The Wedding

	Our Wedding 12^th June, 1999 The big day 8:30 a.m. I'm off to the hairdresser's while Sven and our first witness i.e. best man Björn are getting the car (a rented Renault Megane convertible because my old Vauxhall/Opel Corsa - though white - seems a bit unsuitable)... 9:00 a.m. Sven checks on me at the hairdresser's and promises to pick me up when I'm done. 10:35 a.m. Finally the whole hair procedure is over, I ring home to ask Björn and Sven to pick me up. Of course nobody's home - the first slight sign of panic - I decide to walk home. 11:00 a.m. Sven arrives at the hairdresser's in order to pick me up and is greeted by a bunch of women laughing at him "Your bride has just run off...ha ha ha". He is not very amused. 11:02 a.m. Sven rings home but I've already changed and gone over to Heike's (my best friend, neighbour and our second witness all in one)...Sven starts to panic - where the hell is the bride??? 11:03 a.m. Sven does the right thing and calls Heike. Yes! Found the bride, she didn't run off after all. Björn and Sven come to pick me up. We're on our way to the registry office at the town hall in Holzwickede. 11:40 a.m. We arrive. Most of the guests are already there, our parents, my brothers and their girfriends/fiancés, Sven's brothers and sisters and their significant others...my soon to be nephews and nieces (11 of them!!!) gulp I'm nervous!!! 12:00 p.m. Mr Lebek, Sonja's father, who works at the registry and will do the ceremony asks us to come inside...
	12:01 p.m.- ??? Mr Lebek holds his marriage address while my little baby nephew Nils is sitting opposite me and smiles and gives the occasional squeal of delight. I try to concentrate on what Mr Lebek is saying but I think about stupid things as for example how embarrassing it might be if you dropped the rings and everybody had to crawl on the floor looking for them etc. etc., you get the picture...	our nephew Nils later at the restaurant with my brother-in-law
	Exchanging the rings	12:15 approx. THE CRUCIAL QUESTION...we both say "I do." i.e. "Ja!", we exchange the rings and neither one of us drops them, we kiss. To amuse the guests Mr Lebek tells us to stop before things get out of hand...we sign the papers and then it's over. We're married!! To celebrate, we drink champagne with friends and family outside the registry office. People congratulate, etc. My youngest brother Stephan takes a myriad of pictures or so it seems and then we're all off to the restaurant. We drive with the hood open, nevermind the hair! :) We arrive early at the restaurant. Still time before dinner...the guests who were not present at the registry office start to arrive.
	Stephanie goes to pick up the "Hottenlotten" or parts of them that is. They're my former improvisation theatre colleagues and are going to play at the wedding. Dinner's being served...I realise I did not even have breakfast (too nervous!). My Ma and Da hold their speeches. All the embarrassing details about my childhood are revealed to the public...oh no!
	It is a very nice wedding and even the weather is fine. Knowing my luck I thought it would be raining or worse. Everyone seems to like it and I start to feel at ease. The bad thing - I can't drink wine because Sven and I are planning to drive to my parents' holiday flat later but I'm happy anyway...	kiss
	The Hottenlotten	After dinner the Hottenlotten play a few improvised scenes. On the picture you can see the scene how Sven and Doro met. Dorian (in the middle) as Sven, Steph (on the left) as Doro and Christiane (on the right) as Steph...
	The main celebration is over, the guests leave, we're driving back to my parents'. Sven and I load our stuff into my Ma's car, Björn takes the rented car back and then Sven and I leave for Winterberg. Before we see Bayern Munich lose against Bremen he he he! YES! After one and a half hours we arrive at the holiday flat. The rest is silence...