The Wedding Diplomat

OMG

2010-06-29T05:30:00.001-07:00

my parents are arriving tomorrow. It’s all starting!!!! wooooooooooooo!!!!!!

(PS: the weather is AMAZING)

The Seven Sleepers

2010-06-25T00:38:00.000-07:00

Well thank you everyone for putting up with my freakout yesterday. After some teary phone calls and an episode of Gilmore Girls, I was feeling more like myself again. And today was the big day – our wedding day is showing up on the 16 day weather forecast! I mean.. what a big milestone!! :)

Ok, I know, my mom told me the same thing. I should STOP looking at the forecast. Just stop. Because I can’t change it!!! And this is oh so true, especially because, in the Allgäu near the Alps, the weather can change at a moment’s notice, so really, even the day-of forecast might not predict the future. BUT I just can’t help myself. I have no power against it, every day when I wake up, I think about checking the weather. I think I have just been thinking about it so long that I can’t help myself.

Anyway, you probably want to know what I saw this morning when I logged onto wetter.com, right?

Well, I saw this (all temps in Celsius, of course):

Right up until our wedding day, it’s supposed to be amazing, and then BLECH. Well, I know, it’s totally unreliable at this point. In fact, just yesterday the prediction for Friday the 9th was only 16 degrees. So it’s been changing daily. But I was understandably a teensy bit bummed. Mr. S then tried to lift my spirits by telling me about the Seven Sleepers Day legend.

According to Wikipedia (and my Fiance), Siebenschläfer (which is this Sunday) is a prediction for the weather to come in the next 7 weeks. It’s one of those old farmer’s legends, that was originally based on an old Christian legend that you can read about here.

Anyways, the farmer’s legend promises the following:

• Wie das Wetter am Siebenschläfer sich verhält, ist es sieben Wochen lang bestellt.
How the weather behaves on Siebenschläfer, so it’s ordered for seven weeks more.

• Wenn’s am Siebenschläfer regnet, sind wir sieben Wochen mit Regen gesegnet.
When it rains on Siebenschläfer, we will be blessed with seven weeks of rain

• Das Wetter am Siebenschläfertag sieben Wochen bleiben mag.
The weather on Siebenschläfer will stay for seven weeks

• Wie’s Wetter am Siebenschläfertag, so der Juli werden mag.
So the weather on Siebenschläfer day, so the weather will be in July

• Wenn die Siebenschläfer Regen kochen, dann regnet’s ganze sieben Wochen.
When the Siebenschläfer rains are cooking, then it will rain for a whole seven weeks

• Ist der Siebenschläfer nass, regnet’s ohne Unterlass.
If it’s wet on Siebenschläfer, it will rain nonstop

• Regnet’s am Siebenschläfertag, der Regen sieben Wochen nicht weichen mag.
If it rains on Siebenschläfer, the rain won’t stop for seven weeks

• Werden die sieben Schläfer nass, regnet's noch lange Fass um Fass.
If the seven sleepers get wet, then it will rain barrels and barrels (this is my favourite, heheh)

• Der Siebenschläferregen, der bringt dem Lande keinen Segen.
When it rains on Siebenschläfer, it does not bring the countryside any good signs.

• Siebenschläfer Regen - sieben Wochen Regen.
Siebenschläfer rain, seven weeks rain

• Scheint am Siebenschläfer Sonne, gibt es sieben Wochen Wonne.
When the sun shines on Siebenschläfer, there will be seven weeks of joy

So, and I bet you’re wondering what the weather is supposed to be like on Sunday? Here it is:

High of 80, less than 10% chance of rain.

THAT’s what I call a good sign.
Anyone else getting really superstitious?

Wedding Angst

2010-06-24T08:21:00.001-07:00

Ok, I am allowed one stress post, right? This is the one. Here is all the stuff that is stressing me out

money. right. we have to pay off our venue, our photog, our band, our florist etc etc all within 8 days of the wedding, so BEFORE we head off on the honeymoon. Theoretically good, but that doesn’t leave us with much wiggle room… and we may or may not be a little behind, despite all the awesome savings we have made along the way. EEK
feeling in shape – I mean, I KNOW that it’s pretty much too late to change much before the wedding, but I want to feel really good. I have been going to the gym and doing crazy workouts from Jillian Michael’s “Make the Cut” program which has been helping, and of course watching my eating.
nails/hair/skin – I am trying not to bite my nails but that happens to be a nervous habit of mine, so it’s been tough. And taking care of those other parts of me is also important, but hard on a time crunch!
STUFF TO DO! Placecards to make, programs to write, vows to compose, playlists to complete. And work is totally distracting me. Well.. only 3 more days of work and then I am FREE!

So that’s that. I am officially stressed. But I guess it would be obnoxious for me not to be – right? Just getting it out of my system :)

Our very first...

2010-06-11T04:16:00.000-07:00

Wedding present! Yup, our first official wedding present was waiting for us when we got home yesterday. What is it? Well, a family of suitcases!! We likened them to suitcase-matruschka dolls, since they came all nested in one another. Mama, Papa and Baby suitcases, in a bold green:

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This lovely and thoughtful gift came from my parents, and we can't wait to use them on our Honeymoon and to visit my family in the USA! I already started packing for our honeymoon (EXCITED!!)

1 month to go..!

2010-06-10T04:36:00.001-07:00

I just counted. I have exactly 11 days left to work before the wedding!!! 11!!!! This is so exciting, yet so nerve wracking, because this means that the wedding is SOON. In 1 month, to be exact.

Just a small list of things left to do, if you are curious, or really more for me because it makes me feel better to get this stuff on “paper”

• complete our outfits (hair piece for me, earrings for me, shoes, belt and shirt for Mr. S)
• finish writing our ceremony (choose a ritual, finalize the texts and translations, go over all of this with our officiant)
• complete paper products (escort cards, table numbers, programs, placecards)
• finish gifts (for bridesmaids, groomsmen, parents, other “helpers”)
• music and dancing (choose a first dance song and a parent dance song, practice, compile playlist for prosecco toast, meet with our Friend-DJ for post-band music)
• make signage (welcome sign, bathroom signs, golf course, mud bath, ceremony etc…)
• photobooth (finish backdrop, get paper ready, make signs, change printer cartridge, fix photo program)
• decorations (make poms, hang garlands, find a place for various pretty things)
• chair covers (sew them! ahhh)
• favors (pick up honey in 2 weeks, make labels, label all jars)

and some other non-essential but desirable things that I am trying to squeeze in:

• healthy eating and lots of jogging so I look my best
• STOP biting my nails
• pull everything out of the “magical wedding closet” and organize and label it
• clean and organize our apartment for our “impending” guests
• see friends and enjoy the lovely summer
• purchase clothes and pack for honeymoon

I think those last two things will prove to be very difficult. But with 1 month to go, I think a schedule is in order! I am off to print off a big calendar and start plugging all these activities into days. Because, folks, there are only 30 left!!!!!!!

Ring of Fire, the trilogy

2010-06-04T05:12:00.000-07:00

Remember when I told you that Mr. S. sent me a gcal invitation with the title “Ring of Fire” to “schedule” our ring ordering appointment for, oh, last saturday? Right. We were WAAYYY too lazy to leave the house. All day. So we procrastinated again. Then, we made “ring of fire II” attempt, on wednesday, but then a friend of Mr. S’s called and asked if I would accompany her to Ikea. To IKEA?! WHAT?! Um, yes please. So we had to postpone that one too.

That brings us to Ring of Fire III. Ok well this is the deal about the rings. I ordered a beautiful ring from SingleBbeautiful on Etsy. It came and I loved it – but it was too big. Oops. Said ring sat around for quite a while, and I kept showing Mr. S various rings and he would say “I like that” and then we would forget about it. But, it being a month till the wedding and all, we thought we should probably get on it.

Anyways, we swore we would go on Friday, at lunch. There is a jeweller that I had visited in my more ambitious early days of wedding planning, and I liked him a lot. He is an actual artist and not some stuffy jewler that tries to convince you to buy all kinds of white gold and diamonds and schtuff. Not that there is anything wrong with those things, but it’s just not us.

We we walked in (finally!) and handed him my ring. Can you resize it? – we asked. Sure, no problem. Phew – see, my ring is hammered recycled argentium silver with inlayed white sapphires. He actually asked if they were diamonds, which I thought was pretty impressive because after all, he is a professional. This is my ring:

Anyways, he seemed really impressed that they were white sapphires and told us how much he likes to work with them, etc etc. At any rate, I was worried about resizing the ring cause I had read online that silver, especially with inlays, is hard to resize. But he seemed undaunted. So Mr. S. starts to explain that he wants something similar, only without the stones and a bit thicker and as he is speaking the shop owner pulls out a ring and says “like this”? We stare. Um, yes, actually, exactly like that. That is right, folks, the jeweller actually read his mind. We liked this guy. We arranged for engraving in his – the same engraving that is in my engagement ring (I will not be having my wedding ring engraved, since it is so thin) and he said he would text us when the rings are done. In about 8 days.

WOOOOOOOOOO

This is finally done. We have been procrastinating this task for so long and it feels sooooooo good to finally check it off our list. We are meeting with the honey man and the florist tomorrow and the venue coordinator on sunday and then, my friends, we are almost all set! (except for 100000 details but that’s another story..).

We made all kinds of giddy jokes in the U-bahn about how thank goodness we didn’t need a Ring of Fire IV and that the fourth sequel to a movie is always really bad and that the third one is usually the best! haha! (we’re so funny..)

So… we’re so happy to have found a non-stuffy jeweller who was nice to us and didn’t lecture us that we need white gold or platinum or diamonds instead of silver and sapphires. Oh, and in case you are ever in Munich, you should visit him cause he has some wonderful other jewellery pieces that I oogled today.

Here is his website – it plays new agey music which is hilarious. http://www.artweger-design.de/

the calm before the storm

2010-05-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

We finished the invitations on sunday. That’s right – they are gone! out! sent! Better late than never, that's for sure!

I won’t lie – it was hard work. Like 6 hours a day in the evening for a week straight hard work. But based on the compliments we have been getting, it was totally worth it. I am going to wait another week to share the fruits of my labor with the blog-o-sphere, and for now am going to rant (rave?) a bit about a phenomenon that I have read about in my myriad of wedding blog readings and am now experiencing.

Total lack of motivation at the (less than) 2-month mark. That’s right, folks. I need a break at exactly the time where there is no break allowed. After slaving over the paper puncher and ordering zillions of euros of stamps from the Deutsche Post, we (ehem I) are (am) tired. And we are getting excited! like… really excited. So like a little whiny kid, this is what I feel like:

ARE WE THERE YET?!

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I want to see my friends and family! I want to eat our cake! I want to get MARRIED! NOW! Also, I want to fly happily married to our honeymoon and lie in the sun and drink cocktails and remember the lovely weekend we had with all our guests.

I have also strangely lost my desire to comb the shops for more blue and green details, or brainstorm about bridesmaids gifts, or painstakingly plan every detail of the weekend. Maybe that isn’t so bad though, because really we’ve done a lot, and I think we’ve reached a point where we can really say that we are almost there. But there are still a few “big ticket” items that we haven’t finished:

Purchasing Mr. S’s ring. Yup, we are big procrastinators. Also, we hate german wedding bands. I already ordered my ring from Etsy a while ago – but it needs to be resized. He wants to get a semi-matching one made. We are kind of lazy and kind of afraid what the snooty shops will say. We are sucking it up and going on Saturday – Mr. S just sent me a “ring of fire” gcal invitation. I know he called it that to make me laugh and stop me stressing– which it did. I love this man.

Finalizing flowers – I went around the corner – yes, the flower shop is literally a 25 second walk from Mr. S’s family’s door in Buchenberg – to talk to the flower lady last time we were visiting. We talked through my ideas for bouquets, boutonieres and ceremony decorations. We also discussed the reception deco, but that was kind of complicated since our venue coordinator is technically taking care of (and paying for) that part. We agreed to use my (40-some) blue and green bottles and vases, which I will bring to her on June 6th when we go down for our “last” (ha!) visit

Favors – we have been trying to meet up with the honey man, but the weather has been so gosh darn horrible and he told us that cold weather makes bees aggressive (just like me!). So we are crossing our fingers for good weather on June 6th so we can meet him, photograph the honeymaking in progress to hang up at the reception, and take a look at the honey jars so we can design a label.

My hairpiece, his shoes, shirt and belt – the final touches to our “outfits” are still MIA – my tailor agreed to fashion me a hair flower, but I keep forgetting to bring her a hair clip! I am planning on doing this tomorrow. Mr. S. and I will hopefully squeeze some shoe, shirt and belt shopping into our saturday “ring of fire” escapade.

Music – we have yet to discuss music choices with our band or make our playlist for the cocktail hour. We also need to clarify the (friendor) DJ after-hour setup with our venue, because apparently his portable speakers will be being used to broadcast the world cup semifinal in a beer tent outside our venue (here’s hoping that not too many of our guests run off to watch it!)

Ceremony – ooooo this is a big one! We actually have written most of our portion – we are waiting for our officiant’s text. We have already chosen music and walking order, and now need to decide on a ritual and create our programs. Getting there getting there.

Photobooth – my mom is creating the backdrop for this. Ms. S needs to “fix” the printer to print on smaller photopaper. And we are gathering props.

Chair covers – my lovely Maid OH is making these … but we need to get a go on this one! We have yet to order fabric….

So I guess we can’t throw in the towel JUST yet. But we are definitely getting there, and there really aren’t that many “big ticket” items left to clarify. The rest of it is all stuff we will have to take care of the week (or day) before – like making 50 poms and hanging them, decorating, hanging signs, assembling OOT bags…. oh, the list goes on.
Anyone else wish they could just kick back and relax?

Our Invitations - a Journey

2010-05-16T05:12:00.000-07:00

After waiting anxiously for any indication of the location of our invites, I finally caved and called the German Customs office and lo and behold, they had my package. I took advantage of my day off on Wednesday and made the trek out to the Zollamt - and it really was a journey. Of course it's located completely on the outskirts of the city, in fact it's not even in the city but rather in a neighboring suburb, tucked between delivery trucks and gas stations. The kind of place that makes you feel like the only person walking around - and totally not pedestrian friendly. The name of the street was even "Diesel Straße". Very fitting.

does this look like a customs office?... (on the way there)

When I got there I went through the usual procedure - get in line, wait, get in line again, wait, go to small window and pay, wait again. I also, of course, got accused of cutting in line by a very harried woman.

can you just sense the lovely atmosphere?

The whole thing made me very nervous - an endemic ex-pat reaction to being in a government office. Inevitably we learn to expect the worst and the totally ridiculous and unexpected - I imagined all potential disaster scenarios and developed a huge lump in my throat, but in the end when I showed them my paypal slip and matching invoice, they were happy to charge me taxes and let me leave. 27 Euros poorer and a whole lot happier, I practically skipped to the Ubahn, barely resisting ripping the box open only because it was drizzling and it really would have been a shame to get those babies wet…

I made it to the subway stop and attracted a lot of attention as I attempted to fight my way through the miles of customs office tape holding my previously opened-and-snooped-in package together. I finally tore my way through and beheld our beautiful invitations - and they were even nicer than I expected!

A big happy shout-out to Ashley and Joel of This Paper Ship - they not only designed our beautiful invitations but set them in THREE languages for no extra costs, and dealt with our various (and many) requests and tweaks and confusing Polish characters with weird accents. We were extremely satisfied and I can really recommend them - but you'd better hurry up as I think their incredible design talents are being discovered big time and before we know it they will probably be super fancy and totally booked.

Continuing on…on my way home I picked up all my supplies - envelope liner paper, double stick tape, address labels, a paper cutter - and got right to work.

First, I lined the envelopes - this was such an easy project with a huge impact. I had found an adorable paper by a Munich artist that matched our invitation suite perfectly and I spent the next couple of hours tracing and cutting. I can really recommend making your own envelope liners!! (Note to invitees - open your envelopes carefully and admire my handiwork! :) )

The next project was making the invitation inserts for our after-civil-ceremony reception, our welcome BBQ and our post wedding brunch (in 3 languages!) - after designing them I printed, cut and corner punched to my (ha!) heart's content. Our corner puncher did not want to cooperate but I finally developed a way of turning it upside down to actually see if I had lined everything up right and protecting my "pushing" hand with Mr. S's oversized hood sleeve. Worked like a charm.

Then, I developed a lovely way to bind them all together - a combination of blue and white baker's twine, little punched out edelweiss images and double stick tape - and turned my attention to the luggage tags, which required even more punching, cutting, tracing and double sided taping. Then I bound the whole shebang with green organza ribbon and secured with a glue dot (those things are GENIUS). All in all they are BEAUTIFUL and we are so happy with them.

When I was all finished with the first mockup, I got out our kitchen scale and a ruler and calculated that weight-wise we were just under the limit for letter post BUT our envelopes were .4 cm too big. This is SO SAD because the €2.20 stamps are actually edelweiss stamps which we were so excited to use, AND the next level of postage costs €6!!! So our plan B is going into action - I am fedexing the finished invites to my mom in an overnight document bag and she will send them out from the states. What will we do with our 30 edelweiss stamps?

We're thinking for our thank you notes! It's still sad though, but there is no way I am risking having all our invitations sent back to us.

The invitation process has been such a whirlwind - we literally just got them 36 hours ago and they are close to being finished - which is because we are in a hurry but maybe it's a very good thing because we are super motivated!!

I am now sitting in the train on our way to Buchenberg to meet with the Rathaus tomorrow and finalize details of our ceremony and to check out the ceremony room - and on saturday I have my hair and makeup trial. So busy busy but at least I can stop stressing about the invitations - I can't wait to deliver our first copy to Mr. S's parents!!!

Anyone else dealing with the woes of shipping internationally?

Our invitations…

2010-05-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

...are in mysterious customs postal limbo. I don’t feel like planning any wedding things until we can finally get our hands on them! So until then… cross your fingers that they make it out unscathed… *sad and nervous face*

Stealin' my thunder...

2010-05-03T08:14:00.000-07:00

they stole my table # frames!!!!!

ok... considering that this post is older than my purchase, maybe not. But anyways, I had the idea FIRST (in my head, anyways) and I am actually not offended (cause, really) but am giving myself major pats on the back for being so in sync with the fancy blogging DIY world that I had the same idea.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Guest Blog - MOH Nicole and her crafty craftiness

2010-05-02T15:20:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Nicole here, the very enthusiastic (or perhaps just slightly crazy, you can be the judge after this post) MOH, well the female MOH that is. While the bride’s been busy busy making wish trees, and table numbers, figuring out the ceremony location, and taking care of the non-fun bureaucratic stuff as well, I’ve been trying to help out as much as I can by taking on a few DiY projects. I don’t live in Munich so unfortunately, we can’t work on projects together—although if that were the case I think we’d have to both quit our day jobs and only do wedding-related projects all day long!—but I do live in Germany (Berlin), so at least we're in the same time zone. And shipping things back and forth doesn't cost a small fortune, or take months that we don't have.

So I thought I’d give a preview of the projects I’ve been working on, both small and (ridiculously) large.

Bunting and Garlands

It might sound a little Betty Draper of me, but I have to say, when I received a sewing machine this Christmas from my bf’s mom, I was overjoyed with domestic happiness (though come to think of it, I somewhat doubt Betty Draper would sew...). Then I got all worried that I was getting to old and domestic. And then I remembered the tediousness of hot glue-gunning bunting together for our Thanksgiving party last year. And I realized how fantastically helpful the sewing machine could when making bunting for this wedding! No pictures of that yet, we're still in the fabric-collecting phase. But there will be bunting. Oh will there be bunting.

I have gotten started on the garlands though. I've collected multiple paper supplies for circle paper bunting (that I imagine will look something like this. I also did a happy dance in the craft store when I found not one, but two circle punchers! (Just one of many things that I’m always convinced doesn’t exist outside of the USA.) And I’ve got three different colors of thread to play around with.

First round of paper supply shopping

I still do a bit of a happy dance looking at those life-saving cirlce punchers!

Paper circles galore

On top of that, I receive two very exciting packages from the US lately, one very large one that required a trip to the Customs Office but was happily filled with happytape (http://www.happytape.bigcartel.com/) wooo!, and another that arrived literally seconds ago full of two gorgeous spools of divine twine! (http://www.divinetwine.bigcartel.com/) The Wedding DiY project possibilities are endless, and in time, all will be revealed…

Reistütchen/Rice or Confetti Bags

How cute of an addition will THESE make to the ceremony!?! They’re little bags full of rice to throw at the bride and groom at the end of the ceremony, for those of you who don’t feel like entering all that into google translate. We have yet to decide if we’ll fill them with rice or confetti (in many venues in Germany it’s verboten to throw rice because it’s bad for the environment, meaning the birdies!), but I’ve been able to start working on them anyways.

Chair Covers

Now here comes the crazy part. I haven’t been to the venue yet, but I did get a video tour of it! And, as you all probably already know, those chairs are RED! And while that probably looks great at most German weddings (red hearts are often a must), we decided pretty early on that that red would do little to complement the pretty blue and green color scheme Em has planned. So, never one to turn down a challenge or leave my best friend in distress, I courageously suggested I could make chair covers to cover the red. Yes, make. For all the chairs. All. 80. of. them. The goal here being, 1) to save money, and 2) to get something that really fits and can be personalized. I don’t think at the moment I was quite aware of what that meant, to sew 80 chair covers. After all, I’ve only had my sewing machine since December! But then I ordered some sample fabric and made my first prototype.

I learned a few important things in the creation of this prototype. 1) ALWAYS iron creases before trying to sew them. Always always always. 2) Sewing in a straight line is difficult. It takes practice, which is why I bought an extra meter and a half to practice on (I promise they'll be straight (enough) for the wedding you guys!) and 3) Taking on such a big project is GREAT motivation to revamp my crafting/sewing/office space in the apartment. Sewing takes space and patience.

And it always helps to have a glass of prosecco around to calm you down in moments of panic.

So there you have it. Wish me luck and I’ll make sure to stop by again and report on the further progress of the insane-but-totally-possible-extreme chair cover project 2010.

Thank you, Nicole, for your fabulous post and your amazing projects!!

Breaking the language barrier

2010-04-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

In writing our ceremony, Mr. Schnitzel and I have been working on getting the whole thing to be meaningful to us without being overly wordy. Why? Why not overly wordy? I mean, isn’t the ceremony about the words you speak, the promises you make?

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Yes, yes and yes. But here’s the thing – we do not share a common native language. We speak German with each other, and that works wonderfully. But, of course, although my German has much improved over the years, it isn’t perfect. I can’t always express what I want to say as well as I maybe could have in English.

How does this affect our relationship communication? Really? not at all. At least not in my opinion. Well, actually, I take that back. I actually think this IMPROVES our communication. Because we do not dwell on the nitty gritty wording. We laugh at my language errors, and I sigh with frustration when we can’t find the right German translation for an English word that I am thinking of.

As you may have noticed, I really like to write. I also love to read. Mr. Schnitzel doesn’t do either of these things – it sounds so silly but at some point in college I actually told someone that I refuse to date anyone who doesn’t read books regularly. Gosh, that sounds so egotistical and silly. Of course we are both intelligent people interested in all kinds of things, but that’s only a part of who we are.

Our relationship is not based on intellectual banter. Sure we have interesting debates about everything from politics to religion (gosh, if you know me, you know that I love to debate) but that is by no means the basis of our relationship. We communicate in our daily gestures, our smiles and routines and hugs and handholding. And this crosses not only language barriers, but cultures.

So for our ceremony, we will say some meaningful words. I will be reciting my vows in English, and he in German. But for us, it’s not really about that. It’s going to be about that moment, and looking into each other’s eyes and into the faces of our dearest friends and family and feeling married, and embracing that. Nothing we write, no matter how eloquent, will replace that.

Taming the control freak

2010-04-29T02:38:00.000-07:00

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As my regular readers well know, I fluctuate between being totally enamoured with Germany’s relaxed nature of wedding planning and being totally head exploding frustrated. But the fact remains: our wedding is taking place here and all of our vendors have this same mentality.

This isn’t really a bad thing – it basically means:

• no contracts (that’s right people, the only contracts we have are with our photographer and our officiant)

• no down payments (only with the above mentioned two) (not even on our venue!!)

• a whole lot of “we’ll discuss that the day before” or “let us put something together for you”
For example, our dessert buffet is going to be a…surprise! Well, we did demand Kaiserschmarrn, but other than that, I trust our venue to put together a lovely spread.

Our prosecco toast is going to be another “surprise” – we will be having “prosecco, juices, various appetizers and TBD punches”.

Our band is being the most difficult to pin down – they told us we can discuss our dance options THE NIGHT BEFORE. This freaked me out, quite a bit, so I harassed them until they finally caved and suggested a few waltzes that they usually play. But they won’t give more. So our music: SURPRISE!!

I mean, this is actually all kind of nice, from a relaxed person’s standpoint. And from a price standpoint: we are paying flat fees for all of this, so as long as the variety is nice then we don’t have to agonize over spending an extra XX€ to have a particular juice selection, etc. But it is a bit stressful for someone who would like to have the whole thing a bit spelled out.

My solutions?

• focus on the things I can control, like DIYing my decorations, choosing our outfits, writing our ceremony music, making an awesome IPOD playlist for our prosecco toast and hiring our friend to be our DJ after 12:00am just to make sure that we get to hear our favourite songs.

• laugh about it – it’s Germany! They already thing I am nutso for wanting blue flowers on our cake and DIYing 75 chair covers – that’s ok! I think that we are lucky in that our German guests are not expecting “normal” because they know there will be a lot of America style touches going on, and the American guests are expecting a German-style wedding. So a bunch of guests with no solid expectations equals (hopefully!) happy (and intrigued) guests!

• enjoy the element of surprise – I guess it’s kind of nice that I don’t know EXACTLY what will happen on my wedding day. This is almost always the case in most German weddings, since often friends and family plan various elements of the wedding (games, guest book etc) to pop up as suprises along the way. I am embracing this lovely element of the day and taking lots of DEEP breaths.
Mostly, I am remembering that in the end, the day is about the DAY and not about all those details – it’s going to be a lot of fun :)

Oy Oy Oy

2010-04-26T05:41:00.000-07:00

Actually, this isn’t a frustrated post, as the title would tend to suggest – it’s a happy yummy sugary one!

This is the post about us ordering our cake!! Why “Oy Oy Oy”? Well.. that just so happens to be the name of the town where we purchased said cake!

The location of our wedding is in Mr. Schnitzel’s “hometown” (where he grew up after moving from Poland) and it is quite a small town, in the middle of the Alps:

Oy is even smaller. And even higher. And even Alp-ey-er.

Despite its smallness and highness (but perhaps because of its Alp-ey-ness) Oy boasts one of the finest most delicious pastry shops in the entire Allgäu region (this is a personal assessment but I think the Busloads of over-60 tourists that offload there every day for their 3pm coffee and cake break would also support this theory). Additionally, they have their own Coffee Roastery.

Two weeks ago on one of our many planning trips, we drove up (literally) to Oy to give this cake a try. OH (B)OY!

YUM

We were sold. So we went back this past weekend to officially order the cake (we actually had wanted to do this before, but they were too busy with the busloads of tourists).

We decided on a “German-style” cake stand (they don’t really do typical American tiered cakes…):

to hold our FOUR DIFFERENT TYPES OF CAKE. Yes, I know there are a lot of capital letters in this post. But really, I think FOUR DIFFERENT TYPES OF CAKE warrants shouting letters, right?

Here are our layers, starting from the bottom tier:
• “Florentiner” – Buttercream with cherry marbeled throughout

• “Kaffecreme” – Coffee cream cake

• “Rum Truffel” – ‘nuff said

• Hazelnut – this is really nutty maple-ey delicious

Then we moved on to deco. As you know, our colors are blue and green. The Germans think this is really strange. They laugh at us, a lot. Sometimes they even taunt us. (they are used to sparkly red with roses, I guess..).

so when we showed this inspiration photo,

the lady helping us looked up and said “that?”
“Yup”

*then she turned around and called her husband, obviously the chief pastry chef, out to look*
*he squinted his eyes to look at our laptop (probably another reason they thought we were crazy) and said*:

“well.. if that’s what you REALLY WANT then I guess we could do it”

That, folks, is the brutal honesty of the German folk. We nodded vigorous yeses and they consented. Living in Germany sometimes just requires a thick skin and faith in your own decisions. At this point, they asked us if we had a cake topper, or if we needed one.

Hm…err… well yes we have a cake topper

*Mr. Schnitzel and I looked at each other with panicked eyes. OMG we can’t tell them that our cake topper is WallE and Eve, two Pixar robots. They will throw us out of their shop*

“We have one. We will bring it ourselves”

PHEW ok, that was settled. We asked about delivery and they said they could “drive the cake down” and then we asked about paying, and she said “oh, just bring the money when you bring back the cake stand (we agreed to do that).

How much, we asked? Well… hard to say exactly… Could we have a ballpark figure? ok…
*paper and pen calculations*

“85 Euros plus decorations”

*WHAT?! keep a straight face. (We have 375 Euros budgeted for the cake)*
“how much for decorations?”

*waiting for it*
“oh… 20 or 30 euros"

*WHAATTT??*

“and delivery?”

*here it comes…*

“mmm…. 5 euros, maybe, for the gas…”

Whoa. Ok, I take back all my complaints ever about Germany not having a wedding industry trying to sell me things. They literally are just charging us for the cake. No “wedding” fee, no delivery fee… insane. This is the best thing EVER. I’ll even take their insults about our cake decoration choices, any day. Guests: get excited because now we can use that budget for something else delicious (or imbibeable) for the reception!!
Deeelliiisshhhusss cake anyone?

The Devil Wears..

2010-04-23T02:08:00.000-07:00

Funny how sometimes the seemingly simplest things end up being the most difficult wedding pursuits. Take my shoes for example: I knew that I wanted a simple pair of strappy sandals, with a bit of a heel.

Apparently, however, this shoe season decided to be the season of mile high stiletto heels OR simple flat ones – NO MIDSIZE HEELS!!

I really looked everywhere, going into shoe store after shoe store in search of the right pair. But to no avail.

Alas, I decided to go into a secondhand store one day, and voilà! There they were – the perfect pair of pretty shiny gold … PRADA sandals. I was a bit nonplussed – I don’t wear Prada… I make fun of people who do. But, they were perfect, so I bought them, and I am actually quite pleased with my purchase. Here they are, in all of their devilish glory:

DIY adventures

2010-04-23T00:30:00.000-07:00

So inevitably, after reading so many lovely blog posts of amazing DIY projects and amassing a long list of to-dos, I hit the 3-month mark, gulped, looked at my list and decided that I need to start DOING!

I calculated that if I average one project a week until the wedding, I would manage to complete 12 entire projects – and probably more, considering that I will certainly do lots of little projects that last week before the festivities.

So I decided to choose projects that I could do now, without the benefit of an exact guest count or seating arrangements, etc.

My first project was DIY Cocktail Stirrers. Yes, this is a totally weird thing to start with, but as I said, I wanted to do SOMETHING and this seemed very doable. I went out and purchased what I needed (which, in Germany, is not always an easy task – but I managed) and got started.

These were VERY easy and I think they look delightful. All I did was cut bits of ribbon, hot glue them to the stirrers and cut the ends into a flag shape with scissors or pinking shears. Finished. I made 80, thinking approximately one for each guests. Looky looky!

My second project was the table numbers – I figured I will probably have approximately 8 tables, and I found these wonderful plastic frames at Ikea for 99cents that stand up on a little round foot and are two-sided. The man at the cash register thought I was CRAZY for buying 24. Yes, 24. The first eight are the numbers themselves – I love how simple these were and how great (I think) they look.

All I did was cut rectangles of pretty napkins/wrapping paper/cloth and then printed a big number (font size 300) in the lovely (free!) font “A Yummy Apology” and slipped them between the two plastic sheets into the frames. Tada! The great part about these is that they are light, easy to read, simple, and the little feet can be unscrewed for easy compact transport. SCORE.

I know, you’re wondering “what is she doing with the other 16?” Well, I saw this amazing idea on a blog a while back – I can’t remember anymore which one – to use photographs with the table numbers of us at that age. For example, table 3 would have photos of each of us at age 3. COOL! So the other two frames at each table will contain photos of us at those various ages. I still have to do this part, but it will get done this week for sure.

Here is what the numbers look like so far:

My third DIY project was my wishing tree. I followed these instructions from Wedding Chicks, only I couldn’t find a Manzanita Branch here. Actually, I didn’t look that hard, I just want to (ever lovely) Viktualeanmarkt and bought some curly branches – these ones were called “Korkenzieheräste” – corkscrew branches!!! (which I now know after wikipediaeing it are called "Chinese Willow Branches")

I followed the instructions to the letter, including sticking the branches in foam (MESSY!)

stuffing paper around the foam

Then, I mixed the plaster

and poured it in. Actually, it wasn’t really enough, but I let it harden anyways and decided that it was ok.

I then added some easter grass (hehe) and some straw like stuff.

TADA! Wishing tree.

Now all I need to do are the little wish cards. We are thinking of setting this out during our prosecco toast after the ceremony when people are feeling (hopefully) inspired.

What do you think of my projects?!

Keeping all the tops spinning

2010-04-16T05:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am not the first person to mention this, and I think I scoffed a little reading other posts about this, but I now throw up my hands and say “it’s true!” – hitting the 3 month mark is SCARY!

I was so utterly calm up until now, and it’s not like I have whipped myself into a panic, but I sort of started to realize that this wedding is..well… SOON! It’s starting to get warmer outside, and it will (very hopefully) stay that way until the wedding! No more winter between us and the wedding, no more big holidays, really nothing except for planning planning planning!

so when I get a little panicked, I make lots of lists. My college roommates can attest to that one – I always had long lists of tasks scrawled on my arms and hands. Now my lists have (thankfully) migrated to my (amazing) planner pad. But of course, lists alone won’t get the job done, and after catching my breath at all of the zillions of things I still had planned to do, I decided that the best course was simply: ACTION!

I have been zipping through my to-do list like nobody’s business, and have a new goal of finishing one DIY project every week. Hence the title of this post – I feel like I am trying to keep a zillion tops spinning at once! Every time I do something, I move on to the next, and then next… and by the time I reach the last task, 3 or 4 of the first ones have stopped spinning and need to be restarted!! ahh!!

Here is a little summary of all the stuff I (we) have been working on for the last few weeks:

• sorting through photos for slideshow

• Buying undergarments for dress

• DIYing cocktail stirrers

• making appointment to get dress altered

• purchasing decorations

• hunting for out of town bag supplies

• buying bridesmaid gifts (shh)

• making travel arrangements for relatives to travel to Prague and Vienna

• tasting cake and picking a bakery

• brainstorming a pattern for chair covers, purchasing chair cover fabric

• ordering supplies for 50+ tissue poms

• corresponding back and forth on our tri-lingual invitations

• making appointment to finalize our registry

• hunting for (and finding!) shoes

And more. Phew. I am not complaining – this is lots of fun! But those are sure a lot of tops to keep spinning… :)

The hills are alive with our italian photographer...er....

2010-03-29T13:34:00.001-07:00

We had a really nice meeting with our photographer last week - I wanted Mr. Schnitzel to definitely meet him and discuss some finer points of timing, etc. I had forgotten, though, what a nice guy he is! Fun all around…

We had a cappuccino at a local bakery while I fired off questions (well, I say "fired off" because it appeared I was the only one WITH questions. Mr. S just wanted to know "how many pictures do you take on average")

Mostly, we talked about doing portrait shots before the ceremony. I definitely don't want to miss any portion of our celebration (my dad can certainly vouch for this stubborn component of my personality - I was the one who wanted to sit in the stadium alone in the rain to watch the game my team was losing 47-0 until the end - rascal). So, clearly, we will have to do these shots before. Which I am totally fine with - more wedding fun!

The plan is to get dressed and pretty (the photog will of course document this process, too. In fact, I can't wait to see my ladies getting their hair done by the german-speaking-only hairdresser. YAY) and meet up with the boys (oohs and ahhhs all around) to drive to the "Buchenberg".

You see, the town is called "Buchenberg" but so is the big giant hill in the middle of it. I dare venture that the town is, in fact, named after said hill! "Berg" means, in German, "mountain" or "hill" or other raised mound of earth. This is a pretty big hill - I hope I can climb it without getting my dress all dusty and dirty. But, as my MOH pointed out, I will have 5 ladies AND and man of honor to lift my dress!

The boys will be there too, of course, which should be nice since the ladies and the guys may not have much time to hang out (or even meet) beforehand. We will then frolic and do "the hills are alive" with an amazing (hopefully CRYSTAL CLEAR) mountain backdrop. YAY. So my dreams of the ceremony up there aren't coming true, but at least we will have the idyllic photos to prove it.

10 differences between German and American Weddings

2010-03-25T09:25:00.000-07:00

10 differences (according to me!) between German and American weddings

Keep in mind that I am not judging and that I am only basing this on experience :) Just a few observations I have made...

1) Decorations

American
Planned completely, including deco in the bathroom and homemade toothpicks for cocktails all in our color scheme

German
Let the venue do the usual

2) Food

American
Meet with various caterers, taste menus, chat chat chat

German
Let the venue do the usual - we'll take a look at the menu

3) Drinks

American
Signature cocktails, wine with dinner, perhaps a champagne toast

German
Coffee following the ceremony, unlimited wine and beer with and after dinner (of course!) and then many round of schnapps, as well as prosecco served with the cake (late)

4) Timeline

American
Ceremony followed by cocktail hour and then reception with meal and dancing until 11pm

German
Ceremony in the late morning followed by prosecco toast, followed by coffee and cake, a little break and then appetizer, an hour later the soup, and then the main course (it is already 11pm), followed by lots of dancing, dessert table opens at 1, band stops around 1:30, dancing and drinking continues to 5am

5) Invitations

American
Save the dates followed by formal invitations package including response card and/or other details like custom map or detail card

German
Informal invitation handed to your at next meet up – usually with a line printed on it like “guess what – we’re finally tying the knot! (and you thought it would never happen, didn't you...?)” no formal RSVP

6) Registry

American
Zillions of registries, zillions of options – everything from Target to Bloomingdales - you pick three (probably target, C&B and Bloomingdales)

German
Well.. you can still make an appointment like in the “olden days” at the local department store – they will set up a sample table in the back of the store for your guests to come look at… But really, everyone just gives you cash folded origami-style into various scenes (at the beach, house, children’s room…)

7) Planning

American
Every minute is planned, including arrival of guests, greeters, speeches, activities – the planning process is a long and exhausting but ultimately rewarding one.

German
The venue is set, the time is set – let the party begin! Our friends will surprise us with various games and gags – I may have to remove my shoes and use them to answer quiz questions, or I may even be kidnapped – who knows! My own wedding is a surprise.

8) Ceremony

American
However you want it to be, but usually with bridesmaids and groomsmen in fancy matching outfits, heartfelt vows while facing the audience, creative music and a happy flower petaled exit, lots of tears

German
Actually, you get married on the day before – in the eyes of the law anyways. The church ceremony is really just for show, that is… if you are even a member. If you aren’t, you’ll have to find a “wedding speaker” to throw you an alternative wedding ceremony that doesn’t involve okaying how your name is spelled on the marriage certificate and signing on the dotted line. Oh, and it's just the two of you and your MOH and Best Man... and you have your back to the "audience"...

9) Rings

American
Diamond engagement ring, for sure, worn on the left hand – and then whatever the couple picks out as wedding bands, also worn on the left hand

German
No engagement ring OR engagement rings for both man and woman – worn on right hand, just like the wedding bands (usually if the pair buys engagement bands, they just use those as their wedding bands)

10) Partying

American
The actual wedding reception is a joyous time, but everyone (tries) to behave like adults

German
The reception is a party! There will be rounds of schnapps and funny dancing galore – it goes until at least 4am

speaking of dancing shoes...

2010-03-19T03:41:00.000-07:00

oh, yes, our dancing lesson was GREAT! I keep having these disgustingly lovey-dovey moments (in my head) where I think "omg he is the perfect man". We were having so much fun at our lesson that he suggested we sign up for the silver course too. WHAT? And the dance studio is so awesomely early 90s and it has a bar so that during our breaks we can have a cocktail. AWESOME. Also, we got to dance the foxtrot to a pepped up version of "country roads" (the germans just love that song...). All in all, we learned the basics of the waltz, the foxtrot and the chacha. FUN!

We can hardly wait till next week's lesson. I felt like this:

source

Annnnyyyways... I am looking at some shoe options, and am liking these a lot:

source

what do you think of my potential dancing shoes?!

Putting on our dancing shoes

2010-03-15T07:18:00.000-07:00

Tonight, Mr. Schnitzel and I are taking our first dancing lesson. That’s right, friends of mine, laugh it up. You all know how well I can dance ;-) (I can see my former across-the-street-neighbor smirking and my college roommates conjuring up visions of me attempting to join them in certain coordinated group dances…)

But, actually, one many reasons that I knew Mr. Schnitzel was the one (aww) is that, well, I LOVE to dance with him! It doesn’t matter how many times I step on his feet, it’s FUN, and really, he doesn’t seem to care.

So we signed up for this course knowing full well that we aren’t about to turn into a super fancy dancing couple – we just want to have even MORE fun dancing! That, and German tradition dictates that our first dance will be a Waltz and, er… I can fudge a lot of things, but fake waltzing in front of 80 people might not be such a piece of cake.

So I woke up this morning, thinking “er.. what do I WEAR to a dance course?! A ball gown? A leotard? What SHOES? So.. I put on my sportiest shoes (hiking shoes…) and my comfiest jeans (A&E)… and.. well… pretty soon we’ll be having one of these moments..

right? right?

Advice midstream...

2010-03-15T05:46:00.000-07:00

Well, 4 months to go! Here's my personal, complimentary commercial free advice for wedding planning based on what I've learned so far. ENJOY!

1) Wear your wedding goggles
So, you’re engaged? Put on your wedding googles! Brainstorm as you walk around, shop, eat, play. I am not talking about being obsessively crazy, I mean, look for inspiration everywhere! Really like that drink at the local bar? Recreate it for your signature cocktail! Cute song on the radio? Write down the lyrics and google it when you get home to add to your cocktail hour playlist. Love that window display? Photograph it and use it for décor inspiration. The possibilities are endless.

2) Start a collection

This is a fun way to channel your wedding planning energy without overbuying too early in the game (i.e. before you know your venue/guestcount etc..) Pick some aspect of your wedding that you can “collect” for – I am collecting blue and green vases and bottles – what about collecting vintage postcards, or pink baskets, or cool vintage frames? It makes every shopping trip seem like a treasure hunt :)

3) Order matters!

It DOES matter if you finalize your catering order before you have your final guest count! You can’t print your programs until you decide on the order of your ceremony! Some things simply have to be done before others! I am personally not much of a plan maker, so if you’re not prone to writing long range plans, just write a list of all the things that need to be done, and go through it thinking of what task has to be done BEFORE each task. Then order everything up and you have your game plan!

4) Make appointments, even if you aren’t prepared

Need to meet with your venue but you haven’t even thought about décor? Your officiant wants to talk about the ceremony but you still haven’t printed the list of possible texts he gave you three months ago. SO WHAT! Just make the appointment anyways, you’ll find that the time pressure will force you to take care of those items, even if it’s the day before (or even the morning of!) the meeting. And going into those meetings less than perfectly prepared isn’t always a bad thing – it leaves you much more open minded!

5) Finalize it, and let it go

Some aspects of your wedding could be discussed forever. The menu could always be tweaked, the invitations could use this and that, the DJ list needs a few more songs, you could keep looking for bands… but SOMETIMES you have to just say enough is enough. Decide, be happy with your decision, and move on! No regrets.

6) Make it you!

Don’t be afraid to show your personalities! After all, this is about YOU! That means, do your first dance to Hakuna Matata, toss a bouquet of dandelions, serve fancy hamburgers at your reception, have a Wall-E and Eva cake topper. Your Aunt Sally may find it weird, but she certainly won’t forget it! And more often than not, people are charmed by originality. Even if they think “I wouldn’t do this at my wedding”, they are still enjoying it at yours!

7) Google docs is a lifesaver

Google docs has been our lifesaver – we have our budget, our guest list, our song list, our vows… you name it… all saved as joint documents there. That means that we can both edit them whenever or access them from any computer. LIFESAVER.

8) Keep your parents busy

Your parents most likely want to be involved in planning your wedding – but if you’re like me, you don’t need their advice on every detail. So? Give them something to plan! The rehearsal dinner, the monogrammed golfballs, the wedding dress trip, the favors – you name it, just pick something that you can let go and let them plan on their own! they’ll love it and so will you.

9) Blog about it!

Blogging about your wedding is not only a good way to get family and friends (or even strangers) excited about your wedding, it’s a great way to document your planning process for memory’s sake! My grandmother kept a detailed diary of every detail of my mom’s wedding planning – and I have the same type of record thanks to this blog! Afterwards, use a service like blurb to print your memories in paper form!

10) Mantra: No matter what happens, you’ll handle it!

Repeat after me: no matter what happens, you’ll handle it! That means, even if your Uncle gets drunk and loud, or you mess up your vows, or your flowers wilt, or something is forgotten – you will handle it, because you are going to let nothing, NOTHING ruin your day! It’s that simple. SMILE and HAVE FUN!

76 trombones or... 4 blue shirted men?

2010-03-12T06:51:00.000-08:00

da da da!!! We have a BAND!!!! That’s right folks, after much haggling and disappointment, we have finally booked a band. And we have NO idea what they sound like. Yup. Well to make a long story short, it went something like this:

• we found a band. We liked them well enough, and got tired of looking. So we said yes!

• They called to tell us that they could only play with 3 people and not 4. So no guitarist. BOOO. so we cancelled

• we proceeded to look for other bands. They were ALL booked out.

• Finally, we found a band, and went to see them play! They were great, and funny, but only a duo. And we had cancelled our other band because they only had 3! But we considered taking them…

• We found another band who was recommended to us by our venue – and made an appointment to go see them on April 4th (yes, that is Easter sunday)

• our “backup” band called and told us we had to tell them TODAY if we were going to need them, because they have another request

• So…. we picked mystery band!! Here they are, in all their blue-shirted glory:

They are the “Granadas” and we are really excited. 4 people! Also, they can play the accordion and the baritone horn, to give us a nice Bavarian feel.

I also like to think that they look a little like Alpine Beatles…right? right?

We will be going to see their performance on Easter sunday and we hope we like them!!! What do you think?!

DRESS DELIVERED!

2010-03-05T08:26:00.001-08:00

woohoo *happydance*

my dress is...

2010-03-05T03:21:00.001-08:00

ALMOST THERE!!

The dress...

2010-03-03T15:02:00.000-08:00

is on its way!! i have an official fed ex tracking number and am closely monitoring its progress from Boston to Pittsburgh. It will undertake its second leg of its journey in two weeks, to head off to Vienna with my dad and meet me there! Oh boy, it's going to be hard to resist showing it to Mr. Schnitzel but I am SO excited to try it on again, this time in MY size!!!

PS: i can't tell you what dress I picked, because Mr. Schnitzel reads this blog, in fact, he is reading it over my shoulder right now and laughing at me.

High Profile Meetings

2010-03-01T09:15:00.000-08:00

I have been waiting to do this post for a while, simply because we had a bunch of meetings with various VIPS (Officiant, Venue, Bands) and I wanted to be able to tell the WHOLE story. So here it comes!

MEETING # 1: OFFICIANT

It was high time to meet with our officiant. We had actually been trying to plan a meeting since December, but things kept popping up. So finally we just made an appointment for last weekend. The morning of the meeting, Mr. Schnitzel and I sat Sunday-cozy on the couch and I hauled out all the papers that we had been given at our first officiant meeting, along with the song list I had been compiling since then. We literally hadn’t looked at any of this stuff yet (OOPS) but I was confident that we would sift through it. So we went through the ceremony schedule, dotted down our questions, and listened to lots and lots of music.

(ok, this is what really happened. I read the ceremony schedule and he paid attention for the first 15 minutes. Then he turned on the TV. I started to play potential music selections and babble on about when we could play this and that and wouldn’t it be romantic if we played this blah blah and starting getting the “uhhuh” and “mmhmm”. Fairly soon, I found myself alone with my laptop. Well, not REALLY alone, but Mr. Schnitzel had completely arrived in TV land and wasn’t coming back anytime soon. So I started to whine and he refocused and declared that we were NOT prepared for the meeting. I assured him that it would be worth it anyways, and he sulked. This really wasn’t a fight, just a bit of grumpiness on his part)

Right, so fast forward to Oliver’s arrival. He is a really nice man. Also a really LARGE man. He will loom importance in front of all our guests, let me tell you. Anyways, we invited him in and served coffee, etc. Our house was spic and span due to the rapid cleaning we had done 30 minutes before he arrived. Mr. Schnitzel actually suggested hiding the beer crates on the balcony, and I laughed. “cmon! he’s not even religious: he’s a philosopher! philosphers like beer!!!”. so we talked about the ceremony, the music, the processional, the speeches, the readings… etc etc. We talked about a LOT. Here’s some of what we decided:

we hope our ceremony will look something like this

• The processional will be “traditional American” – now my job is to figure out what that means. We’re thinking: parents are brought in first, cept for my dad. Then, Best man and Groom enter front. Bridesmaids and Groomsmen in pairs down the aisle, VIPS last (MOHs). Flower girl prances in scattering petals. Then, cue bridey music, my dad walks me up the aisle. We meet at the front and turn to face everyone (this is a BIG thing for me – I want to FACE everyone!!! none of this german backs to you nonsense).

• Bridesmaids and Groomsmen will be standing around us, btw.

• Then, the welcome speech will begin (by Oliver), with parts in all three languages (polish, german, English) He will tell our story (there will be a translation in the program).

• Next, readings in Polish, German and English by friends and family. A total of 3 (one for each language) with interludes of guitar music by my dad (and with a little luck, fiddle music by my uncle!)

• Then comes the biggie! The speech, which we must “inspire” by choosing a quote that we like about love or marriage etc… This will also be translated in our program

• then come the vows. We will be saying them in BOTH languages (engl. and germany), alternating sentences. First a nice dedication statement, self written, to each other. then exchange of rings (rings will be carried by MOH & Best Man).

• Next comes the “symbolic” part.. some sort of ceremony (sand/tree/candle… we have to decide)

• TADA!! Married! Happy music, proceed back down the aisle with happy fanfare and something being tossed, shake a thousand hands and hug and be happy, walk up the hill to the prosecco toast!

WOOOHOOO
to be continued with: meeting # 2, THE VENUE (duh duh duh)

The "Prancing Weeks"

2010-03-01T08:03:00.000-08:00

Well, we’ve been pretty busy lately, hence the lack of blog posts, but here’s a big one:

WE BOOKED OUR HONEYMOON!

That’s right. As I have pointed out so some friends, the German word for Honeymoon is “flitterwochen” which means, literally “the prancing weeks”. Well well, we knew we had to find just the right destination to fulfil this rather large charge!

Our biggest criteria were:

• beach

• warm

• relaxing

In addition, we were hoping for:

• some activities available (snorkling/nature/small town)

• easy flight (as direct as possible)

• within our Budget of 4000€

So we trotted off to the travel agency with this information and got basically a big sad face: “oh, we’re sorry, July is a bad time to go everywhere.”

Really, that’s what they told us! Professionals trained to sell vacations told us that we couldn’t go on one. WHAT? so we pressed. OK, they said, if we wanted a bit less than perfect weather, we could look into going to the Seychelles, Mauritius or the Maldives, or also possibly Bali. Ok, we said, we can do something with this. Islands, sun, little bungalows. FUN! So we took home an armload of catalogues.

And then… those catalogues sat on our coffee table. We told all our friends that we were thinking of going to the Seychelles, but that was basically based on this lovely photo of a giant tortoise. Who doesn’t love tortoises?

In reality, we were being really lazy. So finally I made Mr. Schniztel an ultimatum: let’s just walk into a different travel agency and play dumb. Ok, he was game, so they did it. And what did they say?! July is a BAD time to go to the Seychelles. The only place we could even consider was Bali. Ok, we said, show us what you’ve got! So we started looking at places in Bali… chuching. 7000€, and that was WITHOUT food or drinks. uhoh… sinking feeling.

We mentioned that that was about twice our budget and they looked at us strangely. Ok, they said… then would you consider staying in Europe? How about Greece? OK, we said, show us Greece! So they did… and the price was certainly right…. 3500€, but still before any food or drinks… And I mean.. I dunno, we were both thinking.. we can go to Greece ANYTIME. Of course this is not true, but… it felt that way. We wanted something really special.

And then the travel agent’s eyes lit up. Well, would we consider going to the Caribbean?! WHAT… we glanced at eachother… but we thought… well that other mean travel agent told us… that it was too late in the season!

No no, she said, I mean… rain could hit us, but then again, it could hit us anywhere. Just as likely in Bali, she said. Ok, show us! we said, both envisioning margaritas and turquoise waters. (you see: our ORIGINAL idea was the Caribbean… but we were talked out of it earlier in the game. We were both grinning)

First she looked at Mexico, but then suggested the Dominican Republic. Ah yes, that sounded GOOD to us. So she showed us an ALL INCLUSIVE resort for 14 days for only 3,500€!!! Including flight, transfer, drinks, food, activities… everything! SOLD.

Well, I was, anyways. Mr. Schnitzel, the notorious sceptic, had to go home and comb the internet for bad reviews. But we were pleasantly surprised to find almost only glowing reviews.

So we headed back and booked for 14 days in the Dominican Republic, two weeks FULL of prancing :) And now, the following sites await us:

And more...

Needless to say, we're just a LIIIIIIIIIITTTTLEEE excited. Check it all out here: http://www.dreamsresorts.com/drelr/

Our Colors - in the Olympics?!

2010-02-17T00:17:00.000-08:00

Has anyone else noticed that our colors, blue and green, are also the featured colors of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic games?! Take a look

And while I am honored that they decided to use our idea, they could have at least credited us...right? :)

Staying in Style

2010-02-15T07:57:00.000-08:00

So we've got lots already:

date
a venue
an invitation designer
an officiant
a photographer
(almost) a band
a color scheme
a dress!!

And now, we have a "weddingmantra": "vintage country, with a bit of pep"

See. here's the reason. There are lots of sales going on in Germany right now, and I figure: it's only less than 5 months out, i've got to start taking advantage of these DEALS and buying some stuff! But what?! I mean, I could just purchase lots of items in our colors and figure out what to do with them later..right? But I have read many a bride's warning about not doing this exact thing - about how you should buy only for specific projects. Hmmmmmmm. I guess that means I should plan my specific projects!

Which I am doing. But I am someone who is so inspired by materials that I just couldn't help myself, so we decided to come up with a wedding mantra. I will repeat this mantra to myself every time I pick up something wedding project worthy - and if it doesn't fit, it goes! I did this today:

is this blue shiny organza "vintage country with a bit of pep":

NO!!!! hellooooo!!! duh.

Is this checkered grossgrain ribbon "vintage country with a bit of pep":

YES! totally

and so it went. It really helped me choose.

I still need a list of projects, though, which I am going to start (the list, not the projects) HERE AND NOW!

envelope liners
honey jar labels
centerpieces (well, perhaps additions to centerpieces)
photobooth
chair covers
out of towner gifts

right. Well, that's a start. Part of my problem is also, when I see something, I think "how many?!". I think I need to also list quantities, especially for things like labels and out of towner gifts. Or at least approximate...

then I realize... we haven't even sent our invitations! Which means that we don't have RSVPs, which means we still don't have a guest count. CRY. I guess I will have to let my patience be my guide...

Wedding golf balls..

2010-02-12T06:37:00.000-08:00

yes! We are having "wedding golf balls!... but it's not what you think. There will be no polo wearing preppy golf antics - we will be playing MINIGOLF with our guests!

Our plan is to give each out of town/longer stay guest a pretty personalized golfball like this:

We will be having an informal get-to-know eachother gathering on the night before the wedding, and we hope that our guests will join us for a round of mini golf at the hotel's course! Afterwards, of course, there will be duck pin bowling in the basement (YAY)... should we do personalized bowling balls too? hehe

update: office of marriage

2010-02-12T01:28:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update: we did it! We registered! The lady was really nice - I just have to bring my translation in next week. So we're all set!

Now, our case goes to the courts - since Germany requires something called a "marriage ability certificate", which the US doesn't issue, the courts have to stamp their approval before we can say the "ja wort". Which will cost us a chunk of court fees.

well... could be worse :)

Office of Marriage, part II

2010-02-09T17:28:00.000-08:00

So here I am, all jetlagged and out of it, and I checked my calendar and realized that we have our appointment to register our intent to marry TOMORROW! I fished out the list of required documents and noticed (oops) that I need not only a registered copy of my birth certificate but also a TRANSLATION. OOPS.

Ok, well we're going anyways. I'll let you know if we get scolded!!

The Dress Voyage, Part II

2010-02-03T19:24:00.000-08:00

So this is going to be short, because as you can imagine this whole trip has been EXHAUSTING but in a good way, in fact in an AMAZING way.

Here's the Cliff's notes:

Started out with an amazing day on saturday with the bridesmaids. Tried on JCrew dresses (all of which were sample size 8 and too tight which felt blech but ok) and laughed and laughed.
Went to David's bridal which was not only amusing (everyone NEAR US was wearing totally weird dresses) but fun (our saleswoman was a sweety and we laughed so much that my petticoat combined with the dress managed to take up the whole dressing room - no more room for us). And we learned a lot about "unconventional (ok, only for me) dresses are AOK)
Had a BRIDAL SHOWER which made me so happy and I was SOOOO surprised (way to go Mike and Girls) and I actually drank a cocktail out of an inappropriately shaped vessel WITH my mom. FUN.
Spent time with my bridesmaids on Sunday (including an aged cheddar and bacon omelett, oops) and learned the amazingness of Bananagrams
Went lazy shopping on Monday and purchased Bananagrams (see above) along with various other products - I have already almost filled my "extra" suitcase!!! Had a drink called the "ruby sunshine" in the bar - yum!!!
Got up at 5am to take the train to NYC on tuesday - slept part of the way, watched the sun rise over RI and CT and navigated the NYC subways to get to Saja Wedding and try on the most amazing dresses ever... after eating at an adorable SoHo Cafè - best Cappuccino ever! - and then went to Jenny Yoo which was "so-so" and then rode the train back to Boston and climbed into our amazing beds at the Back Bay Hotel in Boston (perhaps, actually, the best HOTEL ever)!!! (oh PS saw an amazing view of the NYC skyline from the train cause the power kept cutting out. LOVE amtrak).
hit the SHOPS on Newbury street all Wed - we had 3 appointments! And went from finding AN AMAZING dress to trying on something COMPLETELY different to loving everything, then to HATING everything because I couldn't decide - and THEN.... well, I'll tell the story later. Let's just say that I found THE dress!!!!
Celebrated our successes (actually, mom found THE dress too! (MOB dress). We toasted at a local fancyspot (post 390) with Cava and Wine and ate delicious food and then drank Grand Marnier. MMMMMMM
We're headed off to NH tomorrow! woohoo!!! I'll tell the full story later..

The Dress Voyage, Part I continued...

2010-01-30T07:58:00.000-08:00

After a lovely breakfast of a roasted vegetable omelet, home fries, amazing wheat toast and, of course, ice water galore!!!

We are now waiting for our rental car to arrive so that we can head out to the mall where Jcrew and David's Bridal are located - we're heading out a bit early cause we can't park the car so we'll get a chance to browse the glorious american shops like Gap and Anthropology.

I have to say, I'm pretty nervous. I hope the dresses look good on me! I hope I don't feel like a big balloon wrapped in white. And I hope my friends give me constructive criticism but aren't too hard on me. And that the sales person isn't too pushy. Maybe someone should feed me a champagne to calm my nerves?

I'm sure it will be great - just gotta get started!

Wish me luck :) I'll check in later...

The Dress Voyage, Part I

2010-01-30T04:05:00.000-08:00

Well, here I am, in Boston! I flew over yesterday to start a whirlwind, dress searching journey! I met my mom and my MOH Mike at the Boston airport and then we were picked up by bridesmaid Kate and whisked to our lovely hotel where we were handled with great style! I even managed to stay awake long enough to have a drink in the bar with Mike and mom...

Of course, I found myself wide awake at 6am.. jetlag or nerves? Probably both. After a trip to the gym this morning and a leisurely breakfast, we are planning on heading to JCrew and David's Bridal, followed by a dinner with all 7 of us in Cambridge - should be a blast!

I'll keep you posted as the journey progresses!

The Video

2010-01-13T07:29:00.000-08:00

Inspired by the scrabble video, I put together a little introductory video of the two of us...

The song is by the oh-so-lovely Claudia Koreck, who sings, in Bavarian "I mog di dog" (in German, "ich mag den Tag) (i love the day...)

Here it is!

The Voyage to find The Dress

2010-01-07T08:32:00.000-08:00

I haven’t told you about something BIG yet, because the planning was still in the works, but I am taking a big trip to the US to buy…. duh duh duh

THE DRESS
My mom let me know very early on in the process (like the day we announced our engagement) that there was NO way she was missing this, for the life of her. So I suggested that I arrange a trip to come to the US – to Boston - and dress shop! Lucky me, the flights were SO cheap (I am talking less than 300Euros direct flight) so I snapped up a ticket! I am so luck y because my mom has totally taken the reins on this one, and has planned the whole trip. I am also DOUBLY lucky because almost all my Bridesmaids and my Man of Honor will be travelling to Boston to meet me!! wahooo!!!

Here’s our plan thus far, crafted by my mom:
Arrival Friday evening. Transfer to hotel. Pretty hotel, look!

Saturday:

-Wake up (probably way too early because ill be jetlagged), breakfast,

-perhaps mosey-ing around and then

-meeting up with the Ladies and Man for JCrew appointment at 2pm. Fun shall be had by all as we all slip into various dresses (perhaps mike will try on something?! do they have men’s stuff too?). This will be my first wedding dress ever tried on ever!

After: dinner and drinks with mom and my crew somewhere in Boston

Sunday: Perhaps a trip to David’s bridal, more hanging out, perhaps some fun meals
Monday: open thus far
Tuesday: New York City here we come! Train to New York, appointments at Saja Wedding and Jenny Yoo, train back to Boston in the evening
Wednesday: More Boston time, perhaps one or two more appointments
Thursday-Sunday: Off to Grandma’s house in New Hampshire! Hopefully I will have time to hang out, visit with my uncle and my grandma, and sneak in a trip or two to a Michael’s and Target :) I have to fill my growing wish list that I keep on my computer desktop. In this list right now are:

-lemonade jar
-almond joy
-glue dots
-xyron sticker maker
-cricut?
-hudson chalkboard paint
-steel cut oatmeal

Weird mix of stuff, right? right.

SO excited for my dress trip.

Our Website

2010-01-05T05:34:00.000-08:00

As I’ve mentioned, the website is up! It was a long time coming, and actually a lot harder than we thought. Well, than I thought. The hardest part was getting a certain web programmer I know motivated enough to make the website.

By the time we sent out our save the dates, we had a version up. A very SPARSE version. No photos, almost no infos, no links. It stayed this way for quite a while. Then, Mr. Schnitzel had the ingenious idea of setting up a Wordpress site for us. That way, he could do the programming but I could put up the content with my limited to no programmer knowledge. YES!

And this, my friends, was our saving grace. You see, he is happy to do the programming part, but the content- not so much. So this worked amazingly, because I could add and subtract and rearrange to my heart’s content, all without bugging him!

Here’s a screenshot of our site:

As you can see, we have various menu categories. Each of them pop out to reveal different categories. Here’s what we have so far:

About us

Our Story
Photographs

Community (Forums)

Wedding Traditions

Polish Wedding Traditions
German Wedding Traditions
US Wedding Traditions

Location

How to get there
Hotel
Attractions

Munich Attractions
Buchenberg Attractions
Surrounding Area
Transportation and Lodging while travelling

People (introduction of bridal party, family etc)
Phrasebook (english, german and polish words)
Registry
RSVP

I am really happy with the structure so far, and those I’ve asked have been able to find things fairly easily. I really enjoyed writing all the “tourist” sections, and I can imagine it will be quite helpful for our guests who have never been here before and are looking to make a bit more out of their trip. I am also posting updated cheap flight information under the “how to get there” category (I have a Kayak Alert set up from NY-Munich and when I get new info, I list the cheapest airlines on the site, not the prices, since those often vary).

Overall, we really like the flexibility of a Wordpress site: it has ease of usage, for someone like me, but the boy can also program things however he (or I) like. Now I wouldn’t necessarily recommend wordpress to anyone without the “crutch” of a programmer at their side – we got our website to look like we wanted it because I had a handyman who could reprogram the templates. Also, we have our own domain name, which Mr. Schnitzel set up all fancy, and I wouldn’t have known how to do that.

Otherwise, the thing is FREE (except for the domain name) which is pretty great.

What else should I add to our website? Anything missing?

Written in wood...

2010-01-03T06:15:00.000-08:00

At almost all the lovely Bavarian markets, there is a stand that does this kind of wood burning to engrave designs and messages into pieces of wood or other wooden objects:

I can think of so many possibilities for this craft: personalized cake plate, personalized serving platter, or perhaps my favorite: personalized dress and suit hangers!

Look at some of the fun stuff available:

Fun, right? Any other ideas for incorporating this craft into our day?

Bring me..

2010-01-01T16:46:00.000-08:00

these flowers!

source

LOVE! And the blue plates too...

The Band Story

2010-01-01T16:10:00.000-08:00

So once upon a time, we had a band. And this band called us almost every day! They wanted to know how many people we'd invited, what kind of Music we wanted for our first dance, if we were doing a Bride Kidnapping. Then, this adorable band called with bad news.

Their guitarist can't make it. They play a lot with only three people - keyboarder, drummer and singer. But I mean... what's a band without a guitarist?! Apparently they don't have a backup. That may be the way Bavaria rolls...

this means "really traditional bavarian"...

source

So we are at the beginning again!! Anyone know a good bavarian cover band offering fun wedding music for a wedding in July? Preferably with an English speaker who can do good moderation?

Ahhhh!! Wedding planning is HARD.

Exciting News

2009-12-30T02:12:00.000-08:00

Two quick announcements!

1) The website is up! http://www.emilyandartur.com/
2) My "good question" got posted on the Kitchn! check it out!! What to Cook at a Mountain Cabin Getaway

Frohe Weihnachten!

2009-12-23T06:58:00.000-08:00

Und einen guten Rutch (translation: Merry Christmas and a good "slide" into the new year (that's what they say!)

As a christmas greeting to all my readers out there, here is a series of photos of my favorite christmas site in Munich (after all those fancy christmasey markets, of course...): the christmas tree market on Odeonsplatz in the historic center of Munich! It reminds me of how the "olden" days must have been, and of scenes from some of my favorite christmas movies.

Take a look!

there's the market from afar, with beautiful backdrop of the Theatinerkirche

close-up of the pretty trees

tree, all ready for transport! (i've seen quite a few riding the subway)

and my all-time favorite - the mini trees! so cute!!!

Hope you enjoyed! Have a wonderful, happy, healthy holiday season. I'll be posting from snowy Buchenberg soon!

Save the Dates, round two!

2009-12-22T05:01:00.000-08:00

Sorry in advance for the blurry pictures... these were quick last minute cell phone snaps...

this is what the "Europe" stamped version looks like (I chose the Dahlias)

this is the "Germany" stamp

look at the cute heart!!!

And here they are, slipping away into the maily world of the post office!

With Germany's incredibly efficient postal system promise, the Germany residents should definitely get their cards by Christmas! (Tomorrow evening, to be exact). The process was LONG but also fun, and we're really happy with how they turned out. And boy am I glad I had a "dry run" of sorts before attempting the invitations. Now I know a few important things:

1) Order lots of extras, especially envelopes, for potential (and probable) mistakes, especially if you are stamping anything! (takes some practice)

2) I recommend ordering German postage online through http://www.post.de/ . Unlike US post offices, here they don't stock most pretty stamps, so I had a much bigger selection online. And shipping was super quick (1 day).

3) Sit down and do one step in one sitting. Don't try to do 50 things at once like I did, especially when you are dealing with three different languages in five different countries, where everyone gets different labels, etc.

4) Use post-its to mark envelopes that are still "blank" because you are waiting for an address, etc or sort everything neatly into piles that mark which "stage" they are at

5) a damp sponge placed in a shallow bowl is a great way to wet your stamps and seal your envelopes! (Germans haven't picked up on the peel n' stick trend..)

So, that's about all for now! Once I get the last of the stragglers in the mail, I'll post a thorough account of my trials and tribulations. Until then, ta ta!

Invitation Inspiration

2009-12-16T05:39:00.000-08:00

So I just wanted to say that I so excited, because while stumbling around my wedding blogs the other evening, I came across this entry from Miss Lamb of Wedding Bee about the etsy shop:

thispapership.etsy.com

So I bumbled on over and what did I find? This package:

NOT SO PLAIN JANE

$4.50 EACH

Our most basic invitations package, a great way to save money and still come away with something memorable for you and your guests!

This package includes:
- Custom design motif
- Detail card
- Matching A7 envelope
- R.S.V.P. postcard (or traditional card with matching envelope)

What?! Custom designs and all kinds of fun stuff, for such a price? I was intrigued. Very intrigued. Plus, who could resist their adorable designs, like this card:

They got back to us right away (always a plus for an etsy seller) and were even EXCITED at the prospect of producing an invitation suite in our three languages, English German and Polish. In fact, Ashley told me that Joel actually speaks German fluently!
Etsy, my love affair deepens!!

We can't wait to see how our invitation process develops. So excited.

Alpine blues and greens...

2009-12-15T08:13:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I was having much too much fun with Dessy Pantone Wedding!! You have to visit the site!!
My inspiration board, with Pantone Sapphire, Appletini, Clover and Spa

sources: dessy group (dress and suit and flipflops), sound of music, edelweiss, gnomes, cocktails, green glass, pattern

Programs - an Inspiration Board

2009-12-14T23:24:00.000-08:00

I have been rifling through my huge collection of sorted and saved looks for different wedding aspects lately. I'm really glad I did, because I forgot about all the wonderful inspiration! My system had to be simple, or I wouldn't keep it up. I simply created tags for different categories in my google reader, and went crazy! To create this one, I flipped through my "programs" and "stationary" files for inspiration. BTW, I create all these boards in Mac Pages and simply save the links to the photos as I go as comments, that way sourcing is no problem! So here are some ideas for our program (which will also have to be multi-language, ayay!) Even though I collected these so long ago, they all basically fit our color scheme, and the bottom right program even has our initials! Coincidence? MAYBE...

Sources (from top left, clockwise):

holy matrimony, love, cara & andrew, a + e, sewn on, folded, fan

So much fun stuff. Which look do you like? Any ideas on the language front?

oh the wonderful blues and greens

2009-12-14T14:04:00.000-08:00

I just want to say that THIS is the reason we chose our color scheme:

source

Oh, yes...

In the mail! And a trip to the christmas market

2009-12-14T02:11:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, we sent our first round of Save the Dates out! All the US ones have gone!! Here they are, packed up, front and back – take a look!

Here they are, slipping into the mailbox!

After mailing the save the dates, we went into town to fight the shopping crowds and soak up a bit of Christmas spirit! Of course, being in a wedding sort of mindset, I saw these and thought – wouldn’t a personalized one be beautiful for hanging up my dress (and the ubiquitous dress-hanger photo?)

And look at this delicious stuff – this is Kaiserschmarrn, which will be part of our dessert buffet!

Mr. Schnitzel gobbling it up…

Holiday cheer for all!

Signage - an Inspiration Board

2009-12-13T12:12:00.000-08:00

It's time for an Inspiration Board! I made this one of all my favorite signs that I've collected along the way. signage is going to be a real adventure for us - we'll have to write everything in three languages!! But I think that makes it all the more fun. Take a look at some of our favorites:

Sources clockwise from top left:

blackboard, wooden sign, many arrows, blue painted, poster, framed

What do you think? Any ideas for the three languages?!

Going postal (ha ha ha)

2009-12-11T05:27:00.000-08:00

I really want to show you my Save the Dates… I really do! But they aren’t sent, which means that they aren’t received – and I want you receivers to be surprised! So you’ll have to wait again.

But I feel I can show you my stamp choices!
For US Save the Dates:

and

Bleeding heart and carnation, both pink. Alas, those were really the only pretty ones available! but I think they’re nice and even if they don’t include our colors, they are certainly wedding-ey. (PS: while searching the websites for photos, I did find more that I liked - but i'll just have to remember that for our invites..)

For the Poland/other Europe Save the Dates:

Either two of these:

and

Or I could use the 70 cent carnation from above. Thoughts? Maybe there are other options.. must investigate...

For the Germany Save the Dates:

Cute, right? I really like those little hikers, and the nice lady reading her mail.

I am happy with them. I do hope that the post office comes up with some new designs by the time we send our invites! We will be shipping those babies in the spring, so hopefully there will by something floral and cute, at least.

What do you think of my stamps!?

little guys...

2009-12-08T06:20:00.000-08:00

I want to collect these guys and set them up all around the venue. Thoughts?

Save the Dates, Part 1

2009-12-08T06:10:00.000-08:00

OOPS, a week with out posting!

This is the first post relating to our Save the Dates.

These turned into quite a saga, for some reason, even though they were supposed to be simple and easy. I actually now realize that Save the Dates are HARD because they are the very first piece of stationary that you have to produce and it's so early in the process that so many things are up in the air! I changed my colors halfway through the design! And I had a million competing visions.

We had following "extra" challenges:

- We couldn't write "Save the Date?" because we will be sending the same card to multiple nationalities with different languages.
- We didn't know how to write the date! European-style with the day first, American-style with the month first, all written out???

At any rate, as soon as Wenda at Tucci Paper Co. sent me her first design, I knew something was missing. After a consultation with Mr. Schnitzel, we made a list of desired changes and sent this sketch:

She responded with a proof that we thought was so-so. Then, we picked our new color scheme and asked her to redo it in our blues and greens, plus we changed a few aspects. GREAT! After a few minor tweaks, everything was ready for printing.

What arrived in the mail yesterday was a package of postcard size cards printed on linen paper with magnets on the back, and matching envelopes. At the price of $1/card (not including envelope), you can't beat it for a custom design! We are really happy with them!

Next up: corner punching, printing and addressing the envelopes (and a few other language related challenges..)

Venue Webcam

2009-12-01T06:45:00.000-08:00

I just discovered something kind of neat: our venue has a webcam on their site!

Check it out here

As you can see, it's white and wintery up in the mountains right now! Mr. Schnitzel and I are headed down there this weekend to enjoy the Kempten Christmas Market - can't wait to share when I get back! Another mission I have is to gather tourist material for Kempten for our guests.

In the meantime, here's what the Christmas market looked like last year:

pretty!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

2009-12-01T04:57:00.000-08:00

The Weihnachtsmärkte (Christmas Markets) have opened in Munich! The perfect place to get into the Christmas spirit, even if it is raining (and not snowing.)

I decided to walk over to the Market at the Chinese Tower in the English Garten (the Munich equivalent of central park) during my lunch break today.

the "Chinese Tower" looms in the background

Because of the persistant drizzel, there was hardly a soul there, but it was wonderful - soft music playing in the background, I bought myself a steaming bowl of Sauerkraut and walked from stand to stand, searching for Christmas gifts and just taking it all in. As a treat, I bought myself a Lebkuchen with Marzipan and Cherry Liquor for dessert. mmmm.

What, pray tell, does this all have to do with wedding planning? Well, it doesn't strictly, but I'm always on the lookout for inspiration. Looky what I bought!

see the pretty floating berries? (sorry for the cellphone pic..)

Cassis Liquor, homemade from fresh Bavarian garden berries. My mind is racing over the possibilities of serving a Bavarian version of a Kir Royale at the Wedding?.

Looks delicious, huh?

I'll keep you posted on my finds as I plan to visit each of Munich's ten Christmas Markets on my lunch breaks over the next weeks.

Happy December 1st everyone!

Nesting

2009-11-30T07:49:00.000-08:00

I took my own little thanksgiving hiatus here on Wedding Diplomat, but I'm back! I was in Berlin with my MOH and her crew, hosting the most amazing thanksgiving party ever. You can tell our in depth study of wedding and deco blogs has paid off. Dinner for 21!

the table, all set for 21

the hostesses!

eating, in action

On the drive back to Munich, Mr. Schnitzel and I discussed various options for changing up our apartment. I have been reading (and loving!) the book Apartment Therapy , which basically details how the home is such a central part of health and well being. Since there is so much going on in our lives right now (wedding planning, preparing for operations, masters thesis writing..) it is very important that our home become a sanctuary.

We have some great ideas, and we're starting on the Eight Week cure detailed in the book today. I thought I would give you some updates and photos of our progress, since (in my book) nesting and making a home for ourselves has so much to do with starting our married life together.

And, there should be some wedding planning related tips coming out of the whole thing. For example, we are planning on turning a section of our large bedroom into a work area, which includes thesis writing, (wedding) website programming and all other wedding related planning tasks!

Wish me luck! What did you do to get your "pad" ready for your married life?

Fighting the crowds

2009-11-26T01:26:00.000-08:00

This morning, I did something very German. I waited outside Aldi for it to open and then stormed in and bought things before they sold out. Like a little substitute for lack of Black Friday madness here...

You see, Aldi, which you may be familiar with from the US as being a big discount grocer, originated in Germany. The Albrecht brothers founded it (Aldi is short for Albrecht Discounter), had a big fight and split up their chain, and now there is an Aldi Süd (south) and an Aldi Nord (north) in Germany. Anyways, NOW Aldi sells groceries at cheap prices and random inexpensive products. Twice a week they receive new product shipments, which are published in a little newspaper handout, and the more attractive items sell out almost immediately.

This week they were offering two items that I was interested in: ice skates for Mr. Schnitzel (so that we can skate on even more frozen alpine lakes) AND printable photo paper for our homemade wedding photobooth!

When I arrived, there was a modest crowd.

look at the blobby lack of a line (typical German...)

After about five minutes of waiting, the crowd had swelled to gigantic proportions, and when the doors opened, I was practically carried inside by the masses. I made a beeline for the skates and frantically searched for the correct size - it was really hard, with all the arms and legs snaking over my shoulders, grasping. I finally found it and wiggled out of the chaos. Then I grabbed three packs of photopaper (€4.50 for 150 sheets!) and headed for the cash register. Here are my treasures on the conveyer belt:

reflecting the fluorescent Aldi lighting...

We will be setting up a photo booth using David Cline's photobooth software and my engagement laptop, so we knew we would be needing this paper! I'm happy to have one thing crossed off the list, and to have gotten it so inexpensively.

Did you get up at ungodly hours to buy anything wedding related?

I've got Mail

2009-11-24T13:50:00.000-08:00

Today was a long day. But there is nothing better than a long day and then coming home to MAIL. Today I was extra lucky. I got TWO pieces of mail. The first was very exciting for me, which perhaps only other wedding planners will understand:

this blurry picture is due to the fact that it is late and that paper is reflective - i had to turn off the flash!

A............... CORNER ROUNDER PUNCH!

I know, collective sigh of relief. Because these babies are HARD to find in Germany. I ordered mine over amazon. Thank goodness. Behold the amazing rounded corner junk mail.

I rounded almost everything in the house. Mr. Schnitzel had to keep me away from the books...

The SECOND thing that I got in the mail was this:

Our flower mädl answered our letter! And look how amazing her card is! Look at the picture she drew of us getting married and her as a flower girl! It looks exactly like ours!!! So, one big YES from her... I can't wait to dress her up in her Dirndl...

How did YOU ask your Flower Girl?

Shabbying it up

2009-11-24T13:30:00.000-08:00

I really like the shabby chic look - mixed up vintage pieces, pretty wildflowers, antiquey-looking signs... Since my venue will be providing all linens and plates, silverware, etc, I am looking for easy and inexpensive ways to "shabby" the place up. Last weekend at the Kempten Flea Market, I had inspiration!

the Kempten Flea Market in full swing

I decided to collect blue and green glass bottles and bowls of different sizes and shapes. Later they can be filled with flowers and placed on the bar or the dessert table. We'll see how many I can collect!

So far, this is what I found (in one day of searching)

I vowed not to spend more than 2 Euro apiece: MAYBE 3 if I really like it.

Pretty, right?

We were thinking about other ways to incorporate vintage items into the wedding and I came up with these:

Vintage Edelweiss postcards! A symbol of our wedding. (and possibly a song to be played at the ceremony). Not sure how we will use these yet - any ideas?

How did you add your own personal touch to your reception venue?

Flower "Mädl"

2009-11-24T04:35:00.000-08:00

Our flower "Mädl" (girl) will be my cousin's daughter. She is going to be five for our wedding, and she earns, like any good flower girl, an extra special dress!

But not just any dress for this Bavarian the hills-are-alive wedding. A Dirndl! Here are some possibilities that I stumbled upon in my internet browsing. None really fit the color scheme yet - we are looking for sapphire blue and bright green - but just to get an idea...

look at this cutie. I like the blues...

doesn't she remind you of little Gretel?

this is the closest we came to our color scheme... pretty prints

I like the contrasting prints

so cute! this is my favorite (the one on the little girl)

So, what do you think? Did you incorporate any traditional ethnic costumes into your wedding?

Another cheezy couple story

2009-11-24T01:07:00.000-08:00

Close your eyes if you hate this kind of stuff...

Mr. Schnitzel and I have this new running joke. We propose to each other. Over and over. Over drinks, over dinner, over grocery shopping. It's funny, and kind of romantic, and I have to say, my heart still flutters a bit every time I hear those words. (I say yes, every time!).

Another thing he does is look at me all bright eyed and go "we're getting married" like he just remembered. SO CUTE. This makes me really happy.

I guess I can say getting engaged didn't change us as a couple ? not at all really, but maybe that was because we've known that we want to spend the future together for quite a while now. But it sure is fun to pop the question, over and over and over :)

us right after the proposal (the "original" one)

What embarrassingly cutesy stuff did you and your fiancé do? Did being engaged "change" your relationship?

Bavarian Roundup - Etsy

2009-11-22T04:24:00.000-08:00

I love Etsy, just like any other bride. I thought it would be fun to do a roundup of items on Etsy that would add to a "bavarian" wedding - or just for people looking to bring a little alpine feeling into their lives. Enjoy my picks!

Honeymoon planning

2009-11-19T02:03:00.000-08:00

We have finally started to look at honeymoon destinations. I walked into a travel agency on my way to the train station last weekend and announced that we were looking for beach, sun and relaxation in July. The agent gave me a big stack of catalogs and listed the following "in season" suggestions:

- The Maldives
- The Seychelles
- Mauritius
- Bali

We had been thinking Caribbean, but I was getting a little iffy about the possibility of hurricanes - July counts as "borderline". The last thing we want is to have our trip cancelled by a sudden storm, or worse - get trapped there during such a dangerous natural event.

I like the idea of such an exotic destination. I've never been to any of these places, and flipping through the catalogs, they looked pretty impressive. The Maldives seemed to offer the most, as Mr. Schnitzel puts it "little pointy straw houses" (bungalows) which is something that we really want. The Seychelles offer an abundance of natural wildlife like giant tortoises and black parrots! In Mauritius, we could go on an African safari and see all kinds of majestic beasts like elephants and lions. I haven't researched much about Bali yet.

Here are some pictures of our potential destinations.

Mauritius...mmm hammock over the ocean

Maldives - look at the little "pointy huts"!

Seychelles - look at the giant tortoise!

Bali - look at that fancy lifeguard tower

What do you think? They all look like paradise to me... Have you been to any of these places? How did you go about choosing your honeymoon destination?

German Traditions- a Bavarian "farmer's" wedding

2009-11-18T06:40:00.000-08:00

I wrote about the meeting with our venue director last weekend and mentioned how funny and animated Michael was. He told us all kinds of stories about other weddings they've hosted: Hungarian ones, Russian ones, "modern" ones, and of course, the traditional Bavarian "open" weddings.

As Michael explained, traditionally, when one farmer's son marries another farmer's daughter from the same region, there are no fancy invitations. In fact, all the happy couple needs to do is tack up a poster in the town square. These kind of weddings are "open" - anyone and everyone is invited, there are no formal invitations. Generally, the ceremony takes place at the town church - which, in Bavaria, is almost always catholic. Then, the whole wedding group parades through town with music and celebration, until reaching the party location.

Michael has hosted many such weddings. He described them as being "a lot of fun" - all guests don traditional outfits and the festivities start with coffee and cake. That's right, cake BEFORE dinner.

The festivities then continue with the traditional speeches and dancing, and at some point during the evening, the bride is "stolen" by her friends, who take her to a neighboring bar. When the groom and best man notice (which we hope they do rather quickly!) they have to go find her, and when they do, the groom must pay the bill for the drinks they consumed at the bar. Sometimes, he must also perform "tasks" like naming the ten reasons that he loves her, or kneeling in front of her, etc...

Here are some pictures from various Bavarian weddings for your enjoyment. Source

the traditional Bavarian band

a couple in traditional dress

traditional Bavarian wedding soup - we will probably have this too (yum yum)

this is a video of the beginning of a "Brautstehlen" (bride stealing) - you can see how she is accompanied by a Bavarian band and is being lead away. The job of the groom is to find her and reclaim her.

We are still deciding which traditions (american/polish/german/bavarian) we want to incorperate, but in the mean time we are "investigating" what different traditions are out there - what regional and cultural traditions did you incorperate into your wedding?

Dance dance dance

2009-11-17T05:24:00.000-08:00

We want the music for our reception to be fun. We want people to dance! The music should be:

- live
- stuff people know (oldies, dance hits)
- fun
- nice sounding

Our venue has a great stage for a band, so we certainly want to use it! We combed the internet for regional bands but didn't like most of them - they seemed too cheezy wedding singer style. We did find this band: The Josy Miller Band. They do lots of covers and seem fun without being too tacky. We liked their voices AND the keyboarder is apparently an English teacher, so he can do our moderation in German and English!

Here's a video of Josy Miller performing at a party - keep in mind that this is more of a party atmosphere and of course the wedding would be a bit more elegant.

The plan is to have them until around midnight, and then switch to an Ipod mix. We may or may not have them play dinner music.

What do you think? How did you choose your reception music? How did you get everyone to dance?

Meeting with Landhaus Sommerau

2009-11-15T17:15:00.000-08:00

Yay! That's what I have to say about that!!

We drove up to the Sommerau after a delicious "lunch" or "dinner" or whatever one calls those decadent delicious feasts that take place at the Schnitzel family - we had (haha) Schnitzel with mushrooms and some rolled up schnitzel stuffed with cheese, green beans and croquettes and wine. Perfect for me, because weirdly enough, I was kind of nervous. Why?! I don't know! This whole venue thing has been so perfect all along that I was worried someone was going to come along and pop my big bubble of venue happiness.

But this didn't happen. In fact, my venue happiness bubble grew even bigger. So big that my pounding wedding planning heart actually gave me a headache. Am I allowed to call in sick with "wedding excitement" 8 months out?

We got to the Sommerau and all was quiet. It was 4pm and starting to get dark already (bavarian winter...) but I was awed again by the gosh freakin' beauty of the place! It's just so perfect! Cozy and casual but special and Bavarian at the same time. We asked at the counter for Herr Kramm and were informed that he was running late - perfect! Just in time to scope out the rooms, for the zillionth time, and take pics for mama. We checked out the "rain room" for the ceremony first, which we had been told holds only 50 people - a problem with our 80+ guest list. The room itself is gorgeous (forgot to take pics of that, gosh darn it!) with a mural of Buchenberg on the "altar" area and pretty white chairs. We stood there calculating that we are SURE that 80 people would fit in there....

Then we made our way to our reception hall (around the corner). Here are the pics I snapped while walking around:

this is the balcony that runs around the inside of the room

view from the balcony - aren't the lanterns pretty? and the mural?

bouquet toss from the balcony woohoo!!!

the stage - where our awesome band will rock

this is a view of the chairs. They are RED but this can be changed....

this is the room from the outside. so beautiful!!! it was a bit dark already...

And then Herr Kramm came and we ordered drinks - on the house! We talked through the details of the wedding, from the ceremony to the prosecco hour to the dinner and dancing. Here are some of the exciting developments that came out of our conversation:

sparklers welcoming the cake at our friend's wedding

the ceremony will (probably) take place down by the pretty pond - he has to ask the town council for permission (we would be the first people ever!!) Alternatively, we can use the pretty room if it's raining - they can indeed fit 75-80 people in it (50 was with tables)
After the ceremony, there will be a "Sektempfang"outside on the terrace (with alp view!) which is pretty traditional German - prosecco, juices for mixing with the prosecco (or plain, for the non drinkers), and some small appetizers. This is where we're thinking of having the Alphornbläser coming...
Then the "Saal" will be opened and people can slowly enter the reception hall and be seated. Wine will be served (which we will choose in a wine tasting) and water
We discussed food options. We originally wanted a sit down menu, but he suggested doing the appetizer and soup as a sit down and the main course and dessert as buffet. We were sold! We want to do "elegant Bavarian" for the food, and this way, people can sample all kinds of food BUT they will go by table table so the comfy conversation won't be ruined.
After dinner, dancing will begin. Then there will be a big presentation when the cake is brought in (with sparklers, yay!) and in addition to the cake we will have a bavarian dessert buffet, with Kaiserschmarrn, fruit, bavarian creme and a cheese plate, etc...

Next to the dessert bar, we will set up a bar which will feature our Signature cocktail and beer and wine and some standing tables to encourage mingling. In this corner we will also "air" our slideshow (being constructed by my mom) featuring cute old pics of everyone on a projection screen.
The ENTIRE hotel is reserved for us! We get the bridal suite for FREE. That's right, for free. The other rooms cost 39 Euros/person/night INCLUDING breakfast. Wow. That's for all guests. That's what I call a deal!
We pay no rent for the rooms, just for food and drink etc.. he's putting together an offer for us..

So... as you can tell I am very excited. It's going to be an amazing day...

A stroll to the flower shop

2009-11-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

One of the big advantages of getting married in a small town is the close proximity of everything. I ate an amazing Saturday morning breakfast with family Schnitzel and packed up my laptop, threw on a scarf, and walked around the corner to the "Blumenecke" (flower corner).

The owner, Silvia Wegmann, was in the back with an apron on, cutting flowers. Introduced myself and explained that I am marrying her neighbor's son, and that we will need, of course, some wedding flowers! She was more than helpful and looked excited at the prospect. I showed her our inspiration and she said it was all very doable. I am optimistic!

Now I have a bit of history to share that relates to our color scheme of blue and green. The region of the Alps where we will be married is called "Allgäu", and it is often referred to (mostly in tourist ads) as "the green Allgäu" because there are so many cows and, therefore, so many green meadows and rolling hills.

As this sign explains, the Allgäu used to be called the "blue Allgäu". The reason for the name was the intense linen ("Leinen" in German) production, which required huge amounts of flax ("Flachs") to be planted. This is what the flax blossom looks like:

source

Until the end of the 19th century, the Allgäu was covered not with green meadows but with blue flax blossoms, hence the name! I love this story and I think it suits our wedding colors just perfectly! Let's see if the Blumenecke can find us some flax blossoms to have at the wedding!

Dream Wedding

2009-11-14T10:06:00.000-08:00

I'm sure many of you know the temptation to keep everything "realistic" in your wedding planning. But sometimes, it's fun to go outside the bounds of common sense and just imagine how you would do it if you could do it all. I took a walk on this lovely warm November day through Buchenberg and let my fanstasy run wild. This is what I came up with:

Ceremony on top of the Buchenberg, here: facing the Alps, perfect sunny weather with a light breeze... we hire some guys to carry chairs up to the top of the hill and set them all up. Mr. and Mrs. Schnitzel go up earlier to take photos and get a first glipse.

Then we hide behind the little chapel up there while the guests arrive. The guests will be brought be horse and carriage. Music played on the guitar by my father. After the ceremony, the guests will hike back down the hill.

...and will then be taken back to the hotel my horse and carriage with us riding on the front.

At the hotel - prosecco for all, and then a surprise visit from the Blashornspieler Buchenberg.

so.... the dangerous part of this kind of unhemmed dreaming is that I started to think that some of this might be doable. Maybe we can do the ceremony on top of the Buchenberg? why not? Maybe we can hire a few horse and carriages for an hour or two to shuttle our guests. So I started to email around... to be continued...

Venue update

2009-11-13T07:38:00.000-08:00

Mr Schniztel and I are heading off to the wonderful world of Allgäu this weekend, where we will be meeting with our Venue director at the Sommerau. I can't wait to tell you how it goes, and show off the pictures I plan on snapping of the inside.

this is a view of the Sommerau from the outside (look at the sundial!)

and these are Dani and Michael Kramm, who run the place

I have to say, I am also a bit apprehensive. The last time I was there, I asked if they offer chair covers... the chairs are...er... a bit ugly. Wood with red velour upholstery.... they looked at me like I was asking them to knock out the ceiling or repaint the room. They were nice about it, and told me I could probably rent them elsewhere, but they looked shocked. I don't think anyone has ever asked that before. I can't wait to see the look on their face when I tell them I have a color scheme (they don't do that in Germany...)

This little anecdote serves to demonstrate that most weddings hosted at my venue are very traditional low maintenance German weddings. Now I don't consider myself high maintenance, but I do have a few suggestions (and requirements)... and am interested to see their reactions (they'll be thinking "crazy american!" the whole time).

Among the list of questions to get answered are the following things:

1) Possibilities for the ceremony. Where can we do it? Can we do it outside by the pretty pond? What if it's raining? Where can we find seating for all 85 of my guests if only 50 fit in the ceremony room? Will you bring the chairs out for me? Will there be naked sunbathers right next to my ceremony if we do it by the pond? (note: these are all problems that I wouldn't have in the US. See, this place has never hosted a "free marriage" ceremony, usually everyone just gets married in the church and comes there for the party afterwards. And the naked sunbathers? A very distinct possibility if I get the weather I am looking for..)

pond where we'd like to do the ceremony-- I think I spy naked sunbathers already...

2) Possibilities for the room. How many tables/what size/shape? How can we use the amazing gallery balcony? Can we leave the doors open if the weather is nice? Where can we do our slideshow? Can we set up a "bar corner" with standing tables and our signature cocktails for after dinner? Where can we set up our dessert buffet? Can we string lanterns up across the balcony? Where can we rent linens?

this is the hall (see the beautiful gallery balcony?) the photo quality is really poor (that's why I have to take my own!) but you can see the ugly chairs. In general, most of the weddings hosted here were pretty...er... tacky (in my opinion). But the space is amazing and can be transformed, and the surroundings can't be beat!

3) Possibilities for the food and drink. Can we look at sample menus? Can we do a tasting? Can we do a wine tasting? What can you offer for the prosecco toast? Can we have some small appetizers for that?

4) Questions about the hotel. How many rooms can we block off? Can our guests have a discount? What types of activities do you organize in the area? Can we use the Kegelbahn?

this is what the hotel rooms look like - clean and fresh, with a balcony.. somewhat "70s Alpine look" but I think that adds to the feel of the whole thing :)

Right. So I have a lot of questions! I am hoping to at least get a fraction of them answered and reassure myself that it's ok that we don't have a signed contract (this is apparently a small town German thing).

How did your first "real" meeting with your venue go? Did you bombard them with questions? Did they look at you like you were crazy?

(wish me luck!)

The Invites

2009-11-11T07:18:00.000-08:00

So now that our Save the Dates are ordered and on their way across the ocean, we are on to our next big stationary task - the invites! There are so many amazing things out there, so it's really hard finding the perfect one! Here are some of our ideas:

Something light and flowery, like this Invite KaBloom (with blue flowers, of course) by Merit Hanson Weddings

something bold and colorful, like this (in blue and green, of course) - from papeterie

something watercolorey and light, like this one from wedding paper divas

or something even bolder.... like this gem from wedding paper divas

There's such a world of invitations out there. How did you go about choosing the perfect one?

Blue Green Palette - Inspiration Board

2009-11-10T13:08:00.000-08:00

So I am having so much fun with my engagement laptop and I went ahead and created my own palette for our wedding - just some inspiration, all from Flickr. I can really recommend using flickr to put together palettes because it really takes you "out" of the wedding world to give you a whole new set of inspiration. I had a lot of fun with this because it was so easy to find beautiful pictures of blue and green that match what we're planning - after all, the Allgäu is just full of blue skies and green meadows, such a vibrant conversation!

looky looky

For you Mac users out there, I am using Pages to create these inspiration boards - so easy and so fun.

sources (clockwise from top left):[ s o l o ], chri.spin, Ingrid in OZ, nbklx17, Martjusha, expressions floral

Flowers - Inspiration Board

2009-11-10T09:30:00.000-08:00

As you know, we have been back and forth on our colors, but we finally had an epiphany with this color scheme. So it's set! Blue for the sky, green for the meadows. All different shades, but mostly bright and happy and modern. Using this set, I surfed the wedding net combing for flowers I like (and turning around to Mr. Schnitzel every now and then to yell: baby, what do you think of this one?) Here's a compilation of what we came up with. Mostly: modern, fun, pretty, not too formal. And blue and green, possibly with bits of purple and yellow, we'll see. My mom was happy that the Hydrangeas are back in the picture...

sources (clockwise from top left) large_image.jpg, San Diego Wedding by Erin Hearts Court, III, Style Circle Standout Inspiration Boards, Kristine’s, blooms-by-martha-andrews+17265, blooms-by-martha-andrews+17257

How did you get inspiration for your flowers? Did you change your mind every five minutes about your color scheme?

It's all fun and games..

2009-11-06T06:29:00.000-08:00

So one of the reasons that we picked our venue the Landhaus Sommerau is because it has a duck-pin bowling alley AND a miniature golf course. WOW! We have been brainstorming ways to use these amazing resources. Here are our ideas so far:

- Each guest gets a monogrammed minigolf ball in the OOT bag (maybe like this but in color)?

source

- A family minigolf tournament

- A bridal party/groomsmen minigolf tournament

here's the minigolf course!

- Duck pin bowling tournaments (also as a bad weather alternative to minigolf)

this is the hotel's "kegelbahn"

- A rehearsal dinner/out of town event involving barbecue outside, beer on tap and minigolf

Oh wait. Did I mention that the hotel also has volleyball, tennis, a playground AND a mudbath? Yes, I know I have mentioned the mudbath. But I'll mention it again. A wild, in the forest amazingly beautiful MUDBATH! Complete with a beautiful pond to rinse off in. What could be better?

this is the "rinsing off pond"

Not to mention that any number of alpine hiking paths, bike routes, cheese tours and amazing castles are within breathing distance. Now I just need to devise a plan as to how to best take advantage of all the entertainment possibilities. I can't wait! How did you incorperate fun into your wedding?

Cake topper sneak peak...

2009-11-05T02:18:00.000-08:00

Another peak at our awesome cake topper via Ashley Daugherty... (Mr. Schniztel's counterpart)

Ceremony - Inspiration Board

2009-11-03T13:58:00.000-08:00

This is the first in my series of Inspiration Boards - I'd like to give you a little peek into my visions and sort out all my ideas along the way! This one is for the ceremony itself, which will be taking place (hopefully!) outside down by the pond of our Venue. I'm thinking - pretty chairs, natural arch with flowers, mountains and hills in the background... (yes, those hills, so alive)...

What do you think? How did you gather inspiration for your ceremony?

Sources (clockwise from top left):
Style Me Pretty
Style Me Pretty
Project Wedding Blog
InStyle Weddings
Style Me Pretty
Polka Dot Bride

color palette...

2009-11-03T06:08:00.001-08:00

So after changing (my/our) mind a thousand times, this is what we're leaning towards for the color scheme:

SOURCE

Amazing lapis blue with green accents.

What do you think?

Building the guest list

2009-11-02T05:01:00.001-08:00

I am still awaiting the proof of my Save the Date? and am starting to doubt, somewhat, the virtues of Etsy's Alchemy? but since I've already shelled out the cash, I'll just have to be a bit patient for a bit longer.

Of course, to be able to send out the Save the Date, I need a full and complete guest list WITH addresses. WHAT A TASK! I compiled the information that I have from various sources and not only am I missing about half the addresses, but I also need tons of last names! And I need to sit down with Mr. Schnitzel and discuss the list, making sure that we aren't leaving anyone out/including anyone we don't want.

The plan is, because of budget, to hand deliver as many STDs as possible, but it would still be good to have the addresses, for the invitation list.

Basically, I have set up a spreadsheet and am writing or calling those with missing addresses, one by one, and marking them in blue if I have already emailed and am awaiting an answer. At the moment I'm feeling quite overwhelmed with everything so these nit picky details seem daunting. I guess since that "beginner's" energy has fizzled away somewhat (we just had our 3 month engagement anniversary on Halloween!) I just am not as fervent to tackle the more mundane tasks. We do, however, have an appointment with our venue in two weeks, and we are also planning on visiting a potential bakery and meeting with the town flower lady. The good thing about doing this in a small town is the lack of too much choice ? it leaves us to concentrate on other aspects.

How did you handle your Save the Dates? Your guest list? The insanity?

I'm back!

2009-11-02T02:01:00.001-08:00

So, folks, the Halloween party is over and my project presentation is done and I am BACK in full force. Seriously, though, planning the Halloween party totally alerted me to some of the things I'll have to be thinking about while planning the wedding. I did get LOTS of compliments though, not least of which are due to the many tricks and treats I have learned over the last several months perusing the wedding planning blogosphere (labels anyone?).

Here is a peak at our costumes:

excuses, excuses...

2009-10-26T07:52:00.001-07:00

So I haven't written in a while, and here's why:

1) I am in the process of renegotiating my contract at work to allow me to work a 4-day week so that I can have Wednesdays for thesis writing

2) I had to give a presentation about my Masters thesis last Monday, and today I had a meeting during my lunch break with an Internet Agency who may be programming our Alumni Portal Website for my project for my Masters. (that's separate from my thesis. right). Tonight, our project group is presenting the concept to the dean of our department. (I never ever want to see another power point in my life)

3) My entire weekend consisted of meetings to organize today's events, coupled with an entire Saturday volunteering at a study abroad fair (for which I had to rise and shine at 7:30am. On a Saturday. Cry.)

4) The planning for my Halloween Party, which is this weekend, has been pushed off to the side, so you can imagine that not much has happened on the wedding planning front.

The only news I have is that Mr. Schnitzel has been doing AMAZING things with our wedding website and I can't wait to show you. And to make up for all my complaining, here's the cutest dog/cat photo ever.

source

a crisis of vision

2009-10-23T02:21:00.001-07:00

I had my first sort-of "oh god i'm not a professional and I don't know how to do something like 'maintain a vision' or decide on a specific look or feel and be consistent" moment.T he thing is, I like so many things! I can't decide on just ONE! I guess I understand why people have wedding planners and designers and stuff. That's what they're there for! But then again, the process is exciting (right?!)

This "crisis" arose when I got the first draft of our save the date. I liked it, but it didn't wow me. I was picturing something different. Actually, I was picturing a thousand things. How was I to tell someone that I just wanted them to design exactly what I wanted, without me telling them what that is!?

So I sat down with Mr. Schnitzel. And wow, was he helpful! He seems to have a much better sense of design and vision than me, and had some amazing ideas. I wrote them all to poor Ms. Wenda over at tucci paper- and I sure hope I didn't overwhelm her! I'm SO excited to see what she comes up with.

So, the moral of the story: just ask the boy for help!

the story of the save the dates continues soon...

Introducing...the Bridesmaids!

2009-10-21T02:24:00.000-07:00

Since I just introduced the Man and Maid of Honor, it's time for the Bridesmaids, who were all my roommates senior year of college! Together, the initials of our first names spell "BECKS"... so, in that order...

Beth

Beth lived on the same floor as me freshman year, but we were separated by a set of stairs. We didn't get to know each other very well until we lived together senior year with three other close friends of hers (coming right up). That year marked my best time at Northwestern and we enjoyed many a late night discussion, shared knitting projects and goofy stories. Here we are together:

Caitlin

I knew who Caitlin was freshman year of Northwestern. She was the girl with the big crazy blond hair! Since then I have gotten to know her much better, as one of her roommates senior year. We had a lot of amazing conversations, shared our experiences abroad in Europe and I watched and observed and discovered all kinds of things about weird French cheese, Polaroids and a hairstyle called the bouffant. Here, smiling big:

Kate

Kate and I spent quite a few evenings being complete goofballs freshman year, when I managed to sneak my way into the so-called "cave" in our dorm where she lived with 11 (or was it 13?) other women (and one shower). Living together senior year, we also shared a fair share of shenanigans, and when she visited me in Munich a couple of years ago, we found some hilarious men with giant moustaches at Oktoberfest. Here we are, with our giant beers...

Sara

Sara and I were next door neighbors freshman year of college. That means we saw a lot of each other – we even shared a strange single toilet surrounded by a shower curtain with three other women. We didn't become good friends until I begged to be allowed to live with her and her three other close friends (see above and below) senior year of college. That year we had a lot of adventures, from stealing Bush signs from people's yards to hosting crazy parties like our cold-war themed party and doing paint – by – number on our comfy leather sofa. Here we are on a boat in Amsterdam:

Introducing.. the Maid and Man of Honor!

2009-10-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

To start out the bunch, I would like to introduce the so-called "ring leaders". Yes, there are two. I hear that in ancient Sparta, Rome and Crete, the Diarchy worked quite well. We have…

MAN OF HONOR – Mr. Mike

Mike is has position number one on this list for many reasons, not least of which being that he has known me since I was six months old!! That's a long time! He's put up with my silliness, my whimpiness, my ridiciulous sense of competetiveness for 26 YEARS. I spent the night at his house when my brother was born, we went to kindergarten together, played in the snow and rain and sun and mud together, and swam on the same swim team for years. Mike taught me about everything important in life because he always knew all the dirty details from his older siblings. And his house was where I got to watch all the PG-13 movies. We used to promise each other that we would get married some day. Since I'm the one breaking that promise first, I'll have to find a good way to make it up to him!

here we are:

MAID OF HONOR – Ms. Nicole

Nicole and I met while studying abroad in Italy, where we discovered our mutual love of simple travel: meeting people, walking around, eating and drinking. During that semester abroad, we spent many weekends zooming around European capital cities and sleeping in strange hostels or on uncomfortable trains and having a GREAT time. We also took our spring break together, making stops all over France and Germany, including Munich and Berlin, the cities which would later become our respective homes.

Here we are:

Next up: introducing the bridesmaids! How did you make your "choices" known to the world?

The Bridesmaid Letters

2009-10-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

So, I can FINALLY introduce you to the (long) process of producing my bridesmaid's letters. Basically, I bought these amazing heart-shaped papers that fold up into cards - they are so neat, you just fold all the edges together and the tip of the heart becomes the envelope flap.

Then, I set to work on the text for the letters. Like many of you "modern" blog age people, writing comes faster and better to my when I type. It may be sad, but it's true. So I typed up the text for the letters, and set off with a ruler and a silver pen writing the text on the hearts! I had to be really careful, because it barely fit. I embelleshed the hearts with these adorable gold foil edelweiß thingies that i glued in random places, including the flap of the envelope.

I'll tell you, my hand is not used to writing that much! I got quite an ache and used up almost an entire silver gel pen. But they turned out (I think) really nicely.

I packaged them up and got appropriate stamps (i wanted flowers but I ended up with an african-themed painting for most of them, but it was pretty too) and sent them off! And happily, they all arrived at their destinations unharmed (or so I hear AND most importantly, I convinced all the recipients to say YES! Shortly, I'll introduce you to the "gang", one by one.

Days 12 and 13 - Gratitude Challenge

2009-10-15T00:22:00.001-07:00

Yesterday for the challenge, I made the "effort to live life with a positive outlook...dared to see the glass half full...listened more than I speak... gave freely of myself..."Or I tried, at least. Ironically enough, yesterday was a grumpy day for me. I did an awful lot of complaining. I ranted about the subway being late, being full, I complained about the cold weather, about the line at the movies, about the annoying girls next to me at the movies, about the fact that the internet doesn't ship anything from the US to Germany (I'm still angry about that one).. So really, I didn't do so well. But reflecting on that has been good for me. I mean, don't we all have grumpy days? Most importantly, I realize that it was just that, grumpiness, and not a perpetual attitude. And it won't happen again (soon), I promise.

Today I am to "pick three friends or family members I see regularly and view their actions and gestures through a positive lens..."Ok.

1) My mom: has been such a big help lately. She's great to talk to on the phone and always has an opinion about my decisions. She supports me and sometimes makes me think twice before acting too hastily, something I (ehem) tend to do. Sometimes, I need to view her constructive questions as just that: constructing, instead of overreacting and feeling attacked, which I tend to do whenever my ideas or inspiration are questioned.
2) Mr. Schnitzel: put up with my grumpy mood yesterday. He didn't even complain! When we got home, he wanted to go to bed ... it was almost midnight, for goodness sake! But I whined at him to stay up. Gotta stop that ... my gosh, if the man wants to sleep, then he wants to sleep! As usual I crawled grumpily into bed (I'm not used to being along in the living room) and was asleep (first!) within minutes. Sigh...
3) The last person is an anonymous reflection, since I don't want to publicize the conflicts here. Suffice it to say that I am having a clash with someone, and I have spent some time rethinking the situation and seeing their actions in the (most) positive light (possible.

Well, I'm almost two weeks in! Tomorrow I'll serenade you all with my assessment of what this challenge has done for me, so far. Tschüß!

What I have learned about Planning a Wedding from my Halloween party

2009-10-13T07:21:00.001-07:00

Alright. This is going to sound really strange. I am planning a Halloween party, and I am doing so partially (only partially) to practice some of my new found wedding planning expertise! I have been reading the blogs for two months now (and writing my own, of course) and so I have a PLETHORA of ideas just waiting to be done. And for those who don't know me personally - I am not really Miss Patience. If I see something I want to own/ to make/ to try, I do it right away. So the idea of SAVING ideas and using them in 9 months (9 months! That's how long it takes to have a baby! So long) is just so agonizing to me.

Now I'm not sayin' that my wedding will resemble my Halloween party. In fact, I most certainly hope that it doesn't, in any way, especially the creepy eerie icky scary way. But in "testing" out my wedding skills, here's what I've learned!

1) Making any sort of paper product is really time consuming. I have been crafting labels for my food and punches and spent all yesterday evening cutting out mice and bat decorations. It takes FOREVER
2) Buy supplies early, when you see them. Don't wait, unless it has an expiration date. Because there will always be something you will remember that you need. Then you can worry about getting that instead of all your other things.
3) Do everything in advance that can be done in advance! It gives you piece of mind and frees you up to do fun stuff the day of, like putting on your costume (or in the case of the wedding ? getting dressed?!)
4) Do a little every day. I have been using TV watching time as an excuse to cut and craft. I find it enjoyable and it feels like a game, not a chore
5) Limit yourself! Pick 2 or 3 or 4 (or 7) projects and stick with them! Don't keep adding stuff. Work on making the things you're doing really good. Do them in advance. And then call it quits.

That's all for now. I am quite sure that I'll have more to add when the party nears. Today, for example, I will be attempting to purchase:

*clear packing tape
*black spray paint
*zombie costume stuff at the second hand store

and THEN go to the gym to do my wedding workout. Ayayay (just testing out that pre-~~wedding~~ halloween stress!)

Days 10 and 11, Gratitude Challenge

2009-10-13T06:59:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, for the Gratitude Challenge, I used my ears to observe the world in a new light. It was really interesting. Mostly, I noticed how loud my office is, even though I never thought it was! Here is a little snippet from my sound diary:

I hear:

music, from my accuradio (love songs) station

Typing noises (from me and my colleagues)

Chairs moving around, sighing

Printer printing, colleague singing, colleague talking to her husband
Other colleague walking around - lawyers walking around

Lunch Break: Rain drops falling, leaves rustling

Tip tip tip typing, Typewriter turning on, typing, Crunching, Footsteps, Voices

Eating pear, munch munch

Today, I attempted to see the world through the eyes of a child. In order to do this, I channeled my days as a kindergarten teacher, and tried to think of all the things that one of my kids would have enjoyed about my day that I, erm, less than appreciate. Here's what I came up with:

- Riding the subway - oh boy!
- Cake - not once, but twice
- Lots of pens and markers at my desk
- Lots of scrap paper to draw on
- Headphones with a fun pedal contraption (that's my dictation device. Work of the devil? but I'm trying to see it in a good light).
- I can go to the kitchen whenever I want. I can get my own water, get my own tea, cook my own things
- Freedom! (I wouldn't call it that ? but they would have)
- Retrieving files from our basement archive ? adventure!
- Going out to lunch, every day

I have a big (grateful) smile on my face!

270 days to go...

2009-10-13T02:24:00.001-07:00

I have just been informed that we have 270 days to go till the wedding. That's a lot of days! Of course, I could probably list many more than 270 tasks to be done in this time span... hmmmmm

What do you think - am I on track? :)

Wedding fit...

2009-10-12T02:12:00.000-07:00

In preparation for the "big day" I've started on a little program to whip myself into shape. I am following The Knot.com's 6 month wedding fitness program AND the wedding abs program. I am just starting week 2 (after a couple of "false starts") and I feel good! I like that the program starts you out nice and slow and takes the focus off of weight loss. Right now I am mostly just trying to get myself moving!

I am also working on changing up my eating habits a bit by following some of the advice here about how to slim down. Mostly, I have been trying to drink 8 glasses of water a day, eat 9 fruits and vegetables, and alternate my alcoholic beverages with non alcoholic ones. Little changes make a big difference!

The first two weeks of the programs have me doing 20 minutes of aerobic activity 3 times a week. I have added the "wedding abs" program to this schedule. My aerobics have been 20 minutes of elliptical machine at the gym, followed by wedding abs in the mat room. Keeping me powered up and my feet moving fast has been the Indie Soup podcast – Runner's edition. What a thrill, and a great way to discover new music!

So I'll be keeping you posted on my progress.. What did you do to get fit for your wedding?

Days 8, 9, 10 - Gratitude Challenge

2009-10-12T01:49:00.001-07:00

So, it's been awhile! I was quite busy this weekend and wasn't able to write - Mr. Schnitzel and I had a car (his parents') on Friday so we took time off from work to go shopping for our Halloween Party (all the heavy stuff!). It was fun, but totally exhausting. Saturday we had a birthday party, and I, erm, overindulged a bit, and spent Sunday recovering. So that's that!

At any rate, I wanted to update you on the progress of my Gratitude Challenge. Friday's assignment (day 8) was to "send out thank you notes to five people who deserve a little recognition". Luckily, I had just done this, in the form of my bridesmaid letters! I crafted personal "invitations" for each of my Bridesmaids and my MOH(s) (more on that to follow?). In each of these invitations, I thanked the person for their unique qualities. It was a lot of fun, and really confirmed my choices.

For day 9, I was instructed to "enjoy the people around me, and take a moment to appreciate their unique talents, abilities and personalities". I was at a friend's 30th birthday party on Saturday night, so I took that opportunity to look around at all the different people and observe them, noting their quirks as unique and special instead of (how it can sometimes seem) annoying or strange. It worked pretty well!

For day 10, I am to pick one of my five senses and focus on it, "taking note of how many gifts come to me via that single port of entry." Hmm. Well, I wasn't up to it on sunday, so I'll focus on this one today, shifting the challenge a day. The sense I am choosing is: my sense of hearing. I'll let you know later how that's going!

Oktoberfest couple..

2009-10-09T00:28:00.001-07:00

Day 7 - Gratitude Challenge

2009-10-08T07:51:00.000-07:00

Day 7 of the Gratitude Challenge instructs me to "take a picture of one thing, person, place or specific moment that makes you feel grateful". Alright. Hmm. I thought about this one all morning, and then I started working, and then I kind of forgot. I just remembered again. So I tool a picture of this:

This is the "fall" display that me and my colleagues have created for our office. Actually, the only part I contributed was tying the curvy sticks with a bit of raffia. But I think it looks rather nice. The best comment from our coworkers had to do with the popcorn filled candle holder: "hey, when you light the candle, you'll have a snack!" hmmm.. we didn't think about that problem.

I chose this photo because, for me, it represents the reason that I (for the most part) enjoy my job so much. My colleagues! I work in the same room with two other women, and they play such an important role in keeping me sane and making me laugh. And we enjoy each other! I love to bring things to share or nibble into the office, and we all really love to decorate. We even have a box in our office labeled "christmas deco". So on day 7 (the first week is almost over!) here's to great co-workers AND the coming of the lovely season of AUTUMN.

Sneak peak at the cake topper...

2009-10-08T06:05:00.001-07:00

Just a sneak peak at the progress of our cake topper by Ashley Daugherty... my likeness! (sans wedding garb). WOW!

Day 6: Gratitude Challenge

2009-10-08T01:33:00.001-07:00

For day 6 of the gratitude challenge, I am supposed to "call someone I haven't talked to in a while and tell them how much I appreciate them".

Well this one was pretty obvious to me- my grammy (see pic on the right of my mom and my grammy together)! It just so happens that my mom is visiting her right now, so I got to speak with both of them - my grandma is just someone who is so amazing, she never ceases to impress and surprise me with her incredible wit and complete sense of self. I am also always surprised how modern she is? she knows everything!

My family loves to play the game "balderdash" wherein a word, law, movie title or acronym is read aloud and everyone gets to write down a definition or answer for said item. Then they are all read aloud to the group and the group has to guess which is the correct answer. My grandma is always the one who writes the hilarious, slightly vulgar, completely amazing answer.

I love her. My only big regret in the wedding planning so far is that I know that by holding the wedding in Germany, she will not be able to be there. We are working on ways to include her in the day anyways. Any ideas?

Planning a Halloween Party - Wedding-Style!

2009-10-07T04:45:00.001-07:00

So this post is a little off topic, but since I am waiting to post about my preparations for writing my bridal party letters (I am starting to get concerned about them - two of the girls have received them, but two haven't responded yet! I hope they made it safe and sound!!) until they arrive, I thought I would digress slightly and tell you about how I am putting some of my newly acquired wedding planning skills to use:

Planning my Halloween Party!

Here are the elements that I have decided on:

DRINKS

Slime Punch

Bloody Black Current Punch

creepy shots:
jäger (label: black death)
erdbeer limes (label: bloodthirsty)
jello shots (black? Orange? Green? Not sure what color of german jello I can come up with)

Beer (Mr. Schnitzel suggested calling it "Virgin Juice" but that is incredibly vulgar sounding and I'm not even sure what he means by that?)

FOOD

black candy corner

ladies fingers and men's toes
except that I will be using store bought pastry instead of making the dough.

~~"devilish eggs"~~ wait, a great idea from shoestring jetsetter: these: Spooky Spider Eggs

mummy dogs

Jack-o-Lantern Cheeseball (something like this recipe, but perhaps without the poppyseeds?and something to make it orange (paprika?)

DECO

Gauze-wrapped candy bowls
Black shapes on the windows and crepe paper curtains
table cloths (plastic)
floating candles in the bathroom tub (the only place I trust candles at this party)
lotsa jackolanterns
furniture wrapped in white sheets
appropriate lighting

GAMES

Costume contest
Flip cup (the germans really loved this last year)
Other game ideas? Something easy that doesn't require too much "organization"

We will also have a photobooth in our cleaning closet - we aren't sure how to best document the photos. Should we just let people take them with their own digicams? Should we provide ours? Should we rig something up? Or should we spring for a Polaroid? Decisions Decisions!!

Other deco thoughts:

scary movie running the background (suggestions?)
music, of course! But dancy music, instead of scary music. Maybe scary music in the bathroom?

So, those are my thoughts! We have the car on Friday so we're off to buy the heavy stuff ? beer and other drinks and pumpkins!! Hooray for Halloween.

Oh, and my costume: the winning idea at the moment is for he and I to dress up as ~~Bacteria. Like wear green and have purple dangly things coming off of us.~~ change of plans. We are now planning on dressing up as zombie bride and groom. FUNNY and good practice. What do you think?

Day 5 - Gratitude Challenge

2009-10-06T01:01:00.001-07:00

Today for the gratitude challenge, my assignment is to write for five minutes about how grateful I am for all of the wonderful things that I currently have in my life. I am instructed not to "long for what I don't possess ? instead, to take stock of all the blessings I already enjoy."

Well, here we go! Five minutes starting now:

I am so grateful for all of the things I have. My amazing fiancè, of course, and all the fun and relaxing times we have together. I am so thankful every day to come home from work and spend the evening with him... sitting on the couch, eating dinner, talking, watching tv or a movie, or just clicking away at our own computers. I am so happy when I wake up in the morning, not because I have to get up (I hate that) but because I am happy to be in our apartment, even if, when I wake up, the place is a mess and I feel overwhelmed with all I have to do. I am so glad to have a job, which is not to be underestimated in this economy, and that my colleagues are fun and enjoyable. I am glad that my work is somewhat challenging, and that I have the freedom to do things in the order I choose.

I am so happy to have such wonderful friends, who do hilarious, adventurous things with me but are still happy to sit on the couch and watch tv or play video games. I am thankful for the alps, the most amazing mountains, and my family and Artur's family. I am so happy that my office is close to my house, and that I only need a short subway ride to get there.

I am thankful for all the fall foods that are coming in season: apples and grapes, pumpkins, pomegranates, potatoes and sweet potatoes. Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage. I can't wait for soup and cozy evenings, beautiful technicolor trees, crunchy leaves, jeans and boots and wool jackets.

I am so thankful for technology: spell check and email and facebook, blogs and google reader, discount telephone rates and the postal service.

Well, my time is up, but as you see.. I could have gone on for quite a while. Feels good to have so much to be thankful for!!

Day 4 - Gratitude Challenge

2009-10-05T01:54:00.001-07:00

For the gratitude challenge today, I am supposed to "write a short message of thanks for some of the "negative" things in my life. This requires me, I suppose, to think of negative things. Hmmm.

Alright, well here goes nothing:

I am grateful for the stress of my Masters program. I am thankful that I have been able to make it work, somehow, and that working full time plus studying in the evenings has proved not only possible, but really quite enjoyable (most of the time). I am grateful for all that I've learned about organization and time management, and most especially, that I have learned how wonderful it is to come home from work and having nothing else to do! I appreciate my relaxing moments even more.

I am also grateful for the strain of my inefficient project group. Although working with this group of people has caused me many sleepless nights and hours of aggravation, I have learned many things about working in a group, and about trust and delegation (or lack thereof) and have learned when to express my feelings and when to keep my frustration to myself. I have also come to understand that I cannot control everyone and that I can't fix everything by simply taking responsibility for all of it.

I am thankful for the distance between me and my friends/family, not because I enjoy being away from them, but because of the amazing opportunities we have had to enjoy each others company in unconventional locations and ways! I have gotten to meet up with friends all over Europe, show them around my hometown of Munich, exchange long emails and groups of facebook photos. My parents came and lived in Augsburg, a neighboring town, for a month, and we had the amazing opportunity of living together in a "foreign" country! I have gotten to witness both my parents working on learning to speak German and adding to their food and experience repertoire. And I always have good stories to share when I come home for a visit.

I have to say that this exercise really helped me "look at the bright side" of things and I am going to try to dissect every problem that comes up by attempting to see things like this. It's hard, but I'm sure I can handle it. What "bright side" do you see in your "negative" things?

Day 3 - Gratitude Challenge

2009-10-05T01:03:00.000-07:00

For day three of the gratitude challenge, I am supposed to write about something I feel grateful for in my life today. There are so many things that I am grateful for and so it's hard to decide which to pick. There are some things that go without saying – my family, Mr. Schnitzel, my friends, my health. I thought that maybe I would blog about something a bit less than obvious, namely, my (current) hometown, Munich!

I have been living in Munich for over 4 years and I LOVE it here. I was always one of those people who enjoyed visiting cities but got bored of them very quickly. I would visit other people and think "what a fun city – but I don't think I could live here". Munich was always different. From the very moment I set foot here four years ago I loved it and could picture myself staying. Here's a quick list of the reasons I am so GRATEFUL for Munich:

1) The lovely "small town/city" combination, the feeling that there is always plenty to do and take part in but at the same time it's not overwhelming. I never feel like a nobody and I constantly run into friends around town.

2) Being able to "escape" the city into the Alps so quickly! A 30 minute train ride is all you need

3) The central location within Europe – Austria, Czech Republic, Belgium, Switzerland, Netherlands, France, Poland, Denmark, Luxembourg – all bordering – and the other countries are just a step farther!

4) The delicious food (like cheese, wonderful breads, amazing local fruits and vegetables) and (of course) Beer!

5) Oktoberfest, which just ended yesterday :(

6) Embracing the seasons! Every time of year brings new traditions, new delicious food and fun celebrations! I especially love how Munich embraces the COLD by placing blankets at outdoor cafès and serving mulled wine and tea. No hiding indoors for us!

7) The AMAZING public transit network that makes it totally unnecessary for us to have a car

8) The myriad of activities available – from hiking in the Alps to beautiful public pools and saunas, to theater and film festivals – I could never keep up with it all if I tried!

9) Winter sports – beyond skiing, you can go sledding (on big beautiful wooden sleds), skating (on amazing giant frozen lakes), cross country skiing (through wintery alpine paths) and so much more!

10)Tradition Tradition Tradition! Dirndl and Lederhosen, Bavarian Blaskapellen, Alphorn players, alpine huts, men riding the Ubahn wearing bavarian hats with giant goat tails… the list goes on.

11)Grilling on the Isar with friends, with cases of beer floating in the river to stay cool. My ultimate favorite summer activity in Munich.

Phew. So that was only a small taste of why I love it here so much – and writing all that reminded me to GET OUT THERE and enjoy it all as much as possible!

Thanks for listening out there. What do you love about where you live?

Day 2 - Gratitude Challange

2009-10-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

So I am writing this a bit early because I am going to Oktoberfest today AND Sunday (i know, it's really debaucherous...) and I am...er...worried about what I might ~~right~~ write (oh dear!) if I waited till I get home...

So here we go! My Gratitude Challenge Alphabetic List of Things I am Grateful for:

A is for Artur, my fiancè!

B is for balloons, lots and lots of them in a big bunch, like in the movie UP

C is for crusty bread, fresh from the bakery, the brown and hearty german kind

D is for Dirndl. Especially mine. Purple and pretty and all ready to be worn for the third time in a row tomorrow!

E is for envelopes. Especially unopened ones, awaiting me on the floor in front of my mail slot when I come home from work, hand addressed to ME

F is for fried clams from the clam shack in Kennebunkport, ME (almost) every summer with my family on summer vacation

G is for gin and tonic. Best drink ever.

H is for hurrying for the subway. Because I do this every morning, and something about it just screams Munich and Me

I is for ice skating. On big giant bavarian frozen lakes, if at all possible.

J is for Jammin' with Bob Marley

K is for knödel

L is for looovvveeeeee

M is for money, because, let's face it - aren't we are grateful for money?

N is for napping in front of the TV on the weekend

O is for office supplies. All kinds. That I order by sending an email to the office supply man at work and that appear magically on my shelf in lovely packaging.

P is for parties, hosted by me, and another p for planning them!

Q is for quiz shows, the TV kind

R is for reruns, especially of law and order

S is for singing ridiculous versions of songs on the radio, making up our own lyrics according to what we are doing at the moment

T is for Target, which I miss soooo much

U is for Ubahn

V is for velvet, the black kind, as in the song black velvet.

W is for water, especially the Isar river behind our apartment

X is for the X-chromosome. Because we've all got it!!

Y is for yodeling

Z is for zither, because you can actually slip the sheet music beneath the strings and play by sight.

Inspiration...

2009-10-02T02:35:00.000-07:00

Just a little inspiration board I put together....