First of all I would like to point out that the photos used for this blog post were of course not taken by myself. All credits for these photos go to Giacomo Vesprini from Krup Studio, a great Italian photography studio that captured our wedding day in all it's glory.

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We actually started our wedding a day earlier, with a photo shoot in the estate around our wedding location; Orangerie Elswout

The Orangerie is situated on a beautiful piece of land with a huge country house, old horse stables and a huge park with open fields, water and a large forest. Because we didn't want to spend too much time on the wedding day taking portraits, we decided to schedule a photo shoot with Giacomo the night before the wedding. The sunset provided that well-known 'golden hour' light and that is clearly reflected in the photos.
It was a wonderfully relaxed walk and we are happy that we were able to plan this shoot the night before the wedding. This way we knew for sure that we already had a series of beautiful photos and we did not necessarily have to worry about the shoot on the wedding day itself.
And now I hear all the women think; But you saw Roxy's wedding dress the night before the wedding?
No, fortunately not, because Roxy also had a very nice dress that she would wear during the party, so she used it for our pre-wedding shoot.

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The day started wonderfully; Excitement, chaos and a lot of people who came to prepare with us for the first official part, because we planned to get officially married in the morning at the city hall, small-scale and intimate. By the way, here too Roxy was not wearing her wedding dress yet because it was kept for the ceremony at Orangerie Elswout.

The plan was to do the ceremony over again later at the wedding location in a setting that we wanted and with the BABS that we had chosen ourselves: My father.
No, my father is not a BABS by profession, but a very good speaker and a fantastic person. That's why I asked him to marry Roxy and me on our wedding day and we we're really happy he said yes to that.

The small ceremony in the town hall of Haarlem went smoothly and some tears were shed when we were officially pronounced husband and wife. Yet the day had only just begun and we could still look forward to a day full of excitement and fun.

While Roxy started getting ready at our home, it was my job to go to the wedding venue with a team of family and friends to get ready for our day. Several hours of stress passed, but luckily I was ready in time to receive my wife at the Orangerie.

Roxy arrived in a carriage with her parents and her two bridesmaids (my sister and her best friend). I was trembling waiting for her in the Orangerie and when she walked in I finally saw the dress that Roxy has been talking about for months. She walked in under the guidance of her father with Canon in D in the background, played by my 3 good friends and band members.

It was a beautiful ceremony where our BABS, my father, couldn't resist sharing some hilarious anecdotes. And then the moment came, the yes word! And although actually a short theatrical play because we were already officially married in the morning in the town hall, this one felt like the real one!

After the ceremony there was time for a short toast, cheers and Roxy and I went out again to take wedding photos (this time with THE dress). It is very different to shoot portraits when you are already married and I can recommend to every wedding couple to take the time to shoot some beautiful photos after the ceremony when you just got married.

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The evening started with a delicious multi-course dinner with friends and family. Around 20:00 all party guests walked into the Orangerie and Roxy and I received them with all love and appreciation. I still think it's very special that so many people make time to come and celebrate our love with us.

It was a wonderful party night with some nice surprises and events. In the evening we cut the cake and it turned out that Roxy had even rehearsed a dance for me as a surprise. It seemed that she has been practising twice a week in a dance hall for the past 3 months to practice and perform all dance steps with this group of people.

But I hadn't been idle for the months before the wedding either. The guests knew there would be a band (after all, the drums had already been set up), but they had no idea which band this would be; Smoke! This band, Smoke, is the jam band formed by me and 3 good friends. Since we were 18 years old we have kept many neighbours awake by our jam sessions in my parents' garage (especially my drumming style provided quite a bit of volume). Later these sessions moved to rented rehearsal rooms, but the performance had never happened. Fortunately, this performance finally happened. About 10 years after the first time that we had picked up the instruments together, our first performance of 45 minutes was a fact. And I enjoyed every single minute of it!

Although Roxy and I had not planned a first dance, the last dance happened spontaneously. Just before the end of the party, Roxy and I were shuffling on the dance floor together when the most cheezy song ever sung was played; 'When a man loves a woman'. Family and friends formed a circle around us and danced with us to work towards a beautiful end to the best day of our lives.

And so we left, hand in hand, waving to all friends and family with a wonderful memory of the most beautiful day of our lives to look back to!