| When our Canadian friend Ed called us at the begin of the year to send
us best wishes for 1999, he asked us if we have recognized that there will be a special
date this year. Apparently Ed knew that we already thinking of organising our wedding
during the last years, but always found an excuse for postponing. It did not take us very
long and we came back asking Ed if he would like to be our witness on the 9.9.99.
Nobody was surprised that Ebse took the internet as the main source for our wedding
preparation. Everything has been downloaded. Time schedules, cost sheets, agendas etc.. When the wedding date came closer we both got a little bit nervous, because we had problems to keep up with our time schedule. Normally Christa works only part time, but during the whole summer she had to work fulltime and Ebse spent most of his time in maintaining the internet pages, what does not have a tremendous benefit. |
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| Finally the 9.9.99 was there and everything was well prepared. Ed has
arrived and stayed for 2 weeks in Germany. Together with 25 other guests will celebrated
the registration. On that Thursday in September the sun was shinning like on a mid summer
day. In Rheinfelden we had more than 30°C. The registrar Otmar Stöcklin, who is a club mate out of our running team, has prepared the ceremony very exactly and conscientious. With all the details he knew about us he was able to make his speech as personal as possible. After that very emotional day we had another 9 days until the real big day. |
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| On the 18th of Sept. 99 about 100 people showed up in the
church of Gersbach to visit the church ceremony. Since all the details like music,
musicians, vocals have been prepared very detailed by us, the whole procedure was
absolutely emotional. Not by accident Ebse's handkerchief got wetter and wetter. When the ceremony was over and we left the church we have been surprised by a espalier of our skiing club and this was just the begin of all the happenings. A cross country ski course and a triathlon course was waiting for us. Since nothing was announced, we were both very astonished about all the things going on in front of the church. First we had change the wedding shoes with cross country ski shoes to buckle on a pair of skies with 2 bindings. With synchronous steps we had to overcome a course. After reaching the finish line the next discipline was waiting. A triathlon course with 2 transition areas. With goggles and rubber boots we had to cross a swimming basin, than we had to jump onto 2 black over 50 year old bikes. After a couple of turn we came to next transition area, where 2 pair of running shoes were waiting for us. An individual finish banner with a photo of us on it, marked the end of the running course. For us it was difficult to set a new highlight with the subsequent surprise from our side. Behind the parsonage we have hidden our decorated triathlon bike to use them as the wedding coach. In a very fast transition we changed our wedding clothes with cycling clothes (Ebse did already wear his bike short during church). As bike tricots we used the wedding present of our cycling team mates. On the back of the 2 shirts there was a big print with "Tour de Mariage 9.9.99". With muscular strength we took the lead of the parade into direction of the restaurant. After climbing more than 100 altitude meters it was unavoidable that our new tricots got in contact with their first sweat. |
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| All visitors from the church were invited to the aperó, which was held
outdoor. At 6:00 p.m. the wedding dinner inside the building took place. After the dessert
Ed surprised us with a "best mans speech" held in German. Everybody who
knew that Ed does speek only a few words German could not believe his ears. The waltz (Hijo De La Luna from Loona) and a couple of other presentation like "The bells of Rome" and Macarena were following. It was a big party with a lot of dancing and games. After a common breakfast on the following morning we organised a hike. Over 15 people were convincible not to miss a walk through the southern part of the Black Forest. Since the motto of the whole wedding was "Nature pure" the 2 hour walk was a perfect completion of our wedding. |
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| 5 days later our honeymoon trip started. We flew to Vancouver to visit
Vancouver Island. First we spent 2 day in Vancouver before we took the ferry to Vancouver
Island. According to the motto of our wedding we met a bear on Vancouver island. Hiking on
a single trial through the rain forest we suddenly recognised a bear just 10 meters in
front of us. Since we middle Europeans only know bears from the zoo we made a 180°
turnaround and continued into the direction were we were coming from. After exploring Vancouver Island we spent together with our friend Brian 3 wonderful days in Whistler Mountain (the St. Moritz of Canada). |
