What a memorable week!
The wedding of Mr and Mrs Christopher and Sarita Ebersbach was wonderful, the bride beautiful, the organisation smooth, the weather warm and sunny, the guests cheerful and friendly, the food - Well the food was delicious and there was so much left over that we are only just finishing off the remainder today (Friday) after the wedding on Sunday! Chris's dad in particular has excelled himself in organising food for us as well as acting as general interpreter of language and culture.
Our family has grown, and so has our circle of friends. We were especially grateful that so many of our friends made the trip from Australia to be here for this very special event.
And the location! The 200 year old Herrenhaus in Lubbenow, Germany was the ideal wedding location. Most of the wedding guests were able to stay here for a few days after the wedding ceremony and have a holiday together. Apart from the huge house in which a number of bedrooms had spa baths, there was a swimming pool, sauna and indoor basketball court.
We had hired a minibus for the week, and I was the designated driver for bride and bridesmaids to get to the wedding ceremony.
The wedding ceremony was at a church 15km away from here, and I was able to get them from the hairdresser to the church fashionably late. The ceremony itself was mainly in German, but the order of service helped those non-German speakers amongst us to follow what was going on.
The wedding celebrations took place in the huge dining hall of the Herrenhaus (Manor House). The caterers provided delicious and voluminous food. There were dual MCs (one german speaking and one english speaking, and they performed their tasks to the enjoyment of all. The celebrations included midnight fireworks (thanks to Chris's sister, Julie), and continued in the huge dining hall until 3am with music and dancing, but in the upstairs bedrooms of this solid manor house you would not have known a party was in progress.
And language was not a serious barrier either, despite the fact that the guests came from 17 countries. The predominant languages being spoken were English and German, and there were enough people who could help translate so that the monolingual ones amongst us were still able to share in all the conversations.
We had spent some time making sure we had enough warm clothes for northern Europe in early October after a miserable European summer, but most of the time we were going around in shorts, sandals and short sleeved shirts!
During the week we explored the local area and had day trips south to Berlin and north to the Baltic Sea.
As I sit here late Friday afternoon, the house is in silence as the remaining guests have a nap to get ready for their departure early tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow Sue and I fly to Cairo.
