Wedding Yulia & Bram

Good afternoon everyone. Welcome.

My name is Marjolie Hetharia and I have the honor to conduct marriages and today the wedding of Bram and Yulia.

A few weeks ago we had a personal interview at your lovely house in Amsterdam and we agreed about how you would like to see this ceremony will take place and I will do my utmost best to realize this.

A special bridal couple on a special and important historic special place Fort Diemerdam in Diemen. It was tasked with the closure and defense of the Zuiderzee and the access to Amsterdam, preventing landings, The Defense Line as a whole is protected as a monument and has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1996.

Stadsherstel has been working on the restoration of the buildings and the fort grounds since 2012, and since then, weddings can be held here.

Yes, a special bridal couple, a special day 6 June 2025 and a record has been broken. For more than 26 years now I have been performing weddings for the municipality of Diemen. In all those years I married people who were born from countries from all over the world. Sometimes for 500 guests and sometimes 4. But I never married a weddingcouple who started their connection in the sky in a plane.

Because as you can imagine from that split second both of your lifes changed completely. To move on to the formal part of the ceremony I always ask my bridal couples what makes your partner so special for you. Of all the more than 8 billion people in the world, why do you choose your partner today to have your love recorded by law. Separately, you have written your answer.

Lieve Yulia, ‘Никогда не разговаривайте с неизвестными – ‘Never talk to strangers’. This advice forms the title of the first chapter of your favourite novel Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. This book is one of the first gifts you gave me.

How lucky I am that you didn’t follow this advice on that Sunday in February, six years ago. I’m so lucky that you helped this stranger from a foreign land find a place for his suitcase on the plane.

I’m lucky, because you, wonderful Yulia, are standing here with me. I’m so happy I got to know you. I feel so supported by you in whatever I do, both in my professional and personal life.

I’ve come to realise how much that support has meant during the Corona period, when so many things that are dear to me came to a standstill. It made a big difference to my mental health to have you around. This is when we practically started living together, one of the steps that led us to where we are now.

As I talk to you now, I’m looking into your eyes. Your eyes have a secret feature, that I will share with the close ones that we have assembled around us today.

Your eyes can smile. I love that. I guess you must be the only person who, when wearing a facemask, can still produce a smile that, channelled through her eyes, shines into the room.

In general, I love it when I see your emotions. Your joy and enthusiasm are infectious. Sometimes there’s a little flicker of fire in you, but luckily it’s rarely directed at me.

This is connected to one of your admirable qualities: you don’t carry a grudge. When you’ve mentioned what you don’t like, the subject is normally closed. A lot of people can learn from that. Including me.

I know how much you value a sense of security, and that at times you like to have a stoic counterweight besides you. I will always do my best to provide that to you.

I think we make a great team. We are not particularly fast when it comes to making decisions, but the important ones have always led to great results – I’m thinking of our apartment, and also of how today turned out. Thank you for giving me a nudge into the right direction when that was needed during the preparations.

Liefste Yulia, I’m so looking forward to all the adventures we’ll have together. Love you!

Brami, zaychik, kotya,

I love you. I’m lucky that my love is returned, and I’m so happy to be standing here today with you.

When we first met, I remember so clearly the thought in my head: “Wow! Have I ever met such an interesting person?!” And to this day, that thought still stands.

The way we met is special, indeed — but more than that, I cherish those first weeks afterward. It was so easy and so fast. No games, no mixed signals — just the pure joy of spending time together and the feeling that it was never enough.

You are so smart. You’re kind, empathetic, and thoughtful. I admire how calm you are, and how curious you are about life and the people in it. I value so much how determined you are to learn Russian so that you can speak with my family.

You were the first person in my life with whom I could truly imagine growing old. And the way I see us at 90 is this: we’re still going to the opera — just at a much slower pace.

You’ll keep complaining about how high I set the thermostat, and I’ll keep making jokes about you buying four packs of toothpaste just because it’s 2+2 gratis.

You’ve seen me at my best and at my worst — like the “excuse me” moment at that Italian place, or King’s Day 2024 — and you still choose me. This does make me question your sanity sometimes, but it also makes me feel that I am perfect just the way I am.

And so, today, I promise that will always choose you.

I choose you to struggle and to succeed with, to love and to grow old with, to be the one with whom I will explore the world... and the housing market of the Netherlands.

I promise to be the one who holds your cold hand during every premiere of yours — and also in any sad time to come.

I promise to be loyal and faithful.

I promise to be your partner — for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.

I promise to always kiss you good night.

For the law I have to say the 'yes-word' in Dutch because this marriage will take place in the Netherlands. I would like to ask the both of you to stand up and hold each others right hand and answer my following questions:

Bram Lodewijk Kortekaas, will you take as your wife, Yulia Olegovna Geydenrikh, and do you promise to faithfully fulfill all the duties that the law attaches to the state of marriage? What is your answer?

Yulia Olegovna Geydenrikh, will you take as your husband, Bram Lodewijk Kortekaas, and do you promise to faithfully fulfill all the duties that the law attaches to the state of marriage? What is your answer?

Then, by the power vested in me as an extraordinary registrar of the civil registry of the municipality of Diemen, I hereby declare you lawfully married.

You may kiss your groom!

(MUSIC: Get Ready - the Temptations)

Ondertekening trouwakte: First the bridal couple and then their witnesses.

Maria: Maria is Yulia’s childhood friend. They know each other from primary school and Yulia’s father and Maria’s mother also know each other from school in Rostov-on-Don.

Daan: Daan is Bram’s older brother. Bram was Daan’s witness at his wedding in 2015. It feels special that he can be Bram's witness at his wedding.

(Exchange of wedding rings.) Bram can you present the wedding rings so that we can exchange them….. Look under the chairs. Somebody is sitting on it while they did not know that they would be the ringbearer.

I always give my bridal couple a wish and let it come to me on the moment: My wish for you is simple: May all your dreams come true in good health and with lots of fun.

Thank you very much for your time and attention and have a wonderful day.

(Congratulations) Bram and Yulia will come by to receive your congratulations. So please do not form a line and wait for each other.

I want to thank you all for your presence and attention and wish you a very pleasant continuation of this special day and all the best for the future.