M: The fact that my parents and brother were over for Christmas, to meet both Christer and his family, made for fairly strong suspicions on everyone’s part that a proposal and announcement would take place.
C: In true anglo saxian tradition the girlfriend knows not when the boy is to propose. Well, we had a brilliant opportunity to do this Christmas 2001. So I guess it was not that big of a surprise, but at least Marian did not know exactly when it was going to happen.
M: The particular chosen day, the day after Christmas (26th December) started out with Christer taking the future Parents in laws out for a scenic drive to ask them both for their blessing to marry their one and only daughter. Of course the answer was yes. By this time they were already jumping out of their skin in anticipation, so they were relieved to fi nally know something more was coming.
C: I had arranged for the whole families to go on a horse and sleigh ride when Marian’s family was celebrating Christmas with my family in snowy and ice cold Edsbyn. In the morning that day I took Judo and Tezza out in the car.
The offi cial reason was to show them the area of Edsbyn and to take photos. My hidden agenda was to ask Tezza for the hand, and all, of Marian. We agreed that it was a good idea, and I was an even happier man. We also went out in the blistering cold on a frozen lake with snowmobiles, but that was only the warm up 😉
M: Christer had organized for a horse drawn sleigh ride through the moonlight forest, extremely romantic. Even in 19 degrees BELOW zero! Both families were rugged up and excited to be treated to such a nice suprize. The stars were bright, in the sky and in the eyes of the lovers sitting in the sleigh. A big fi re torch lit up the path, and soon we found a large clearing where 3 fires were made for the group.
C: As it started to get dark we all put on warm clothes to go to a place just outside Edsbyn. The horse and sleigh was waiting in the cold and we all fi tted into a sleigh, had torches and furs to warm ourselves up. After 15-20 minutes we came to an opening in the forest, the water was running in the river and it was really chilly. The driver and his people made three fi res and started to make pancakes in the fire. As all this happened, I decided to take Marian to the side, to our own little fire.
M: After some traditional Swedish ‘bush’ food Christer took me off to a separate fire that was nearby. Once there he hugged me for the longest time, under the moonlit sky with the running waters of stream as a romantic soundtrack and with his sister nagging him in the background to get more wood, he asked me if I would be his wife, share the
rest of his life with him and grow old with him.
C: I looked her in the eyes, told her I loved her and asked if she wanted to marry me. And she said … YES! That was an awesome moment. We turned to our families at the other fi re a few meters away, and I introduced Marian as my fiancé. Everyone was cheering, Peter and Tezza did an Australian kangaroo dance and Rolf and Thomas did a moose dance. It was all a very happy atmosphere. It was also very cold, both Rolf and Tezza had very cold toes.
M: I of course indicated that I was positive about this request, and indeed said “YES, YESS!” He then asked if it was okay if he did not kneel (in the sub zero temp) and took my glove off so he could slip a pretty band of gold with red sparkles on my finger.
The newly engaged couple then made our way back to the group around the main fire. Christer got everyone’s attention to introduce his new fi ancée to them. A cheer went up and spontaneously my brother and dad broke into a traditional aboriginal corobaree. To which the Edeborg boys responded with a wolf and moose dance.
C: The wedding planning started right after this big event and we have been fi nding places online and had lots of help with this kind of stuff from our friends and family. I have mostly planned our awesome honeymoon. Marian has planned most of the wedding stuff, as she knows more people than me in Australia.
We were very glad when Darlene and Mark said they would marry us, and so many of Marian’s friends have contacted us to see if they could help. Thanks you guys! Marian has, as you saw, been handwriting all the invitations and I stamped them. It has been busy planning and doing all this, but it is so worth it.
SEE THE WEDDING PHOTOS >
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