A Wedding in Haarlem

Haarlem – September 2007

Haarlem must be a good place to eat, so many restaurants and cafes are there, and lots of bicycles and ancient-looking Dutch houses in narrow cobbled streets and we were much taken with Haarlem.

There was a wedding taking place at the town hall, and we liked the fact that not all the guests were in their uncomfortable-looking suits and frocks, many were in their day-to-day clothes, they stood on the steep steps of the town hall to have their photos taken, each clutching a red or a white heart-shaped helium-filled balloon. At the appropriate moment they each let go of their balloon and shouted appreciatively and laughed while the lady photographer in a black suit clicked her camera shutter at the event. Just one small boy, held in the arms of his daddy, continued to clutch the string of his balloon tightly – he wasn’t going to let that go.

The bride and groom looked not particularly well off. The man could have been a farmer with his recent haircut and shave that looked like it had needed to take half his skin with it; the bride was veering towards the large with ringlets and a low-cut white dress that looked like she could have stepped into it from the top and would step out again later so it could be saved for posterity. They were presumably going to leave the scene in the white stretched-limousine that was waiting with its ancient and emaciated-looking driver hovering around in his cap.