The Strip

Yes. It really happened.

It wasn't a spontaneous idea, but I'm sure our engagement was shorter than most.
I proposed to Birte in August, just a few days before we left for the USA, and she said yes.
I had emptied a gumball machine that Birte and I often pass when we walk around our neighbourhood. Shocked at the cost of some of our friends' weddings, Birte once told me that she would rather marry me with a ring from a gumball machine than spend a small fortune on something sparkly. Well... she got what she wanted. It took me three days and several errands to get more change before I was able to get two rings out of the machine, which was otherwise filled with an almost countless number of Center Shock chewing gums.
August was the last month before we left and Birte was working hard to finish her dissertation. The days were long, we had so many things to organise for the trip, and our spirits were rarely good enough for such a big question, so I kept putting off the moment. After going to Hamburg to hand in her dissertation, we returned home in fantastic mood. We had a glass of wine in our living room, looked at the blue moon and I realized that this would probably be the most romantic moment before we left.

Fast forward to Las Vegas. On our first day off (before we went to the eye clinic to have Birte's eyes cleaned of "bits of the desert"), we drove to the Clark County Marriage License Bureau to show our IDs, swear to the authenticity of the information provided and finally get our marriage licences.

Manu and Lisa had the same idea. They had told us about it before I asked Birte. I'm really glad that they included us in their wedding plans. It encouraged me to go ahead with the idea and actually get married! And I think it is wonderful that we can share such a special day with such great friends forever.

We already had a venue in mind: the Sci-Fi Wedding Chapel at Bally's Casino, a small sci-fi themed chapel next to a black light mini golf course! It was the latter that made the venue so special to us. Over the past seven years, we've spent many vacations and weekends with Manu and Lisa, and we've rarely parted without a round of mini golf (...or action golf!). This was our place. Unfortunately, they don't do same-day weddings and we hadn't planned ahead. I mean, who plans a wedding in advance?
But they offered us a date for the next day and we accepted.

The 31st of November came, we got up early, drove to Calico Basin for half a day of bouldering, then showered at the climbing gym and got married at 5pm in a double ceremony with Manu and Lisa, after I had repaired Birte's glasses with a paper clip when she lost one of the tiny screws in the fully carpeted ladies' toilets minutes before the wedding started. The whole thing was weird, cheesy and surprisingly fast, but also fun and extraordinary. We had to choose two songs for the ceremony, one for the intro and one for the outro. Manu and Lisa chose "Intro" by The-XX, which is also the intro to one of the best bouldering films of all time, "Between the trees" with Tyler Landman in Fontainebleau. Birte and I added to the uniqueness of the whole thing by requesting "Tutenchamun" by HGich.T, a completely random trance-techno-trash band from Hamburg, at whose concert we kissed for the first time in 2013 at a legendary party at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg.

The ceremony was performed by a space minister, which is a great addition to the free mini-golf tickets, because now we are married on Earth and in space! So we don't have to go through all that bureaucracy when we travel to other galaxies. Very convenient.
After a photoshoot that probably took longer than the ceremony itself, we left the chapel as newlyweds and very hungry couples. First stop: dinner and beer at the Olive Garden. Second stop: sci-fi miniature golf. Third stop: cocktails and more beer at the Cabinet of Curiosities. Fourth and final stop: Bally's Casino, where we multiplied our $1 bet by 2.8 before losing it in seconds. Such is life. We could have walked away with a profit of $1.80 and left Vegas winners, but we gambled too high and lost it all.

What a day.Read more