On June 12, 2024, Anders and I tied the knot, officially becoming Mr. and Mrs. Husa. We wanted our wedding to reflect our relationship, and for it to be a totally “Anders and Kaitlin” day filled with all our favorite things. Of course, that meant with food at the focus, but it also meant honoring the places we call home. Since we have family and friends spread out across the world, we decided to have two celebrations – one in Scandinavia and one in the United States. We decided to have a small, intimate ceremony in Copenhagen, and a bigger, more relaxed celebration in California. Copenhagen weather is always unpredictable, so we set our sights on summer for the best chance of good weather. California, on the other hand, is fairly nice year-round, so we decided to have that party when we escape to Los Angeles in the winter. (Stay tuned!) This blog post is a recap of our Copenhagen celebration, highlighting the venues and vendors we picked, with wedding planning tips and advice.
The Ceremony – Paradehuset
Copenhagen’s unpredictable weather not only dictated when we would have our wedding, but where. Our dream was to have the ceremony outside, but since there’s always a possibility of rain in Denmark, we decided we should have a roof over our heads. We didn’t love the idea of a tent, so we had the idea of getting married in a greenhouse. That way, we could still have natural light and it would feel like an outdoor wedding, but we had a roof in case of rain. This led us to Paradehuset, a greenhouse in Gentofte in the beautiful Bernstorff Park. Even in mid-June, it was quite a rainy week in Copenhagen! We were so glad we had planned for rain so that we had peace of mind and didn’t have to worry about the weather. We loved the natural look of the greenhouse so much that we didn’t add many decorations.
During our ceremony, we wanted to honor traditions, while still making the proceedings personal. One unique thing we did was to seal our vows with a caviar bump, having our officiant say “you may now bump the bride” before “you may now kiss the bride.” This was such a fun moment, and one that allowed us (and our guests) a moment of laughter to break up some of those wedding jitters. It’s no secret that Anders and I love caviar, and Rossini Caviar is our all-time favorite, so I can’t think of a more fitting first bite as a married couple.
Luckily, it didn’t rain on our wedding day, so we continued the celebrations outside the greenhouse. Our guests frolicked around the garden in fancy, festive attire with white paper parasols and bubble guns. To add to the decor, Rhod Flowers helped me design the wedding florals of my dreams. For my bridal bouquet, I asked for something whimsical, wild, and colorful, and they completely understood the assignment. They also created a matching flower pin for Anders’ suit, a basket of flower petals for our flower girl, and bouquets for the tables.
Instead of a traditional wedding cake, we opted for a cardamom bun “cake” from Juno the Bakery, our favorite bakery in the world. Another tiered stand held butter-fried blinis, crème fraîche, and chives, to go with tins of Rossini Caviar. Of course, we also did caviar bumps with our guests! We washed all these treats down with our favorite bubbles from Austrian winemaker Weingut Heinrich.
After photos in the garden, we were whisked away to the reception in a classic car, so we had a few precious moments alone as newlyweds. (Fun fact: the getaway car we had booked cancelled the night before our wedding! Indeed, even the best-laid plans go awry. Luckily, with the help of Instagram, we were able to find a replacement – Anton Kjær came to our rescue in a white vintage Mercedes, our four-wheeled chariot.)
The Reception – Alouette
“Who will be cooking your wedding dinner?” This was the number one question we were asked leading up to the big day. Since our Copenhagen attendance list was quite small, we were able to set our sights on finer fare, and splurge on a Michelin-starred wedding dinner. For us there was never any doubt – we had to have our reception at Alouette, our favorite restaurant in Copenhagen. Our party had the honor of being the very first people inside their new venue – and we broke it in with a bang! The first fires were stoked, the first glasses clinked in celebration, and the first sauces were happily scraped from bowls.
For one night only, chef Nick Curtin brought back some classics in our honor, a collection of our very favorite dishes over the years. Alouette’s Greatest Hits – a.k.a. the tastiest wedding menu of all time! Service director Darragh Nolan dazzled as our toastmaster extraordinaire (including live performances from Disney’s Frozen). And the inimitable Camilla Hansen not only served as our pope during our ceremony, but also set up a “disco dungeon” in the basement for the dance party of our dreams. We ended the day with cocktails and late-night cheeseburgers on the dance floor. A huge thank you to the entire team at Alouette for the most perfect wedding we could have ever imagined.
Anders and I curated playlists of our favorite songs for the day, for the dinner and the dance floor:
The Rehearsal Dinner – Bar’Vin
In the U.S., we have a tradition of having a wedding rehearsal, where we run through the ceremony, practice the procession, and make sure everyone knows where to stand on the big day. Following the rehearsal, we have a dinner, where the families of the bride and groom gather for a meal together. We couldn’t think of a cozier, more quintessential spot for the occasion than Bar’Vin. The night before the wedding, we shared good food and good wine together in an intimate setting in one of their private dining rooms. Bar’Vin’s signature Côte de Boeuf is our favorite steak in town.
The Morning After – Seks
On the morning after our wedding, we invited our families to a recovery brunch at Seks, a cozy café that is basically our second living room in Copenhagen. Their scrambled eggs, sourdough buns with gzik, secret cheesecake, and lots and lots of coffee are the best hangover cures we know. We wanted to make the most of the time together with our family, and this was such a special way to come together and reflect on the previous day’s festivities.
The After Party – Punk Royale
Since our closest friends were coming to Copenhagen for the wedding, we decided to have a combined “bachelor party” while everyone was in town. But, since we didn’t want to be hungover for the big day, we decided to have our bachelor party after the wedding! So, a “not-so-bachelor” party – an after party! With blue skies and sunshine, we started off the day cruising along the canals of Copenhagen with spritzes in hand. Then we continued to the main event: Punk Royale. If you’re looking to go wild in Copenhagen, this is the place. With strobe lights, fog machines, costumes, glitter spray, vodka shots, more Rossini Caviar, and an absolutely insane tasting menu, this was a night we will never forget remember. Naturally, the evening ended where the best nights always end – at Balderdash.
The Wedding Planning Process
We got engaged in February 2023, started dreaming up ideas for our wedding in the summer, began reaching out to venues in the fall, and officially set our date in December 2023. This is when we started seriously planning the wedding, dedicating at least one night a week to tackle some wedding tasks together. We highly recommend having this structured time, so your wedding planning doesn’t take over your whole life. It can become a full-time job, so it’s nice to compartmentalize it.
We decided to plan our wedding entirely by ourselves. We plan events and food tours for a living, so we had a pretty good idea of how to plan a big event, and we had a very specific vision of what we wanted. We used a lot of tools from our friends Kyle and Kristin Weeks’ company, WedWeeks, which we highly recommend if you’re in the planning stage. They have many templates, tips, and resources available for every aspect of wedding planning, from budget planning spreadsheets to seating chart layouts. But if you don’t love planning, delegate this task and leave it in the hands of a professional! There are a lot of small details that can be overlooked. Hire a wedding planner!
When it came to the planning, we locked our venue and date in first, and that determined everything else. Our dinner venue had a max capacity of 40 people, which helped us finalize our guest list. Since six months isn’t a ton of time, especially for guests traveling internationally, we sent out our invitations pretty quickly.
Side note: our wedding took place on a weekday. We didn’t care which day the wedding was on since we knew our family and friends would be traveling to Copenhagen from abroad anyway. If your schedule is flexible, consider a weekday, since some vendors charge more on Fridays and Saturdays. Vendors also tend to fill up weekends faster since those are more typical wedding dates, so some vendors were still available fairly last minute instead of being booked far in advance.
We decided that we didn’t want to burden ourselves or our family members with too many responsibilities on the day of the wedding, so we decided to hire a day-of coordinator to execute our plan. We can highly recommend Lykke Bryllup in Denmark for this. From our first meeting with Cecilie Teresa Julbo, we felt completely comfortable and confident that she would be able to do everything we asked of her. Beyond following our instructions, Cecilie also offered helpful insights and tips we hadn’t thought of, which we really appreciated. She did a great job bringing our vision to life and making sure everything ran smoothly – everything went exactly according to plan on our big day thanks to her.
The Photographer – Hanna Bursuk
Next, we began by researching the vendors that were most important to us. We crowdsourced on Instagram, asking our followers in Copenhagen for recommendations of all kinds of vendors, and compiled a master list of all recommended vendors. The first thing we prioritized was our photographer. We looked through various portfolios and Instagram pages before deciding on Hanna Bursuk. We sent her an inquiry, set up a meeting to feel out the vibe, and locked her in immediately. We couldn’t recommend Hanna more highly – she was the most professional, most organized, and sweetest person to work with. She put us completely at ease on the most important day of our lives, and captured the day perfectly. We couldn’t have dreamed of a better photographer to forever memorialize such an important milestone in our lives.
Wedding Attire
Something to prioritize: wedding dress shopping! I had no idea that the timeline for wedding dress production was so long, but this is definitely something to start early on in the process. I found my dress at Styled by TC, a bridal shop in California, which I highly recommend. Many shops I visited charged a fee ($25-50 per appointment), but it was free to visit Styled by TC. My stylist, Hope, and her colleagues took such great care of me and gave great advice. It was such a supportive, uplifting process, and they really listened to my wishes and helped me find my perfect dress, allowing me to try on as many as I wanted. There was zero pressure, and the prices were much more affordable than at other boutiques. Ultimately, my heart was set on the Beau dress from New York-based designer Jenny Yoo. It was the dress of my dreams!
Many wedding dresses have a production time of over six months. I purchased my dress in December 2023, and it was ready for pick-up two and a half months later. I had it sent to Copenhagen, and I started alterations in April with Lise Oxvang in Amager. Lise handled my dress with care and tailored it so that it fit like a glove on my wedding day – I highly recommend working with her! My alterations were complete at the end of May for our June wedding.
Similarly, don’t wait to get your suits! Anders custom designed his suit at Mond in Copenhagen, which advertises that you’ll get your suit in “six weeks or less.” Sadly, this was not the case! We officially ordered his suit nine weeks before our wedding, and were told it would arrive at the end of May, but it ended up arriving two days before the wedding, leaving us stressed and scrambling to get the final alterations done before the big day. So, be sure to leave extra time in case of delays.
I wore my wedding dress for the ceremony, garden party, and seated dinner, but I changed into a shorter party dress for the dance floor. I also wore this “little white dress” to our bachelor party!
Hair & Makeup
For hair and makeup, I wanted a natural but elevated look. I wanted to look like me, but the best version of myself. My hairdresser, the amazing Maiken Normann, made me feel like a princess, with a braid crown circling my head, flowers in my hair, and loose, relaxed curls. And her makeup made me glow. I’ve never felt more confident – or more beautiful!
As always, the amazing Sandra Ienesesc did my nails. I wanted something unique but classy, so she did subtle marble nail art with shiny white polish and small pearls. No matter what idea I bring to Sandra, she is always able to execute it perfectly. She is the best nail artist I have ever been to, and I wouldn’t trust anyone else with my nails.
Are you planning a wedding in Copenhagen? Comment below if you have any questions!