Europe Day Wedding Party

We chose to celebrate our wedding on 9th May - Europe Day 2026 because Europe is what brought us together: We met at the European Commission in Munich’s “Zamanand” (voter mobilisation) festival - just before the EU Elections in 2024. I was performing on a very wet and freezing cold day - hardly anyone was at the festival or watching my performance. My husband’s pro-EU youth organisation, JEF Bayern, was due to have a stall at the festival, but it was called off at the last minute because of the terrible weather... So, like a good Bavarian, he went to the bar and had a few beers - and after I had finished my set, he met me off the stage and told me about a panel discussion event his organisation was holding that evening, in a cafe just around the corner - a debate on Brexit. I know “Love at first sight” seems like a cliché, but I was instantly entranced by his sparkling light blue eyes. He was too shy to invite me directly, but I went along anyway with the Head of the European Commission in Munich who was attending the event along with his colleage… the only snag was that the debate was in German, a language I barely knew, but he insisted on translating the entire discussion for me, so I didn’t feel excluded. That proved to be the perfect excuse to spend the entire evening staring deeply into his sparkling eyes (he told me later that that had made him even more nervous!). After that, we didn’t see each other again for over 3 months - when I travelled to stay with him in Bavaria for 2 weeks. This time, it was my turn to be nervous, and I barely spoke for the first few hours, whilst he gave me a tour of his small, Bavarian town. We had our first kiss under a rainbow, on his balcony, in front of the Bavarian mountains and every moment of our lives together since then have felt like a magical fairy tale. Even with the immense challenges of a long distance relationship and the nightmare of post Brexit bureaucracy: Constantly travelling back and forth, long periods apart, sorting out pet sitting for my two cats, negotiating the 90/180 day rule and the kafkaesque nonsense of acquiring the documents required for us to marry (more on that in a separate blog post) - I have felt so loved and cared for throughout everything. We’re not out of the woods yet - we have more bureaucracy to negotiate in order for us to be able to live together, but I am so immensely grateful that the stars aligned to bring me and my wonderful husband together, and so happy that we could celebrate our love for each other on our favourite day of the year - Europe day. A huge thank you goes to all those who shared this moment with us, helped us organise the food, drinks and decorations, and made it so special, memorable and ecstatically fun. We will cherish the memory of this day forever.

#WeddingCakeGate

Finally, a little note on #WeddingCakeGate... As I used to bake cakes (professionally) for sale in a cafe, and have lengthy experience of elaborate, themed, cake decorating for community events, I was fairly confident in my ability to make my own wedding cake... What I had not banked on, was the very old oven in my husband's flat having only one temperature - incineration. I had bought enough cake ingredients for 4 sponges, to allow for any mishaps in my first attempt, using an unfamilliar (non fan-assisted) oven... After half an hour at 175'C (the recommended temp for a non-fan assisted oven), the higher sponge came out charcoal on the top side, whilst the lower sponge was charcoal on the bottom. I decided to lower the oven temperature to 160'C and tried cooking just one sponge at a time in the centre of the oven - to no avail, it also burnt. I cooled the oven to 150'C and attempted the last remaining sponge - which also started burning after 20 mins. At which point I gave up and went to the supermarket to buy pre-made sponge. I still, however, needed to make a vegan alternative, so I prepped the batter for vegan chocolate cupcakes, and out of curiosity I tried cooking 1 cupcake at 100'C for 12 minutes - it also burnt. At which point I came to the conclusion that the temperature dial on the very old oven was totally fucked. Never mind - some rather hilarious memories were made, and I was still able to decorate an EU themed wedding cake for our Europe day party!We celebrated our wedding on Europe Day 2026 Europe brought us together: we met at the European Commission in Munich’s “Zamanand” voter mobilisation festival - just before the EU Elections in 2024 I was performing on a very wet and freezing cold stage - hardly anyone was at the festival or watching my performance. Johann’s youth organisation JEF Bayern was due to have a stall at the festival but called it off at the last minute because of the terrible weather... So, he went to the bar, like a good Bavarian and had a few beers - after I had finished my set he came up to me and told me about an event his organisation was holding that evening - a debate on Brexit. I know “Love at first sight” seems like a cliché but I was instantly entranced by his sparkling light blue eyes. He was too shy to invite me directly, but I went along anyway with the Head of the European Commission in Munich who had organised the festival… the only snag was the debate was in German, a language I knew barely of, but he insisted on translating the entire discussion for me - so, I didn’t feel excluded. The perfect excuse to spend the entire evening staring in deeply into his sparkling eyes (he told me later that made him even more nervous!!) We didn’t see each other again for over 3 months - when I travelled to stay with him in Bavaria for 2 weeks. We had our first kiss under a rainbow over the Bavarian mountains and every moment of our lives together since then have felt like a magical fairy tale. Even with the immense challenges of a long distance relationship and the nightmare of post Brexit bureaucracy (constantly travelling back and forth, negotiating the 90/180 day rule and the kafkaesque nonsense of acquiring the documents required for us to marry) I have felt so loved and cared for throughout everything. We’re not out of the woods yet - we have more bureaucracy to negotiate in order for us to be able to live together, but I am so immensely grateful that the stars aligned to bring me and my wonderful husband together. And we wanted to celebrate our love for each other on our favourite day of the year - 9th May - Europe day. A huge thank you to all who shared this moment with us, helped us organise and made it so special, memorable and ecstatically fun. We will cherish the memory of this day forever.