Thursday, October 28, 2010

Norwegian Wedding (16th of October)

16th of October, the big day for my buddy, Runar. This was his wedding day. I managed to travel to Oslo from London early in the morning on that day. In fact, I attended an uninvited wedding to on the same church where the ceremony was held. :) Luckily, I spent most of my time to change to a formal wear and only went into the church during the ceremony. Initially, I thought Runar was changing the church ceremony's time without informing me. After quietly entered the church, I just realised that I did not know the couple up there at the stage. Immediately, I make the decision to get out from the church as I knew that I was attended an uninvited wedding. 
I decided to spend time around the church which is surrounded by graveyard. Though it sounds not great, but i think it's a lovely park. I spent about one and a half hours sitting and wondering around the cemeteries. Even though, it was freezing cold out there, but the sun helps to warm up my body. I managed to have some quick lunch that I had packed from the train station. When it was closed to the time of Runar's wedding, 2:30pm.. I started to see some familiar faces. Friends who I met during Runar's bachelor party. (Yes, I was in Oslo during his bachelor party on September). I was happy that I did not miss anything, in fact I experienced something new, attended uninvited wedding.
The ceremony was started on time, and it was started with some talks from the priest in Norwegian, then following by some songs from Runar's sister, Møyfrid and Runar's father. I would say they are very talented. Even though, I did not understand Norwegian, but I was admiring their songs. The ceremony just took about half an hour, and it ended with bubbles and cars with tin tied on it. With the limited of my optical zoom from Canon S90, I managed to get the following photos.
After the church ceremony, with the courtesy of Rune, Runar's friend. I got a leave to the hotel for the dinner. Lobsy God is the Golf resort near to Oslo. The venue of the wedding dinner was absolutely perfect and nice. When arrived at the car park, I could see the pond near there was frozen. I could imagine that the weather was very cold in Oslo on the past few days before the wedding. The wedding was blessed with the sunny day and it was a great time exploring the Lobsy God.
The wedding dinner started with drink sessions, photographs and finally entering to the dinner hall for proper meals. The head waiter was explaining different type of wine will be served during dinner. Even though he was speaking in Norwegian, I managed to get translation from David, Runar's buddy. During the dinner time, I also learned a few Norwegian's customs for the bride and groom. Stepping the ground by everyone in the room means the couple need to kiss under the table. Hitting the glass with folk or knife will request the couple to stand on the chair and kiss. While the bride left the room, all the ladies will kiss the groom and vice versa that all the gentlemen will kiss the bride when groom left the room. 
It was the funniest wedding that I had entered. Lost of speeches were shared by the Runar and Bjørg's families and friends. Unfortunately, they were spoken in Norwegian until one speech was given in bilingual, Norwegian and English. I felt proud as I was being invited to the wedding, even though I was the only non Norwegian there. The dinner was continued with dance, games and cakes. I was impressed with the cakes being served. The cakes were delicious, unfortunately too many for my stomach. After 2am, we were kicked out from the dance hall, but we kept the party going at Kjell's room. I only called a day off after 2 hours later when I was filled with vodka and polish sausage.
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