A tale of two weddings

Wedding 1

Place:        Argelès-sur-mer, France
Date:         10 August 2013
Guests:      40+ from three continents and seven countries
Language:  English

Wedding 2

Place:         Corsier Port, Switzerland
Date:           18 May 2015
Guests:        two witnesses, everyone from the same household
Language:   French**

My witnesses and bridegroom (and friend) before we left for the mairie, where two women with gentle voices read poetry along with the civil regulations.

The pen we used to sign the register and a wedding gift from the commune.

We had lunch at Marro (usual) with champagne from the manager (unusual) and a wedding cake (unusual).

A surprise reception by my wonderful housemate, catered by Son No. 2 with friends and neighbors. Not easy to pull off under our noses, literally.

In retrospect, Son No. 2, cooking for an alleged dinner elsewhere, he and his mother making arrangements in German that made no sense, which I figured was my lousy German or she was trying to improve his, his mother being both happy and upset that he was called to substitute teach and so caring about the time he would be home and her picking him up afterwards, being told to leave the gate open when Rick and I went on our evening walk, should have told me something was up.

I'm dense.

It didn't.

Some of the food included: Zucchini/courgette gaspacho, baked cheese with garden rosemary, fig/aubergine/eggplant in a honey/basil/cream sauce plus much, much more. Son No. 2 made sure the food was defined in both American and English.

In lieu of a wedding cake, J's to-die-for brownies, but with a photo a wedding cake. Gotta get that framed. The brownies won't survive long.

The flowers the mairie gave us will last a few days. Our marriage and love will last our lifetimes.

To my housemate and Son No. 2 thank you for being.

**I told Rick that he had promised in French at the mairie to feed me black chocolate several times a day, never leave a dirty dish in the sink, and make the bed daily and quickly. He didn't quite believe me that it was in the ceremony.