Special Wedding report, church ceremony
May, 19th, 2001)
This morning I left my home in The Hague at 7.30u to watch the church ceremony.
After taking the tram and walking, I arrived at 8.00u. I was not the first one, but it was still very quiet, so I was pretty lucky and found a great spot on the first row, just in front of the Grote or St.Jacobs church.
After about an hour waiting, more people started to arrive and soon after every spot behind me was 'claimed'. We knew the guests would start to arrive at about 10 o'clock, so I had another hour of waiting. Luckily the policemen and other stuff happining made it not boring at all. First I saw the red carpet had to be placed. Soon after the first guests started to arrive. Most of them arrived by city-busses (Which had 'hartelijk gefeliciteerd' = Congratulations on the place where normally the busnumber and name is). Then old busses arrived: this was the press, fighting for the best place to make their pictures!
Then at about 10 - 10.15u, the first royal guests arrived, I saw:
- Filip and Mathilde of Belgium
- Edward and Sophie of England
- Haakon of Norway and Mette-Marit Tjessem-Hoiby
- Victoria of Sweden
- Sibilla and Guillaume of Luxemburg
- Kardam and Miriam of Bulgaria
and many more!
Making pictures was pretty difficult, imagine: first a policemen, then a cordon of the veterans! But I think I was pretty lucky.
And then... the carriages arrived. First Marius Brinkhorst and his wife Liz, then Alexander and Máxima (we yelled 'Máxima!!'), then Laurens-Jan Brinkhorst and his wife Jantien and Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus.
Finally: the bridal couple. Laurentien looked great! I think Edouard Vermeulen did an excellent job.
During the service, we were unable to see anything, but the people who were in the houses (and waving from the windows) kept us up to date, yelling: 'The said YES' and 'They did not kiss!')
)
When the service was finished, I decided to stay
near the church waiting for more guests to see, but that was difficult.
After I went to Palace Noordeinde, but I was to late for the balcony scene. At 2 p.m. I met with Hein, Henri, Netty and Martina. We had a drink and a laugh.
It was a great day, stay tuned for the next wedding: Haakon and Mette-Marit: August 25th, I will be there!
Pictures:
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Christine
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