The wedding story

Fifteen thank-you cards and 105 photo printouts after our wedding, I think I may be ready to tell my story.

As I've said before, I became pretty impatient with people when they were trying to tell me what to do during the wedding planning. Some even called me "Bridezilla." This lasted up until a few minutes before the actual ceremony last Sunday in Vermont.

Not only did the groom, Albie, decide it was a good idea to try to persuade me to walk down some narrow stairs for my entrance when I had specifically said this would never happen because I would trip and fall, but some relatives proceeded to tell me that 3:30 p.m. was "just too early" to have dinner. One of my bridesmaids then insisted on there being dancing during the "reception," which I had requested not to do.

What is wrong with people? is all I kept thinking. This is MY special day, and nobody is LISTENING to me!!!

In the end, it all worked out fabulously. Despite the bridesmaid boquets of lilies never opening up, the best man driving halfway to Canada before finding the right way, and people trying to force me to put my dress on 40 minutes before the ceremony started, everything went smoothly and we all had a blast.

I did, in fact, enjoy being able to boss people around, so perhaps it was good they couldn't follow direction...

Right before the ceremony, my bridesmaids crammed into this room we had turned into a "catch-all" to watch me zip up my dress. In this mess, my photographer managed to take some of the most beautiful pictures prior to the wedding.

When the last car finally pulled up to the house (I could see the driveway through my window) - 15 minutes after we were scheduled to begin - one of my bridesmaids was sent out to tell everyone to PLEASE take their seats as soon as possible. She was very good about it, too.

"We are dealing with a very impatient Swedish bride, so if everyone would just take their seats right now, that would be great!" she said.

It wasn't long after that we all rushed out of there to the tunes of Bach's "Air on the G-string." And I mean rushed. You'll know what I'm talking about if you see the video (posted in six parts in previous posts).

The ceremony went quicker than I had ever dared anticipate. It was about 12 minutes, and that included blessings of the rings, the vows, a reading and several prayers. I'm starting to like the Episcopalean church's way of doing things. (Of course, several things had been cut out during the early stages of planning...)

As I was standing in front of the fireplace, with Judy (the minister) up on the actual fireplace on my left and everyone staring at me from the right, I found out what a good idea it had been to suggest early on that Albie and I take each other's hands for most part of service. It was much easier to concentrate that way, and also much easier to stand up and not worry about passing out.

I wasn't exactly nervous, but it was a bit stomach-turning to think about what we were about to do - right now, as everyone is looking. I am glad there were only 20 other people in the room.

Of course, our minister had picked up the wrong pair of eyeglasses, so she had to do the whole thing from memory. She apparently couldn't see a thing from her program. It didn't become evident to me until the very end, where I mistakenly thought she was getting emotional about her nephew and therefore messed up some of the words.


During the dinner, my favorite part was that the favor bags of m&ms were immediately opened up and people started flining them across the room. I think Albie's uncle was the one who started it, and I threw several in all directions that didn't hit anyone. Albie's dad, however, managed to hit two people with one shot as he threw a candy at his uncle, missed and hit the best man in the head. It then bounced off the best man's head and hit Albie's cousin in the boob.

Cleaning up the chocolates the following day, all I could think was "it was definitely worth it."

When it was time to cut the cake, my grandmother called from Sweden and I had everyone yell out to her. Then Albie's mom got on the phone with her for about 15 minutes, and they must have said some great stuff in some joint langauge because they were both crying at the conclusion of their talk.

Then we couldn't find Albie. The best man had stolen him away and they were sitting in his car listening to music. We finally cut the cake though, and everyone enjoyed it just as much as Albie and I did when my friend Kristen first brough over a test cake to our house. It looked amazing too (more pictures to follow another day).

Albie passed out at 9 p.m. and I spent a few hours having champagne, crackers and cheese with my friends before they all went to bed too. Then I started cleaning and organizing some stuff, and I didn't go to sleep until 2 a.m. (still earlier than my normal bed time).

The following day, we all headed down to the inn where Albie's parents were staying, only to be greated by a very cheery chef who had made up a special treat: Eggs Altoria, named after us. It was basically bruschetta with a scrambled egg base, and it was really good. Of course, Albie was so hung over he couldn't eat more than a few bites. Then he slept through the rest of the day.

All in all, though, it was a very successful affair. Now we're married, and we'll have lots more stories to tell.