A more serious Christian Wedding

This time, it was my friend Johan Pettersson - an intern worked in Shanghai 5 year's back. He stayed there until 1.5 years ago and now living with his wife Anette - a german girl, in Dublin. This time the wedding is quite different from last time for a few reasons:

1. They used a real church instead of the 'skogan kykan' (forest church) unlike Aron's high school hippie friends. It was exacly like how it is in those hollywood movies. Except that, the bride's dad did not excort the bride. ;-)

2. The priest speak both Swedish and English. So I could understand the entire ceremony. The priest is quite hilarious. He always adds 'wonderful!' abruptly each time they finished one step.

3. This wedding is a bit more serious compared to Aron's friends' hippie wedding. I guess it is just different social groups I am encountering. Most men dressed up in suits though without a tie because in the invitation booklet, everyone was threatened against wearing a tie - you can even see the big scizzor lying there on the wedding day. However, most women only dressed up a bit because the dress code was meant to be casual. I really think this is a 'win-win' idea! A. All the guests can feel a bit more relaxed about what to wear to attend a wedding (I remember my flatmate Maria bought a new dress for the wedding she went in July!!!); B. The groom and bride do not need to investigate hugely for their wedding dresses either to 'stand out' in the crowd. Though Aron and me stupidly dressed up a bit too much because we did not get the invitation letter. :P

3. A quite international wedding. It is not just because the groom is a Swede and the bride a German, it is also because that both Johan and Anette have lived in quite a few different places: e.g. Shanghai, Dublin apart from their home countries. On top of everything, the bride's sister married an American. She really wanted to bring some American touch to this wedding. (As if it has not been enough with how much USA is everywhere! Just kidding! :P) So we had a few different details arranged to reflect the internationalism of this wedding:

a. Bells on the table. Ring it if you want to see the groom and the bride kissing. (American)
b. There is a song booklet with Irish, Swedish and German songs. This is orignated from the Swedish tradition called 'snap songs' which Swedes sing when they are drinking snaps. I love those snap song lyrics - they are mostly about how much drunker they wanna be though they are already 'shitfaced' (my favourite Swedish word: skitfull). There was no Chinese song though. I guess the couple have not mastered singing in mandarin yet. Though most foreigners speak mandarin like singing anyways because they mess up the intonations. :P

4. This time we were served with a very nice 3 course meal - saved our energy of cooking and brining pots and pans. Food was nice but mainly Swedish: salmon, steaks, meatballs and sausages. I love Swedish food though I would expect a combination between German and Swedish (or even Chinese, hehe...) cousine. =)

5. Everyone is a crap dancer!!! It all started from Johan and Anette's walts demonstration. It was a combination between sliding, trippling and stepping on each other. Aron and me were immediately relieved. If there would have been some more space, we would have danced all night! Laurents (another old SIEMENS intern worked in Shanghai for quite some years) and his girlfriend dressed up in traditional Bavalrian dresses and jumping in and out of the dancing pool. It was fun and relaxing to both dance and watch.

6. Meeting my old friends: Johan, Laurents and Martin. The 3 of them have all worked in Shanghai for SIEMENS. (I am not advertising for MT internships in Shanghai with SIEMENS here!) It was wonderful to meet them again and feel amazed how life reconnects you after a while. Though I was not very active in AIESEC 5 years back. Hardly hanged out with interns - shame on me! :P At least, I can start to keep in touch with all of them from here on.

Enough about the comparison, highlight of the wedding for me personally:

The Christian wedding vows are very beautiful. I really appreciated that the priest spoke English thus I was able to understand the entire ceremony. I was very touched by how sweet, cozy and beautiful the entire ceremony was. I looked around, there were only family and close friends present. It is the kind of thing you only want to share and celebrate with those cloest to your heart.