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Photo album from a wedding in Nieuwenhove, Belgium
2025-12-10
During one
of my New Year's walks in the snowy countryside near Białystok, Poland, I stumbled upon a country
shop selling furniture and antiques imported from Belgium. The shop was full of interesting and
charming trinkets. While strolling among them, I picked up a photo album. It contained old wedding
photos, along with beautifully decorated telegram cards received by the newlyweds. Nobody sends
telegrams anymore these days. In fact, I've never seen them in such beautiful form. I bought the
album.
As I discovered after returning home from my walk, it contains the
wedding photographs of Andre Reygaerts and Betsy Demoey, who were married in Nieuwenhove, a district
of Gerardsbergen in East Flanders, Belgium, on July 23, 1966. The reception took place at the Zaal
Belvedere in Meerbeke.
The album contains numerous black-and-white photos from various
angles, including the pre-wedding, ceremony, and family shots, taken at Cyril Goosens' "Foto"
photography studio in Denderwindeke. Cyril Goosens was a highly regarded wedding photographer in the
area in the 1960s and 1970s. He took photos, among other things, in the garden behind the house,
using unusual extras, including tame pigeons. He died young in 1979, and at the turn of 2020 and
2021, his house, which housed his photography studio, was demolished to make way for a new
development.
The wedding ceremony took place at the Zaal Belvedere in
Meerbeke on Sint-Pieterstraat. The Zaal Belvedere is another landmark with a rich history, fondly
remembered by local residents. Many weddings, First Communions, and other receptions were held there
in the 1960s. Later, it housed the Souk & Sauna club, and today the building sits unused,
awaiting the next chapter of its history.
A wedding reception menu is included with the album. Here are the
dishes that appeared on the table: mixed starter, cream of watercress soup, bridal boats,
twice-baked with selected vegetables, fruit with whipped cream, chatterboxes on dwarf chairs,
roosters with lettuce, ice cream, mocha, wine, and liqueurs.
I find the
cream of watercress soup incredibly original, perhaps a local delicacy. I would give a lot to find
out what this dish, "chatterboxes on dwarf chairs," is (in Dutch it's babbelaars op
kabouterstoeltjes).
The wedding telegrams included in the album
are beautiful. They were sent by, among others (not all are signed): Emanuel and Godelieve, Frans
Gommers and family, Cyriel van Oudenhove Colpaert, the Nechelput Vanmuylem family, the de Roselaare
café, the P. Dejonghe family, the Van Mol family, Albert and Maria Pletinckx, the Nechelput,
Burgemeester, de Mol, and Grimminge families (in one telegram), the Herreman family from Neuwenhove,
Cyriel Desmedt Dero, the Emiel Slaghmulder family, the mayor of Nieuvenhove, De Tucrk van der
Schueren.
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