Celebration in Germany, 15. March 2008
As planned, we celebrated our wedding here in Germany on Saturday ... and to start with:
IT WAS JUST AN ABSOLUTELY GREAT NIGHT !!!!!!!
... in fact, it was the best night, we ever had! Thanks to all our friends, who contributed to this wonderful, smooth and relaxed party!
Coffee and Cakes
We all met for coffee and cakes on the terrace of the castle around 15:00 hrs ... for some of my friends the last "meeting" was more than 7 years ago, at the wedding ... here Jonathan and Steve talking (Carola, Sally and Gaynor are on the photo too) ...
Also "long-term" friend Dirk with his wife Carola (and Mathea, their daughter) came ... "long-term" sounds so much better than "old" ;-)) ... but seriously we met at university in 1985 ...
Well here are the two of us, happy that everyone came and hoping that it would be a great day for all of us.
Beverly and Don from England made their way too ...
... and of course my wonderful wife sharing this with me ...
My daughter Claudia and her boyfriend Santino "had" to share a full day with their father ;-)
... but Carola helped a lot ;-))
I was also happy, that another "long-term" friend from Stuttgart, Martin, made his way to Oberwesel ...
Eveline and I also met in 1996 in Hong Kong ... very happy that she and Daniel made their way from Switzerland ...Pre-dinner Drinks
So after coffee and a break to refreshen, we all met in a courtyard of the castle for drinks ... here Don, Beverly, Carola and Cynthia waiting for the booze to come ...
Mathea, Dirk, Carola, Sally and Jonathan ...
Santino, Claudia and Martin ...
... Cynthia and me ... very excited about the speech ... how many would fall asleep?
Here are the drinks ... a local Riesling sparkling wine ... the first four bottles of the evening ;-)
Steve, Gaynor, Sally, Jonathan and Don waiting ...
... so finally I had to phone the last two guests, coming from Switzerland, a country known for not being on time ;-))
but at last Eveline and Daniel came ... just kidding ... we were just scared the bubbly would get warm ;-)
So I could lift the glass and welcome all my guests again!
So here's Gaynor, Sally, Jonathan, Don and Beverly ...
... and I started my speech, mainly emphasising the "dents" they made in my universe ...
I tried some jokes too, at least one was working as this photo proves ;-)) ... maybe they were just laughing at my English?
It was a lot of fun reminiscing, some good remarks came back (thanks Jonathan!) ...
... and I could present the "famous" original handwritten list of English expressions I noted down in the meetings in Hong Kong from 1996-1998 ... and where mainly Steve had to explain them to me afterwards ...
So finally everyone was happy that the speech was over ;-) ... but obviously I didn't explain everything correctly ... as you can see, Jonathan explains how it REALLY was ... ;-)))
So we didn't forget a group photo ... this will be memorable ... as we will never again meet as young as in this photo!Dinner
To not forget the castle of Schönburg: the venue, the rooms, the food and the service were outstanding ... also their "play-it-by-ear" idea to reserve the lower terrace for us because of the nice weather instead of the room booked inside ...
... so we had two tables down there ...
... overlooking the river Rhine ...
The weather was warm, not too hot, so everyone enjoyed dinner ...
Here an overview of our terrace ...
This was the menu for the night ...
Oops, got you ... ;-)
Gaynor and Steve awaiting dinner ...
... as well as Beverly and Don ...
Dirk, Carola and Mathea ...
... and Eveline and Cynthia enjoying each other's company ...
Here Eveline and Daniel from Switzerland ...
... and Martin, Sally and Jonathan ... starters on the table, salmon tartar ...
So slowly it got darker, some lamps went on ...
... and we had a ball out there ...
Carola and Claudia ...
... and Martin ...
So the night set in ... But it wasn't over yet! At around 23:00 hrs we went inside the castle, into our originally booked room and continued with wine and cheese until 02:10AM ... we had four bottles of sparkling wine, 6 bottles of Riesling Spätlese and 8 bottles of Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir), all of local wineries.
I want to thank all my friends for sharing this wonderfully fantastic night with me. Last but not least I want to thank my beautiful wife Cynthia for making the last 10 years happen!