Almost a wedding

On Saturday we went to Jan's secretary's 20th wedding anniversary. It was very special. Jan and Marie have been working together for 13 years. The couple wanted to restate their wedding vows and declare their love for each other and as they felt that Jan knew them better than their pastor, they asked Jan to officiate. He felt honoured and prayed about what he should say. In the end he had a striking message:

God created woman to the assist the man. She was the last of His creation, i.e. the crown of His creation and therefore the most beautiful of the total creation. What a blessing for the man to have such beautiful assistant. She is also his equal. We have to benchmark our own marriages with the example of the marriage found in the Bible, i.e. marriage between Christ and his church. Our heavenly Bridegroom gave the best possible to his bride and took away her sin. In our marriages we have to give the best we have to our spouces and assist them to get rid of the bad in their lives. Furthermore, marriage can be compared with the replanting of two grownup trees in a new single excavation. These two trees have to start growing from start with their roots and branches intertwined into each other with the purpose to support one another to live closer to God and as a result of this to move closer to each other.


The happy couple Willem and Marie. We had drinks outside in the beautiful garden. On our way there, we went through a horrific storm - not a drizzle, a real cloud burst type downpour - but not a drop in Centurion where the reception was held. (As with the other weddings we recently went to, God has been really good in providing just the right weather!)

Jan talking to his boss Coen and his wife Elsa. (They had great misfortune in the thunderstorm - at the party they heard that thunder had struck their house and all the electrical appliances were hit... hope the damage was not really that bad!)

George and his lovely partner Sanet. George is one of Jan and Marie's colleagues.

Henriette, another colleague and great friend of Marie's.

Donna and Karin. We went to their beautiful wedding last year. Karin works with Jan and Marie.

They reception hall, beautifully decorated with shades of brown . There were several slide shows during the evening depicting Willem and Marie's lives. Koos and Susan are in the centre of this pic.

The tables had a high wooden candelabra in the middle of the table, which gave height, without spoiling the view. These were decorated with small hearts and crystals on thin brown ribbon. In front of each couple, there were these cute bouquets which held the place names. We could all take home our flowers in their rusty steel "bags". A lovely keepsake!

Jan handing the microphone to Marie and Willem for the restating of their vows. This time not the pastor's words, but written by themselves. "Your dreams are my dreams."

Exchanging rings.

We all got "medicine" in brown paper bags with written indications and warnings of the side effects...! (Sambara or something like that. In any case licorice liqour, which Willem and Marie and friends traditionally had on their many camping and fishing trips.)

Another keepsake that came with "medicine": Engraved shooter glasses.


Dancing and more dancing! If there is one thing most South Africans can do, it is "lekker dans!" We don't quite fall in that category, but Jan and I are working on it. I read in "How to prevent Alzheimers" that dancing is good for you, so we decided to also start dancing. Of course we only dance when there are lots of others dancing too, and then the place is crowded and it is extra difficult to dance freely. But watch this space... we are getting there and one of these days we'll be like those couples who do not care if they are the only couple on the floor! (The video of the dancing flopped, but guess what they were playing when this photo was taken? Boeremusiek of course!)
This party wasn't a wedding, but it looked and felt like it! Weddings are fun! Willem and Marie, may you be richly blessed during the next 40 years and beyond!