Bryllupsfest Part Four: The BRYLLUPSFEST!

Once again proving the old saying, "Most of the things I've worried about never happened," the weather on Saturday, July 9, was beautiful.  The "wedding feast" started at 6 PM.  Tove and I tried to plan a fairly traditional bryllupsfest.  To do so, we needed a "Toast Master".  In this case we had a "Toast Mistress", Tove's lovely cousin, Eva.  Eva had to describe to the guests what was in store for the evening.  As the evening progressed, she introduced the people giving toasts and she told us when to sing songs.  Here she is, beautifully discharging some of her duties:

Sing songs?  Yes.  Sing songs.  Let's go through the Bryllupsfest as celebrated in Norway by Tove and Frank.  The invitation that I sent out looked like this:

"Kvilhaugen Gård is an old farm built in 1820 and became a restaurant in 1988. The farm is situated above the city of Trondheim presenting a stunning view of the city and the fiord." (http://kvilhaugen.no/english/)

As the guests arrived, they were greeted with a glass of sparkling wine (we chose an Italian sparkling chardonnay). 



Entrance to our room at Kvilhaugen, sparkling wine awaits.

People milled about in the courtyard, greeting each other and posing for pictures.

From Left to Right:  Jan (face obscured), Magne, Helga, Svanhild, Paula, Eva and Arnstein. 

In the background, Geir Hemning joins Paula and Eva, in the foreground are Asle, Solfrid, Shirley Patrick and Piper. 

Walking in to the farmhouse courtyard



Diane, Tove, Shirley, Devon, Piper, Patrick and Ulf




 After the "welcome drink" we went into the dining room and Eva explained the evening program.

Table Set for Dinner 

First, Eva introduced the menu.  The appetizer was a mango and crab salad with a sherry vinaigrette.  It was served with an Italian pinot grigio.  The main course was roasted venison filet in a port wine glaze, with brussel sprouts sauteed with bacon, butter sauteed forest mushrooms and scalloped potatoes.  The main course was served with a cotes du rhone.  Dessert was a passion fruit pannacotta.

Before dinner started, Tove and I introduced all of the guests to each other, since many had never met. 



Getting Ready for Dinner




Introductions started with Tove introducing me!





Introductions continued 'round the room in Norwegian and English

Now about the singing.  It is a tradition at a big party like this to sing songs together.  When Tove had her 50th birthday party they sang songs.  When her cousin Gustav married Berit they sang songs.  We wanted to sing songs at our Bryllupsfest.  The problem is that Norwegians, who are accustomed to this, know A LOT of traditional songs.  We Americans DON'T.  So Tove and I had to pick at least one song in English that everyone could sing.   We chose "This Land Is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie.  We also sang a popular Swedish song by Evert Taube, which translated is called "Rosa at the Ball".  Finally, we sang a cute song in Norwegian sung to the tune of "Santa Lucia" which I wrote out phonetically so that the Americans could sing along.  It was fun!

In the lower left corner you can see the song-sheet for "Rosa at the Ball"



Sing Along!



It's Fun!

Another tradition at the dinner are the toasts.  In a Norwegian wedding there is no Best Man nor Maid of Honor.  Instead you have "witnesses", usually close friends or relatives who attest to your wedding.  In our case, we chose Magne and Helga from Finnsnes.  They are lovely, lovely people.  They each gave a toast.  Tove and I gave toasts.  Our good friend, Hans who we have known since university (Bergen) gave a toast.  Eva, our Toast Mistress gave a toast.  And her husband, Arnstein, gave the traditional "Takk for Maten" toast.  This toast is perhaps unique to Norway, or at least it is unknown in America.  It is a toast that thanks the host and hostess for the delicious meal.

Hans toasts the newlyweds



Hans 1973!

All of the toasts were sweet, or funny, or both.  Arnstein's "takk for maten" toast bears special mention.  His job is to let the host and hostess know just how delicious the food is.  Arnstein went on and on about the food, then said he would conclude by reading from a novel by a well-known Norwegian author.  The author he chose was the Norwegian equivalent of Henry Miller and the book was the equivalent of Tropic of Capricorn.  He pulled the book out and said something like, "Having read the book, I have found the perfect excerpt to read to describe tonight's meal.  On page 317 is written, . . . I quote, '. . . and it was wonderful'." 

After dinner people went out to enjoy the beautiful weather.  The long table was cleared and removed for dancing and a room to the side was opened up for people to sit, and later, to eat cake, drink coffee and brandy or liquer.  We had SIX huge cakes, different types and flavors to satisfy most tastes.

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the cakes or the dancing, as we are still awaiting "pics" from friends.  All of the photos you've seen were taken by Devon.

What follows are some of Devon's photos of the evening (Next Post).