Fun & Famous

CAROLIEN’S WEDDING DIARY

Still ten weeks to go...

Our Carolien is getting married. In exactly ten weeks, she and her great love Jon Karthaus will slide the ring onto each other's finger. Especially for you, she takes you along on how it all came to be, and believe us: it's hilarious.

Already two years ago, I was completely taken by surprise by my husband. We had barely landed for ten hours when we found ourselves at Lebua, a beautiful rooftop restaurant in the heart of Bangkok. Before that, we passed by a little market that I am extremely sensitive to, so I couldn't help but sniff around for a bit. A bag full of mangoes and other exotic fruits, three pairs of sunglasses, and a new hat later, we arrived at the posh restaurant. Jon was quite silent. In hindsight, completely understandable, because that poor guy was sweating bullets in his nice suit with an extremely important little box in his inner pocket, while the lady casually decided to ‘just’ look around at a snail's pace in 35 degrees.

Once at the table, the cocktails and fine wines flowed abundantly, when after the starter, the words came out. First, a downpour of sweet words, after which he walked over to me to kneel down and fish that box-every-woman-dreams-of out of his pocket. Resulting in a major ugly cry and a jazz band starting to sing ‘Happy Birthday’.

We couldn't sleep all night. Where would we get married? Who did we absolutely want to have there? What should my dream dress look like? Now, 2.5 years later, I really have to start answering these important questions. Italy was quickly decided; our dream was to celebrate love with our loved ones for a few days during a sort of wedding slash vacation.

But where on earth do you start? With a location and a date. Fortunately, we quickly found the best wedding planner in Italy: a Dutch woman who has lived in Florence for 20 years and will guide us step by step through this operation.

With her first assignment, she succeeded with flying colors: the first estate we visited was a hit. A dream villa in the middle of nowhere with everything you could wish for. Before we knew it, we had transferred the deposit and our wedding date was marked in the calendar with a thick highlighter. And with hearts. I am really getting married!