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We're getting married!

Finally, it's about to happen.....

At the top of this tower it happened: Helge popped the question!

On November 12th 1999, Helge, to Hilde's enormous surprise, went down on his knees on the top of Coit Tower in San Francisco. From the headline of this page one might guess what both question and answer were.

We started planning immediately after returning from the U.S. a couple of days later. The first question was naturally where, We didn't want a church wedding, and popping in at the City Hall in Lillestrøm also seemed a little sad. No, it had to be out favorite country (after Norway, that is), Greece. Out first thought was being wed at the Norwegian embassy, as we were fortunate enough to have joined  a very successful wedding at the embassy in Madrid last year (See Sætres wedding 1999). But no, the embassy in Athens cannot wed Norwegian citizens, and they suggested the Scandinavian sailors' church in Pireus. No, we were still very sure that we did not want a church wedding. But after some investigation it turned out that Norwegian citizens can be wed at any Greek town hall. Yessss! Then it had to be Crete, Skopelos or Alonissos.

Our choice was the "middle" one, Skopelos. We started the paper work, marriage licenses and birth certificates had to be procured, and these papers also had to be translated into Greek by an authorized translator.

This is where we will be wed on September 15th. There's hardly any danger of getting lost in the corridors here.

But many choices are to be made. The easiest ones were Maid of Honor and Best Man:

- Hilde's Maid of honor is Siv Sætre (to whom she was Maid of honor in Madrid last year)
- Helge's Best Man is his friend from childhood on, Bjørn Erik Trogstad.

Next: Should we just go down there on out own and "do it"? Nope, out of the question! So our Maid of honor and Best Man are coming with us, along with some family. And there's room for more!

Then: Should we have a celebration at home? Not a difficult question, of course there has to be a party! The place we chose was Slogum Gård at Skedsmokorset. On October 14th we will be somewhere between 40 and 50 persons and hopefully we'll have a great party!

This is where family and friends will join us to celebrate on October 14th.

Then on to clothes for the big day. A traditional wedding gown was not exactly what the bride wishes for, aside from that fact that it has to be very impractical to bring this along in a suitcase. But one should be a little "bridey", so it will be a long beige dress and a hat. The groom will wear a dark suit with a grey waistcoat and bow tie (and in his prayers, every night   he has asked for no more that 22 degrees....) The florist in Skopelos town will make a hopefully beautiful bouquet, and a local photographer will take pictures. In addition Siv's husband Per Håkon will be a "backup" photographer, he gets our camera and is told to take as many photos as he can....

We leave on September 6th, while the rest of the bunch will join us on the 13th, and here's some more of what we're looking forward to:

Hey, the yellow "Flying Dolphins" have got new colors! Supposedly due to some company purchasing in Greek ferry business. Anyway, this is how one must go the last bit of the journey from Skiathos.

This is the Hotel, Prince Stafylos. We'll manage with this for a couple of weeks...

View from the balcony - just beautiful.

We are not addicted to spending time by the pool, but we do manage an hour or two in the afternoon.....

This is Stafylos Beach, one can go here for a swim...

... but we prefer this beach, Velanio. Less people and bigger waves!

And in-between we can enjoy this view and a cold drink in the bar that constantly changes its name. But if one follows the signs to "Vrachos" there is a good chance one gets here.

And when we are home we will celebrate here on October 14th.

Latest update: November 24, 2000