So who are the lovely people, who help make our special day come together besides you as our guests?
(in sort of alphabetical order)
​Dani​
Bride-to-be! Yayyyy!!! Born and raised in northern Germany in a tiny village of about 300 inhabitants by the coast of the Baltic Sea I never thought I'd end up in London one day - but I could have not planned it any better! My parents Günther and Sieglinde have always been supportive of my sometimes crazy ideas and career changes and encouraged me to explore my boundaries.
I initially studied to become a civil servant in my home town Lübeck, but eventually became tired of it and moved to management consulting - which is also what brought me to London in the end.
Although I am a huge cat person (some might say crazy cat lady!) I am more than delighted with our two bunnies Lilo and Stitch. Apart from loving arts and crafts and interior design I have been doing Shotokan Karate since I was 6 years old - so better not mess with me on my wedding day :) ​
Jon​
The groom! Grew up in Camberley in Surrey - widely accepted as the cultural and intellectual capital of England. Well, ok not quite true but it did have an excellent statue of an elephant.
Studied geography at University of Sheffield (my colouring in skills are very good) before moving on to law at University of Exeter. Realising I couldn't study forever, I stumbled into work life as a lawyer within a TV company. Ultimately I decided law wasn't for me and moved to the BBC in order to annoy Conservative voters everywhere.
Despite being a Tottenham supporter, I'm actually a big football fan. I also love a huge range of other sports and got embarrassingly excited by the London Olympics in 2012.
I play the piano (badly), am doing my best to learn German (badly) and love skiing (fast but badly).
​
​Emily​
Our little sunshine joined our tribe with two weeks delay (fashionably late like her daddy!) on the 11th of June 2018. Since then she has been giving us an enormous amount of joy, happiness and unspeakable sights in her nappies.
Emily delights and surprises us every day and we're so excited that she gets to join us on our wedding day. We can't wait to watch her grow up (but not too quickly we hope!)
​
Jo Harris - Maid of Honour
Jo is my lovely Maid of Honour and my very most closest friend in the UK. Although I only know her for 4 years, it feels like we have known each other for ages. We share the love for a good brunch and are both organisation fans - one of the many reasons I asked her to be my Maid of Honour! She will be coordinating the schedule of the day and knows both of us, so if you have any questions or requests, please get in touch with her. Very recently she moved to Switzerland and is now learning German - just in case you need another translator ;)
Daria von Wedel
Daria is my sweet little cousin and the daughter of my aunt (and godmother) Kerstin. Her loving and caring nature as well as her craziness have always been the reasons why I enjoyed spending time with her. All the great evenings we had together when we lived very closely and one highlight was certainly our trip to Rock am Ring - a huge rock festival in Germany.
Daria is married to Christoph and they have the cutest little son on earth - also my godson! - Mio, with whom they live in a lovely little house in Lübeck with their dog Boomer.
Laura Lindley
My amazing soon-to-be-sister-in-law and James' wife! Laura's help during the wedding preparations have been invaluable, especially since she has been sharing her experience from her wedding in 2017 and acted as one of my sounding boards for my ideas. Laura's haggling skills are ferocious and she put them into action when getting my wedding dress. She is pure fun to have around and it will be fantastic to have her as part of my new family!
Laura lives with her husband James and their two adorable bunnies Bentley and Suki in London.
Maike Berens-Gechter
Sometimes it simply fits... Maike and I met in 2013 during my MBA (which we did in long-distance learning, and whilst working full time!) in Hamburg and we simply clicked! Although we don't live close by, we became very close friends and I can always rely on her support and friendship. I love the fact that despite me moving even further away we keep our fortnightly Facetime sessions - and no, that does not count as drinking alone! ;)
Maike is married to Dennis and they live with their daughter Ellen, who was born in February in a house in Ankum, about 2.5 hours south-west of Lübeck
Olga Bender
The best friendships start with "I am not sure I like you". Olga and I started uni together in 2004 straight after school. Even though at first we were not sure what to think of each other, we became incredibly close friends and even lived in the same flat complex for several years. She is one of the most caring people I have ever met and even though we don't get to see each other as much as we like, we keep our friendship close.
Olga is married to Norman and they built a beautiful house in the vicinity of Lübeck where they live with their little son Yannis who was born in July 2018.
Tiny Ellwart
Tiny (pronounced: teenie, short for Ann-Christine) is my sweet little little cousin! As daughter of my aunt Birgit she made the trio of granddaughters on my mother's parents side perfect. It is wonderful to see how much closer we grew over the years and although living quite far apart, Tiny's sense for family has kept us close. Lots of whats app voice messages go back and forth between us all the time and it feels great to have such a sweetheart to talk to.
Tiny is in a relationship with Timo and both live with their tiny dog Bailey in Wuppertal, a city in the Ruhr-Valley, whilst they are at uni.
​Bridal Party​
​
​Groomsmen Party​
​
James Lindley - Best Man
James has been my younger brother as long as I can remember. I'd taught him everything that he knows although unfortunately that was about 25 years ago and he's been teaching me things ever since (although a lot is about finance policy and you have to be quite drunk for that to become interesting). We still hang out regularly playing football, skiing and bemoaning Brexit / the England football team.
James married Laura in 2017 in a wonderful London ceremony at which I was honoured to be best man - at this point it might be worth reminding him how nice I was to him on the stag do...
Dan Clifton
Dan and I went to secondary school together where we bonded over both having terrible haircuts.
He is the epitome of happy-go-lucky and seems to always have a smile on his face. There's no-one better to cheer you up and I'm indebted to Dan for making me feel better about my sporting ability. He's also part of the genius team behind cult classic Day of the Duvet - a horror movie we made as teenagers that means if we ever become famous there will always be something to embarrass us.
Dan has recently taken the extremely exciting opportunity to live in his own island paradise in Reunion Island off the coast of Madagascar with his Reunionese girlfriend Julie.
Dan Miller
There aren't many people I've known longer than Miller and the Miller's and the Lindley's have been firm family friends for decades. I ended up showing him around junior school and we've had an enduring friendship ever since.
Miller's quick wit is legendary and many a person has landed flat on their face when trading funnies. He's also boasts
swinging hips that would be the envy of the finest salsa dancers culminating in his very own Olympic standard event - the Bolivian Swing.
Miller, or the Baron of Bracknell to his friends, is a true and loyal friend who has been there throughout my finest and not so finest moments.
Jon Harris
What to say about the man and enigma that is Jon Harris? Well, I met my namesake at secondary school but we didn't become great friends until after school had finished - not least when, of all places, we bonded by drinking far too many beers at the world squash championships.
Jon has great conversation, will always get the drinks in on a big night out and never stops thinking about his mates. He's also a founder member of Team Jon - it's achievements are too numerous to mention (and also mostly fictional). RIP the Team Jon t-shirt but Jon will always warm himself with the knowledge that he was an Olympic Champion.
Jon married Sarah in 2016 in a celebration they organised from scratch complete with ferrets, face paint and superheroes.
Paul Mehta
I met Paul in secondary school but much like with Jon Harris, we didn't become close friends until after we left school. Paul was a member of the same football team as me for a fairly unsuccessful few years - spending most of his time complaining that I wasn't helping him defend (potentially why we weren't that successful).
Paul and I share a love of sport and have spent many an hour debating the latest sporting accomplishment or disaster. Paul's laugh is infectious and with his salt and pepper beard, he's dashingly handsome. Unfortunately his Formula 1 chat is less of a hit with ladies.
Paul and I also enjoy saying we should play tennis. One day we might just.