Katrina and Jurgen's wedding - Happily forever after

"I went to a wedding", if you're in owamboland during december you will hear that phrase repeatedly, well almost every single day. The Owambo's just love their weddings, so much that they even have multiple couples getting hitched simultaneously. In December 2010 a young bride left her older and kinda creepy future husband stuck at the altar, she refused to say i do "in my mind i just pictured the scene and boy it must have been dramatic, like oscar winning type of drama". Yes my dear friends, when it comes to weddings i have seen it and heard it all, sad thing is i've never been a groomsmen although that will change very soon.

Nothing about weddings fascinated me anymore, that is until i attended the unorthodox yet extremely delightful wedding of Katrina Antonius and Jurgen Kriess. I know what you're thinking how is this wedding different from the rest? What could these two have done that countless others had not. Let me put it this way, Katrina is unique, she's unconventional, she's has a vibrant personality, she's got so much energy about her that she could power an Mp3 player with her enthusiasm. The first thing you notice about Jurgen is the hat. Now back to how this wedding was different,Katrina is black & Jurgen is white, i know what your thinking and no! Katrina is not pulling a Kaunapawa. Jurgen has german heritage and Katrina is a pure Owambo, i know what you're thinking again and no! Jurgen is not marying her to score a namibian passport.They are both devout christians and huge superman fans, why i mention the superman thing? you will see later on in the show.

Let's get to the wedding shall we!I usually dnt wake up before 09 a.m. on holiday but for Katrina i had to, on tha way i kept thinking "this had better be worth getting out of bed so early", and the wedding did not dissapoint. The bride was late as usual, but you have to give her a break because i hear wedding dresses's are hard to get into. So the groom (jurgen) enters, and as he does that a guy starts playing a kudu horn on the balcony of the church, talking about entering in style. The bride and her entourage enter next, the flower girls prance down the aisle throwing flowers everywhere like a light summer rain with the violins playing in tha background. Did you hear that! violins! As Katrina walks towards Jurgen the musicians break into a violin rendition of Shania Twain's "from this moment". William and Kate take that, only thing that would beat that is if there was more than one pastor/priest coordinating this spectacle, oh wait, there was! This wedding had three pastors, yes i said three pastors and a jewish marriage ritual added for good measure. yep! this was a trully blessed occassion. I must add that when Katrina's aunts broke into the traditional Wambo celebration of ululating (wililili!), a german gentleman almost had a heart attack (bet he will never forget that).

The couple exchanged personaly written vows, it moved many in attendance to tears, mostly women though. at that moment the groom (Jurgen) did the uncharateristic, he broke into a westlife type ballade, yes this violin playing hat wearing smooth guy sang to his bride in church. Now that take's guts coz his singing would not necessarily get him a finals spot on idols *sorry jurgen i couldn't help it, sarcasm gets the better of me*. They then exchanged the "yes i do vows", signed the marriage certificate after the pastor explained everything in detail *he gave a lecture on tha technicalities of the marriage with examples thrown in for good measure*. Then the crowning moment had arrived, Jurgen did what a man does when he meets the love of his life and he put a ring on it, then it was Katrina's turn, She was about to put the ring on the wrong hand till pastor Tietz said "ahem!*cough cough* the other hand Katrina". After that they were married man and wife, and i have never seen a couple smile as much as these two, they seemed to be having way too much fun. As they left the church there were showered in a wave of flower petals, so many flowers that i pity the clean up crew.

Then came the reception which is my favourite part of the wedding, us single people enjoy it because we go to weddings to meet other single people and to have fun. Unfortunately i sat at the wrong table, there i was stuck between Katrina's Aunts and Pastor Kanana who had married the couple earlier in church. Anyways the newlyweds walk in and the superman theme song starts playing as they walk to their table *remember from earlier?*, can you believe that! when i get married *if i can find a woman who will put up with my harry potter antics* i want to walk in to "you'll never walk alone, but knowing Vambo's they wont be happy". What followed at the reception is that we stuffed our faces, we let loose and then the skeletons were pulled out of the closet. I ditched the elders to go sit with my fellow single's, i made the mistake of sitting next to the eccentric Ester and Saima *best mistake of the day*. Jurgens brother then proceeded to give us the 411 on his escapades in his youth, including learning french to win the heart of a parisian girl *and the say geeks have no game*. But my favourite was definitely Jurgen's uncle who proved that you don't need hair to charm the ladies.

Jurgen and Katrina had their first dance, which by the way looked so very choreographed (wonder how long did they practiced to get it right?). after that it was time to cut the cake, unfortunately the cake cutting discriminated against single people, married couple's had their cake, the kids had their cake but no cake for the singles. The eccentric two-some Ester (who's now more sarcastic than i am) and Saima decided enough was enough, the singles rose up and went to get some cake, after all the cake is the best part of the whole reception.

But the most important lesson i learned from the union of Katrina and Jurgen is that opposite's can attract and form an unbreakable bond. Pastor Sergei Solomons echoed this in his sermon, that through christ we can be one "let him be our peace". Normaly blacks and whites don't fall in love because of the reactions of the two societies to such a relationship, which highlights the immense support that both set of families gave to both Katrina and Jurgen because through their mutual interests (their faith and trust in god) they brought two families together, they merged two cultures together, they bought 5ive languages to a church service. Katrina and Jurgen have now become my poster children for inter-racial relationships and that elusive happily forever after (can't wait for the tomorow babies). But i guess the one thing i will never forget is that Katrina and Jurgen's wedding was essentialy Katrina and Jurgen's wedding, it had their touch, they were allowed to do what they wanted (for the most part), which i guess is why they were smiling so much because in the end even though tradition should be respected the bride and groom should have fun at their wedding because essentialy it is their wedding (they smiled way too much).

The bubbly and interior decore was pretty good

Note: Normally at Wambo weddings, the groom and bride don't smile much, instead the sport tired and fed up looks that make them look like constipated lizards.

The superman fanatics