On Dirks 50 th birth day party in a couple of days, he and Beate will surprise friends and family with pictures showing that they have married in secret. Big suprise no more than I know, not even their 33 year old daughter. When we had dinner after the wedding yesterday, they told me – it is now or never, we have been together for more than 30 years, the right occasion will never come so we took a spontaneous decision just a few months ago, and they chose Stockholm as they think is a beautiful city.

They were looking for a photographer over the internet from home in Dresden and fell in love with my pictures. Yesterday afternoon we finally met at the City Hall in Stockholm, it felt exciting. It became an outdoor wedding because it is a six-month wait for marriage inside the City Hall.

The wedding attendant wished that I would choose a place for the ceremony, I quickly decided that they would be next to the water at sunset. After the wedding I tok some pictures before we took a taxi to their hotel Amaranten. They had reserved a table for the three of us, so nice to share such a lovely moment with strangers. It was challenging to speak German though, the little I remember from school felt like being blown away, but it worked out so nicely, there were many laughs because of this.

They are going home to Germany today, I look forward to hearing the reactions to the pictures that they will show to the guests at the 50th party on Saturday at home in Dresden.