Phil's and Sarita's wedding

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So finally the big day arrived and yesterday we were able to finally achieve one of our main objectives of our trip, attending Phil's and Sarita's wedding in Espoo, Finland. After 5 weeks of travel through Bali, Thailand, India and Finland we made it and were very excited about it all. All the trip planning, travel, sharing of rooms and beds, tailoring of clothes and stresses were put behinds. Hopefully it would all pay off.

So how did it go you ask? Brilliant, on every level.

We left Helsinki at 3.30pm for the 30 minute drive up to Espoo. We had a large (and very flash mini-bus thanks to Kirsty) for a large portion of the family from Australia. We were all in our glad rags for the big day. This was actually part 2 of the wedding as there was a civil ceremony last Wednesday to meet all those pesky legal requirements. Phoebe had on her dress that was specially made for her role as the flower girl, and Alex had on his little suit also made in Thailand for the wedding. Jo looked great in her new dress and I hired a suit for the day. There is of course no truth to the rumour that my suit was from the kiddies section of the wedding hire shop. There are some people of shorter stature in Finland. All of the family on the bus was very excited as none of us had been to Espoo, the country estate that was the venue, or new many of the details of the big day. The drive up was fun and the country-side was very beautiful.

None of us could have imagined the estate that we arrived at for the wedding. It was picture perfect. The weather was behaving and the storm clouds and rains from the previous few days had disappeared. The ceremony was held on a lovely grassed area under some trees and was nestled in a small forrested area. The house itself was built around 1550 and was ideallic. Thanfully for the first time since hitting Helsinki all of the Hine clan were on time (again thanks to Kirsty so a big CF of 10 to her as it is almost an impossible achievement). We all had a little chat to Phil, who was a bit nervous, even though Sarita had already said yes on Wednesday and signed all the legal papers. Sarita arrived in a horse drawn carriage, a nice and unknown touch for everybody. The ceremony, as for the rest of the afternoon and night, was a bilingual affair. Everything was held in Finnish and English. Phil and Sarita looked amazing, and the whole bridal party was lovely. Phoebe did a great job as the flowergirl, and the dress we got her worked just great. It was a punt to get it made in Thailand as all we had was an email two days before it was made showing us roughly what the colour of the brides-maid dresses were. As people know the colours on a computer screen do not always reflect real life.

Now I have been to many weddings in Australia, each one slightly different to the next, but as a general rule they are all pretty much the same. Culturally they have all had the same basis. This was my first Finnish based wedding and as such we had two different cultures in the building. Now the Finnish are a very organised, serious and possibly pedantic people, which is great if you are catching a bus or plane and want to be on time (in fact a big CF of 9 for that Finland). The Hine family are not Finnish. They love a good party and are willing to interject any speech. So of course all of Phil's siblings were ready and waiting to call out and give him a good ribbing when he was ready to do his speech. This of course quickly changed when we took our places for the meal. Straight away we could tell that this was serious business. When Sarita's dad started his speech there was no doubt left in anyone's mind as to how the speeches and meal was to go. Sarita's sister Heni had the job of translating all of the speeches, and did a great job. She had many to do and at times the person speaking gave for massive amounts of text to translate. Delightfully nothing was lost in the translation, if anything it made the speeches better and funnier.

There was also a significant differences in the speeches from the dads. Juha (Sarita's dad) was very formal and spoke alot about her growing up and the person that she has become. Trevor (Phil's dad) was more along the lines of welcoming Sarita into the family. That being said he didn't need to say anything about Phil growing up because his sisters had already organised a hatchet job. Phil's speech itself, in my humble opinion was the best of the night and went a long way to ensuring both of the families would get along. So to Phil a big CF of 10 for that speech. It was also a very honest speech and I think Juha was left wondering what he had accepted into the family after Phil explained what a little bugger he was as a child. At the very least Sarita's parents will be wondering what their future grandchildren might be like. It took a while but the speeches finally finished, a small miracle I am sure Heni was thinking. Although the day had been great and loads of fun, this is where it started to get very interesting. The Finnish, as I have said take things very seriously, and celebrating and partying is definately on the list to. Once the formalities were out of the way they made sure that they partied hard.

There was much drinking of wine, champagne, beer, pear cider, and spirits. Cigars came out (yes Pam we saw you having a go as well and in front of your grand children), there was much dancing and plenty of convoluted talk between the two families. Some of the difficulty in the talking was because of the language barrier, some of it was because of the flowing of the alcohol. There were times when the men folk disappeared to take a swig of some type of very strong, licorice based spirit, which apparently is very nice and Trevor just could not get enough of. By 12.30am when the bus arrived to take us back to Helsinki the two families were definately close. Somehow on the way home most of the Finnish side of the family had been invited to come to Australia. Now I know Pam and Trevor have a big house but if everyone comes they will need to ensure they come at different times. We reached the centre of Helsinki at about 1.30am and headed home, well apparently not everyone. Some of the party moved off to a night club until 3 in the morning.

There is not much left to say about the day, and I am sure more stories will come to light over the next few days when we are all staying in a cabin up on the lakes. So to Phil and Sarita a big thank-you for putting this shin-dig all together. In my books, any wedding and party that incorporates your mother-in-law smoking a cigar, and your father-in-law coming home at who knows what hour and is in a state where he can not even take off is own shoes and pants most definately gets a CF of 10.

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Photos

The happy couple.
Seriously could they look any better?

The Hine men.
Phil, Andre and Trevor waiting for the lovely bride.

Phoebe the flower girl.
Phoebe and the brides maids.

In our glad rags.
We had hauled these clothes all the way from Thailand and in the end it was definately worth the effort.

The wedding venue.
This is the estate, built in about 1550 that was the back drop to the wedding.

The Hine siblings
All the brothers and sisters had a great day (yes they missed you Kelly).