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Norway

A Long Light in June

Ingrid and Jonas married on the Norwegian coast at midsummer, when the evening simply refuses to end. Dinner at one long table, then a walk into the light.

The bride and groom, small on the horizon, beneath a wide midsummer sky full of soft evening clouds

A sample story, illustrated with stock photographs by Jaakko Perälä. It stands in until the first weddings are published here.

In June the sun on the Norwegian coast hardly sets. It sinks towards the sea, hesitates, and starts to climb again. Ingrid and Jonas planned their whole day around that slow evening.

The bride holding a loose bouquet of blush roses, white flowers and greenery in front of her lace wedding dress, green meadow behind her

Dinner was one long table in an old workshop by the harbour, set with the same roses as her bouquet. The speeches were short and the doors stayed open to the evening air.

A long wooden table laid for dinner in an old industrial hall, with white plates, glasses, candles and garlands of roses and eucalyptus
The bride and groom holding hands in tall grass, the low sun shining between them

Around ten, with dessert still on the table, the three of us slipped out to the meadow above the shore. The grass was warm and the light came in low and golden from the sea.

The couple holding hands in the golden evening light, the lace of her dress glowing against the dark grass
The bride and groom walking hand in hand through dry grass, her veil and bouquet at her side, seen from the waist down

Later the colour drained slowly out of the sky. They danced on the hill to nothing but the wind and stayed until the sea and the sky had turned the same shade of blue.

Silhouette of the groom twirling the bride on a hilltop against the deep blue sky after sunset, dark trees on either side
The bride and groom embracing in near darkness, the sea and the overcast sky behind them in the same deep blue

Photographs: Jaakko Perälä on Unsplash, used under the Unsplash License.