Friday, 13 January 2012

Wedding on the fly

A small group, which included his parents, witnessed the marriage of Pierre Delvaux and Nadine Wenn at the Oyster Box on the first day of the new year

Match of the day for Thanda CEO, with a little help from his friends

It's 48 hours before the big wedding day, scheduled for 1 January 2012, but bureaucratic nightmares prevent the event taking place in Europe. Undaunted, the determined couple do some urgent planning that all ends well - albeit in KZN’s heat and humidity rather than in the crisp chill of the snow at Saalbach, Austria. That’s the story told by Empangeni local, Pierre Delvaux, who eventually exchanged vows with the German love of his life, Nadine Wenn on New Year’s Day at Umhlanga. ‘We met some five years ago in Abu Dhabi at a World Travel Awards Gala Dinner. ‘Nadine was PR Director for the WTA based in London at the time,’ says Pierre. ‘We remained casual friends until recently and only saw each other twice since 2007, both times work related. ‘However everything changed recently after we discovered love and the fruits of Amarula that accompanied us through England, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Scotland, Germany, Austria and culminated in a last minute trip back from a ski holiday to Saalbach in Austria.

‘We got engaged in Edinburgh on 11-11-2011 without any plan prior to the time. ‘I wanted to officially ask her father for her hand in marriage which I had obviously not yet done - in fact I had not even met her family. ‘I flew back to Germany at the beginning of December under the guise of accompanying Nadine and to join them in Dusseldorf at the Christmas market. ‘They had no idea of our plans. I wrote her dad a letter and had it translated into German just in case there was some misunderstanding when I asked him for his daughter’s hand,’ says Pierre.

Unique lobola
‘After he said ‘yes’, we got down to serious lobola - I had brought a bag full of plastic cattle to clinch the deal.’ The wedding was planned to be at Thanda Private Game Reserve during August 2012, but the more they thought about it, the more they realised they couldn’t wait that long to call each other husband and wife. ‘We had planned to elope to Venice where I had arranged a marriage ceremony on New Year’s Day but due to a delay in documentation from Germany, we had to scrap that plan a few days before we were to depart for Italy.

‘An Austrian marriage ceremony in the snow at Saalbach was the next plan, with a back-up plan being Copenhagen in Denmark where marriage requirements were more lenient. ‘Neither could pull off a New Year’s Day ceremony due to it being a public holiday and officials told us it was not possible due to time constraints. ‘This after we had spent plenty of time and effort collecting our necessary documentation from South Africa and Germany.

Zululand option
‘In the end, after every door shut closed, I made a phone call to Dave Savides in Zululand, a close friend who is also a marriage officer. ‘'We were already in the snow at Saalbach and it was the 29th of December. ‘We had just come from the office of the town clerk and marriage officer in Saalbach who had also tried extremely hard to help us overcome the German government marriage requirements, but in the end we couldn’t pull it off. ‘After Dave said he could do it, I called Heather at Harvey Travel and booked flights for New Year’s Eve out of Munich for Durban to return to Munich the same day, arriving back in Saalbach the following morning. ‘Nadine had NO Summer clothes (we bought the rings in Saalbach as we drove out on the 31st) so we rushed through Gateway looking for a dress and shoes but with most shops being closed it was somewhat of a huge challenge.

‘Irene Woollett was amazing and helped Nadine navigate the shops of Gateway. ‘Nadine had never been to KZN in her life before! ‘A quick stop to shower at my apartment in Umhlanga Rocks and 75 minutes later, we arrived at the Oyster Box. ‘I must sincerely thank the GM of the hotel, Wayne Coetzee who pulled out all the stops to make a small intimate service possible, flowers, champagne and a prime spot table on the veranda overlooking the sea.’ The story does not end there. They missed the first flight back to Jo’burg but Pierre’s ever efficient PA Mariette Bredenoord made a plan and they caught the flight back to Munich in time to go bum boarding down the ski slopes the following day. ‘And the Town Clerk, Roman Kendler, was so taken by our story that he arranged, at his own cost, a private religious marriage ceremony for us in the snow in the Hinterglemm Forest at the tiny St Peter’s Chapel where a local priest conducted a blessing and two locals chimed on Alp Horns as we left the chapel!’ Nadine has since resigned from her job in London and will be relocating to Zululand in February to join her husband.