There was a special festival at Zollverein in Essen at the weekend. Couples could get married there spontaneously.
A touch of Las Vegas blew over the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen. Visitors could simply get married. Spontaneously, in a wedding dress borrowed on site or without – but with God’s blessing. That is the concept of Segen45, a start-up of the Protestant church. And there were about 100 couples wanting to get married.
We are crazy and I love the unconventional.
Marcel Schmelz, groom
Getting married without complications
Romantic music and floral decorations everywhere. The organizers transformed the area into a place of love. Complete with a huge LOVE sign for the wedding photos in front of the Doppelbock, the mining landmark. Many people came spontaneously. “We heard it on the radio at breakfast and then just got in the car,” says one couple.
With or without family, in white or simply in a denim jacket. Everything was possible and free of charge. Around 30 pastors and volunteer preachers were available for a ceremonial wedding. The church blessing was important to the couples, as most of them were already married in a civil ceremony.
Saying yes in an unusual place
In the coal washing plant, on the crew bridge or in the birch forest – the World Heritage Site offered extraordinary locations for the wedding vows. “We are crazy and I love the unconventional. This is something different. Going to church and sitting there stiffly doesn’t suit us. We would prefer to get married on a smaller scale,” says Marcel Schmelz, who married his Jenny.
Simply getting married in this way is not a civil marriage. In the ceremony, love is blessed by the church.
Our sources:
The WDR will also report on this topic on September 23, 2024 on television in the Lokalzeit Ruhr.
