Our Semi-Elopement Wedding in Norway

When I was younger, I thought of having a grand big fairytale like wedding. Like how I see it in the movies or books that I have read.

But then, as I grew older, my wedding of choice changed. Now, I wanted to have a really small and intimate wedding (good thing the groom also agrees). I have attended quite a few (from cousins, friends, and eventually my sisters’) and I came to know what are the things going on and how they plan those traditional weddings. I certainly did enjoy those big weddings too! But maybe it is not the thing for me. I wanted to celebrate it with just a small group where I can share every bit of with the person I am marrying. In the beginning, we were looking at inviting 30 people. Then it got so hard to list down who we wanted to be there.

Thomas and I both wanted to have a cliff wedding. That is the dream! and I am currently living in one of the perfect spots to have it — Thailand. But then again, we discussed over and over until it went down to Norway with only 15 people invited. I asked Thomas if he know of popular places where it’s nice to have the wedding and he told me about a church he knows. I googled it and I fell in love! We found it! Sola Ruinkirke.

Only a few people knew we were planning this kind of wedding since everyone is expecting us to have a traditional one. We only have our immediate families involved and some of my closest friends from work (since it’s so hard to be a bride without a squad you can rely on right?LOL)

To make the long story short, we planned to have the wedding before the year ended (December, 2018). For practical reasons since we wanted to start our lives together sooner rather than later. We have been in LDR for more than 2 years and we want to finally end the distance too. We wanted to take part in each others lives not only on some days but everyday of our lives together. Our families were very supportive as well. We told them about our plans and they are just simply happy for us. Since the wedding is going to be in Norway, we chose to have Thomas’ closest family members.  We thought it would be nice to have another celebration with my family later. 🙂

It was fun planning our wedding! It was almost easy as a breeze. :)Think we did it in a little over 3 months. Just the government requirements which took a little time — and the rest, we just DIY-ed few days before the wedding. We were lucky enough to get a lot of help from our families too! My mom fixed my papers from Manila. Thomas fixed the papers from the Norwegian Government. My in-laws offered their place to hold the dinner — they just rented extra tables and chairs. They also gifted us with cakes and his uncle borrowed us a wedding car (which was so extra!) I brought some table decors too!

My wedding bouquet was bought in the local flower shop right in the corner of their house.

I was thinking of buying just a simple dress for the wedding. But I had the time to fly back to Manila and see if I can have one custom dress made for me and voila! It took them a week and I have it with me flying to Thailand and brought it to Norway (with just one fitting!). Not to mention I had it in a paper bag for nearly two months and had to pack it down in a small suitcase.

The ceremony was very short but meaningful. We said a few personal messages to each other and I was all choked up from holding back my tears. LOL

The dinner followed shortly after at their family home.

We are beyond happy and grateful that we are finally married now and that we were able to have such a good time celebrating in the company of my new family in Norway. My family and friends from the Philippines sent us surprise video messages (which was so touching). It almost felt as if they were there too! <3

Tips: 

• A small intimate or an elopement wedding will save you a lot of money! (we preferred to have a smaller wedding so we can spend more for our future and for our honeymoon)
• Weddings always come at a premium price. For example when you ask for a wedding bouquet or a wedding cake, it will come in a more expensive price than just having a normal bouquet or cake. Key is to limit mentioning the word ‘wedding’ or anything related to it. I find it practical to not spend so much for my flowers because they will just die anyway. Hehe. So we opted to buy just normal bouquet and have them arrange it a little bit — so that it looks ready to be put on a vase. I bought some ribbons to tie it and make it more nice.
• Make use of what you already have at home so you won’t need to buy a lot of things
• Set your negotiables and non-negotiables. This way you can find out which ones you can let go and make you save on spending. 🙂
• Set your priorities. This one is almost the same as above. We prioritized more on our life after the wedding and our marriage itself rather than planning for a bigger wedding. We wanted to really be able to speak and socialize with the people who shared our wedding day with us. And most of all, we wanted to also eat the food on the buffet! LOL (this is actually one of the top complains I have heard from newly weds who had a big wedding. They were not able to enjoy or eat the food because they were busy taking photos with each of the guests, doing all the dance numbers, and speeches. Hehe.) 😉

Those are just coming from my own opinion and I totally don’t have anything against with people having how they want their weddings to be. If you are up for a 4million worth of wedding then why not?! If that is your hearts desire right? But hopefully if you are like me, this can help you in planning your own wedding. 🙂

Details:

Food: Sola Ferdigmat

Cakes: Assorted (Bakehuset, Kransekake, Cheesecake, Ice Cream Cake, Homemade Berries Cake)

Bridal Dress: Bride House Philippines

Grooms Suit: Tiger of Sweden

Church: Sola Ruinkirke

Photographer: Jeanette Larsen

It was so nice reliving our wedding! I will do a separate post with our official wedding photos. Stay tuned! <3

 

**special thanks to our family in Norway for all these photos! <3**

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