One of the many pleasures of this job is hearing the exclamations of delight when couples and their guests enter our Wedding Room for the first time. Filled with flowers and antiques and with a view out to the little cobbled town square by the church, it is hard to imagine a more delightful setting.

We made the move to Den Gamle Købmandsgård (Old Merchant’s House) back in 2013, with the office on the ground floor and the Wedding Room above. By that time, Louise had seen that the town hall in Ærøskøbing, a modern brick building on the outskirts of the town, did not really provide the romantic and unique backdrop that our couples wanted, and there are limitations in the town hall on time, space and facilities, not to mention that on busy days the waiting room can be quite animated…

The Wedding Room solves all those issues, so that is where the majority of Danish Island Weddings’ ceremonies are held. We pay for the registrar to come to us, and can then tailor the celebrations however we (or you) like! We can provide as much time as a couple wants for the ceremony, and serve champagne and cake or even lunch there (although most prefer the “hyggelig” café or courtyard downstairs for that), and we can also set up music, live streaming, or anything else you may need.

The Old Merchant’s Court itself is owned by a small local company, set up for the sole purpose of saving the building, with 100 local shareholders. As well as the Wedding Room, our office, and the café, there is also Denmark’s smallest whisky distillery, located in the courtyard in an old wash house dating from 1777.

The centrepiece of the Wedding Room is a big painting – a view of Ærøskøbing painted in 1941 by the Ærø artist Jakob Jørgensen. We take a polaroid picture of each couple in front of the picture after the ceremony and we now have a thousand such pictures decorating our office wall. By a strange coincidence, the spot where Jakob Jørgensen sat to paint 80+ years ago is actually called “Kærlighedsstien” – which means “Lovers’ Lane” in Danish! Our more adventurous couples like to walk up there and recreate the picture with a photo of the actual scene – and they always note with delight that the view has barely changed since the painting was finished 80 years ago.

All photos in this post by Neli Garnet