Ingrid in Berlin: July 2015

Make Love not War ----- The Return of Berlin's Love Parade:

Every July Berliners and people from all over the world used to celebrate love in their famous and colorful Love Parade. Tens of thousands would congregrate and "hang out" just west of the Brandenburg Gate.  Eventually it got to be so huge that it became the victim of its own success.

After a couple of years of no Love Parade Berliners realized that in July this city needs some kind show that demonstrates love. This year they started a new type of Love Parade: No longer dominated by gay and individual love, The March of Love is more political and includes organizations and non-profit groups who support empathy and understanding for political asylum seekers, Roma gypsies, refugees from war-torn Syria, legal and illegal immigrants, in short all the people in need.   Instead of one gigantic assembly west of the Brandenburg Gate there is now a 10km walk in the Eastern part of the city.  This past Saturday afternoon Bill and I were happy to watch the "March of Love" directly from our balcony. Thundering techno-beat, floats with banners that we, unfortunately, could not read and tens of thousand walkers attracted more participants on the way. For an hour we saw them marching by and we would have joined had I not been in the middle of cooking... The news talked of 20-35,000 participants.

Alex Wooten and Jelena Djordjevic' Wedding

Bill and I are very happy to announce the marriage of our son Alex to Jelena, his long-time girlfriend.

Here is the New York Times ad that Jelena had placed for publication this past Sunday, 8/12/2015

Jelena Zorana Djordjevic, a daughter of Zorica V. Djordjevic and Zoran B. Djordjevic of Boston was married Saturday to Alexander Jobst Wooten, the son of Ingrid Jobst-Wooten and William A. Wooten of Arlington, Va. Annie Winter, a friend of the couple who became a minister with American Marriage Ministries for the occasion, officiated at the Garden Pavilion, an estate in Sonoma, Calif.

The bride and groom met at the University of Pennsylvania, from which they both graduated magna cum laude.

In June, Ms. Djordjevic, 29, who is keeping her name, received an M.B.A. from Stanford. In October, she is to become a consultant on corporate strategy in the San Francisco office of Bain & Company.

Her father is a computer scientist who designs software applications at NTT Data, an information technology company, in its Boston office, and is a lecturer of computer science at Harvard. Her mother is a lecturer of mathematics and statistics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and at Roxbury Community College in Boston.

The groom, 30, is an associate director of corporate finance at SolarCity, a solar power provider, in San Mateo, Calif. He received an M.B.A. with honors from the University of California, Berkeley.

The groom’s mother is a real estate agent in the Arlington office of Long & Foster. His father retired as a special assistant at the Education Department in Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on July 12, 2015, on page ST15 of the New York edition with the headline: Jelena Djordjevic, Alexander Wooten. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Aby, the photographer, with two cameras hanging on her back, is setting up for the afternoon...

At the other end of the room the mothers are getting their hair done as well...

Best Men bringing food....

The steam iron.... Brides maids' dresses....

The Wedding:
Here are a few first photos. Some "official" photos will follow when I get them from the professional photographer.

Some of Alex and Jelena's friends:

Jelena and Zoran, her Dad:

The Serbian relatives from Toronto and Vasa (4th from left) and Dragona (on right) from Serbia. Jelena's parents, Zoran and Zorica, stand on either side of Bill: