The Bride's Story

Andrew and I had been together for 5 and a half years when we decided to take a big trip around Europe. We spent a couple of nights in Singapore, 5 nights in London, then a two week Contiki trip travelling around Europe (Nice, Paris, Lyon, Monaco, Vatican City, Amsterdam, Swizerland… the works!) Then we flew to Iceland, my home country. I love going back to Iceland, I always feel it’s where I belong. I love seeing all my family and breathing in the crisp fresh Iceland air. We stayed in Iceland for 2 weeks. We drove across the country during our second week to reach Neskaupstathur (my birth town and where my dad and his family are from).

We arrived after 10pm and the sun had still not set. We checked into our hotel room and decided to take advantage of the midnight sun and walk around the town. We found a jetty, overlooking beautiful deep blue waters, glistening at the base of snow capped mountains… just breathtaking. No one was around, we felt like we were the only two people in the world. As we approached the end of the jetty, Andrew started saying the most beautiful loving things to me… my heart stopped… he got down on one knee, pulled out a gorgeous diamond ring and asked “Emily, will you marry me?”… to which I responded with a tearful yet excited, “YES!”

Andrew surprised me further by letting me know that he had already asked for and received my father’s blessing.

We had a year and a half to plan the wedding. I knew exactly what I wanted, starting with a midnight royal blue and silver theme (just like the waters we looked out onto and the bling engagement ring when Andrew proposed). We wanted the wedding to reflect the combination of our two families, Andrew’s Australian family with my Icelandic family. What better represents Perth, Australia then Kings Park? Our chosen Reception venue was Fraser’s Restaurant. To put an Icelandic accent on things I asked my Uncle Valthor to be the MC.

We chose a beautiful church in West Perth to get married in. Andrew was raised Christian, and his family have strong Christian beliefs. To put the Icelandic spin on a beautiful and holy ceremony, we cut the cake outside the church. Also, everyone joined us in a toast with an Icelandic Opal Vodkaskot shot (Icelandic liquor)… to let the guests know that this is a celebration and it is time to PARTY!

While we were off having our wonderful wedding photos taken with our fabulous bridal party (made up of a great mix of our closest friends and family), the guests enjoyed champagne and canapés outside of Frasers, while contributing to a piece of artwork for us to hang in our home.

The reception started with, boom boom boom… WILD THING (by Tone Loc) for the bridal party entry. The reception was so much fun, the food was delicious, the drinks were flowing, the speeches were heartfelt and hilarious and the moves were busted out on the dance floor! Our first dance as a married couple was a well rehearsed Waltz. Later we, along with our bridal party, surprised guests with an impromptu Cha cha cha!

At midnight we left the reception and headed to the Duxton hotel in a stylish black Mustang convertible. It was sad to end our wedding day, we wanted to stay in the moment forever… lucky for us, in some ways, we always will.  

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