Tis wel een lang verhaal hihi... En de Joseph waar het ergens over gaat is deze man:
www.oubelkas.nl.
Hier vind je hoe wij elkaar dan kennen door dat boek...
Wedding dayI got up at 5.15 am, since my friend Sanne would be there around 5.30 or 5.45 am to dry my hair. My mom would go with me to the hairdresser, while my friend would stay at our place to get dressed and all.
Completely against every tradition, Willem and I stayed in the same house/bed the night before the wedding. I figured I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway out of excitement, let alone if I was to sleep on my own. We decided we would split up in the morning, so we still had the ‘reveal’ moment.
So I had my shower and Sanne came running in around 6am, a little late due to traffic lights. We had to hurry a bit, but my mom and I left in time to be in time at the hairdresser’s.
Once we were at the hairdresser’s, she curled my hair, after which she went to do my mom’s hair. I had to wait for a bit, because the curls had to dry. My mom really looked amazing. Then the hairdresser did my make-up as well. As you know, I’m not used to wearing a lot of make-up, so it really made me feel like a little princess.
We did run out of time a little and we stayed at the hairdresser’s much longer than we were supposed to. By that time I was really starting to stress out, but then I realized we had planned stuff so that we had some time to spare. When I got home, I still had enough time to get dressed. Sanne and my mom helped me with that. It was quite something, really. The dress was pretty big and no girl would be able to put it on by herself!
Halfway through getting dressed, our cars arrived. We had hired an old-timer for us and a stretched car for our parents (well, my parents and Willem’s father + his partner). My mom knew the drivers from her job – she works in funerals and the cars were from her usual rental company. So she went looking out of the window, checking out the drivers, while all I wanted was to get ready. I was a bit annoyed, haha, so I told her to just get me dressed and THEN watch the drivers. The photographer had to laugh really hard about this, I was a real bride, haha.
After I got dressed – Willem was looong ready, since it was around 9.45 am now – we got the reveal moment. Everyone at our house, except the photographer and Janny (she videotaped the entire day) had to leave the living room when I walked in. When I saw Willem, I really almost cried – just had to think of my make-up – and he looked sooooooo gorgeous and handsome and everything. I was so amazed. And so was he about me.
Then I almost forgot there were other people in the world, so Willem said: yeah, the others wanna see you too. I reacted in surprise, saying he could let them in. The look on my dad’s face when he saw me is one I’ll never forget. All the others (Sanne’s boyfriend Martijn, Willem’s dad, his girlfriend, Louis, Joseph – Willem’s best friend – and his girlfriend) were amazed by our looks too. It was so cool! I am not the type of person who wants to be the center of attention all the time, but this time I loved it.
After I had a breakfast drink (in all the stress, I forgot to have breakfast, but we bought a drink, of which I had quickly finished a glass), we got downstairs. We live in a flat and some of our neighbors were on their balconies, watching the fancy cars and us, of course. It was so awesome to get all that attention on that one day! The cars were amazing, but I was still so overwhelmed by the fact that it was actually our wedding day, that I forgot to have a proper look at it. Luckily many people took pictures.
The driver came to chat with us a little, giving the photographer a bit of a head start, so he could also photograph our arrival at the location. When we left, the cars could hardly make turns. They were so long, they had to drive very carefully. We had to take the highway for a bit, but the driver could only go 60 km/h, because the car couldn’t go any faster. It was the same as at our house, everyone drove slower and pointed and looked at us, or at the cars. I don’t care, it was fun!
When we arrived at the location, the stretched car could hardly make the turn onto the grounds of our venue, but he managed it. We drove up to our guests, who were waiting for us outside. The venue chose to play the wedding march, which was really nice! We forgot to choose music for our arrival, so I loved the fact that they took the initiative.
We had to wait for a bit, because we wanted our parents to get out of the car first and join the other guests. Nattali, my brother’s Swedish girlfriend, took some pictures of us together in the car. They are quite nice! :-) Then Willem got out of the car first. When he helped me out of the car, everyone started applauding. That made me a tad shy, because I am not very much used to that attention. It was so amazing!
We went inside and upstairs. My father and Nattali joined us and Nattali took a great picture of my dad & me. At some point, Nattali went downstairs and my dad, Willem and I were left waiting. The music started playing and Willem went downstairs and into the hall. We used the song ‘Book of dreams’ by Bruce Springsteen.
Then my dad and I followed. My dad hugged me and I had to cry so much. But I didn’t want to ruin my make-up, so I managed to get the tears to go away, but I was really emotional at that point.
In Holland, you can ask anyone to do the ceremony, as long as you get him or her confirmed by oath. We got my brother to lead the ceremony, and his speech was just amazing. I laughed and cried and he did such an amazing job. It was the first time for him to do such a thing and he was kind of nervous, but almost every single guest came up to us to say what an awesome job he had done. I was so happy we asked him for this. After the speech, my niece Emma, who is now almost 4, came to bring us the rings. She was a little shy, but she did come. And that means a lot, if you know she’s a very stubborn toddler :-) After the rings and signing and all, my brother closed the ceremony. By the way, we had asked Joseph, Willem’s father, my mother and my sister as our witnesses. They were very honored and happy to do that :-)
After all this, we went outside for a few group pictures. We also had a glass of champagne to toast to our wedding. They went to set the cake up outside, but all of a sudden there were clouds everywhere. We were afraid it might start to rain, so we decided to cut the cake inside.
The cake was a five layered cake, in red and white, with our logo on it.
We cut the cake, fed each other a bite and then people came to congratulate us. We got sooo many presents!
We had lots of time to chat with our guests, which was really nice. We just sat with a few people. Then about half of them left and it was almost time for lunch.
The lunch was very good too, many different sandwiches and drinks and yoghurt and all that. Enough to feed even my always hungry husband ;-) I spilled mustard on my dress…. Argh. But luckily Sanne and I got it clean, because I discovered it within a couple of minutes!
Then my mom had a speech. She read a poem by Nelson Mandela. This was the first time I really cried A LOT. I’d like to share the poem, because it means so much to me and it’s so beautiful.
To let go, you need love.To let go does not mean to stop caring,
it means I can't do it for someone else.
To let go is not to cut myself off,
it's the realization I can't control another.
To let go is not to enable,
but allow learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness,
which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try to change or blame another,
I can only change myself.
To let go is not to care for, but to care about.
To let go is not to fix, but to be supportive.
To let go is not to judge, but to allow another
to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,
but to allow others to effect their own outcomes.
To let go is not to be protective,
it is to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to deny, but to accept.
To let go is not to nag, scold or argue,
but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,
but to take each day as it comes and cherish the moment.
To let go is not to criticize or regulate another,
but to try to become what I dream I can be.
To let go is not to regret the past,
but to grow and live for the future.
To let go is to fear less and LOVE more...After the lunch, we took some group pictures with the guests. So one with my friends and you know, that kind of stuff. Willem and I then left for the pictures. We chose an amazing cruise ship, called SS Rotterdam, that is now permanently settled in Rotterdam for our wedding pictures. The results are amazing – at least, what we’ve seen. We haven’t had all the pictures yet, they will be there in about eleven weeks after our marriage. So somewhere in the end of October or maybe the beginning of November. I can’t wait to see them!!
After the pictures, which took a little longer than planned, we went back to the venue. We gave everybody Joseph’s second book, because he had been entertaining our guests while we were away. After all, Joseph’s first book is what made us meet each other! We said goodbye to everyone except our parents, siblings, witnesses, Janny and Sanne & her boyfriend. With those people, we were gonna have dinner.
The dinner was great too. The food was amazing and we could laugh together. After the dinner, we served a special liquor from our favorite liquor bar in Amsterdam. The liquor is called ‘Bruidstranen’, which means bride’s tears. It’s very sweet, and used to drink right after a couple got married. We also used this moment to give our little speech and thank everyone. We had a present for some special people, such as our fathers, witnesses, my sister – who designed the cards and all – and so on.
We got picked up by a cab, who drove us to the hotel. The hotel was amazing!! There was a Jacuzzi in the middle of the room, right near the window and the bed was huge. There was also a small sauna and a rain shower in the bathroom, and the mirror had a TV in it. Can you even imagine it?? We only slept for like five hours. We also had a bottle of champagne when we arrived plus breakfast with a glass of champagne. I think it was the first time I was tipsy at 11.30 in the morning ;-)
At around 3pm we left the hotel and went home. There we packed our last stuff for the honeymoon and slept for a bit. Around 11pm we got up, had a shower and we left around midnight to drive to Italy, where we booked a little house in the heart of Tuscany.
