Love is in the air...

Since I am still waiting to meet with a potential photographer this afternoon, I will regale you with yet another neat German wedding tradition: the helium balloon/postcard send-off.

This is a fun, photogenic, and touching action that extends the excitement of the wedding for weeks to follow. The concept is simple:

1) Each wedding guest/couple gets a postcard which is already addressed to the happy couple and stamped. There is also a note/sticker on the postcard that says "if you find me, please toss me in a mailbox". You can also include a space for senders to note their location before they toss it in, so you can find out where the balloons made it to!

2) Guests fill out the postcards by either writing happy wedding wishes or by "promising" the pair something special in the future, like a game night, a dinner invite, something like that.

3) Postcards are hole-punched and affixed to helium balloons (heart-shaped ones look especially nice)

4) All wedding guests release balloons at once. Picture opportunities abound.

5) The newlyweds enjoy receiving lovely wishes in the mail from their guests over the next weeks.

Now I know this isn't strictly environmentally friendly. I wouldn't recommend doing it if you're on the beach, since fish and other marine life can choke and die from popped balloons. But it is a lovely, beautiful event and the two weddings where I experienced it, the couple received over half the postcards back! Some of them had made it a hundred kilometers or so! Amazing, eh?