Growing up I was never the girl that dreamed about my wedding day, and for a long time I had no interest in ever getting married. But the day I returned back to Oregon from my time in Australia I said something to my family that surprised them…
“I am going to marry him one day”
The him I was talking about, that was of course my handsome Viking. Who knew I could predict the future, add that to my list of hidden talents ;)
All jokes aside I remember saying this to my family, and them saying to me this must be really something special since I had never said anything about marriage before.
And they were right, what my Viking and I have, it is something truly special.
Now I can’t say that 8 years ago when I returned back from Australia I actually thought the Viking and I would get married, but I certainly had my fingers and toes crossed that we would.
It might not of always been easy (long distance and visa problems I’m talking about you!) but I am certain this is no one else I would want by my side.
When H and I started talking about marriage we knew that we wanted to have our wedding in Oregon. With this in mind we decided that when we would get engaged we would want it to be a long engagement (think 1 ½ - 2 years) so that as many of our Icelandic family would be able to plan ahead and join us. At the time I truly did not know how this would work out and feared that our wedding would be almost entirely my family and friends with H feeling a bit like he missed out by having his wedding in Oregon.
Oh how wrong I was to worry!
We were so lucky to have over 30 Icelanders join us in Oregon where they made up almost half of our wedding guests. I was constantly hearing from my family and friends how amazing the Icelanders were as they all spent our wedding day and night mingling and getting to know all about each other and the very different places they came from.
It was an absolutely dream come true to have both sides of our loved ones all in the same place and made our wedding day that much more special.
My entire family all in one picture, all the feels when I look at this image:)
But let’s back up a bit.
When it came to wedding planning we had two goals in mind, keep it simple and throw an amazing party.
As this was the first time our family and friends would all be meeting we wanted to keep the guest list as small as possible (a tricky task for someone like me with a big family) to make for a more intimate setting. We chose to skip on having bridal parties (which are actually not really a thing in traditional Icelandic weddings) and decided to only have our siblings as our bridal party. While it was a bit stressful at times going over our guest list I am so glad we chose to do our day this way as it really made the evening all about having a great time with those closest to us.
Even though we didn’t have a bridal party we still wanted to involve our closest friends in our day and decided to have our friends join us for the getting ready fun.
H had 11 of his closest friends from Iceland to my parents house for a pre-wedding brunch and photo shoot. All the guys coordinated outfits and it was such a hit! Everyone at the wedding loved that all the Icelandic guys were dressed the same, and it made it very easy for everyone to tell who was from Iceland.
I love these pictures of my Viking with his best friends in my parents backyard. Never did I think that the backyard I spent much of my childhood in would be filled with handsome Icelandic guys, funny how life turns out.
As for me, I spent my morning getting ready with my sisters and some of my best friends who I have known since I was 5 years old.
I did have one little man crash the all girls party…
When H and I were trying to plan out the day our biggest worry was making sure little H was taken care of. Not the usual item on a wedding checklist, but it was at the top of ours. Thankfully I have an amazing family who had volunteered to help out, but as most of them would be with me as I got ready we weren’t quite sure who should take on parent duty during the getting ready time.
Since H was having his friends over, and whiskey was likely to be involved, I thought it was the best that I had little H with me during this time as I would have my sisters, mom and grandma around to help out with him. Little did I know that our dear little boy was going to skip his nap and only want his mommy to be holding him.
While I was somewhat on mommy duty during the getting ready portion of my wedding day this did not make things any less fun. I had my sisters and closets girlfriends right there with me, drinking mimosas, dancing around and keeping me laughing the entire time.
Right before me and my crew headed off to the wedding venue our photographer showed up to take my getting ready pictures, as well as a few special detail shots I asked for. Please note the amazing bride crown down below, my crazy talented mom made this for me and it is now sitting on my dresser all the way in Iceland:)
Before I knew it it was already time to start making our way to our With our wedding venue where the Viking and I would have our first look pictures.
Thankfully the ride to our venue was only 10 minutes away from where I got ready because all the nerves and butterflies hit me then and I couldn’t wait to see my Viking.
Patiently waiting to see my Viking.
A first look was one part of our wedding that was a must for me. It was also the thing that was most recommend to me by past brides, and something I highly recommend to future brides.
I absolutely loved these special moments where it was just the two of us. It was the perfect way to start our wedding celebration.
The wedding venue we chose is located very close to where I grew up at an outdoor location that I have spent a lot of time at over the years. Thankfully this area has a lot of lovely trees to provide shade as our wedding day happened in the middle of an Oregon heat wave with the temperatures sitting in the mid-90s all day. Luckily there was a breeze otherwise I am not sure how all our Icelandic guests would of coped ;)
Aside from the I am assuming usually wedding day chaos (ie. our bartender arrived and said she was too sick to work due to the heat, the cater was over an hour late, my little H pulled my hair out just a few minutes before I was set to walk down the aisle) everything worked out perfectly in the end. And all these little stories of chaos and stress, they just add to our special day and make me laugh now.
The entire day and night I did my best to stay in the moment and take it all in, but it really is just like everyone says, the day passes by far too quickly in almost a blur. Thankfully we had an amazing photography to capture all the moments for us to reflect back on. So instead of me doing a play-by-play of the entire day I will let the pictures tell the most of the story, well the story up until the after party happened, those pictures are going to remain offline ;)
Our wedding ceremony was everything I hoped it would be and more. We asked my cousin to marry us and he couldn’t of done a better job of putting together a speech that was the perfect mix of funny and serious and was filled with all of our personal details. And to my surprise our little man even walked down the aisle with his Yaya, something I didn’t think he would do once he saw all the people but he didn’t even hesitate.
Before my Viking and I joined the rest of our loved ones for the party we snuck off to get some pictures taken. We aren’t usually ones for posed pictures but our photographer did an amazing job listening to what we wanted when she put together the poses and I love how they turned out.
Then it was time to get the party going!
To kick off the night we ate delicious BBQ (I am still thinking of the mac n’cheese our cater made) while listening to speeches from our loved ones. H’s twin brother speech was hilarious, my parents made me laugh and cry with theirs, and H’s mom gave a beautiful speech that our little H made sure to be apart of.
From there it was time to get the dance party started, and to kick it off me and my handsome little man danced away to his favorite song from the Wiggles.
This might be my favorite memory from the night.
The real dance party got started though once everyone had enjoyed some of our signature cocktails.
I will give it to them all that it was very hot out and they needed to stay hydrated, let’s just say there was no alcohol left by the end and everyone danced until we moved to the after party.
I am a total Daddy’s girl and am lucky enough to have two amazing ones:)
Before things got too crazy we made sure to finish off the cake and get some pictures before we said goodbye to our photographer.
Love these two boys of mine.
Our official wedding party ended with H and I singing our favorite songs with the wind blowing in our hair as my mom drove us off in her old (I don’t know how old but old enough to be called a classic car ha) bug to our after party in my parents backyard.
While I am going to keep to what I said and not post pictures from the after party here I have to say I can’t believe how many of our wedding guests continued on with us to the after party!
Our after party included beer pong, backyard karaoke, a song our Icelandic friends wrote about H and I and sang to everyone (twice!) and one or two people may of ended up in my parents pool by the end of the night. I loved seeing my parents backyard filled with all our loved ones and we kept the fun going until H and I snuck off to our hotel at 3 in the morning.
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Our wedding day was everything I hoped for and so much more.
The memories made with both sides of my family all in the same place, it was amazing.
It was the perfect way to start this new chapter with my Viking and I can’t wait to see what new adventures are in store for us.
For any of my Oregon readers planning a wedding here are a few of our wedding vendors that we loved and highly recommend!
Flowers: GypsyBleu Florals
Photographer: Kelsea Joann Photography
Music: DJ Fallon Love
Catering: Philyaws Cookout and Catering
Wedding Cake: Market of Choice Bakery
