When we Met (4)
(or how I am taking you back, to where I started this adventure)
Slowly but surely people were dropping in, all of us waiting for Steve and his parents to arrive. Now you might be hoping that I am remembering all these lovey dovey moments, but come on…really? 😂
And there he was! The whole moment of his arrival as well us moving to our first destination is a big blur, I guess there were enough moments where some happy nerves were getting in the way. When we were ready to leave and everybody was getting into their cars, we made for quite a traffic jam in our street, which at that point was pretty narrow and for that reason, only going one way. But nobody cared: the sun was out and we were all in a merry state.
At the townhall, there were even more family members and friends waiting, but there was only one moment I almost literally stumbled and that was when I discovered my old (school) girlfriend was over from England which totally surprised me. I caught sight of her, just when we were ascending the big stairs to the room where the ceremony was held. Bingo!
It was a very good thing the room was as large as it was, or the people wouldn’t have fitted. The registrar was apparently very aware of our request to keep the ceremony as short as possible – it was even mentioned, which of course got the audience laughing – and it was done in about 15 minutes. It was completely stripped of any talk outside of the legally necessary and that was perfectly fine with us. The certificates were signed by us as well as our witnesses and we were off to church, where our ‘real’ wedding took place.
The church – as mentioned, an old movie theatre – was more crowded than the townhall. Most of our colleagues as well as people from church attended, so I guess it was fuller than when the last movie played there, or in any theatre currently 🤐 While we were waiting before the entrance, for our cue to walk inside, everything was exactly as it should be. To our surprise, Steve’s manager walked in, looking for us. When he saw us, he stopped, his mouth dropped. HAH, we DID look awesome haha. He then said he came over to personally congratulate us. Hmm, we did feel kind of smug after that, sorry-not-sorry. He apparently had not at all expected for our wedding party to turn out this big.
Then, we got our cue, the doors were opened and we started to walk towards the front. It was while making those first steps, I felt my garter slowly slipping from my leg…downwards. So you see, it’s not exactly the walk up the wedding aisle I recall, but more me being in a slightly panicked state thinking: ‘How can I make sure nobody notices this thing ending up on the floor, or even worse, me tripping over it‘. Yep.
The church service took about 2 hours I guess and consisted not only of a sermon and wedding ceremony, but also included a friend – the director of our art and theatre department – singing a couple of really beautiful songs. We had one of our old neighbors videotape the thing, but… That didn’t go as well as we hoped: he must have been thinking we did not really needed the whole songs recorded, because only half of it was there. To be honest, even if it was all there, the quality would have been terrible by now. The last time we watched it, must have been about 20 years ago and it was hazy as heck 😳
For the ceremonial aspects of the wedding, we ‘shared’ a sip from one wine cup. There was also a three armed candleholder, of which the left and right candles were already burning. We then lit the middle one together. The sermon was exactly what we hoped for and we were acknowledged in our beliefs, our chosen minister – mentioned in When we Met (3) – was the right one for us. There were lots of words of encouragement and the verse he specifically chose for us, together with the verse we chose for our wedding invitation, has been something to hold on to for the next 30 years – at least.
After the service, there was the first opportunity for people to come and congratulate us. There was a reception held upstairs, but not everyone would be able to attend that. So we stood there, receiving lots of congratulations, but also, the first pile of…envelopes… After about half an hour, we all went upstairs where the restaurant was. Perks of an old movie theatre for sure! This restaurant was used after most services, to serve people not only tea and coffee, but on Sunday’s also complete meals – even to take away – since a lot of people did not live close by and services could last all morning.
We only served coffee and tea with a simple cake, since the ‘real cake and food’ would be served later on. The place was nicely decorated by family members and it all looked pretty neat, in comparison with the normal state. Read: old movie theatre, meaning, lots of browns throughout the walls and carpets… More colleagues were able to drop in and next to receiving lots of congratulations, our pile of envelopes was growing 😃
The reception was coming to an end and we were getting ready to go the a nearby park to have our wedding pictures taken, after which we would be on our way to the venue where our dinner / party was held. However, before we could leave, there was one thing we really needed to take care of. The coach had arrived and my brother – who had been assigned master of ceremony together with Steve’s cousin – came to Steve and told him the coach needed to be paid upfront…right. For the moment there was somebody who helped out, which was great, so Steve replied: ‘Alright, we’ll make sure to repay that person this evening‘. Right.
The coach got on the way, but before we got into the car to leave for the photoshoot, Steve and I went back into the church hall – there was nobody else there – sat down in the front row, as far away as possible from the doors – and started to open the pile of envelopes…Oh Ye of Little Faith whaha, or were we… We counted so much money, we could easily pay for the bus and still have something left.
It was amazing to have our pictures taken by a friend, we were able to do whatever we wanted and he was in for anything out of the ordinary. We ended up with lots of pictures, with lots of funny twists. Afterwards we were able to have our own personal pick out of everything and then I proceeded to make our own wedding album, finished with watercolor painted frames, made by Moi.
The weather was fairly nice, the sun was shining, though it was a little windy, which played its own part while taking pictures. It was, by all means, a lovely album, with not only very personally made up scenes, but also a literally personal touch. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to enjoy it for very long, because we lost it along the way and this is why we only have 3 pictures left. Yes, it still stings sometimes, like now, when talking about it, but hey… We’re Still Here 💖
The drive to our party venue was nice and relaxed and since our friends asked us to bring our favorite music, this was what was playing the way over. We had so much time, we even parked at a little lake and enjoyed the view for a little while. By the time we arrived, we were rested and ready for our dinner, you know, us and food… The place was sort of a community center and they had decorated it nicely. Really, the amount of work done by family and friends was HUGE, before and throughout the day. The tables were placed in a large U-form, with us and close relatives and witnesses at the head.
Dinner consisted of a large variation of Indonesian dishes and was received with much eagerness by all our – hungry? – guests. It had already been a long day for most of them and it was really nice to sit down and enjoy the food together. After dinner there was coffee, tea and YES Thousand Layer Cake, among others and then it was time for the Party!
More people kept coming in, so were neatly placed before a very large table, on which we could display all our received gifts. And it was A LOT. One of the 3 pictures left, is this one: everyone who saw this picture said about the same thing; ‘it was obvious we left the more stressful part of the day behind us, were indeed, a married couple now and ready to enjoy the rest of the evening. In short: we look relaxed. Well, see for yourself lol.
We were standing right next to our wedding cake, unfortunately not visible in the pic. The cake was a gift by my aunt and uncle: they knew this perfect bakery where they previously ordered wedding cakes for other family members. Ours was pink – because YES – consisting of 5 tiers and the bottom layer consisted of 5 hearts. Well, weren’t we the romantic ones 😍. The cake was not only gorgeous, it was also delicious! We managed to save the top tier for ourselves, to enjoy later.
We received so much gifts, taken from our little booklet, we were able to fill our kitchen and bathroom with about everything we needed. Cooking became a real joy then, especially since Steve was already a pretty good cook, another one of the perks having been raised in such a large family: they all had to do their part. As for me, my Mom ruled her kitchen in a way, she was the only one taking care of all things concerned the cooking and to be honest, I was never really interested in learning lol. She was doing such a great job you know.
The foundation held a fair every now and then, selling all kinds of stuff that was gifted, of which the earned money was used for charity. I always loved to roam those fairs and came up with some interesting china. The rest was completed by wedding gifts. Vintage stuff can be so much fun in your household. The amount I collected – and left behind – throughout the years…I’m a sucker for it.
The party was amazing. So many people attended and the music was incredible. We had some of the church friends playing, as well as family members and they played anything and everything we liked. Towards the end of the night, Steve was even pulled on stage and played – bass – along with them. It was a pretty cool sight to behold, watching him – kind of emotional 🤐 – play and having so much fun. It was just one big jam throughout the evening. I held it together well, until the end, when they started to play some traditional Moluccan songs and everyone circled around us, singing their blessing to us. Yeah… Some tears were spilled then.
The day came to an end and we were driven home, where our true married life began. We didn’t have any real honeymoon planned, as in, a trip or anything. But we were off from work for a whole 3 weeks. The next morning we sat down, and while enjoying a nice breakfast, made with all kinds of brand new appliances and utensils – which we first had to unbox lol – we went through all the gifts and found them all a place in our new home. It was humbling really; we already felt so blessed with all the help and love we received from everyone and the effort they made by coming to share the day with us, but seeing all those gifts…
Our ‘honeymoon’ was a couple of weeks staying with my parents. It was nice to be at least away from everything, especially work of course and just relax. We gave a key – her own key – to my girlfriend, who was also my witness and she and her Mom would keep an eye on our house while we were away. They couldn’t have, however, anticipated that apparently electricity was down for some time and everything in our fridge / freezer, was ruined when we returned. The Smell, when we opened the thing… Aaaii. Some welcome home huh hahah.
They did tell us however, we had some other inhabitants… Cockroaches were having a little party behind our kitchen, in between our wall and the neighbors’…well, that was unfortunate. I am not particularly fond of anything insect, but roaches…ieeuuw. Anyways, we tried to take care of that as good as we could, but when they didn’t let up, we were kind of wondering what exactly was going on. It was then, Steve found out, our upstairs neighbors apparently had freshly skinned animal skins washed and hanging out to dry over their balcony, dripping down to our little courtyard. UGH. And here we were wondering where all the mice and other unwelcome creatures were coming from. it was just that kind of neighborhood.
Some other fun facts about the place were we lived: I already mentioned it looked like a little ghetto. I remember our neighbors had a really fancy car – don’t ask me what kind 🙄 But when you looked inside their home, which was easy as their was no sizeable pavement and their windows had no coverings, you could see their house was empty save for some plastic garden furniture. Yeah… Another thing that is still clear in my mind: when we came home from spending the weekend elsewhere, a car had burned down basically in front of our door. The smoking mess was still there, though fortunately it did not touch our home, we did open the windows to get rid of the smell.
After our honeymoon ended, we went back to work and we basically fulfilled our 2 years commitment, even a little more than that. At that point I was moved to the reception desk at the entrance. Having been working as the head of the household previously, it was pretty easy to welcome everyone coming in and redirecting them to the right people. Having to learn how the telephone system worked though… whaha. I did tell you all how much I hate being on the phone right, so that came back to hunt me years and years later as you can all read in Make that Move.
In the meanwhile we had been attending a play where one of our friends was playing in. During the break we were filling in this little survey, which also had questions about if you would be interested in doing something similar yourself. You can only imagine my surprise, when a couple of months later I picked up the phone at the reception and someone was asking for Steve. When i asked them what it was they were calling about – I did tell them I was his wife – they told me, they were responding to a survey he filled out and if he would be interested in coming along with a musical tour. Wait. WHATT.
This is the tour I am talking about in My Kind of Music (1). Since we already felt we did our part for the foundation and we were thinking about what to do next, the timing was exactly right. Well, no surprise there, it seems to be one of the stories of our life. When our colleagues heard about the invitation, they all got a little green with envy, but the good green 🤢 So deciding wasn’t that hard. We told management we would be resigning and leaving together, to go on tour with The – French – Continental Singers. We always suspected they weren’t quite sure how to feel about it, since they might have been glad to see us leave, but not to loose the work we did. Aah Well. Our Life Was Waiting For Us!
It’s really funny, while writing this series, I found it was so much easier I already told you guys about so much other important stuff to me. I hope it all makes more sense to you now too! You are welcome to share your thoughts with me anytime! Should I just go on in this order or no? But for now, I basically brought you back to where I started my blog’s adventure.
Wishing y’all a happy weekend, get some cake, put on your fav music and Partyyyy ❤
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