Jiaqi and Weiqing

In November 2023, a question came through Alletrouwambtenaren.nl asking if I would be available to officiate at Jiaqi and Weiqing's wedding ceremony at De Haar Castle in Utrecht on 20 January 2024.
The groom-to-be wrote in his request that my presence as an officiant for this ceremony will mean a lot to them and that they believe my expertise will add a special touch to the celebration.
Since I was available on the specified date, an appointment to discuss all further details was quickly made and at the end of the month, I visited Joaqi and Weiqing at their home in Almere.

In that conversation, it became clear, that Jiaqi and Weiqing had already registered their marriage under Chinese law on 20 October 2023 at the Embassy of the People's Republic of China, and that the ceremony at De Haar Castle was meant to be a ceremonial confirmation of that marriage in front of the friends, with whom they usually hang out.
Later this year, the now-married couple will travel to China to celebrate the marriage in the traditional manner and for that purpose, the ceremony in the Netherlands will be videotaped to be shown there later.
A 'rèliè huãnyíng' would therefore be a nice opening for the family there.

Armed with information on who would be able to tell me more about these two young people (who from China, via universities in Munich, Taiwan, Stockholm, Helsinki and Eindhoven, eventually found employment in the Netherlands, one at ING and the other at Tencent) and with the necessary wishes for the content of the ceremony, I left again.

I left Jiaqi and Weiqing with the questionnaire about their lives, their ideas about marriage, their expectations for the future and, above all, how and where they had met and how the proposal had been made.

The latter was a proposal in two stages.
After the rain prevented a spectacular drone flight over Almere (which was supposed to end with the presentation of the ring for the proposal) from taking place, Weiqing tried it a day later at home on the couch. He threw her a ball, which landed under the couch cushion, under which a ring in a box happened to be hidden.
When she found it, he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.
Doubt struck Jiaqi, especially since so many things had not yet been properly talked through... so she did not yet give a resounding YES and said there was still so much that had not yet been talked through and pronounced.
Weiqing's reaction was that none of that would change our feelings for each other and that touched her so deeply that she said YES.
What remained was still a sense of disappointment at the lack of romance in the proposal... it was not the photo-worthy moment, as many of their friends had known.

Four months later, Weiqing unintentionally and unplanned spontaneously went on a repeat date.
The couple took a trip to Paris and in front of the Louvre, Jiaqi tried out her new camera taking a remote-controlled selfie. Right before Jiaqi printed, Weiqing got down on one knee and that was the perfect photo opportunity.
Since the ring Weiqing offered her earlier in Almere was also more or less a disappointment, they also decided on this trip to design the perfect ring for each other together.

In the ceremony, they spoke their vows to each other in Chinese.
Fortunately, I had the English translation at my disposal, so I had not told all the things in my story, which they had kept for each other.
With a resounding YES, Jiaqi and Weiqing confirmed their marriage wish and then the rings were slipped on their fingers.
Jiaqi's ring symbolises the feeling of a princess dream, which was also expressed in the pumpkin-shaped carriage the couple had used for the photo shoot earlier that afternoon. The setting of the ring refers to lifelong love and the diamonds around the core represent all the happy memories and the adventures to come.
The ring Weiqing was going to wear is after the concept of the Mobius strip... two sides and corners come together and become one, just as the two independent spouses become a couple and still maintain their independence.

After signing the deed, Jiaqi and Weiqing danced to Richard Sanderson's song Reality from the film La Boum.
The song refers to the very first moment the couple met and how their love has grown since then.

With the contributions of four of the friends, who were also their witnesses, the story for this ceremony was complete and fulfilled in every way Jiaqi and Weiqing's wish for this ceremony to focus on friendship with all 22 attendees.