Spontaneous wedding – planned in advance
Laura and Damnjan, in their early 20s, are one of the youngest bridal couples I have had the pleasure of accompanying. And one of the most multicultural.
They met in Serbia, where Damnjan lived until a while ago. Laura is originally from the area and was on home leave. When she was a child, however, her family moved to Western Switzerland and only a few years ago to Basel. Damnjan came to Switzerland because of love. On the one hand, love for Laura and, on the other, love for football. As a footballer, he quickly made it into the first team of a local football club.
The wedding had been planned for some time, but the pandemic made everything a bit more difficult. They couldn’t fix a date at the registry office because some papers from Serbia were still missing – but these were delayed due to the Corona pandemic. And then suddenly the papers were there and the date was also fixed shortly afterwards and the wedding was more spontaneous than originally planned.
With the help of good friends, the couple was able to organise everything within the 3 weeks. Dresses, food, rings and me as photographer.
And then the day arrived. The bride, groomsmen and I arrived at the same time near the registry office in Arlesheim and made the short walk there together. My camera was ready, but the walk was a bit too short – because the groom was already standing there and smiling at his future wife, whom he saw in the dress for the first time. There went the actually planned First Look, only because the groom was there a bit too early and waited a bit too far before the meeting point. The bride and groom didn’t mind and embraced each other and all the guests warmly.
The guests were only the two witnesses and Laura’s family. Unfortunately, Damnjan’s family could not enter the country because of the pandemic. However, the two will celebrate another big wedding in Serbia – after Corona.
According to the regulations in force at the time, only a few people were allowed into the registry office, apart from the registrar: the bride and groom, the witnesses, the interpreter, who was also the bride’s mother, and me.
The rest of the family waited outside.
Due to the pandemic, the wedding took place in a smaller room than the usual, beautiful wedding hall. The ambience was more like an office, but the registrar more than made up for it with his charm and wit.
After the ceremony, we conquered the cathedral square for a few bridal couple photos before continuing on to Muttenz, where the dinner was held in a very small setting. But before that, there was another change of plans. Best man Roland had been tormented by pain all day, but at some point he couldn’t take it anymore and decided to go to the hospital. The dinner would have to take place without him. The bridal party then quickly changed their plans, reorganised the car pools and invited me to the dinner as a guest. I like such spontaneous actions and felt honoured to stand in as a family member, so to speak. By the way, the best man was soon well again, but he had to stay in hospital for a few days.
