…said my 16-year old son in his speech to me and my newly wed husband at our wedding last November. Surely, that made everyone burst out laughing and me blush like a ripe Italian tomato under my layers of makeup and linen white bride dress. But… I loved EVERY moment of his heartfelt speech.
Perhaps, you are also a “hopless” romantic like me? Then this story can make you dream away for a short while. Don’t we all want that at times!
OK, so this whole frog encounter made me think of my obsession with collecting frogs (indoors and outdoors) over the years. Even my dad gave me a plush frog with a golden crown years ago. Was I unconsciously looking for my prince to see me, find me, and love me for who I am (on the inside!??) I think so.
I got curious to learn more about the frog stories. 🤓
I dived into everything I could find on this ancient fairytale of the Princess and the frog, and discovered it is the No. 1 tale in the books by the Brothers Grimm.
So, here we go:
The Frog Prince (of The Frog King in Germany)
Once upon a time, a Princess longed to be seen for more than her crown and royal gowns.
One day, feeling nostalgic, she found her childhood golden ball and began to play with it in the palace yard.
As she threw it higher and higher, she tripped, and the ball fell into the royal well.
Desperate to retrieve it, she lamented, "Oh no! This is terrible! Help!"
Just then, a little green Frog appeared and offered his help.
"Yes," said the Princess. "Please get my precious ball!"
"I will," replied the Frog, "but only if you spend time with me today."
Reluctantly, she agreed, "All right, fine!"
The Frog dove into the well and returned with her ball. She took it and walked away thinking she was done with the whole thing, not realizing the promise she made to the frog.
That night, during dinner, there was a knock on the door.
The Frog had come to claim his time with the Princess. The King, intrigued, allowed him to join them.
At the dinner table, the Frog spoke wisely, "A princess is more than her gorgeous crown and royal gowns." The Princess, surprised by his words, invited him for a walk in the garden after dinner. They strolled through the garden, laughing and enjoying each other's company.
"You know, being with you tonight was more fun than I expected," said the Princess.
“I had a very good time, too,” replied the Frog.
On a whim, the Princess leaned down and kissed the Frog on his cheek. In an instant, he transformed into a handsome Prince!
The Prince explained that a wicked witch had cursed him, and only a Princess's kiss could break the spell.
At the same time, Henry, the Prince’s faithful servant, experienced that his three iron rings that had kept his sad heart in place after the curse were suddenly breaking up and dissolving. His Master was back in his true form after all these years!
Overjoyed, the Princess and the Prince spent more time together, eventually falling in love. They married and placed a sparkling ball on their royal dining table as a symbol of their magical encounter.
- And so, the Princess and the Frog Prince lived happily ever after, their love story forever shining bright and inspiring generations to come.
I love this tale so much and I personally I like the “newer” versions of the Frog Prince better than the original Grimm brothers version where the Princess threw the frog on to her bedroom wall and then he became a Prince (she was angry at him because he did not stand still in a corner where she had put him). The act of being admitted to her room and spend time with the frog, was love enough to break the spell even though she threw him to the wall..😄
In another historic version, the frog was transformed back into a Prince after sleeping in the Princess's bed for three nights. I find that one rather cute too. 🌹
If you like to dig more into symbolism and stories I found a good site in here.
Personally I relate more to the softer Princess kiss-version that came to life when the tale travelled over to the U.S. in the Edgar Taylor's English translation of the tale in 1823. 😘
Fast forward.
- Did I find my Prince (without knowing he was my Prince to begin with)???
Yes, I did.
Did he prefer to spend time with me for who I am on the inside and not for what I have or what clothes I wear? Totally.
Does it mean he doesn’t like my looks or clothes or other? LOL, no, I don’t believe thats the case. 😥😆
Did he propose to me on his knees in a fancy hotel in Oslo? Yes, he did and I loved every second of it.
I was so nervous and excited (I did have an inner feeling it would happen, but was NOT sure at all…), so can’t recall all the lovely things he said (my brain exploded), but I did manage to say YES and promise FOREVER! Phew! 😍
One thing I DO remember and that is a super-personal one.
Since my father died, now 8 years ago, he would not be here to see me as a bride, but ever since he left this world I occasionally feel he is with me whenever I need it most. 🥲
He could not be here or “approve” or get to know about the engagement (yes, a bit of a old-fashioned thought I know, but understand me right…).
When we were in this awesome rooftop restaurant with large windows facing Oslo and the fjord around celebrating the engagement (right after it happened) my fiancé asked the waiter for a wine suggestion for the main course.
What happened still makes my heart jump and my eyes teary. 🥰
- He came with a bottle of Italian Barolo. That was his suggestion. Wow.
It was the same wine my dad had carried around in all the places he lived since the year I was born and that he offered me as a gift for my confirmation day when I was 15 (a big thing here in Norway). The same wine! A Barolo.
I started crying like crazy, mascara all over my white napkin, but in that moment I knew my father approved the marriage and that was his message to me and us. 🎉💍
The hotel we were in turned out to be a great venue for our wedding as well. It was beautiful. The bridesmaids were awesome, our kids fantastic (my husband has 2 and I have 1 from previous partners), wedding planning great with lots of help from my maid of honor, wedding cake THE most stunning in my opinion, the Cartier wedding bands we ended up with also felt totally right.
- That said.
The only thing that really felt painful right after our big day was collecting all the beautiful memories from our friends and family. Picture sharing and picture collecting just didn’t work very well.
My brother (thanks Karl!) made a Google Doc shared album. Two people uploaded their photos. Some shared in the messenger app. Not ideal either. My mom sent me some by iMessage and AirDrop. But generally a lot is still in the void end that really suc…
Something good has to come out of this (unexpected) experience, we thought.
And this is why we now have LiveWall.no here for you. So YOU don’t have to go through the same struggles as us. The embarrassing and painful and cringy act of having to feel like a beggar for “your” photos.
- We made LiveWall a picture sharing and collecting tool that works a bit like your personal Social Media for photos, and you can easily send a link for uploading photos or generate a QR code and send out in the wedding/party invitation cards.
We do recommend people sharing the code or link in advance, so that the guests have the possibility to upload pictures from their travels to the venue, from shopping dresses, the Bacheloretteor/Bridal Shower party etc..!
Then EVERY photo is exactly where it should be and EVERYONE can enjoy watching the feed in real-time and also get to know the guests better that way.
You can even write a short tekst on every picture in LiveWall and personalize.
To share photos of the wedding preparations, the “behind the scenes” and also the teary goodbyes is an awesome MUST.
We have made your picture vault as secure and simple as possible for you, so please do not hesitate to try out the LiveWall “memory bank” for free here.
If you like to see the inside before you try it out yourself, you can check out our tutorials on YouTube.
- Is Your Story a Fairytale too?
Yes, I believe every relationship has its own personal magical tale and you wouldn’t want to miss all the magical memories from the most special and life-altering day of your lives, trust me.
As always, sweet kisses and smiles from Aja (that doesn’t collect frogs anymore, but still finds them to be transformative, fascinating creatures!)
PS. I found some wedding vendor sites if you, like me, were fresh to the bride-wedding-world, so lots of great inspiration and help:
The Knot, Wedding Wire, Bodas, Hitched, The Bash Zola, Stillwhite
PPS. Listen to Your Song by Elton John only because it's a great song 📀