I'm back. And Married! How the hell did this happen?

After another hiatus away from this particular blog, I'm back with another post.  Where have I been, what have I been up too?  Lots.  Tons! For starters I'm now married to a beautiful Norwegian, I've been made redundant at work but not worried in the slightest.

The question?
About a year ago in Ireland, while on holiday there with my now Wife, Ingrid, I proposed.  She said yes.  There was much rejoicing (and lots of Facebook updates :) )

How to marry a Nord.
So we had loads of decisions to make.  I had family in England who could not travel, and being frank the currency exchange rate would make it bank-breaking for my family and friends to get over here and stay in a local hotel.
We decided therefore to have the ceremony in England.  Just the ceremony mind you, the legal stuff had to be done in Norway.  Well, not had to be done, but rather was free as opposed to costing up to 400 quid.  Easy choice really. 
So, there was the legal process and then the ceremony, or what we were determined to make the actual marriage. 

Traditionally, as you probably know, you go to a wedding to get married and everything is sorted and done at the same time with the legal officiant.  Do you? Yes.  Do you? Yes. I now pronounce yadda yadda.  Its all very neat and tidy and has to be in the state building or a church of sorts.  Right?  Well in England you need an officiant and to loan one out costs money, like deceitful Ryan Air "extra costs for shoe laces" money.

Why did we need to do things traditionally anyway?  Why was it so important that the marriage was made official legally at the same time?

This became a bit of a theme for the weddings construction, identifying traditions that made little sense and cost money and breaking away to do our own thing. This was going to be our wedding after all.

So the path was clear!  We would sign the paperwork in Oslo, days before flying over to England to have the big pomp and party ceremony.  Which we would make mean something.  Though technically we were married in the eyes of the Norwegian state days before she walked down the isle, for us it was the putting on the rings that mattered. 

But where in England?  Well it had to be close to an airport and within a reasonable drive distance to my home in the North West.  I wanted my Nan to be able to be driven down and back again without too much hassle. Luckily England, like the rest of the UK is dotted with old sites ranging from the early medieval to post Victorian.  Thankfully, most of them have a roof and aren't extortionately expensive.

We found a couple we were interested in and took a quick holiday over to visit them with my parents in tow.  There were three in the end, though what won us was the excited and dedicated wedding planner from Hollin Hall, Macclesfield in Manchester.  Not known for being a perfect hotel, the listed building panged of Downton Abbey and had at its disposal a beautiful venue for our wedding.  Again though, it was the enthusiastic and hard working staff that really drew us in.  Other places has a cold professionalism which bordered on indifference.  Wedding conveyor belts basically.  While Hollin Hall had a wedding a day during high season, they never had weddings clashing, and the entire place could be altered to suit needs and themes. 

Link to brochure - Hollin Hall

Also, as we discussed the wedding with the consultant, we discovered they used Groupon for their package deals.  What made this even more appealing was the willingness to alter the package to suit our needs.  We had people coming over, we didn't have so many people in the ceremony and more in the after dinner. We had a set group.  We had less than the expected amount, so we got more in terms of food selection.  We settled on a deal and went from there.

A note from my mum? 
An interesting turn of events was the paperwork.  As we were getting married, technically, in Norway, we needed proof from the British side confirming my single status.  Can't remember the exact name of the document, but this decloration, when researched the first time, required me to apparently move home to England for 2 weeks before undergoing an interview.  Some archiac system of announcing my intent to marry and giving my secret wife chance to stop things.  All very dramatic.

I was amazed, so much so I asked how they could hope to "proove" I was in Britain for those two weeks.

A note from my mum.

I could hear the woman over the phone at the registrars office smiling.  Beaurcracy in its purest form.

I shrugged and made my peace with the idea that I would be once again asking my mum to write me a note.  Maybe she could add that I am a good little boy who puts his toys back?

Thankfully, when it came closer to the date, new legislation changed that year allowed the local Embassy in Oslo (thank god I live here not further North!), could arrange things without any such nonsense.  Though I did have to swear on the Bible (They didn't have a copy of Lord of the Rings, sadly).

This stair case saw lots of photoes on the day.

Cultural differences British/Norwegian of note.
Moving forward to the Wedding day, some really subtle differences appeared in how Weddings are done.  Now, bear in mind this IS my first (hopefully last) wedding: done in England, with over 50% Nords.  There were a few alterations to the norm.

Now I'm not talking about the untraditional approach we did, Halloween theme, pumpkins instead of lights/bouquet, that kind of thing, like how my bride to be sung her way down the aisle to harp music played by one of the brides maids (did I mention Nords do best men plural?), or the epic music played for the first dance.  No no no: I'm talking about the other differences.

The biggest difference was the way speeches were done.  Nords and their Scandinavian cousins do like to hold speeches.  So the usual method of doing speeches in turns (And you know that my Wife was getting ago, which is apparently very untraditional?), from the married couple down to pretty much anyone who wanted to.  This had to be run while food was being served too, as usually the speeches would be done.
Usually, the ceremony would include your inner circle, closest friends and family, while the meals etc afterward would include more.  But we had the same number in both, which thankfully didn't cause issues, as it was a smallish wedding some 50 people or so.

In one amazing display of improvisation, my Father, after saying he didn't feel the need to hold a speech, stepped up without any prior planning and did me proud.  Obviously feeling a little left out, my mother stood up next and last and said "Ditto."
I love those guys.  Lots of laughs, emotions and happiness all round.

Oh and we went with some sticky moustaches on the tables, as well as little vials of candy for the favours. You could tell which tables ate them too early!  But the moustaches were an instant success.  As our wedding photographer told us, "This was a wedding she would remember."  Something echoed by the DJ and the wedding planner.  Isn't that the point though?

This hasn't been a well flowed memory of the wedding, but I haven't blogged about things for a while now.  I would have sooner but events occurred a week after the wedding which made this impossible.  More on that soon.

What's going on at work?
Work sadly has recently ended.  The company I worked for as a purchasing consultant was recently taken over in an event seemingly quite typical in the Book and curriculum business here in Norway.  Seemingly in reaction to foreign businesses, a monopoly of sorts is being bashed together, my company being the latest take over.

Unfortunately they have their offices in Bergen and did not (obviously) require my services.  It is the best way to be out of work I think, and between the Norwegian job market and its welfare system I'm not worried about being out on the street just yet ;)

More on this later though.

As you may have noticed a lot has happened, some very dramatic.  In short, 1 week after the wedding, we had ourselves a house fire and had to move out for a couple of months while we got back on our feet.  But this story does have a happy ending, which I will soon get too.

Thanks for reading,
Rick