Two bridal couples sweated a lot last week: due to the long waiting time for the TESO ferry, they and their witnesses were unable to get to the wedding on Texel in time. One went ahead with some delay, the other was postponed a day.
One of the two wedding officials who waited in vain last week was Erna Drijver. “I stood in my toga at the door. And just look and look, but no car came.”
Grooms and witnesses
She would marry a couple from Zaandam. But both the bridal couple and the witnesses were still waiting in traffic to be taken to the other side. “A day before I had pointed out the longer waiting times for the boat, but of course she and we would never have thought that the delay would be so bad.”
The newlyweds were a bit panicked, Drijver noticed. “When I called them, they were in the car on the boat. They had changed on the ferry.” They themselves arrived with ‘only’ half an hour delay, but the mother of the groom – also a witness – was still waiting. “He said, in tears: ‘But my mother is not there yet, she is still at Willemsoord’, and asked how far that was. In principle, that is not far, but it was so busy now. She could still be there for hours. In the end, it took her four hours to get to the other side.”
Austria
Drijver thought it was extra sad, because the woman had come over from Austria. “Initially we suggested that someone else testify. But of course it didn’t have to be that way. We therefore arranged that it could be moved for a day.”
The fact that Drijver would marry a couple from outside Texel last week is not very special, she says. “There are more than a hundred weddings on Texel every year and eight out of ten are from ‘overkanters’ (people who are not originally from Texel, ed.). Then they have memories of a holiday or outing from the past, for example, and they want get married here. Sometimes they rent a house, or they sleep with the family at a campsite.”
Weather delay
In the coming days it will be big delay again expected at the Texel boat. One of the boats is still not sailing due to a technical failure. But now there will be no anxious bridal couples: no weddings are planned on Texel for tomorrow and the weekend.