Today was the day of Audrey and Robert's wedding in Stiftung Schloss Greifensee Im Stadtli! A beautiful day ... perfect weather for a wedding. Nice and sunny.
We started out the day with another wonderful breakfast of assorted breads, jams, meats and cheeses. Ruth and Fred are spoiling us!
Fred and Ruth drove James, Lauren, and I to the events ... thank goodness too because the Schloss for the wedding and reception and the restaurant for the dinner were in far flung locations. We rode an auto ferry across Lake Zurich, then drove through the "Gold" or sunny side of the lake to get to Greifensee. 
Audrey and Robert had a small civil ceremony ... very different from an American civil ceremony, and very businesslike. I understand why Audrey had to practice her signature the day before. She had several chances to show off her new name as she and Robert signed papers so they could officially tie the knot!
As we left the Schloss and walked down the steps with the family, we passed under the garlanded poles that Ruth had worked on until late the night before.
After some photos, we adjourned to the castle garden for the reception. The flowers in the garden were gorgeous and the garden overlooked a small lake, Greifensee. A beautiful setting with lots of traditional food for the 200 guests. We got to meet several family members and friends.
There were some fun activities during the reception. The bride, groom, bridesmaid and best man released white doves early in the afternoon. They were also handed a large bouquet of red and white heart-shaped balloons and a pin. When they popped the balloons, large denomination bills fell out of them. Perhaps James and I should renew our vows... in Switzerland!
Later in the afternoon, all of the guests filled out post cards with their wishes for the bride and groom and an invitation or promise ... We invited them to come and visit us ...
Then the post cards were attached to helium balloons. They were all released at the same time and we watched them float up into the blue sky. Theoretically, people will find the balloons and drop the post cards in the mail.
Finally there was the tossing of the bouquet which went just fine. There is no European tradition related to the garter however, so no embarrassing pictures of the bride. The groom was certainly interested in trying something new but...
We ended the reception with the boats. Out origami boats looked pretty poor compared to some of the elaborate models many people brought. After everyone was photographed with their boat, we all walked down to the lake and put them in the water and watched them sail away. There were some children playing in the water and they started playing with some of the boats ... but many of the boats escaped to open waters. We all held our breath when the bride and groom strolled out to the end of the pier but fortunately there were no catastrophic mishaps.
The new Mr. and Mrs. Vorburger left the reception in a beautiful old silver Bentley, then 47 of the guests piled into cars and headed into Zurich for dinner.
There will be lots more pictures posted on the wedding site at http://www.audrey-robert.ch/fotos
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