The Strip

Yes. This 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 US, and she said yes.
I had emptied a gumball machine that Birte and I often pass when we walk around our neighborhood. Shocked by the cost we had heard about some of our friends' marriages, 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 pull out two rings along lots 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 many things to organize for the trip, and our spirits were rarely good enough for such a big question, so I kept putting off the moment. After we went to Hamburg to hand in her dissertation, we returned home light-hearted. 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 restday (before we went to the eye clinic to have Birte's eyes cleaned of "parts of the desert"), we drove to the Clark County Marriage Licence Bureau to show our IDs, swear an oath on the authenticity of the provided information and ultimately get our marriage licenses.

Manu and Lisa had the same plan. They had told us about it even 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 forever share such a special day with such great friends.

We already had our eye on a particular venue: 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 this venue so special to us. Over the past seven years, we've spent many vacations and weekend getaways with Manu and Lisa, and we've rarely parted before playing a round of mini golf (...or action golf!). This was our place, for sure. Unfortunately, they don't do same-day weddings there, and we hadn't planned ahead. I mean, who would plan a wedding in advance?
However, they offered us a date for the next day and we took it.

November 31st came, we got up early, drove to Calico Basin for a half-day bouldering session, then showered at the climbing gym and got married at 5pm in a double wedding ceremony with Manu and Lisa, after I repaired Birte's glasses with a paper clip when she lost one of the tiny bolts in the fully carpeted ladies' restroom minutes before the wedding started. The whole thing was weird, cheesy and surprisingly quick, but also fun and exceptional. We got to pick 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 movies of all time, "Between the trees" with Tyler Landman in Fontainebleau. Birte and I added to the peculiarity 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 of Hamburg.

The ceremony was performed by a space minister, which is a great addition to the free tickets to the mini golf course, because we are now married on Earth and in space! So we don't have to deal with all the bureaucratic stuff when we travel to other galaxies. Very convenient.
After a photo shoot, which certainly took longer than the whole ceremony, we left the chapel as newly married and very hungry couples. First stop: dinner and beer at Olive Garden. Second stop: sci-fi mini golf. Third stop: cocktails and more beer at the Cabinet of Curiosities. Fourth and last stop: Bally's Casino, where we multiplied our one dollar bet by 2.8 times before losing it in a matter of seconds. Such is life. We could have stopped with a profit of $1.80 and left Vegas as winners, but we gambled too high and lost it all.

What a day.Read more