65. THE LONGEST ENGAGEMENT IN HISTORY?

For many years prior to 2005 I’d considered various scenarios for the perfect marriage ceremony. I’d met Wendy in the summer of ’76 and for one reason or another we’d never tied the knot – neither of us thought the actual ceremony was something worth wasting large amounts of money on. As far as I was concerned I had a horror of church weddings with all the relatives, ‘dressed up and looking in their prime’, getting teary and drinking too much. So Wendy and I had put marriage on the back burner for twenty-nine years.

In 2004 I had an idea for a very unusual wedding. We’d go skiing in Austria, as we had each year for some time, and I’d arrange a surprise wedding half way up a mountain. Wendy wouldn’t know anything about it until the time came to tie the knot. We’d wake up one morning in our hotel, have a champagne breakfast, step into our skis and take the lift to the top of the mountain. Halfway down the mountain I’d arrange to have a celebrant, two witnesses and a lavish lunch ready in my favourite restaurant.
Ultimately there were so many things I feared might not work on the day, that I knew I’d have to can the surprise element. It was only fair that first of all Wendy be allowed to accept my formal proposal, rather than being offered a fait accompli. And what girl likes to be dressed in ski clothes on her wedding, clothes she hasn’t bought especially for the occasion? And the make-up? And the hair? And the corsage?
So many things to think about.
So I ended up telling her my plans and she seemed to like the idea. It was the snow element, I think.
I asked our great friend, hotelier Daniela Pfefferkorn, daughter of famous Austrian hoteliers, Franz and Gucky Pfefferkorn if we could be married on the deck of their fabulous hotel in Lech, the Alter Goldener Berg.
We wanted a very simple affair; just the two of us, an Austrian celebrant and two witnesses. Franz and Daniela offered their services in this regard – a big deal in Austria since witnesses at a marriage are in some sense responsible from that day on for the happiness of the bride and groom.
We woke up in the Haus Melitta to a perfect day – blue skies and sun. It had recently snowed, so the piste conditions were perfect too. Frau Mathis served up a champagne breakfast I will remember forever, and we couldn’t have been happier.
Later in the morning, we walked into town and I bought Wendy’s corsage. Then we headed up the mountain.
Our good friend, Vietnamese/Australian-born clothes designer Alistair Trung had designed Wendy’s wedding veil, many yards of beautiful fabric he wound around her white fur hat (no real animals involved!) in a fabulously original way in his showroom in Sydney. Wendy took the instructions so she’d know how to assemble it with hat-pins in Austria later.
It’s really hard to swoosh down the mountainside in a wedding dress, so Wendy wore a white jacket, white pants and white skis and boots.
At midday exactly Wendy and I were at the top of the mountain. I was to ski down to the hotel to let them know she’d be down in ten minutes. Wendy was to ski to another hotel where she’d stop to wrap her veil and make any final adjustments she wanted.
I then skied down to meet with our celebrant, Stefan Jochum.
Daniela had arranged a lovely table covered with traditional Austrian hearts made of twigs, died red, as well as other beautiful floral arrangements. There were four seats for the ceremony.
I was introduced to Daniela’s father Franz, who was freezing cold as I recall despite it being sunny. I think he was the only one of us who felt cold on the day.
As I saw Wendy skiing down towards us, I was then amazed to see all the staff of the Alter Goldener Berg emerge, dressed in dirndls and lederhosen to form up in a guard of honour leading from the ski slope to the wedding table. They were all carrying freshly cut long-stemmed red roses.
When she reached the guard of honour I could see she was stunned. She took off her skis and walked forward, looking absolutely beautiful. Ahead of her a young girl carried a basket of rose petals that she scattered on the ground as she walked forward – a carpet for Wendy to walk over. It was bliss.
Half an hour later, after Stephan’s very amusing speech – not in the least stuffy and formal – he pronounced us man and wife and Franz popped the bubbly. It was an exquisite moment.
Lunch followed on the deck of the Alter Goldener Berg, the part of the modern hotel that dates back to 1430. It was magnificent. We ate a traditional Austrian cream soup of wild mushrooms, followed by crispy whole duck, and free-range game hens in wild mountain berry sauce, ending with a most beautiful wedding cake.
Throughout, the sun shone down on us as though Mother Nature’s Austrian representative was giving us his/her blessing.
Before we skied down to the village we were invited into the smallest and loveliest rooms in the hotel, lined with wood that dates back five hundred years, and we drank some very old schnapps from glasses that had two-foot stems.
We skied down far too fast. But we made it. And guess what’s the first thing we did when we took off our skis in the village of Lech? We headed for the nearest après ski bar and had a few more celebratory glasses of champagne. Everyone in the bar guessed we had just married because of our clothes – Wendy was all in white and I was wearing a silver ski jacket with a rose pinned to the lapel. We made many new Austrian friends that afternoon!
I think this is the best way to get married. It doesn’t have to be in the snow, it can be anywhere unusual. Of course, if you want a hundred people at your wedding and feel like spending many thousands of dollars, then be formal.
As I lay awake in the Haus Melitta that night, I remember thinking how lucky I was – Wendy was so like a female Dorian Gray, she was the perfect companion, she shared my sense of humour and was incredibly supportive whatever the highs and lows were. And now I had a family again – I’d had them for twenty-nine years, but now it was legal – I had a mother-in-law, Olive, and two sisters-in-law, Jilly and Robby.

The movie of the wedding can be found here: