A Swedish Boat Club Wedding with a Simple White Theme - The Reception

This simply stunning wedding goes to show that you don't need tonnes of wedding details for the perfect wedding, just lots of love, good cheer, and fantastic friends, Johan and Maria celebrated their big day by the water, in a boat club decorated by their family and friends. I love the elegance of the single green-white carnations, white candles and pastel green table stationery. The views of the water are just spectacular, and it goes to show that you don't need tonnes of decoration if your venue stands out. Lucky Maria went to school with wedding photographer Annevi Petersson, who shot these beautiful wedding pictures. Don't you wish your going away transport was a boat!

We celebrated our wedding on 24 August 2013, in Åhus in Sweden. We got engaged in 2002, but it took another ten years, and two beautiful children later and a lot of encouragement from the bride until Johan proposed a second time!

He chose the very same spot that we got engaged 10 years earlier, in a park by the water. He went down on his knee and popped the question and I cried, because I'd almost given up on my dream wedding. But in fact, Johan had planned for the proposal over the last year.

I went to school with photographer, Annevi Petersson. Being an old friend, it was natural to ask her to be our wedding photographer. It was relaxing for us to have a photographer that we knew so well.

I really wanted to arrive at my wedding venue by boat, so we looked at venues by the water, and the boat club was the best option for us. It's beautifully situated in the harbour with great views of the water. It was also very central, and the guests had the option to simply walk from the church ceremony church to the reception venue. 

The boat trip worked out very well for us. It was wonderful to have a short break and some alone time with just the two of us. It was a very special moment for us to talk about the day so far, but also speculate on all the speeches and games to come. And little did we know of all the wonderful surprises that followed that evening! 



We served welcome drinks on the large jetty, which was lovely on the hot summer day. 

The rustic boat club was a little bit on the dark side so the Johan brought lots of extra lighting that he used to decorate both the interior and exterior of the venue. It gave a soft mood lighting. The whole family helped with the decorations on the wedding day.

My father owned a large flower shop as I grew up, so I knew from the start that I wanted carnations. The final result was a combination of carnations and roses in different shades of white and pale green. I worked with a local florist, Dennis Flowers, who created my bouquet.

Wedding favours are not common in Sweden, so we didn't have any.

We didn't have a wedding colour theme as such, but it was very important to us that everything was kept simple, and that all our loved ones could be part of our day. We wanted to celebrate the day with warmth and happiness, so we sent out our save the date cards well in advance.

As a DIY project, I designed all our wedding stationery and our wedding rings.

A special thanks to our caterers - Spice Åhus. They did a great job. We are so grateful that our guests contributed so much with songs, speeches and even games. They were a large part in making our wedding day to the happy day that it was.

We ordered our wedding cakes from a local bakery, Nya Conditoriet Åhus. It tasted wonderful. We chose raspberry and white chocolate mousse on a chocolate base.

I absolutely loved planning my wedding day! I got a lot of support and help from my family and sisters. I really wanted the guests to feel included so I set up a section on my blog dedicated to the wedding. The guests {and readers} could follow the process, and updates on the wedding, and make wish lists for music, etc. 

My advice for other brides is to do exactly what you want to do! Follow your dreams and don't compromise. Don't invite guests because you feel you should, instead invite the people that are truly dear to you and you wish to be there. Keep your expectations realistic so you don't get disappointed on the day. It will all work out in the end.

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Wedding Cake Tradition

Wedding Cake History

The contemporary wedding cake has grown out of many traditions. One of the first traditions began in Ancient Rome where bread was broken over the bride’s head to bring good fortune to the couple.^[2] In Medieval England cakes were stacked as high as possible for the bride and groom to kiss over, if they successfully kissed over the stack they were guaranteed a prosperous life together.^[2] From this the Croquembouche was created. The myth behind this cake tells that a Pastry chef, visiting Medieval England, witnessed their tradition of piling sweet rolls between the bride and groom which they would attempt to kiss over without knocking them all down. The pastry chef then went back to France and piled sweet rolls up into a tower to make the first Croquembouche. The modern croquembouche is still very popular in France however it is common to place the croquembouche tower on a bed of cake and make it one of the top tiers of the wedding cake. This traditional French wedding cake is built from Profiteroles and given a halo of spun sugar.^[3]

In 1703 a man named Thomas Rich, a baker's apprentice from Ludgate Hill, fell in love with his employer's daughter and asked her to marry him. He wanted to make an extravagant cake, so he drew on St Bride's Church, on Fleet Street in London for inspiration.

Traditionally the bride would place a ring inside the couples portion of the cake to symbolise the acceptance of the proposal.^[4] During the mid-17th century to the beginning of the 19th century, the “bride's pie” was served at most weddings. Guests were expected to have a piece out of politeness, it was considered very rude and bad luck not to eat the bride’s pie. One of the traditions of bride’s pie was to place a glass ring in the middle of the dessert and the maiden who found it would be the next to marry, similar to the modern tradition of catching the Flower bouquet. Bride’s pie eventually developed into the bride’s cake. At this point the dessert was no longer in the form of a pie and was sweeter than its predecessor.^[5] The bride cake was traditionally a plum or fruit cake, the myth that eating the pie would bring good luck was still common but the glass ring slowly died out and the catching of the flower bouquet took that meaning.^[6] The action of throwing the bouquet has its roots in the Ancient Greek myth of the Apple of Discord. Fruit cakes were a sign of fertility and prosperity which helped them gain popularity because all married men wanted to have plenty of children. The bride’s cake eventually transformed into the modern wedding cake that we know today.^[2] In the 17th century, two cakes were made, one for the bride and one for the groom. The groom's cake eventually died out and the bride's cake turned into the main cake for the event. When the two cakes were served together, the groom's cake was typically the darker colored, rich fruit cake and generally much smaller than the bride's cake. The bride’s cake was usually a simple pound cake with white icing because white was a sign of virginity and purity.^[2] In the early 19th century, when the bride’s cakes were becoming more popular, sugar was coincidentally becoming easier to obtain. The more refined and whiter sugars were still very expensive therefore only the wealthy families could afford to have a very pure white frosting, this showed the wealth and the social status of the family.^[7] WhenQueen Victoria used white icing on her cake it gained a new title, royal icing.^[8]

Tiered cake with calla lilies, a symbol of purity

The modern wedding cake as we know it now originated at the wedding of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, in 1882; his wedding cake was the first to actually be completely edible.^[9] Pillars between the cake tiers did not begin to appear until about 20 years later. The pillars were very poorly made from broomsticks covered in icing. The tiers represented prosperity and were a status symbol because only wealthy families could afford to include them in the cake.^[2] Prince Leopold’s wedding cake was created in separate layers with very dense icing. When the icing hardened the tiers were then stacked; this method had never been used before, and it was a groundbreaking innovation for wedding cakes at the time. Modern wedding cakes still use this method, but because of the size of today’s cakes, internal support is added to each layer in the form of dowels.

Symbolism[edit]

Royal Wedding Cake from 1858^{[n 1]}

Wedding cakes have been present at wedding ceremonies for centuries. They were not always the focus of the event and often came in different forms, like pies or bread. There has always been a lot of symbolism associated with the wedding cake. The earliest known sweet wedding cake is known as a Banbury cake, which became popular in 1655.^[10] During the Roman era unsweetened barley bread was used as the wedding food and the groom would break the piece of bread in half over the brides head symbolizing “breaking of the bride’s virginal state and the subsequent dominance of the groom over her."^[5] One of the most obvious symbolic traditions is the cake’s white color to symbolize virginity and purity. The white color has been attached to wedding ceremonies since the Victorian era when Queen Victoria chose to wear a white wedding dress at her wedding to Prince Albert in 1840.^[11] Queen Victoria accentuated an existing symbol, the color white is frequently associated with virginity and purity. The wedding cake was originally known as the brides cake therefore the color white became common because the cake needed to reflect the bride.^[5]

The cutting of the cake is a task full of symbolism. The cake was originally intended to be distributed among the guests by only the bride because consuming the cake would ensure fertility.^[5] As weddings grew and the number of guests increased this task became a joint venture, the groom needed to help cut the growing cake and distribute it among their guests. Layers of cakes began to pile up and the icing would need to support the weight of the cake making is very difficult for one person to cut. The groom would assist the bride in this process. Once this tradition began the bride and groom would share a piece of cake before distributing it to the guests to symbolize their union and their promise to forever provide for each other.^[5]

Superstitions[edit]

The wedding cake is surrounded by superstitions. In a traditional American wedding, maidens would be invited to pull ribbons that are attached to the bottom layer of the wedding cake.^[12] Out of all the ribbons, only one contains a charm or a ring, and whoever gets the charm will be the next person to marry. In other countries, the wedding cake is broken over the bride’s head to ensure fertility and bring good fortune to the couple.^[13] Also, some people today think that eating the crumbs of the wedding cake would give them good luck because the wedding cake symbolizes happiness and good life to the newlywed couple.^[14]

There are also myths that most bridesmaids have on dreaming their future husbands. Hopeful bridesmaids would take a piece of cake home and place it under the pillow.^[13] Some bridesmaids would sleep with the pieces of cake in their left stocking and the rest are under their pillows after passing the pieces of cake through the bride’s wedding ring.^[15]

In the medieval era, wedding cakes were constructed in rolls and buns that were laid on top of each other. The groom and bride would attempt to share a passionate kiss on top of the stack of rolls to ensure fertility and have good fortune. In the 18th century, newlywed couples would try to keep the cake until their first anniversary to prevent them from marriage problems in the future. This is one of the reasons why cakes in the 18th century were made of fruits and blended with wine.^[16]

Types of wedding cakes[edit]

Hochzeitstorte, a German wedding cake

In examining types of the wedding cakes, there are traditional wedding cakes, wedding cakes based on flavor, smaller cakes or individual cakes, frosted cakes, and cupcakes. The traditional wedding cakes are white color, including decoration and icing of varieties, such as butter cream, almond. etc. The wedding cakes based on flavor contain selective flavors like chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry. The smaller cakes or individual cakes are efficient in terms of cheap price. The frosted cakes are popular due to a large amount of cream. Cupcakes have a variety of different forms. As this is easy to make, it is one of the most common cakes people have. In modern society, the most popular wedding cake is called “Traditional stack cake”; “this is where each layer of cake – which can be a different flavours to the next layer – is positioned directly on top of the last”.^[17] The Traditional stack wedding cake is similar to the traditional cake, both are filled with fleshed flowers offers more visual impact and height. Meanwhile, cakes can be divided by traditional pillars as well, Perspex separators that can include jewels, shells, flowers and the like or can be completely separated by using traditional chrome stands.

Regarding choices of taste, white cake has always been the most traditional wedding cake flavor; moreover, it is able to add flavor content between layers. Chocolate cake is also a choice for weddings. It can either be hidden under white frosting for a classic surface or combined with chocolate icing, drizzle, swirls, or chips.^[18] Furthermore, fondant is a creative form of wedding cake that appeared with frosting style, when rolled out and draped over tiers, this smooth, firm sugar icing makes a steady appearance for appliqués, gum-paste flowers, or royal-icing details. Fondant can be cut into designs, formed into shapes, flavored which within the popular choice of white chocolate, or tinted. Poured fondant is used to glaze petits fours and other detailed confections, which makes fondant comes out with a glossy finish and a sweet sugary taste. In addition, there are still several kinds of cake that are popular for wedding, for instance, marble cake, lemon cake, carrot cake, curd, fresh flowers/fruit, ganache, marzipan, meringue, pastillage, and the last one, royal icing is made with sugar and egg white or meringue powder. It can be hard enough to be piped or thinned for “flood work”. Since it hardens quickly, it is ideal for making detailed shapes ahead of time. It can also be piped directly onto cake tiers and works beautifully for delicate work.^[1]

Modern adaptations[edit]

A traditional English topper in ceramic, from 1959

Wedding cake toppers are small models that sit on top of the cake, normally a representation of a bride and groom in formal wedding attire. This custom was dominant in US weddings in the 1950s where it represented the concept of togetherness.^[19] Wedding toppers today are often figures that indicate shared hobbies or other passions, if they are used at all.^[19] Some may be humorous, approaching unusual themes.^[20] Wedding cakes can also be decorated with flowers.

In the United Kingdom, the traditional wedding cake is made from a rich fruitcake, although many modern cakes now consist of either vanilla sponge, chocolate sponge or carrot cake. Most cakes are between three and five tiers in height. Among some of the more elaborate cakes one sees in the United Kingdom are those prepared for the Royal Weddings.

A Swedish Boat Club Wedding with a Simple White Theme

There's something incredibly romantic about a wedding by the water, and this beautiful wedding is a lesson in simple Swedish style. After ten years together and two beautiful children, Johan and Maria celebrated their big day with a church ceremony, wedding rings designed by the bride, and a fabulous wedding reception in a rustic boat club. I love Maria's stunning tiered wedding dress and her cute birdcage veil, teamed with an elegant pearl necklace. A super-chic look, and I love her carnation bouquet - regular readers will remember I flagged up carnations as a big wedding trend for 2014! Big love to Annevi Petersson of Annevi Weddings for her beautiful pictures - more coming soon in Part 2.

We celebrated our wedding on 24 August 2013, in Åhus in Sweden. We got engaged in 2002, but it took another ten years, and two beautiful children later and a lot of encouragement from the bride until Johan proposed a second time!

He chose the very same spot that we got engaged 10 years earlier, in a park by the water. He went down on his knee and popped the question and I cried, because I'd almost given up on my dream wedding. But in fact, Johan had planned for the proposal over the last year.

I looked at so many dresses both online, and in different stores. In fact, I bought two dresses, one that I ordered online and one that I found in a local bridal shop. 

In the end, I choose the one I had bought from the local bridal shop. The dress was Party Line T0537, my wedding shoes were Wildflower Claudette in ivory. 

My wedding hair and make-up was by Bahlsam Åhus

Johan bought his suite from J. Lindeberg and his shoes from Tiger of Sweden. Classic Nordic elegance.

Our children acted as flower girl and page boy. Our darling little girl, Astrid, had a white dress from Pomp De Lux. Our beloved son, Sixten, wore clothes from a local shop.

We walked up the aisle to Bridal March from Delsbo. During the ceremony, I sang the first verse of Du är min man {You Are My Man} a cappella. Then the organist continued as we walked down the aisle.

I was very involved in designing our wedding ceremony and I chose the priest and organist. It was very important that our children could be part of the day, and they were very excited to walk up the aisle with us. And it was special for us to have them there with us.

After the ceremony, we had arranged baby-sitting, but knowing they were part of the ceremony, and could share our joy and happiness meant the world for us. Astrid, our daughter, really loved seeing me get ready on the wedding day and she was so excited to have a new beautiful white dress too.

I designed my wedding ring myself. I talked to a jeweller who helped me take my design from the drawing board to an actual ring. I’m so happy with it!

I went to school with photographer, Annevi Petersson. Being an old friend, it was natural to ask her to be our wedding photographer. It was relaxing for us to have a photographer that we knew so well.

My father owned a large flower shop as I grew up, so I knew from the start that I wanted carnations. The final result was a combination of carnations and roses in different shades of white and pale green. I worked with a local florist, Dennis Flowers, who created my bouquet.

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Introducing Guide To Be - A Brand New Wedding Review Site

As a complete devotee of travel review site TripAdvisor, I was thrilled to hear about the launch of a brilliant new wedding review site. Guide To Be is fresh out the box, exciting new venture designed to help you find the very best vendors for your wedding day. Designed to be written by brides for brides, it's the brainchild of the lovely Eve, who set it up after she struggled to find good recommendations for her own wedding. Can you believe it's the first user review site for UK wedding suppliers? It's exactly what we need! To encourage brides to get involved and write reviews, Guide to Be are offering a brilliant competition to win a 5 star break at Turnberry Resort & Spa.

All you have to do is write two reviews or more, to be in with a chance of enjoying a luxury weekend, including two nights accommodation, a three course meal and a bottle of champers at one of the UK's most romantic 5 star resorts. It's the perfect prize for a mini-moon, pre-wedding R&R or even a baby moon! I've written a few reviews already - take a look at my personal recommendations, including this one {below} for my wedding photographer Caught the Light!

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Bunting & Bathing Huts Wedding Stationery

If you love the traditional British world of bunting, bathing huts and camper vans, you're going to love the wedding stationery shop I've just discovered on Etsy. Something New Stationery is the brainchild of Jenni Bryan, and she's clearly taken inspiration from the British seaside. Just take a look at her lovely designs below! Her shop also stocks a huge range of colourful baking twine, at a reasonable price of £5 per spool. What's not to love?

Holiday Beach Huts Wedding Seating Plan, £45

Beach Hut Wedding Stationery, £2.50

Beach Huts Wedding Garland, £5

Camper Van Wedding Seating Plan, £45

Camper Van Wedding Invitation, £2

Camper Van Banner Garland, £5

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