Brudekrone

 My brudekrone arrived in the mail 2 weeks ago!  I have always dreamt of a Norwegian wedding crown ever since I was a little girl.  We are not having a traditional Norwegian wedding by any means but I do want to have some Norwegian and Czech traditional elements present on our day.  Norwegian bunads, or traditional costumes, have delicate jewelery distinct to each of the 19 counties in Norway.  This jewelery is called solje and is made of silver or gold with dangling "spoons" of gold or silver.  Solje is beautiful and handmade but it is also very expensive.  There are a few Scandinavian gift shops that will rent out their crowns for weddings but for some crazy reason, I thought I'd be able to own one.  I regularly checked eBay and didn't find anything.  I did come across a few museum caliber antique crowns in Norwegian auction catalogs but it seems the only place to get a non-antique crown is ordering one from a solje goldsmith.  I contacted one such goldsmith in Norway and to purchase and ship a new crown to the US would cost over $2,000!  That is just a little outside my budget.

 And then I met Karen!  I found a woman on Etsy who was selling solje jewelery.  At first glance, I thought this woman clearly didn't know what she had because she was selling brooches that should cost well over $200 for $40.  Upon closer inspection, I learned she MADE the jewelery out of silver plate components.  I contacted her and sent her pictures of the rental crown from Ingebretsen's and asked if she'd ever made something similar.  She spent a weekend looking around for different components and agreed to take on this project.

I didn't have time earlier today during daylight and tonight took these absolutely ghastly pictures of this beautiful crown.  These photos do it absolutely no justice.  I don't know how many times I have gotten it out to look at it.  I swear I am going to wear it to the grocery store.  I told Karen she needed to take out an ad in Viking Magazine but until then I will tell anyone who will listen about the beautiful crown she made for my wedding.  Thank you again Karen!