wedding prep II

Once the fun of the möhippa (see previous post) was over, it was time to get back to the extensive wedding preparations. Our family was in charge of the wedding party and preparing ALL the food for it. The wedding dinner was to be served buffet style with cold cuts (ham and roast beef) along with two types of potato salad, green salad, two types of salad dressing, home-made dinner rolls, and a variety of cheeses. This would be followed by coffee, chocolate chip cookies, and dinner mints. Later in the evening, we would serve the wedding cake (and backup cakes) along with my dad's famous cinnamon rolls ("bullar"), more cookies, and of course more coffee and drinks. My parents had been baking and cooking for weeks, but there were still many outstanding items as some foods could not be prepared in advance.

So, my dad printed out a large, blank calendar for the week and my mom filled in all the tasks that needed to be accomplished in order for us to meet our deadline (who needs Microsoft Project?). Owners were assigned to the tasks as appropriate.

Rebecka helped with cookie baking and "Fortune Flower" creation. Priscilla had decided that she wanted all of the guests to leave with a little personal something. Hence, the "Fortune Flower" idea was born. We would create flowers out of tissue paper and glue a little motivational message into each one. To make things even more interesting, we would let Rebecka come up with the messages. Here are some samples:

- May the Force be with you
- You're beautiful, that's for sure
- You are a truly good person
- You are wise as an owl
- Du är söt som en gris (You are cute as a pig - inside joke)
- You are the winner! You may kiss the bride (only one of these)

This is what the dining room table looked like for several days.

I was in charge of the following: Help with massive grocery shopping, make 80 servings of French potato salad (included boiling and peeling the potatoes), mix small apple pieces into store-bought potato salad, make salad dressing, bake and frost three cakes that we had brought with us from the US, pick-up frozen bread and high chairs from my parents' church (we had frozen food in four or five different locations), etc, etc, etc... I was on my feet so much those days that working out became almost obsolete. However, somehow we (Todd and I) managed to keep that up even on the day of the wedding, when we left the house while everybody was still sleeping so that we would not get assigned any tasks that would prevent us from our run in the woods.

One of my creations...

Todd got stuck with lots of "man tasks" like hauling stuff, cutting down "björkar" (birch trees) to decorate the church and reception hall, hauling more stuff, grocery runs, hauling even more stuff (you get the picture).

Cutting down trees is fun!

On the eve of the wedding, all the girls decided to take a time-out and create our own spa to beautify ourselves before the big day. We gave our very tired feet a good soaking and then proceeded to the feet filing step. Ahhhhh - it felt so good! We painted our nails and relaxed out on the patio. I made some punch to demonstrate the superiority of the US ice cream punch and get approval to serve it at the reception. Everybody approved (as did the wedding guests the following day - we actually ran out!).

Champagne was the color of choice for the members of the wedding party. I chose wine red and my sister Miriam ended up with turquoise after a slight misunderstanding involving a turquoise iPod.

Priscilla, Rebecka, and some of our guests also spent some time in the steamy sauna before turning in for the night. I don't do saunas because...

a) Breathing in makes my nose hurt.
b) I once burned by arm badly on a sauna heater.
c) It's too hot!

Anyway, after the spa experience, we all crashed fairly early to get ready for the wedding of the decade...