The seed that started my 2017 tour of Europe was an invitation to a wedding in Heidelberg. J is a friend I’ve had since 1999, when she was a boarding house supervisor and I was a student. During the intervening years, we’ve both lived in Europe, and in different parts of Australia, but early on we formed a strong friendship via email when she was completing a part of her PhD in Bonn in Germany. When I lived in France in 2006, she was back in Brisbane, Australia, but in 2008 when I returned to France for a three week Women in Engineering conference/summer school, I spent a few days with her in Heidelberg. In late 2010, J visited me in Sydney for a weekend, and quite on a whim, I decided to go to Germany for a white Christmas. It was a fabulously snowy winter, and I got to meet a number of J’s colleagues and friends.
J met her partner T, at work, however returned to work for CSIRO in Melbourne Australia not long after they’d started dating (at least… that’s my recollection!). For a number of years they did a long distance relationship, but J found a job back in Heidelberg and they were reunited. In December last year (2016), T formally proposed, and they set a date of 20 May 2017.
I’ve never attended a German wedding, and J is also quite naturalised as an Australian, so there was some variations on German wedding. For example, at the reception, games and skit/performances are quite common in German weddings, and this wasn’t largely done. That only happened to the smallest extent – there was a tub of sand they had to dig through for treasure…. And a projected address from a whole heap of famous Germans (Angela Merkel, a football star, Darth Vader etc) I assume wishing them all the best.
The wedding ceremony was held in a lovely old church in a monastery. I was so perplexed being told that the pew decorations were being double sided taped – I’m used to pews having a ‘head’ or something similar, with which one can loop around. Nope – not these modern, minimalistic pews! And sure enough, at least two arrangements in their glass test tubes did become detached… 🙁 The test tubes were a gentle nod to J’s chemistry background, and I don’t know about T’s studies and work, but perhaps his too. So much so, at the reception, the lolly table held things in beakers and test tubes in racks.
It felt like every detail was attended to – in the sense that, it feels like all the lovely things were there, nothing was forgotten or struck off. Here’s some of the lovely details
- every pew had a floral decoration (not every second etc)
- plants and little vases to decorate the low stone wall
- floral napkins to put out with cakes, croissants and quiches for after church
- a coffee cart, which also poured and distributed champagne (or similar)
- bikes to cycle between the ceremony and the reception, complete with helmets!
- lace bows for attaching to car antennas (which I made with my room mate); but the florist who’d decorated the bridal tandem bike, had left wired bows to decorate the bikes
- sushi snacks for cocktail hour at the reception
- tablescapes that included
- placeholders were little glass jars with a chalk label and bowled lollies inside with T heart J and similar
- coasters with ‘Advice for the bride and groom’
- love hearts out of novel pages & wooden cursive ‘love’
- a table set up for children – with colouring books and mini lego
- bathrooms with make up wipes and sanitary items (and pew flowers (roses) which I’d rescued and mimed to the florist we could reuse)
- a lolly station (despite there being about 6 dessert options in a pick and choose layout)
It was such a wonderful night (and day!). The bike ride between the locations was a lovely part of J & T’s story, and it was SUCH a lovely day to do it. Everyone waved and clapped and honked their horns. And I didn’t fall off. I may have been a little immodest riding in a dress, but it’s not that uncommon either. The reception was lovely and leisurely, and we were seated with really interesting people, who spoke English and German, so were wonderful at summarising speeches and helping decipher the menu/blackboard, though some things just aren’t translatable: mashinis was mashed potato in a martini glass, and was to be served as a midnight snack 🙂 That being said, I think we left after 1am, and fresh from having desert, so the midnight snack was shelved.