The Tourism Agency of Schleswig-Holstein has ordered that every one of the state's roughly 60 lighthouses host at least one wedding before the end of the season, a directive that has already changed the shape of the North Sea coastline.
Construction crews from the Wasserstraßen- und Schifffahrtsverwaltung have spent the past weeks fitting stairwells of the Hörnum, Pellworm and Westerhever towers with aisles, pews and altars. The Kiel-Holtenau tower has been fitted with a second, larger lantern room to accommodate the guest list of a single family. Ferry timetables from Dagebüll and Fehmarn have been rewritten so that bridal parties can reach the outer islands on foot at low tide.
A spokesman for the agency said: »The lighthouse has always been a guide for those who are lost at sea. We have now extended that guidance to the wedding party, which is lost in a different way.« He added that the Falshöft tower would be retired from navigation service entirely, since it could no longer be seen from the water through the bunting.
Officials of the agency have also decided that the Lübeck-Travemünde lighthouse, Germany's oldest, which has not shone since 1539, must be lit again for the ceremony. Its historic oil and gas lamps are being polished and fed for the first time in centuries, and a maritime museum has been converted into a bridal dressing room.