Norway was our dream destination for our elopement, and we wouldn’t change a thing about our entire adventure! Here is a small peek into our backdrop on our wedding day… it was PERFECT.
July 21, 2025 – Hello Oslo!
First, we flew in Oslo, the beautiful capital of Norway. We explored a bit and ate A LOT! It was planned that at the end of the trip we were going to return back to Oslo to fly back home, and we were going to get tattoos to symbolize our journey; both of Norway and our commitment to another. So, we visited the tattoo parlor we have been in contact with and finalized our tattoos for when we were going to return at the end of our trip when all was said and done.
We tried some mead here (appropriate because of our new dual last name… LangMEAD)… and it was as thick as blood, unlike what is sold in the US. It was quite expensive, approxmiately $30 USD for the pour you see, but worth it and absolutely divine!
The weather was PERFECT this time of year. It was in the high 70s/low 80s and there was nearly no wind nor humidity, although it got somewhat toasty midday. Also at this time of year, Norway has their Midnight Sun (also called Midnattssol in Norwegian); the last two photos were taken at 10:30 pm, and 4:30 am. It was so crazy to go to bed when it feels like its still 2pm!
July 22, 2025 – Travel Day to Geiranger
After our overnight stay in Oslo, we caught an early morning flight to Møre og Romsdal, where we rented a car and had a breathtakingly scenic drive to our final destination. After about an hour and a half, we arrived to our car ferry in Hellesylt to take us to the final town where we were going to get married… Geiranger!
July 23, 2025 – Kayak Day!
We had an extra day that served as a buffer, so we decided to kayak in the waters where we were going to be married the next day – the beautiful Geirangerfjord. We also had a mountainside dinner that evening and got to visit with some goats that were hanging out on the grounds of the restaurant! The weather was unseasonably warm here, it was in the high 80s when normally they are expecting to head into their fall weather this time of year. Sitting outside, we were drenched in sweat, everyone was amazed by the heat! Ryan and I joked that we brought the weather from New Mexico over with us for good luck.
July 24, 2025 – The Wedding Day
The night before the wedding we checked the forecast, as the weather in Geiranger fluctuates nearly hourly and is almost impossible to predict… nevertheless, THUNDERSTORMS were predicted all night and into the entire wedding day. I was an absolute wreck. The first photo was taken the night before the wedding, but, thankfully Thor took pity on us and gave us picture-perfect sunshine for our wedding day!
Huzzah! The story of the Langmeads begins from here. We got married on a car ferry… (couldn’t tell, could you?!) we saved THOUSANDS doing it this way. It took months of communication and disappointment from private companies wanting thousands of dollars just for 2 hours, which we didn’t need anyway. We reached out to the car ferry company, FjordX, about just wanting a small (literally like 25 sq. feet) and “private” space just for us so we could just exchange vows. The company was so excited to host us, and let us on one of the top mini decks where just us, our photographer, videographer, and officiant could comfortably fit. It was perfect, and literally less than $100 for all 5 of us! Best wedding venue ever. After the ceremony, we docked back in Hellesylt, where we took off to Stranda to kick off our honeymoon bliss. We watched the Office (since you can’t stream it on Netflix in the USA, boo!) and ate our wedding cake in our gorgeous mountainside AirBnB.
July 25 & 26 – Honeymoon Days 1 & 2!
What kind of honeymoon would the Langmeads want? Adrenaline pumping adventure, of course! We can lay on a beach whenever, but when are we going to ever get the chance to whitewater raft and Via Ferrata in some of the most beautiful places in Norway?! So, we whitewater rafted in Valldøla and got to experience the Via Ferrata in Loen! The whitewater rafting was a blast, we wished it was an all day adventure! The guide we had ended up being from Canada, so naturally, Brittany and the guide were able to speak in their native tongue with their heavy Midwestern accents without judgement, hehe.
However, the Via Ferrata really took the cake for the most memorable honeymoon experience… it was MUCH harder than originally advertised. The website originally described participants needing to be in moderate physical condition. HA! We hiked up a 60 degree angle hill for about an hour and a half (while Ryan is very much a slow twitch muscle individual, I HATE cardio and refuse to do it), and I was ready to call quits. I was so mad. After the hour and a half, we got to the sign shown below in the pictures, that showed we were nearly a fraction of the way to go. I told Ryan I was ready to give up, there was no way I could do this for the rest of the day! Ryan was sweet, understanding, and encouraging. We continued to hike 30 minutes more and we got to the base of the Via Ferrata portion of the mountain. For those who do not know of Via Ferrata, it translates to literally to “iron path”. We basically climbed up a 1100+ meter mountain using only our hands and an iron cable that runs vertically up the mountain. Some of the cables even ran alongside a horizontal piece of mountain, so you had to hang horizontally and push yourself past a cliff to get yourself vertical again. It was SO difficult, but luckily I had been training heavily in the gym so I was like Spiderman going up that mountain! Nonetheless, it was probably the most physically demanding thing I have ever done in my entire life. Even firefighter Ryan was pushed to his physical limits! The pictures for sure did not do justice; it looks like we are moving horizontally but I promise we were hanging vertically off a 1100+ high meter mountainside with a straight drop down!
July 27 & 28 – The Bergen Railway and Oslo
For days 3 and 4 of our honeymoon, we took another plane into Bergen, exploring for just a bit before we accidentally fell asleep for most of the evening and missed our whole Bergen day! But, Ryan claims it was “literally the best nap I’ve ever taken”, so maybe missing Bergen was somewhat worth it? We will definitely be back! The next day, we took a train from Bergen back to Oslo, which is notably one of the most scenic train rides in the world. It was spectacular! We finished our time in Oslo by getting our wedding tattoos to symbolize our journey and commitment to another. (We get tattoos in every new country we explore, but made this one much more special!) It is Odins’s two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, that were said to have been sent out into the world to spy on it and take findings back to Odin. They could not work without one another. Underneath each of our ravens is ancient Norwegian runes, that say “Partners In Crime”, which is something that Ryan always calls ourselves. Ryan (and I) are very big into mythology, and thought this would be better than getting a simplistic tattoo on our ring fingers.
Thank you for reading our very first blog post, we hope you enjoyed the biggest journey of our lives! We plan to return to Norway many more times, and hope you decide to give it a try for yourselves too.
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