Our Wedding

At about 1:05 pm on Friday, the 8th of May, O.K. and I were officially declared husband and wife - a big step and important moment in our lives!

As I have mentioned before, we deliberately kept it all very modest and small with just our immediate family present: our mothers, sisters and the husband of O.K.'s sister. The only other two people there were the registrar and the photographer.

My Mum and my sister had arrived a couple of hours earlier; their 150 km drive had been smooth and they found us without a problem (it was their first visit to the village).

As arranged, the seven of us met with the photographer outside the village hall a quarter of an hour before the scheduled ceremony and then proceeded to the room where we were going to be married.

It was modestly but elegantly decorated, and real candles (always important to me!) had already been lit. There was a vase ready for my bouquet, and we took our seats.

We had given the registrar (who looks even younger than she is) personal information about ourselves, how we had met and so on, and she used that information well in her speech, which was really nice and appropriate, even eliciting a few smiles (and probably the odd tear or two) from those present.

Our rings were exchanged, a kiss followed, then the signatures of us, our witnesses (our sisters) and the registrar, and we were married!

It being a beautiful sunny day (but not too hot), we all went up to the village hall's rooftop terrace where my brother-in-law opened the sparkling wine we had brought, along with some nibbles. Between clinking glasses, photos were taken and the view from the roof admired.

Before we said good-bye to the photographer, he took some more pictures on the ground in front of the village hall - and guess what... O.K. allowed me to show one that shows BOTH of us!! (I doubt he'll make it a habit now, and I swear I did NOT nag him into it!)

The seven of us then were at my mother-in-law's for coffee and cake. She had made a raspberry cream cake and an apple pie, both delicious. My Mum gave a short speech, and we were presented with some lovely gifts (I will tell you about these at a later time) and many hugs.

Afterwards, my sister and my Mum drove to the nearby village where I had booked rooms for them at a hotel and where we were booked for the evening at the adjoining restaurant. O.K. and I had about an hour to ourselves, which provided a welcome little rest and plenty of time for me to get changed.

We all met again at the restaurant in time for me to have a look at the rooms where my Mum and sister were to stay the night, and found them very good.

The restaurant offers typical Black Forest cuisine, and as it's the middle of the asparagus season, there was plenty of choice on the menue. We all enjoyed the meal and conversation and were a happy little gathering. In spite of our two families having met only once before (in 2018 for my 50th birthday), everybody got along very well and there wasn't an awkward moment between them.

At around 10:00 pm, we left the restaurant - happy and a little tired. The entire day had been just like we had wanted it to be, modest and small in terms of "fuss" but big in importance and emotions.