Wedding in Denmark under BUDGET: Fairy Tale Tips from Ærø

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<reading time: 10 mins> This story is about our wedding in Ærø Denmark, how to make it looks cozy, a bit glamorous, less stress or easier, but in an affordable way! As an intermezzo, it was not that easy since I am not an EU citizen, especially if we do it in a ‘regular normal way’. And here the post is just around the wedding ceremony and the preparations, not the celebration/reception yet, as it will be done later in early 2019.

Hello fabulous you, this is my first blog post in this blog space and thanks for dropping by (I have been blogging since 2007 in the other blog addresses, but I decided to make a new one marking my new marriage life). I met my now husband in Aarhus, Denmark when I was still a student. He is Danish btw, and he is 2 years older than me if you guys are curious 😀 Hope you will enjoy reading this post about our wedding in Ærø, Denmark.

Our wedding in Denmark, officially took place and recorded on November 1st, 2018. Anyway, before this, we already had our wedding procession in my home country, Indonesia in a more or less Indonesian custom way.  It was on 27 September 2018 in Yogyakarta, my lovely home town. It was also a sweet and a bit glamorous from what I was wearing on that day, yet still very under budget. However, we are not going to talk about that right now.

To understand the normal and ordinary context/background, let me explain here, how on earth a wedding in Denmark can actually be complicated and expensive:

As back then I was super nervous that my previous Danish visa/residence permit was almost expired and I was waiting for my new residence permit (which nobody knew when I could get it, but apparently and magically, I got it much faster than what people told me), I rushed ourselves in to get married legally in Denmark before my visa ran expired. If we just had the wedding in our municipality of residence, Aarhus, they would require a Civil status stating that I am still single from my home country, Indonesia, which had to be translated and legalized by different government bodies and the Danish Embassy in Indonesia, step by step.

Long story short after many considerations, especially under the limited time, I did not choose this pathway, as it would take a much longer time just to prepare the documents and it would also be expensive to translate and ship the original document in Denmark safely and quickly. We were also required to book the wedding ceremony date in the municipality and we could only do that after all the required documents completed and confirmed by the officer in the municipality. As an estimation, just to get all those documents ready it would have taken minimum 2 weeks. Too many steps, too little time.

Thus, I had to find another faster solution, which was by getting married in Ærø municipality, in a city called Ærøskobing (Ærø is a small island in the south of Fyn, Denmark reachable by ferries from Faaborg, Svendborg, and Als).

A Wedding Ceremony in Ærø could be easier for a Transnational Wedding, but it could also be expensive because…

THEY DON’T ASK THIS CIVIL STATUS LETTER like in most other municipalities in Denmark, which would shorten the bureaucracy processes so much, and instead, they only asked my
valid visa and passport (or in all circumstances, whoever are the foreigners in the married-to-be couple). However, according to a friend who also got married in Ærø, they had to pay a fee of around EUR 550 at that time (around 4000 DKK), through a wedding agent named Global Wedding Express https://www.globalexpresswedding.com/en/ that would basically provide a lawyer guaranteeing that you are really not married yet, to replace the Civil Status, which in most foreigners’ cases could take too long to obtain. They would also give you bonuses of a free short wedding photography session and witnesses during the wedding ceremony as parts of their services under that package. And that EUR 550 covering all of those (without a hotel room included) is expensive, in my opinion. Yes, wedding agents (not wedding party organizers) do exist in Ærø!!

Of course, the prices of a wedding dress, wedding make up, and wedding photographer in Denmark are usually crazy expensive. A modest wedding dress would normally cost around DKK 10.000 (EUR 1500), and make-up for the wedding could cost DKK 1000 (EUR 150), which does not include a hairdo.

A hotel room for the wedding in Ærø could be expensive. And yes, at least 1 night of hotel stay would be required as a soon to marry couple is asked to show the original documents in the Municipality Office of Ærø one day before the agreed wedding ceremony day. So, unless you live in a nearby town that could just go back and forth easily, you would need to stay in that island at least for 1 night. (and 1 night only is enough).

Oh noo, sounds complicated and expensive?

In here down below were the magic tricks on how we did this wedding in Denmark by cutting down some of the unnecessary costs, yet still have the wedding ceremony in a very romantic and hyggelig (Danish cozy) way…

Did we take that EUR 550 wedding package deal?

We could have done it, but no. I had an instinct that Ærø municipality can also do the work easier for us with less money involved, so we contacted them. It turned out that Ærø municipality asked the same paper requirements like Global Wedding Express, so only the copy of passport, my valid residence permit, my husband’s copy of passport, and we were asked to fill in a form and choose/schedule a wedding ceremony date and time in the municipality office. That was it. And it was for free btw, as we both lived in Denmark.

Any other couples who don’t live in Denmark could also choose this pathway, but they will be asked to pay an admin fee to the municipality for around 800 something DKK, which was still cheaper than EUR 550 or around 4000 DKK. Money saved!! Only with 1 condition that was any way the same like what the Global Wedding Express asked, to come to Ærøskøbing (or Ærø island) 1 day before the procession day and to stay for 1 night there. This had to be done as the municipality required us to show the original documents in the wedding ceremony’s office of Ærø 1 day before the ceremony date in person.

What about the wedding photographer?

As in Global Wedding Express, they would include wedding photography in the service, what was our solution? Did we just use a mobile phone camera and ask our family members? Hmm, yes and no. I was hunting for a wedding photographer on Instagram by inputting the keywords: Æro, Aero, Æro wedding, etc. then I stumbled upon an Instagram profile of Bjørg, https://www.instagram.com/bridebybjorg/ a female wedding photographer, based in Ærøskøbing with quite good portfolios that I loved when I saw them.

I have checked her website (https://www.bridalbouqet.dk/) and there was a quite good package of DKK 1.200 or EUR 160 for half an hour photo session. We wanted photogenic photos mainly outdoor in that beautiful town of Ærøskobing, as they have a very pretty old town area with super old but beautiful houses and cobbled streets. However, we also wanted to have some photos during the ceremony in the office.

So, our solution for this wedding in Ærø was, to have a deal with Bjørg for having a photo session half an hour after the ceremony in the outdoor and we asked my father-in-law to take photos with my DSLR camera during the ceremony. And that worked quite well! Just look at all of the photos in this post, they were all taken by the talented Bjørg. I would highly recommend her. Btw, if we would have taken the package from Global Wedding Express, I think that the photo session only covers the ceremony part in the office, which was very very short.

Would you believe me if this dress in the photo for our wedding in Denmark only costs DKK 450 or GBP 50 ?

And that it is a brand-new dress that did not require any altering in the tailor. I know so well that wedding dress could be the most expensive part of the wedding, but… I searched and compared, compared so many wedding dresses boutiques (mostly online) from many different countries and out of my curiosity and wild exploration, I landed on Chi Chi London’s website https://www.chichiclothing.com/ and found a miracle there. There was a very beautiful dress that really aligned with my style and that dress was on sale and there was my right number available (probably the last stock as after that it said SOLD OUT).

It was so cheap until I could almost not believe it and it was just sent from the UK (still in Europe, not from either China or USA so I didn’t have to pay the import tax thing). When they arrived, I was happily stunned by its exquisiteness and quality that fit perfectly with my body shape. Perfect shape, perfect material, perfect color. No alteration needed and it was not like dresses sold in some cheap fashion web shops where after the dress arrives, it looks different than the photo, no no. And yes, DKK 10.000 saved! Besides, we will have the reception party coming up later, so when I bought a cheap wedding dress for this occasion now, I could buy another dress for the reception.

What about the accessories like the wedding veil and shoes for this wedding in Denmark?

I bought the veil from www.wish.com for only 21 DKK (yes, that Chinese website) and the product was very nice and it arrived well and tidy in a new packaging. The shoes were also brand new and cheap. I bought them from http://www.zalando-lounge.com and they cost me around EUR 20 or DKK 150. Oh, and btw, most of the brides who went to the city hall for the ‘state Danish wedding ceremony’ in this city hall didn’t dress up as much as me (maybe in a bigger city like Copenhagen they might wear a more glamorous dress, though, not sure).

I mean, some of the brides in Ærø just wore a super simple wedding dress (that was not a big wedding gown) and even some of the others just wore a normal party dress (that was not a wedding dress at all). Most of them did not have special hairdo and just applied a simple makeup on. Why? Was that common? I don’t know, there is a possibility that they might be in a rush or maybe most of these brides just think that if it was not a wedding in a church with a lot of audiences then it was not a big deal or maybe there was something else on their mind and preferences, I am not sure.

Anyhow, in my case, I was thinking that this was a once in a life time event, so I chose to wear a special dress and made it special, but still under our budget limit. As a result, when I went out of the ‘wedding ceremony room’, so many strangers’ eyes were staring at me in an amazed look and cheered ‘Congratulations’ to us. And I think that was fine and fun. That made me feel good, appreciated, and special. I think it was a normal feeling, when we put extra efforts to look good and people around us, even strangers appreciated it. I wanted to look like a princess on that day in front of every one with this wedding dress, but of course, I would be a princess for my husband forever, no matter whatever kind of dresses I am going to wear.

As a small tip, other websites that you can try to find cheap wedding dresses are:

asos.com, nelly.com (could be the Danish or Swedish), boozt.com (the one that I know is from Denmark), and zalando.com. Another small tip, when you apply filter on the websites, you don’t necessarily need to go under ‘Wedding Dresses’ category, as the pretty wedding dress you like could be hidden under ‘Party Dresses’ or ‘Special occasion dresses’ category, and what you’d need to do next is to apply filter for the color under there (if you want a white wedding dress, then tick on ‘White’). And voila, maybe you’d find something you will like, which other ladies would never have thought about or did not discover yet with this special hacking trick.

Any makeup artists and hair stylists in Ærøskøbing for our wedding in Denmark?

Yes, I think so, not sure how much they would charge you, but I chose to use my own hands and makeup kits and woke up in the early morning. Although we had enough money, I just could not imagine in my wildest mind if I would need to withdraw DKK 2000 to get this done. Besides, I could be prouder to have them done with my own hands (that took nearly 2 hours and some earlier preparations of continuous practices and Youtube tutorial streaming sessions before the day).

It was not the best, but it worked to make me look prettier in the photos matching with the dress, at least. I also did my own hairdo here btw. It was not that fabulous maybe, but I think it was okay for a small wedding ceremony. As for the next event in my wedding parties, I would hire a hair stylist, I think.

What about the wedding flower bouquet that I was holding as a bride?

From my experience, when you mention the word ‘wedding’ before you order anything here, for this wedding in Denmark, then the price would be tripled than the normal, although the adjustment is just a little, e.g. an extra ribbon. That includes a flower bouquet. When I asked in a flower shop in Aarhus, Denmark for instance about how much would a wedding flower bouquet cost, then the staff said around DKK 750. So, my trick is to avoid mentioning the word ‘wedding’ when I asked about the price prior to ordering in a shop.

We ordered the flower bouquet in a flower shop in Faaborg, a city where we took the ferry ride from. We did this because in Ærø, Bjørg, our photographer who is known to also make flower bouquets for the wedding already stopped from that business. The way we asked for the price and ordered the flower bouquet was by specifying which and how many flowers we wanted in the bouquet, then the price became just DKK 250.

If we were honest and said that we wanted wedding bouquet, maybe they would charge us DKK 700. Another unnecessary expense cut off 😊 If you want to get it cheaper, you can order at a supermarket in the flower area, often they have the flower bouquets just for DKK 150 (at MENY or Kvickly for example), but it is not very much customizable and looks a bit boring, as it is a ready made one and they have no flower girls stand by to arrange something for you.

Where did we stay as this wedding is in Ærø?

Luckily, we found a whole house to rent through AirBnB that costs around 1000 DKK per night and the whole house was for ourselves. This house was quite spacious and had 2 bedrooms, so we invited my parents-in-law to stay with us too, as we also wanted them to be a part of this wedding ceremony as witnesses.

This house is walking distance from the wedding ceremony office and the old town area btw, so it is super conveniently located. We believe that it was a cheaper alternative than renting 2 hotel rooms. Plus, there was a proper functional kitchen where we could cook dinner and prepare breakfast for everyone. So it was actually quite easy for our wedding in Denmark.

Wedding party or reception? No, not yet, we haven’t had this one yet, and we will have 2 parties later, 1 wedding party in Denmark and 1 in Indonesia. A medium-scaled one for the party in Denmark will take place in February, and a big one in Indonesia will come later in August.

So I am officially Mrs. Aastrup now, as my husband’s family name is Aastrup 🙂

Stay tuned in this space and follow this blog (you will find the bottom under the post), where you can find and read more of my wedding stories with tips and tricks (upcoming posts will be about the upcoming parties, my other wedding dresses, and wedding venues) and other blog posts will also cover my other stories about traveling, gastronomy, fashion, expat humor, and probably some crazy Danish-ness adventures.

Alright, I hope that this story would be valuable for you and you have found some great inspirations out of it. Have fun and enjoy planning your wedding. It is quite fun, if you imagine the beautiful moment you will soon have during and after the wedding. And it would even be more fun if you know the tricks to cut off the unnecessary expenses attached to the ‘wedding’.