, which is a EU program. The plan is to create a marketing material for the village and all it's suppliers, and to go on different wedding fairs, marketing all the advantages of getting married in Åre.

I've just finished the work for the initial application, and will send it in Monday. But browsing the news today, I noticed that another region had the same idea. An article in GP tells about a few wedding suppliers in Sävelången area, who are starting up a wedding project, applying for money from the EU Leader program.

Well, hopefully Åre will still be able to get a positive response on our application. *keep your fingers crossed* :)

Weeding at the Central Station

Last weekend, me and my husband took a weekend trip to Copenhagen. At the Central Station in Stockholm, I noticed a big red mailbox that I had to check out closer.

It turns out that Jernhusen, a real estate company, is hosting a wedding contest. You can win a wedding at the Central Station during the Easter weekend, all expenses paid for. (Well, almost all: hair, flowers, cake, music and a few more things are included.)

Before the 8th of March you can send in the story of your funny/different proposal and answer three questions, and you have the chance of being the lucky winner.

Jernhusen also have a few "love spots" all around the station.

On the contest's web page the company encourages couples to send in photos of themselves kissing or hugging at the love spots, and the photos will be published on the page. (Though I haven't seen any pictures yet, nor any link to pictures.)

A cute initative, and I wonder how many couples want to be married at the Central Station... I'll see if I can join the happy couple at the wedding on the 3rd of April, to take some pictures.

eBay wedding reception

Do you live in Brisbane, Australia, and are planning to get married? Then check out this auction on eBay, starting at 99 cents! A hotel in Brisbane, the Normanby Hotel, is auctioning out a wedding reception for up to 80 guests, in order to celebrate the opening of the hotel's restaurant, Bovine.

Half of the income from the auction will be donated to the Brisbane's Royal Children's Hospital so you're making a good deed while getting a (hopefully) good price. So go on now, start bidding! ;)

Photo from thenormanby.com.au

Read more in this article from The Courier Mail.

And thanks to Weinrauch Photography for the tip on twitter!

Wedding fair at Grand Hôtel

This past weekend I helped Bröllopsakademin at a big wedding fair at Grand Hôtel in Stockholm. It was great fun and I got a lot of inspiration. I'll share a few of the more interesting things with you:

Aldestam's custom make garters, in any possible color you want. I've seen many custom made garters in American web shops, but these are the first Swedish ones I see. They also carry all other sorts of bridal accessories.

Gorgeous hats/head pieces from Cecilia Olsson, who works as a hat maker for Fancy Lola.

And these roses are just the cutest. You can "print" on the outside of the rose, on the petal, any kind of message you want. The company Speaking Roses can also send the rose to someone for you.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of my readers! I won't be so active on the blog during the Holidays, trying to have as much time off as possible, since I start a new job in Stockholm the 4th of January.

But please enjoy a picture of our Christmas Tree, and a page with some Christmas wedding ideas.

Peace out... ;)

Gay marriage in New York

Unfortunately, yesterday, the New York State Senate voted against a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the state of New York. Apparently the New Yorkers aren't as liberal as I thought....

Short article in Swedish.

My other post about same-sex marriages.

Winter Wedding Photo

I was browsing around the net and ran across Vimsmamman's blog. She has this lovely photo in one of her posts, and she writes that this is the best photo from her wedding. The best photos are taken when no-one is really prepared... I must of course agree, it's such a beatuiful photo, full of joy! :)

Vimsmamman is from Jämtland, the county where LoveEvent is based, so you get an idea of how a wedding in the North of Sweden could be...

Picture from Vimsmamman

Trash the Dress

On Twitter, I follow Weddingistas, a wedding planning service in Connecticut. Through their tweets and their blog, I came across this absolutely GORGEOUS Trash the Dress photo shoot. Check out photographer Michael Maler's mini web site with pics from the session. Fabulous!

Follow Weddingistas and Michael Maler on Twitter!

Gay marriage in church, finally

Yesterday, the Swedish "State Church" voted YES to allowing people of the same sex to get married in church. (Article in Swedish from GP, and an article in English from The Local.)

I think this shoud have been done many years ago. I mean, why shouldn't all people have equal rights?!?!

"Wedding of Mathieu Chantelois and Marcelo Gomez, one of the first same-sex marriage in Canada; Toronto, 3 July 2003. Personal snapshot." (From Wikimedia Commons)

Gorgeous wedding pictures

From time to time I check out this blog: Style me Pretty, a wedding blog well worth reading.

Today I just wanted to share with you some gorgeous wedding pictures taken for Brides Northern California. The sets are styled by Gloria Wong and photographed by Lisa Lefkowitz, and they are absolutely fabulous! If I would get married now, I'd want my wedding to look something like this!

Enjoy! :)