Yesterday was absolutely fantastic!
We didn't spend the night together on Tuesday, I was at home, now-hubby was at his aunt's house. I had two of my best friends over, and we finished the last preparations, and watched both wedding Star Trek episodes (You are Cordially Invited - Deep Space Nine and Data's Day - The Next Generation). How geeky are we?
We also tried to hang a light fixture in the kitchen. It didn't work out as planned, we could choose between a working light that we had to hold, or a hanging light that didn't work. So we gave up and put the bare bulb back that was hanging there before.
Actually we had a great time!
I got up around 7.30, checked the weather (blue skies!)hung out the flag outside, had breakfast (two boiled eggs and orange juice... Very healthy. But I just forgot about eating more), walked around a bit and then started make sandwiches with one of the two friends, Christine. My family is all from pretty far away, so the sandwiches are a good way to make sure everyone actually gets something to eat. Around 9.45 my mother-in-law came in to do my hair and make-up. This actually took quite long, longer then we planned, due to the various distractions going on. Our master-of-ceremonies, hubby's aunt, came in around 10.15 with decorations, and two other friends joined us in the general hubbub around the house.
Around 11.00 I went upstairs to get dressed. The photographer arrived with more of our guest while I was getting into my gown. With a lace-up corset top, this took some planning, as none of the ladies present (Christine, mum-in-law and MoC) had ever really laced me up. Christine had helped me with my regular corset once, but that wasn't as delicate, you can really hang on the laces with that one. But, it all worked out fine, and I had nothing to do but wait.
At 11.45 hubby came to pick me up. He brought me a lovely bouquet of white hydrangea and a delicate blue flower that I can't remember the name of. He was also wearing his new glasses for the first time, just like me. That took some getting used to! But they look great on him, and he looked so handsome in his suit.
After saying hi to the people who were there, having something to eat ourselves and waiting for my mum and dad (my mum made a bento bag for me, I’ll post pics later, it’s awesome!), we went to take pictures. We took a walk around the village where we live, and took shots in the park and near the duck pond. Both are really close, and we came back at 13.00 to go to the city hall.
We had received a call to take the side entrance, but as that was closed, we just went round the front. The hall was packed! A lot of our friends had come to see us get married, and extra chairs were brought in. And we still had people standing!
The ceremony was lovely, with a big surprise for me! Hubby sang me a song, a Dutch version of Shakespeare's Sonnet no 130 (click for the original). It was, of course, very emotional, but soooo lovely.
Then the official part. We both said yes, of course, and were then officially man and wife. I was from that moment Mrs. B!
After the civil ceremony, we had a church ceremony to receive the blessing of God on our marriage. The ceremony was held in the chapel of an old cloister, which housed a community of nuins until about 15 years ago. It's been converted into two appartement, some offices and some meeting-rooms, but the chapel has held some of it's original purpose as an alternative wedding hall. You can have the civil ceremony there, but we chose to use it as a church. We had an oecumenical service, with most being done by the minister of the protestant church, and the readings (! Korinth 13 and a lovely poem) being read by the pastor of the Catholic Church. We also had a choir, called Sam Sam (sopranos, altos, men, twice)which I was a member of for 10 years before moving away to live with Mr B. It was wonderful! We had chosen songs that match our beliefs, and that were all about love, belonging, respect and how working together we can meet God in everyone.
After the official parts of the day were over, we went into the cloister garden for coffee, cookies and congratulations. Mr B's grandmother wa so proud! Mr B is her eldest grandchilsd, and the first to get married, and we were so happy she was there! An old friend of the family, who is like an extra grandmother too, was also very pleased to be there, and was beaming just as much as we were!
At 16.30 the car arrived that would take us to the party location. A lovely 1930 Chrysler in deep burgundy. We took pictures in front of the car with the family and our best people (the Dutch system lets you choose one or two people who act as "witnesses". They sign the wedding register at the civil ceremony, and are usually people you are very close to. Mine were my sister and Christine, Mr B's were his brother and one of his best friends), and left for the reception at 16.45.
And here's us! My father in law gave me his pics, so I can share this one with everyone :-)
The reception was really nice. So many people came to see us! It turned out to be extremely busy on the roads, so a lot of people came in later, but we had family, colleages, friends... So many people, so many good wishes, we felt truly blessed.
Dinner was supposed to start at 18.30, but there was a slight hitch and we started about half an hour later. Something always has to go wrong, but since this was the ONLY thing that did, that was fine. It gave us a chance to talk to some more people anyway.
When dinner did start, we enjoyed a buffet of fried rice, Indonesian noodles, vegetables, chicken with a very nice spicemix and satay, accompanied by prawn crackers. It tasted really good, and several people went back for seconds and thirds, which says enough about the reception of the food! We took the leftover satay home, which will be great to put in my bento's, as it's already cooked and tasted nice cold too ;-)
And then: the party! After dinner we went over to the room the reception had been in, which was now transformed into part dancefloor, part tables. The DJ was still setting up, but as people were just arriving it didn't bother us, he'd put on music as soon as he could and was just working on his lights. To make a long evening short: it was FAN-TAS-TIC! Evryone enjoyed themselves, whether they were dancing, talking or sitting ourside on the terrace. The atmosphere was so relaxed, it was great.
We started of with the cake, which consisted of 7 seperate cakes, M&M shaped, in the flavours Strawberry (red), Lemon (Yellow), Orange (well, orange, duh), Pistachio (green), Blueberry (it was actually purple, but who cares) and the most divine chocolate bavarois I have ever tasted. It was like having chocolate explode in you mouth. Every last crumb was gone, and I heard that a lot of people swapped bites to try all the flavours. Another resounding success!
After about an hour and a half I was convinced by some of the guests to "open the dancefloor" by singing loudly to "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" by Meatloaf together with Mr B. He wasn't too keen, but we were joined by the others after about 10 seconds, do it wasn't that big a deal. Someone did tip the DJ about our dance lessons though, so we ended up doing a proper dance as well. The whole evening for me was dancing, singing extremely loudly with the music, laughing, just plain enjoying myself. Mr B's night was somewhat more quietly spent in talking to our guests, and the occasional foray onto the dancefloor, including being stood in the middle with everyone surrounding us singing "You'll Never Walk Alone".
We ended the evening with Donna Summer’s “Last Dance” after which I did a little speech thanking everyone for what they had done for us today. We were all offered coffee, and as most people were leaving mine was lukewarm by the time I remembered where it was ;-)… Then nothing was left but to go home, where our house was still in reasonably good shape (just a bit of a mess, nothing we can’t handle in the morning. We decided to open our presents and read all our cards, which took us quite a while! At 04.30 we literally fell into bed, and lapsed into a deep contented sleep as husband and wife.
I looked back today, and can honestly say I couldn’t have wishes for a better day. GREAT weather, even better people, what more can a couple getting married hope for?
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