A Swedish Vintage Circus Wedding: Frida & Richard

January 4, 2012

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Frida & Richard were married at Hagaparken, a nature reserve just north of Stockholm, Sweden. The beautiful ceremony took place under a carefully selected tree and the reception was in The Copper Tent, also in Hagaparken, which was originally built by one of the Swedish Kings to house his horses, but which looks a little like a circus tent. The couple based their celebration around this tent, creating a vintage circus theme.

The bride designed her own dress and the couple DIY’ed as much of the day as possible including the flowers, the stationery and all the reception decor and props.

“My sister married us, something we decided to keep from the other guests,” Frida told me. “Despite a short line about guests being welcome to add their own touches to their outfits, we were took by surprise when everyone turned up with personal touches to match our wedding theme. Even the most unlikely of our family members really took to the task, which was ace. My personal favourite, the groom’s Uncle who appeared in a top hat, weilding a riding crop! We also had the pleasure of an assortment of fine shoes, hats and sparkles.”

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“As we spent a little time with the photographer after the ceromony, we gave guests a few games to play outside the venue while having a tipple including a photobooth with props, vintage circus games and ’the infuriating hammer game’, which was our take on the strong-man. Our chum Gus played records on a little portable record player.”

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“We really wanted to give ourselves and everyone else a day of merriment,” the bride concluded. “More of a cheeky flow of surprises and smiles rather than stiffness and formality – almost make it a bit like our little journey as a couple. Our start point was simply taking full advantage of wearing good clothes for a day, for one day just being a little bit more extravagent than we have ever been. We had no real outside influence, in that Richard’s family are all in the UK and Frida’s scattered across Sweden, so we just got to immerse ourselves in the process and take our time with it.”

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“The whole outcome was pretty satisfying – like everything from the little signs indicating the table groupings (strong men, ring leaders, mine artists, tattooed ladies, bearded ladies…) to the little trinkets around the venue were things that we found or made. There was also a train of thought that we wanted to blend the English/Swedish side of things so that some elements would be surprising to the relevant nationalities.”

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Gorgeous! Thank you to Frida & Richard for sharing these with us today.

Supporting Cast:

Photography Credit: Natalie Larsson (natalielarsson@me.com)
Ceremony Venue: Hagaparken, Sweden
Reception Venue: The Copper Tent, Hagaparken, Sweden
Bride’s Dress: Custom Made by Cecilia Blixt
Bride’s Shoes: Vero Cuoio
Bride’s Headpiece: DIY
Bride’s Jewellery: Rings custom made by Macha Jewelry
Groom’s Outfit: Dior Homme
Cake: Cupcake Sthlm
Flowers: DIY
Band: Johan Barrett from Venus and the Octopus
DJ: DJ Camilo from Kingsize Magazine
Stationery: DIY
Transport: A Danish herring delivery bicycle from the 1920’s