If you missed Alexandra and Charlie’s feature on Wedding Chicks yesterday, then make sure to hit play and take a peek into their amazing Swedish wedding! Here is a guest blogging post from Alexandra giving us a little more insight to how this gorgeous day came about..
The Couple
Charlie and I met in Durham/Chapel Hill in the spring of 2006, when I had less than four months left until I would go home to Sweden again and start my graduate studies, after a one-year exchange program here in the United States. This was just my one year to try out a new culture for a while and I had no intentions to date an American guy. Although I love to travel and meeting new people, home would always be home! But then I met Charlie through mutual friends at one of the landmark restaurants in town, appropriately called “Top of The Hill. I can’t say it was love at first sight but when another guy kept bothering me, Charlie,as “The Southern Gentleman” as he is, noticed this and came up to me and asked if he could help.I eagerly agreed to this and we ended up talking all night. The evening ended with Charlie asking for my number, but I made clear that I was not interested in dating, when I was going home so soon. Charlie said that was fine but he would love to show me some of the nice spots around town that he thought I would enjoy seeing, he gave me his number and told me I could call if I’d like, and no pressure about dating! So we ended up hanging out a lot after that, only because I felt safe, when he was so relaxed about the non-dating AND also because (we laugh about this today) I had got it in my head that he was not my type anyways!
So our journey together really started very unpretentious and relaxed, trying out new restaurants, exploring parks and watching a lot of movies (both big movie buffs) etc. However, I started to realize that I was in trouble when I wondered why he was not trying to hold my hand or kiss me! So when I had about little less than 2 months remaining on my visit, I took matters in my own hand and kissed him!
Later when I asked Charlie why he did not try anything, he said simply: You said you did not want me to and I wanted to respect that but I had actually planned a first kiss (just a few days after I kissed him), during our upcoming trip to the Atlantic, a few hours from Chapel Hill! So instead of the usual story of love at first sight and a “like-in-the-movies-kind-of-kiss” in the moonlight at the beach, our story had a little bit of a different beginning! However, I would now never want to change it! We learned things about each other that I believe were more relaxed, honest and true than if we had “dated”.
So I found my one soul mate on the other side of the world, during my short stay in this country with 300 million people. Makes you wonder if people that talk about faith are onto something. Furthermore, Charlie simply told me in his nice quiet way on our third real date (after the kiss) that he knew we would be together forever, and that I would be his wife eventually. I laughed and said he’ll have to wait longer than three dates before he speaks about this, maybe come back in 10 years or so. I certainly have some bad sides he had not seen yet like any person … Then he just smiled and looked at me again and stated that he knew what he knew and continued with that he might show me his time machine at some point. And that has been his saying ever since those early days, when I sometimes ask him in wonderment, looking back at our time together, how he could know so early and be so sure that it would be us, he just retorts with his time machine phrase. This phrase is also something that he included in his vows that you can see in our Elysium wedding movie!
The Wedding
We decided to get married in my home town in Sweden, when all our American friends and Charlie’s family where so pumped to go to the Arctic Circle and visit Sweden in general. My family is also less mobile than the Americans so it worked out from both standpoints. The Venue that we chose is a little Estate from the late 18th century that now is turned into a restaurant. It is so beautifully located in the Evergreen forest about 15 minutes outside of Ume
I would like to see your Swedish wedding because of any traditions you may have used. how do I go about doing this?