My first Dutch Wedding

Last Tuesday I was privileged to be invited to my first Dutch wedding for my friends Marianne and Jonathan.

The whole day was quite lovely but quite different from traditional American weddings! Marianne had made the skirt of her dress, which was in beautiful earthy tones of green and yellow. The wedding started at 1:15 at the Leiden Gemeentehuis (City Hall), where they had a civil ceremony. There was a justice (?) who gave a kind of speech about marriage and the wedding couple. After the couple were pronounced husband and wife and kissed each other, we all went across the street to the church where their church ceremony would take place.

There was some time in between the two ceremonies, and the couple had asked people to bake some easy to eat baked goods to be eaten in the church. I made Magnolia cupcakes, and decorated them with all the pretty decorations that my friends had sent to me through Lisa! I'm still trying to figure out the strength of Dutch baking powder and self-rising flour, so my cupcakes were a little on the heavy and dense side. But at least they were beautiful, as René and I were up until almost 1am decorating them!!

After a beautiful church service inside the gorgeous Pieterskerk (including our church's praise band and ANOTHER "you may now kiss the bride" moment!) there was a cocktail reception in the back of the church where the baked yummies had been eaten earlier. The church has been undergoing renovations, and Jonathan has been one of the ones doing the renovating!

I went home after the reception to get my homework done, and then René and I went to the party that started at 8:30 on the second floor of a beautiful rustic restaurant near our apartment. There were mostly friends at the party, and we had fun eating yummy hors d'oeuvres and chatting with our friends.

I don't know how much of the day was "how things are done" here in Holland and how much of it was Marianne and Jonathan's lovely decisions, but it was very nice! I definitely know, though, that the two different ceremonies ARE how things are done here, which would explain René's confusion when we were planning OUR wedding, and how he was confused about when we would be going to Groton's Town Hall!! :D