help planning a wedding...

[lindaperuviana]

My name is Linda and I am a Peruvian girl engaged with Finnish guy...(finnish-swedish speaker)
As a engaged woman, lots of thoughts are coming to my mind, confusing me, and making me feel a little bit stressed.
I guess every woman ( or man) has felt the same because of "the big day".

So Id like to ask some questions, I hope you guys ( people married already-or planning to marry ) can help me, and if there are some also "interracial couples" would be interested to hear from you.

- one of the most important things i guess for a woman...is the dress...so, do you know any good stores ( good prices also ) for wedding dresses? How much approximately costs a wedding dress? do women buy always a new one, or some women may rent one? is there any kind of online catalogue with prices for wedding dresses in finland?

- this is for interracial couples - my mother tongue is Spanish- if you are one also...what ideas or tips for a wedding would you give? - my mother and brother -if God allows- will come to our wedding, and one big concern is to find a priest who speaks (finnish,swedish,english,spanish) I guess it would be much nice for both of our families understand what the priest is saying,right?
So, if you know of any priest who is a swedish and spanish speaking...could you let me know?

- about the band at the party- I have been in a few weddings here, and i have found them very different as in my country. My fiance and I have agreed to choose something different for our wedding, not the same traditional low music and wals ( maybe some ) but also a band who can play latin music, salsa, merengue, cumbia. Do you know of any latin band here in Finland? how much would it cost?

-about the wedding games, also i have seen some ( pretty boring ones most of the time ) do you have any nice and fun game which can involve also children or teenagers.

Any other advice, story, tip,information will be very much appreciated!

Thank you very much!

Linda

-

[Sara]

Hi!

Congratulations!

I got married last year so can help with a few things.

Dress, best thing is to decide your budget then take it from there. I paid around €1,200 for my dress, but they also come cheaper and of course more expensive. My friend rented one in May and it cost her €600, but I have seen some to buy for €700-800.

We got married in a Lutheran Church. Our priest spoke Finnish and excellent English. If you want to get married in a Church get your partner to contact the church and see what they can offer you.

A lot of things also depend on the location which you want to get married and where you want to go dress shopping. Of Helsinki has lots of choices, but some small town might only have one dress shop.

I dont know anything about the band. We had a DJ, no traditional Finnish dancing music

The hardest part for us was finding the perfect place for the party afterwards!

[karel]

Congrats!

Places to buy or rent a dress:
Morsmaikku
Stilissima
Meslewi (great dresses, but service is said to be very bad and client-unfriendly)

We had our wedding in 4 languages
I can't help you with a Spanish-Swedish speaking priest, but I'm sure they're out there.

Adding to Sara's post I think it's important to know that if you want to get married in a church it can get quite complicated here in Finland with the paper work if you and your partner don't have the same religion (note that I said CAN get, it doesn't have to). Be thorough with your preps.

As for the band... I don't know what you're looking for, but we had quite a specific wish for our wedding. Since we didn't want our wedding to be 2006 Megadance festival, we opted more in the style of background music. We went around and found a band named Hurville through the music university and websites. They play a jazzy kind of music and it was great. Only positive reactions (also from our (young(er)) guests ) who found this kind of music on a wedding very refreshing.
Not saying you should take this Hurville, but Sibelius Academy has some great resources when it comes to music, so maybe it's an idea to check there.

[newguy]

You might be able to find some help with getting band/music with the salsa dance club:
http://www.salsa.fi/?newlang=eng

Good luck.

[Rosetta]

Hi Linda! There's a Finnish discussion forum for people planning a wedding,
http://www.naimisiin.info/yhteiso/; it's in Finnish, obviously, but maybe your fiance could help you (to translate some things etc.)? Somebody on that site mentioned a wedding band called Los Platanos Negros, sounds like a Latin band to me (here: http://www.naimisiin.info/yhteiso/index ... opic=28882 - the poster was also planning a Finnish-Spanish language wedding.)


Funnily enough, Linda, my situation is kind of opposite from you, as I'm a Finnish female engaged with a South American guy (Brazilian) But as we don't live in Finland, can't help with the specific things like where to find the dress, etc. (although I'd recommend eBay.co.uk, you can order many things from Finland too!), but I hope that forum will be helpful to you! Good luck!

[Cloudberry]

Hi Linda,

My husband and I married in Finland last year and I had some similar questions. I had a hard time finding anywhere to get a dress and ended up buying one custom made from eBay and then having it altered. It ended up costing a lot less than a bridal shop dress and was very unique. There are so many gorgeous designs available through eBay.

As for the entertainment I can't help you there - we went with traditional Finnish musicians, a kantele player, some accordian players and a violinist.

Your wedding sounds like it's going to be very exotic though! keep us up to do date with your plans!

Lisa

[Alicia]

- this is for interracial couples - my mother tongue is Spanish- if you are one also...what ideas or tips for a wedding would you give? - my mother and brother -if God allows- will come to our wedding, and one big concern is to find a priest who speaks (finnish,swedish,english,spanish) I guess it would be much nice for both of our families understand what the priest is saying,right?
So, if you know of any priest who is a swedish and spanish speaking...could you let me know?
-

We kept the ceremony short (it was a blessing and I didn't convert). We had it in Swedish. We had readings that my family and friends from Oz knew, and then we had a sax player play "what a wonderful world" and everyone was happy.

- about the band at the party- I have been in a few weddings here, and i have found them very different as in my country. My fiance and I have agreed to choose something different for our wedding, not the same traditional low music and wals ( maybe some ) but also a band who can play latin music, salsa, merengue, cumbia. Do you know of any latin band here in Finland? how much would it cost?-

have a look at www.doobop.fi. In Vaasa (and I don't know where you are living) there is a great group, the doobop allstars and the leader is a nice Columbian and the rest of them are Finnish-Swedish guys from what I can remember. We saw them perform once and know that they have played at a friends wedding and they were happy. A good mix of modern music as well as latin and everyone was happy. It is almost 2 years since I heard them last, but I am sure they are still playing together.

Otherwise contact a local latin dance studio and they will know where you should start.

-about the wedding games, also i have seen some ( pretty boring ones most of the time ) do you have any nice and fun game which can involve also children or teenagers.
-

I think it is the friends and family that arranges the games. At least with ours. The only thing that we did was give everyone the words to "Home among the gum trees" but the keyboardist played it to fast and everyone was kangaroo hopping into their neighbours!

Good luck!