Real Wedding: Talitha & Gunnar – Photography by Damien Milan

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love, what is unique about you and your relationship… I work as a barista and Gunnar is the head of church administration.

It’s a crazy story how my husband and I met. I flew to Norway more than 3 years ago for my best friend’s wedding. There I met her soon to be brother-in-law (and little did I know, my future husband!). For him it was love at first sight. For me not so much. It took a little convincing, but 7 months later he surprised me in Australia to win my heart, and that’s exactly what he did. After a year of long-distance I took a chance on love and moved to Norway.

Long distance really makes you work hard for the relationship and because of that you know early on if it’s worth it or not. We had quite a few hurdles to jump over in our relationship, and because of the challenges we faced we came through it stronger. At that same wedding I met Gunnar, the best man fell in love with one of the other bridemaids who is also one of our best friends, so now it’s us 3 Australian best friends with the 3 Norwegian men! 2 brothers and a best friend!

Tell us about your special day, was there a specific theme or style? Tell us a little about the setting, the styling and some of your favourite details… We had our wedding reception in a Greenhouse; that was so amazing and unique for us, and our guests. We also had glamping tents set up next to the venue for us and our guests to stay in.

We had a mix of serious and fun for our wedding, so along with some Norwegian traditions, we also had toy dinosaurs at every table and Pokemon and Star Wars paper plates for the dessert to be served on. We served tacos for dinner because who doesn’t like tacos!? Oh and I can’t forget having my Uncle dress up as Elvis and serenade us for our first dance! That was epic!

What were some of the most memorable/unique moments from the day? The whole day was more than we could have hoped for! The Norwegians have incredible talents and creativity so the reception was full of skits, performances and lots of singing! Favourite memories include my husband singing Jason Mraz’s ‘I Won’t Give Up’ to me after our vows, and my Uncle performing as Elvis and singing ‘The Wonder of You’ for our first dance. And eating tacos for dinner! The magical changing light in the greenhouse as the sun was setting, and then falling asleep in our glamping tents to our guests sitting around the campfire singing songs.

Our photographer Damien Milan was outstanding! He stayed with us and our guests the night before the wedding and he fit in so well it was as though he was a guest himself! He was so fun to have around and he was relaxed and took so much care in the way he documented the whole day, and his results blew us away! We laughed and cried as we looked through his photos. The way he captured the laughter from our guests you could almost hear it just by looking at the photos!

The glamping company set up a secret location tent for Gunnar and I, and decked it out with little goodies. The tents had a large double blow-up mattress, rugs, donnas and lighting. It was magical to fall asleep to the sounds of our wedding guests sitting around bonfire singing songs and then waking up to the sound of the pitter patter of rain on our tent.

Any advice for other couples planning to spend the rest of their lives together? Leave room for things to be different from what you had originally planned. Try to be as creative as possible with recycling things for your wedding, you save a lot of money that way! And invest in a good photographer! It’s worth it!

Photographer: Damien Milan | Ceremony location: Sørbø Kirke | Reception location: Alchemilla | Celebrant: Kristin Heskje | Flora and styling: The bride | Entertainment: Bride’s uncle | Catering: Friends of the couple | Cake: Mother of the groom | Dress: Jenet Zaiter | Shoes: ASOS | Groom’s attire: Dressmann | Bridesmaids’ dresses: ASOS and Zalando | Bridesmaids’ shoes: Rubi Shoes | Barber: Brødrene Fevangs