Andy & Joel
Swiss Mountain Wedding Belalp
A story about finding home in the Swiss Alps.
The first thing I noticed when I woke up that morning was the smell of the beautifully fresh and crisp mountain air accompanied by the sound of raindrops falling down on the battered wooden floor outside. With an elusive feeling of anticipation I opened the old window on the left side of our cabin and looked over the meadows around us, almost completely covered in opaque fog while a cold wind hit my face. I went back to bed, slowly awaken Martina, gave her a kiss on the forehead and got ready for breakfast with all the others that mostly came from far away. It was the morning of Andy and Joel’s wedding day, a day that marked the all surpassing summit of their love story in the middle of a breathtaking scenery made of Swiss mountains. But this mountain panorama should became completely secondary soon.
The question «Where are you from?» was always a difficult one to answer for Andy. Born in Switzerland, she and her family have been living in many countries all over the world throughout her childhood, making it difficult to name one place home. But this changed dramatically on a warm November night in Australia, when she suddenly came upon Joel. Only soon after, she found a new home in Australia literally on the other side of the world, seen from her native country. At least for a short while, because Andy had to leave Joel for a six month internship in Lebanon. Half a year later, a period which they only overcame with daily calls, they finally moved in together, got engaged a bit after and even adopted Mia, a sweet Boston terrier who was born on the exact day Andy and Joel became official.
I stood at the very left end of the balcony where Andy and Joel’s ceremony took place and listened to the beautifully written words from Simone, while the whole mountain scenery became more and more obsolete. The only things that mattered were Andy and Joel and their all embracing love. And it got all of us. Martina, me and the whole bunch of beloved people, who all took this journey from Australia, the US and many other countries just to be present on this important day, alternated between crying and laughing. And without any exception, all of the invited guests attended to the wedding no matter how far they had to travel. This gave the ring warming ceremony, in which everybody held the rings while loading them up with love and personal wishes a whole new meaning. At the beginning of Andy and Joels vows, which constituted of seven promises for their lives with each other, I also started to tear up. And while trying to keep seeing clearly with my watery eyes, I started to realize that the term «home» doesn’t necessarily have to be the place you are born or the place you live for a whole life. Neither does it have to be a particular place at all or a durable condition. It’s probably just the place where you are surrounded by beloved people or not even a place at all. But a feeling. And so I believe, that on the day Andy and Joel got married, this particular period of time in the middle of the Swiss Alps was home for them.
