Preparations - 15 July, 1999

On July 13th, two days before the wedding, my parents, Harold and Mary, and my good friend Heidi flew in from Minneapolis. We picked them up at Stockholm-Arlanda airport and took their picture as they came out of the gate because, as you know, anyone who has been traveling for 9-10 hours looks and feels great!

We drove them back to Örebro and got my parents checked into their hotel. Then we brought them to see our little apartment before taking them out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants in Örebro, Karl Gustav Matkrog. YUM! The next day we had some errands still to run before the wedding so we all piled into the car and headed to the mall for some nylons and one-time cameras. It was raining pretty hard.

After the mall, we headed to Jonas' parents' home in Hallsberg, where we introduced everyone to each other and chatted for a while. Still raining. Then we all drove over to the church where we met Anders, Andreas and Camilla for the rehearsal, except the church was locked. Jonas ended up running around to several houses nearby where the priest and the church caretaker lived, trying to get a key, and getting soaked in the process. Finally, he got hold of a key and we all ran into the church. We had an informal rehearsal, just briefly running through the ceremony and discussing where and when certain events should occur. Once everyone seemed to know what was going on, we went back to his parents' place where his mother Majbritt had prepared an "authentic Swedish meal." We ate, talked and Andreas and Camilla, who were going to be the hosts for the reception, gave us a run-down on how they had planned the evening to go. All the while the rain poured down and we were beginning to fear that tomorrow's weather would be bad as well, but it had stopped by the time we got home that night.

The 15th -- THE BIG DAY! After getting up and showering and putting on some regular clothes, we picked up my parents headed to the hair salon, where my mom, Heidi and I would be getting our hair done. Below you can see the photos Jonas took of me as I was getting my hair and makeup done.

First, it went up in rollers. For someone getting married in a few hours, I look awfully bored!	And came down pretty curly. Now my eyemakeup has been done, too.	Then, she put it up again, winding it into loops and entwining ivy around them.	TA DA! We're all done and looking like a million bucks!

Ready to go!

We left the salon and drove to Hallsberg, picked up all of the bouquets, corsages and arrangements and headed to Jonas' parents' house to get dressed. It was quite a houseful -- not only our families and the wedding party there, but several guests who had arrived earlier by train, as well. After getting some help with the dozens of buttons on the back of my dress, I was ready! We made sure that everyone had their flowers, that Anders had the rings and that everyone was ready to go and headed to the church for the photos!

Andreas and Anders