My husband and I just celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. We always reminisce about that wonderful day in Denmark when all the planning (much of it done with the help of my parents and sister) came together perfectly.

The Christmas before our wedding, we went to Denmark to do some research. The plan was to check out three venues for our wedding reception. We started on the day we arrived from the U.S. at a place in Aarhus which the country’s second largest city. Feeling a little tired and jet lagged my then finance and I stepped into the restaurant and took a look around. It didn’t take us long to agree that this was the place we wanted. We didn’t need to go anywhere else. Even though the restaurant was closed for the season and undergoing some work, it felt absolutely perfect.

The 18-year-old Restaurant Prins Ferdinand, as it was called, was located in a 75-year-old building in Den Gamle By (The Old Town) which is an amazing open-air museum of Danish urban history and culture from the 1500s through the 1970s. 75 historic houses, relocated from all over the country, make up the museum and they made a beautiful backdrop to our wedding photos.

The wedding ceremony took place in the suburbs of Aarhus, in Viby where I grew up. It was at the church where I was christened and confirmed, a small church, built in the 12th century and all white as is typical of non-urban Danish churches.

In Denmark the weather in May is often very unpredictable, so we felt very lucky when we had a just few rain drops in the morning to wish us good luck, and then brilliant sunshine the rest of the day.

Restaurant Prins Ferdinand offered an intimate and very “hyggelig” setting for our 50 guests who represented 5 different countries. Family and friends had written songs for us all to sing and made speeches that made us both laugh and cry (especially me).

What a glorious day it was. It ended around 4 am, after we had enjoyed our “nattemad” – light fare before the guests leave – and almost in time for the sun to rise. ☀️