Berlin Wedding at the Liebermann Villa
A city wedding in Berlin — Catholic ceremony at Heilige Familie, then a lakeside celebration at the Liebermann Villa that ran long, loud, and happily off-schedule.
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The day started at Heilige Familie. Gothic revival, brick vaults, light coming down in shafts through stained glass onto the altar. At one point during the ceremony, two of the older women lit candles for the couple, one of them in an embroidered vyshyvanka. It told you everything about the family without anyone needing to explain it, and as a Ukrainian, I did not need it explained either.
Garden portraits happened in between, everything green on green in the particular soft light Berlin gets in late summer. Back at the villa, a group of kids carried a wrapped bundle almost as big as they were, part of a family tradition that did not need explaining.
Then it turned into a party where the music did not pick a side. German one track, Ukrainian the next, and a long table outside filled up fast for the toasts. By early evening the light through the trees went soft and dappled, and nobody seemed to want it to end.