Karlskrona Sweden Wedding Photography - Louise & Axel

Louise and Axel found me in Manchester at a wedding show. With them both being from Sweden they were planning their wedding back home and in a part of Sweden where Axel is from. Getting to travel is one of the many perks of doing this job. Here I was being asked to do something which was an insight into a slightly different culture too. A win win situation for me. I got to photograph a wedding how the swedes do it. Well not just any swedes but how Louise and Axel wanted it to it, and do it their own they certainly did! I loved every nano second of this wedding.

Karlskrona, Sweden Wedding Photography

These are some pretty special people, beautiful on the inside and out. You’ll see the spectacular locations in the pictures but also how heart felt and emotional it all was. So much love, joy and happiness. I regularly have to pinch myself that I can be a part of it and capture all these moments for them. Shots to go alongside their own memories and help them relive the day. This is one I’m certainly going to remember though too! That’s enough from me, for the rest of the post I’ve asked Louise and Axel to talk about their wedding, because really, it’s all about them!

“Working with Mike was one of the best decisions we made for the wedding”.

Mike was with us not only on our wedding day but as we made a wedding weekend out of it, he also joined our “pre-wedding dinner” and “after-wedding brunch” with all the friends that stayed at Skärva together with us.

Not only did all the photographs turn out absolutely fantastic, but we received loads of comments from the guests of what a nice a person he was. In addition, as Mike was everywhere and taking photos many guests have said that they felt like they could be more present and did not need to have their phones up for the big moments.

We felt that Mike really cared about understanding us and what meant the most to us on our wedding day. It is definitely reflected in the photos he has taken! The memories he captured are priceless both for us and our wedding guests.

Getting together

Axel proposed to me on Isle of Skye in July last year and we have been dating for a couple of years. We met when we were studying the same course at University in Sweden, where we are both from and moved to Manchester together three years ago.

When we got engaged and started planning our wedding it was natural to plan it in Karlskrona in Sweden close to where Axel grew up and my parents live today. Karlskrona is an old city in Sweden and has a rich heritage as the nautical centre for the Swedish Navy since the 17^th Century. We wanted to capture the essence of the beautiful Swedish summer and the historical elements of Karlskrona in our wedding.

Skärva Herrgård

As we are now expats we wanted to make sure that the we would focus on spending time with family and friends on the day and around the wedding weekend. Therefore, we chose Skärva Herrgård an admiral house from 1786 for the venue for the reception. The house is quite quirky with a grand Greek style entrance, full wooden panels in all rooms and an octagonal room where we held the wedding dinner with all our guests. In addition, Skärva is also a B&B and our guests from out of town could stay with us for the entire weekend.

I chose the wedding dress after careful consideration, a dress that was both practical and elegant. I also wanted it to fit in with the style of the wedding and the historical elements of the wedding venues and details. I love the dress that I found, the panel design in the front gives it a Scandinavian feel while the lace and the cut of the skirt and the open back made me feel so elegant. It’s the Stassia by Watters. I got it from Agape in Altrincham

Axel lived in the U.S. as a teenager and his “host mom” Carolyn was of course a guest at our wedding. As a professional florist we had also asked her to do all the flowers for us. We discussed colours etc. with her and made a booking a local florist for just the flowers and Carolyn then created the bouquets for Louise and her bridesmaids as well as decorations for the dinner tables.

We decided to have the ceremony in the church on the town square. The church is originally from 1744 but has been refurbished and re-opened earlier this year. It has a very Scandinavian design with white and wooden interiors. The church also has a beautiful organ and wonderful acoustics. We had chosen a mix of modern and classical Swedish folk music for our ceremony which was performed live by the cantor of the church and his daughter.

The Wedding Day

Some of our guests had never been to Sweden before and as Karlskrona is built on an archipelago we wanted to show the city from its best side so decided to book a boat tour around the main island after the ceremony in the church. One of the best men did a wonderful job as a tour guide. After the boat tour, Axel and I arrived at Skärva in a red retro Buick.

The Bridesmaids had organised traditional Swedish garden games and a prosecco bar to start the reception and welcome all the guests to the venue. We sat down for dinner and our toastmasters guided us through a dinner full of speeches, songs and limericks. It was so much fun, we were laughing and crying all the way through.

When the dinner ended we used the main octagonal hall as the dance floor. Our first dance was to the song “If I used to love you, that is nothing like I love you now” by Daniel Lemma. Then the dance started and our fantastic DJ Plaineast played all night!