Let’s get married

We are in the Vletter Van and are busy making winter plans…

“If we go back to the Netherlands in December, we want to see everyone right?! Yeah, we do!
And they want to see us too! Well, I hope so! Okay… that’s going to be a cozy and busy period then.

“Shall we otherwise just gather everyone in one place and get married!? “

The last time we needed to cancel our wedding because of my father’s passing, but the desire is still there. We want to be married, we want to wear the rings we’ve been saving in the closet for 1,5 years and we just want to celebrate and share our love.

So let’s get married!

Green-light!

It’s 2,5 months before our wedding day and we just decided that we will try to get it all organized in a relatively short time. So first, we call Nienke, because if we want to do this we need “boots on the ground”, someone who could arrange things on the spot in the Netherlands.

Nienke answers that she will do this with love. Next up we call Marnix and Minette.

“Do you guys mind if we plan our wedding two weeks before your little one’s due date?” After talking over a couple of scenarios the four of us were all willing to take the risk. “t will be fine”

Finally, we call with our preferred wedding location, it appears they have space on Friday, the 13th of December. We start to laugh since I also accidentally proposed to Nadine on Friday the 13th (3 years ago). We look at each other after we’ve hung up…

Are we going to do this? Yes, we do!!!

We call Nienke back: “We can get married, Friday, December 13th! Now the rest… wedding clothes, a wedding official, invitations and guests.”

Wrinkled dresses

So as we traveled through Southern Europe we started arranging wedding matters and this resulted in some great and unusual situations.

• We wake up, drive with the Vletter-Van into the mountains and find a climbing area, but we keep an eye on the time. Because at 11 o’clock we have planned a call with the location, to talk through everything. We leave our climbing gear hanging, look for an open spot and call Myrthe. From Italy with a bad connection, but also with a view on the Dolomites while sitting in the sun on a rock. We hang up, grab a sandwich, put our climbing harness back on and start rock climbing again.
• Hans and Inge come to visit us in Italy, we call them with a small request, do you want to bring some clothes? Like my suit and shoes. And for Nadine there, three dresses are coming in that have been ordered via the internet. And so they arrive in the Dolomites with a big box containing potential wedding dresses. Nadine and Inge go upstairs, Hans and I stay downstairs, half an hour later Nadine appears downstairs with a big smile. It’s yes to the dress! But there are still accessories to be bought, and where better to do that than in Italy. So Nadine stands in a small Italian boutique where she explains to the saleswoman that she is looking for something to go with her wedding dress and that she has brought her dress with her. The woman looks around somewhat surprised, looking for a large bag or garment bag.But she is looking at the wrong place. It’s on Nadine’s back, in her backpack in which the dress is hidden (or crammed). Big eyes of the saleswoman, who doesn’t understand a thing about it. Her Italian fashion heart is visibly hurt.
• We submit a request for marriage through the municipal system and we give our preference to which wedding official we want. It just feels very un personal so we send Els a personal message in which we hope that she will and can marry us. She can and she would like to meet and get to know us for an evening with a good glass of wine! But because of the 1300 km that lie between us, it becomes a wonderful, personal conversation over the phone.
  The same thing repeats itself with Hendrik the photographer who is going to capture the whole thing, for him it is the first time to talk about wedding pictures with people abroad via Skype. Luckily for us, it’s the other way around the same 🙂

In the end, we were both in the Netherlands for a short weekend with friends. So it was the perfect moment for me to go shopping with the rest of the Vletters in Utrecht. And just before we flew back to Milan we had an hour and a half left in Nienke’s cell (her office space in an old prison) to go through the invitation one last time.

The finishing touch

Due to approaching bad weather we arrived 1,5 weeks before our wedding day in the Netherlands. Time to settle down in Raalte at Femke’s and time for some final matters.
We weren’t allowed to do much more ourselves and with a lot of sweet help, the day quickly came close. Rob took care of the flowers, candles came from Janine & Michel and Nienke & Elwin made sure the location underwent a complete metamorphosis. (many many thanks)
We only had one task left and that was to finish our outfits. So for me a last trip to Zwolle. Nadine and Karin went to Karin’s mother to finish her dress. And so 3 days in advance our clothes were adjusted, styled and finished.

D-day(s)

We agreed to keep the day before our wedding completely free. So after a nice breakfast, we packed the Vletter Van for our wedding day. We couldn’t think of a better wedding car. A

4-course lunch at our favorite restaurant Rikus followed, then a duo massage in Assen and after a year of camping we finally slept one night in our own bed.

We woke up slowly the next day, had an extensive breakfast and relaxed in front of the fireplace until 11 o’clock before Nadine had to go to the hairdresser.

“How are you supposed to feel when you get married? I don’t know, but I don’t think so relaxed.”

And then all of a sudden the realization was there while we’re on our way to Appelscha: it’s the 13th of December and we’re getting married in 7 hours.
We started with dinner with both of our families. Beautiful people, even more beautiful words, meaningful gifts & all with a lot of love and also with loss.

After that, we hided in our room for a while, because the rest of our friends and family arrived and they didn’t know yet that we were getting married in the evening. It was up to Julian to reveal this surprise.

Not much later we walked tensely into the ‘chapel’. The time had come! Unreal to suddenly see everyone together there.

More beautiful words followed and then the moment was there. We stood with our hands together, looked each other straight in the eyes and both answered:  Yes, I would love to!

The signatures of Inge, Karin, Mark, and Fem followed, the champagne opened and we ended with a toast to love & life! An evening full of coziness that was finished outside by the fire, were we just sat all wrapped in blankets with a bottle of whiskey!

Which turned out to be the worst idea the next morning! 🤭

Lots of love for 2020! ♥️