As little girls, we grow up dreaming one day we will get to wear the princess gown and walking down an endless aisle towards a figure that remains a blur until we meet that person. For me, that image was of a tall, dark and ‘hopefully’ handsome man. But what I did not think of were all the little details that came with planning a wedding. And that’s what I am going to talk to you about today. How I pulled off my big Swedish-American-Greek Winter Wedding.
There are so many trend themes, Pinterest boards (Check out mine for this wedding), magazine spreads, and influencer posts about what the next ‘it’ wedding should look like. All that is propaganda. True personal wedding style is that which looks great to the outside world but makes the you feel even greater inside. If you are confident in your style and theme, it will project beauty on your day no matter what. People are looking at their weddings as an extension of their personality.
After our engagement, we decided having two wedding with different themes would be the best option since our families/friends are split between Europe and America. Therefore, our legal ceremony in Sweden was decided to be in the winter, and America in the summer.
If you love a theme, choose 10 photos to re-create. That’s it.
In an effort to help you make your ideal wedding, I’m going to go over how I chose my wedding decor and made it completely different than a typical ‘Swedish’ style wedding.
What I have noticed about Swedish weddings, is that they are either minimal barn-style venues with simple decorations, or they are set in 1500s style ballrooms or manor-houses with pastel furniture. These can be beautiful and classic, but Michael and I wanted none of it. For our American wedding (which sadly can’t happen due to covid-19), we had opted for a barn style wedding, so we knew the winter one in Stockholm had to be unique.
We chose a 1500s old maritime gunpowder celler, complete with low brick and mortar arches, wooden and grey stone accents, and Persian rugs. An interesting combo that made us swoon.
Art boho details
I fell in love with these invitations from Zebra Press on Etsy when I found them. We wanted a 1920s art deco theme, but didn’t want that bold black/gold Great Gatsby. We wanted monochromatic light colors to keep it clean and unique. For the bohemian vibe, I handmade pink macrame keyrings with strands of foraged pampas grass from Malta. That’s where my idea for combining the themes to make it art deco boho or, Art Boho.
Shoes: Paradox London Chester, Gold.
As our plans were to have two weddings in 2020, I had only one bridesmaid in Sweden for the smaller wedding. She flew all the way from the U.S. to be by my side and I couldn’t be more thankful to have her and my parents representing my roots.
It was my dream to walk down an aisle lined by my closest friends holding lanterns.
I wanted light and fire. Our guests got to be part of the ceremony by standing on either side with lanterns, lighting the path to the man I would marry. When I walked out, it was literally the most beautiful moment of my life. We had two Greek musicians playing a traditional Greek wedding song with violin and Greek laouto.
Mixing dried & fresh flowers
Dried flowers was everything I wanted. Liza at Stockholm Flowers Bar was my #1 choice in creating my wedding bouquet, boutonnière and alter flowers. Since my color scheme was monochromatic, we kept the tones bleached white with hints of pale pinks and earthy brown tones.
Out of all the details, the one I am most proud of are the florals! I dried my own florals and collected 2nd hand vases for a whole year!
For the tables flowers, I wanted to keep it minimalist. I took on the project of foraging Swedish reed grasses, wildflowers, and drying eucalyptus, hydrangeas and sometimes stealing Pampas grasses (stolen proudly from the planes of Malta). I also used birch branches I found outside of a church as if God had cut them down exactly for this purpose. These I assembled into 3 triangles (my favorite shape) to be my backdrop.
With the bohemian flare, I made macrame tapestries to hang against the wooden background of the head table in the dining room.
Intimate Dinner Dynamic
Our original plan was to have everyone outside the venue for that sparkler shot. What we discovered was it was the windiest Saturday of the winter and about -4C/24F. We gathered guests who were brave enough to make the shot happen, and of course we were all absolutely freezing.
