The Ceremony: It rained through the night and the morning, but the sky cleared about an hour before the ceremony. Guests were led through a forest by a bagpiper to the top of a field. We appeared a few minutes later, with our best man and bridesmaid. Robert Martin, who teaches philosophy at Bard College, performed a nondenominational ceremony, quoting Plato. Titus, Luise’s godfather, blew the trumpet. Max, Nicholas’s brother and best man, explained how he set fire to the very field we were standing on with fireworks when he was a kid, and how it grew back more beautifully the following season. Renate, Luise’s sister, read a poem by Erich Fried. We exchanged rings, kissed, cried, and drank from each other’s wine glass. Then everybody else kissed and cried, and we marched back to the house for a champagne reception.