The NY Wedding

A few weeks ago I promised to blog about Unn and Ole Morten's wedding in New York. We have been so busy with getting ready for our own wedding and wedding party that I have fallen behind!




From left to right:  Kristine, Ole Morton's Mom, Marit,  His Sister, Jeanette, and Tove

We arrived at the Norwegian Seamen's Church before the bride and groom.  Poor Kristine had quite a trip.  She had booked her flight to connect through Reykjavik, Iceland, but her flight out of Bergen, Norway was delayed.  When she finally got to Reykjavik, she'd missed her connecting flight.  Ole Morten and Unn helped her reconnect through Paris, but the delay caused her to arrive in NY just hours before the wedding, instead of the day before.  But she looked great, despite the ordeal.  Young people.

Ole Morten's mom and sis were visiting the USA/NYC for the first time.  I think they had a great time.  If Macy's June revenues exceeded forecast, Macy's needs to send thank you notes to Marit and Jeanette.





The Church

The church is in a nondescript building in midtown Manhattan near the UN.  It is just around the corner from where my brother lived when he worked in NY.   It is a haven for Norwegians longing for Norwegian waffles (served daily) or foodstuffs they can't find in the States.  Perhaps the most unusual item (and most telling) found in the little store in the church is "ordinary green soap" used for cleaning wood floors, wooden furniture, etc.





The green soap is centered

Once the handsome groom and beautiful bride arrived, the wedding ceremony commenced in Norwegian.  Unlike an American wedding, the "witnesses" (equivalent to the best man and maid of honor) sit facing the wedding couple, who are also seated facing the witnesses.  In this wedding the witnesses were Kristina and Ole Morten's sister.

After the ceremony we sat down for cake and coffee.  One of the church workers had baked us a delicious Norwegian-style "moist cake". 





The bride and groom cut the cake




Chatting at the church

After the wedding, Tove and I went to a sidewalk cafe and had a nice salad and enjoyed the mid-day warmth.  We had a couple of hours before dinner to wander around so we decided to walk from the east side to the west side to the restaurant where Ole Morten and Unn had reservations for all of us.  Walking in our dress shoes became tiresome, and since I had planned to buy walking shoes in NY anyway, we stopped at a nice shoe store along the way and bought some good walking shoes.  I bought these: http://www.merrell.com/US/en-US/Product.mvc.aspx/22605M/0/Mens/NTR-Seismic?dimensions=0



Properly shod, we continued on our cross-town journey.  The weather was beautiful, in the low 70s, it was breezy, and perfect walking weather.  Eventually, we arrived at Basso 56 a fine Italian eatery (http://www.basso56.com/home.html).  Dinner was fantastic. Tove had salmon and I had striped bass.

It was very festive. 

"Destination weddings" are nice and New York is a great place to have one.  Unn is "a fan":

If you don't want to go to the Norwegian Seamen's Church, you can always contact this guy:

http://revido.com/

Tove and I saw the guy in Central Park getting ready to officiate a wedding.  He wore a baseball cap that was inscribed "Rev I Do Dot Com".