Love is in the Stockholm air. To a certain extent it’s suffocating. (If you’ve managed to escape the Love Bombardment, Love 2010 is the lead up to the Crown Princess’s wedding June 19th.)
On the other hand, why not? A little more love can never hurt and one Love 2010 event has even sparked the somewhat lacking spontaneity in the average Swede; the drop-in wedding.
Skansen, an already popular tie-the-knot backdrop for couples, came up with a rather unprecedented drop-in concept for getting hitched. How utterly un-Swedish to have a monumental event without eons of planning. In all seriousness, Swedes will reserve dates to grab a cup of coffee with you weeks down the road.
But in true Swedishness, even spontaneity requires a little planning ahead. For the 357 couples (according to SvD) who dropped by Skansen last Saturday to say “Ja” (translation for “I do”) they did have to come with the legal forms for getting married already approved and in hand. Then it was only a matter of taking a queue ticket and waiting for their number. 
(I wonder if they had a LED display or if someone just called out the next number – one of those beeping/flashing paging systems would work great so the couples could roam Skansen while waiting.)
Whatever the case, my sincerest congratulations to the newly wed couples. And here’s to continued spontaneity.
Speaking of wedlock, a second sign of love locked me in the other day while crossing Västerbron (my favorite bridge in Stockholm.)
A new grand romantic gesture had locked on in Stockholm. Love padlocks are increasing on the railing at the highest spot on the bridge. Sources say they first arrived in January 2009. The idea is that a couple attaches a padlock (preferably marked with the couple’s names or initials and/or a date; some of the newer padlocks were formally engraved) and together they toss the keys into the lake.
I’m kind of wondering how long before the “master key” is used by the city.
