When Samsø Reaches your Heart
In 2012, singer Mathilde Falch married Jesper. Together with their friends and family, the couple celebrated a real musical summer wedding spanning several days.
When did your relationship with Samsø start?
My relationship with Samsø goes back all the way to my childhood. I used to go to Samsø quite a bit with my family either staying at a summerhouse or to go to the festival. In recent years, I have performed in concerts on Samsø, but as a teenager, I smoked some of my first cigarettes with my big sister on an inflatable sunlounger floating around on the sea; we paddled out as far as we could into the ocean so that our parents didn’t catch us smoking.
Do you have a favourite spot on the island?
I love going to Ballen Harbour and eating fishcakes. I also love going on adventures and exploring the small farm shops around the island. Women’s magazines may tell you not to eat too many potatoes, but you can’t hold back when you are on Samsø. Another lovely place is the café “Vadstrup 1771”. It is so idyllic and they serve a lovely lunch and great coffee.
Why did you choose to have your wedding on Samsø?
We looked into all our options in Copenhagen and everything was just too expensive for us as we were determined to have a wedding spanning several days. Around this time, I was booked to play a set at the Brundby Rockhotel and Jesper came with me. We had such a lovely weekend. So we talked to the owners, Guf and Rasmus, and realised that it made sense to have our wedding there, where we could celebrate for the entire weekend with our friends and family in the coolest and most stunning surroundings.
Was it difficult to plan the wedding long distance?
Not at all. We could instantly tell that Guf and Rasmus knew exactly what they were doing. They planned most of it and anything else we needed we found locally on the island. Everything was very low key and exquisite at the same time. We obviously didn’t have a clue how to throw a wedding party but you could really feel that they had a lot of experience. Everything we forgot, they remembered.
My husband had planned most of it and all I had to do was take care of the music. I made the most awesome playlist with 14 hours of music but just as we were about to press play I realised that we had forgotten the cable! It is impossible to get a crowd moving on a dance floor started without music but luckily so many of our guests were musicians and thankfully played for us all night, including my own band. I even played a few songs myself.
Did you face any challenges in the run-up to the wedding?
In Kalundborg, the ferry’s engine broke down the day before the wedding when the guests were due to start arriving. Some waited and luckily took the ferry a bit later. Others drove southward across Funen and boarded a ferry from Hou in Jutland. One poor guy was so confused that he drove up to Sjællands Odde, took the ferry to Aarhus, then drove to Hou and finally got on the ferry to Samsø. He still refers to our wedding as the “Tour of Denmark”!
How did your friends feel about the concept of a wedding on Samsø?
We have only had positive feedback; our guests seemed to really love it. Some of our guests used the opportunity to take a bit of time off and stayed on the island for a whole week.
Many of my friends have told me that their boyfriends are nervous about proposing and throwing their own wedding because they feel like they won’t be able to compete with ours.
Many people that have had parties on Samsø mention how nice it is to be together for several days – did you and your friends feel the same?
Yes! It was so great that we could have dinner together the night before, which allowed all the guests to get to know each other and enjoy each other’s company a lot more on the wedding day itself. It is pretty special to wake up and have breakfast together and chat about the party and everything that happened (and who had the worst hangovers!). The party did not have to end when we went to bed.
How did the wedding go?
I did not sleep the night before the wedding because I was too excited. My mother and my sisters slept in the rooms next to me and around 5am I went to their rooms and woke them up.
Jesper had anticipated that I probably wouldn’t be able sleep so he already gave me my morning gift at 6am in the morning! It was the most beautiful handmade jewellery box playing the melody to “You Are My Sunshine” and inside was the prettiest necklace. For the next couple of hours, I sat around listening to the melody and finding my inner serenity until it was time for me to get ready with my sisters and my mother. Then my father picked me up in a classic car and drove us to Ørby Church.
My father smiled at me and told me to “breathe” and we slowly walked up the aisle towards the most beautiful man in the world. We had a really cool pastor in Ea Hvitnov who gave us a beautiful ceremony where people both laughed and cried. From here, we went back to the hotel and had cake and a delicious dinner and listened to speeches.
We also celebrated our one-year anniversary on Samsø because one of our friends gave us a week’s stay at Dansebjerg as our wedding present. We took full advantage of this gift and invited all of our friends to a party in these wonderful surroundings.
Last updated: 23/02/2016 09:22
