Asking the Bridal Party

Just a quick note (sorry for the total lack of photos lately! They will be coming soon, as soon as I can reveal them)? I am working on finishing my Bridesmaid and MOH letters! After meeting with Oliver, we decided on the bridal party and I set to work. Let's just say they involve a beautiful piece of stationary from one of Munich's many amazing stationary shops, as well as some handwritten loveliness (well, as lovely as my handwriting gets). As soon as they are out and in the hands of their happy recipients, I will post here (I want to surprise them!)

I asked Mr. Schnizel how he would be asking his Best Man/ Groomsmen and he said "I'll ask them over a beer". Well, I guess that is the male equivalent of purple stationary with silver writing?

Look what we won!

Our prize from the contest has arrived! Look!


(i think it's ok to reveal our names for this one...)

The joys of blogging

I think one of the things that I really like about the wedding blogosphere is the fact that, well, none of us are professionals! Well, I guess some of us are by chance already wedding planners who happen to be planning their own wedding, but those are few and far between. Mostly, we are doing this for the first (and hopefully only!) time ? which makes us all amateurs. The other wonderful thing about weddings these days is that they really can be all you want them to be. Gone are the days where you had to choose from three styles of invitations from your local stationary shop, or where you absolutely had to adhere to every tradition (did you know that rehearsal dinners used to be the occasion where the families would get to know each other for the first time, because engagements were only weeks long!?). So really, I get to blog about planning this amazing party to celebrate love and partnership, include my friends and family, and be part of a blogging community that is blissfully devoid of professionals! Wow!

Another great thing about this blogging thing is that you I get to share all my planning thoughts with you, out there, without anyone interruption! Does anyone else know the feeling of having a great idea bubbling up all day only to tell someone and have it shot down? Of course, you can shoot me down if you want, but you haven't, yet, and it's really nice :)

So I am going to share a slightly personal detail: when I walk around, thinking about wedding stuff (which I guess is all the time, which I never thought would be the case, but it turns out that I am one of those girls, after all) I keep getting all teary. Which is probably not a good sign for my resistance to tears rating for the day of. I am already getting all weepy picturing potential vows, scenes of dancing with my dad toasts from the family? and the whole thing is still 10 months away! Maybe I'm just getting it out of my system? I hope so.

I am also so completely and totally in love with Mr. Schnitzel (that's another reason I love blogging ? I can call him that!). It's so exciting to come home and spend the evening with him. We continuously exclaim, happily, to each other "hey ? we're getting married" or "this is our very first engagement (pizza/train ride/glass of wine/rented movie)?. Cheezy sugar coated JOY.

*sigh*

thanks for putting up with me, out there!

Meeting with Oliver

So! Some actual, concrete steps are happening. This weekend, we met with Oliver, our Officiant for the ceremony. He drove all the way from Nurnberg to our apartment on Sunday afternoon, and even though Mr. Schnitzel complained about this "silly stranger" barging into his lazy Sunday afternoon, I think he really ended up appreciating it.

We talked about lots of things: what we envision, what elements are traditionally included, possibilities for bi-lingual (or tri-lingual) elements, rituals, music, vows: the whole shebang. It was interesting, because I think Mr. Schnitzel was thinking "why do we need to meet with this guy at all? I mean? we have 10 months till the wedding, and really, what's in a ceremony? But after the meeting he was bubbling to me about all the decisions we have to make and all the possibilities and he also had some GREAT ideas. So there's a lesson to the ladies out there desperately trying to get the men involved: bring them to the meetings!

We have so many ideas now, and I am so happy that it seems like we are going to be able to realize our goal of having an American-style ceremony with other German and Polish elements. We also thought of some things to check out: location of the outdoor ceremony, available space in the indoor location, speakers, music? I am hoping that my dad will agree to play something during the ceremony on his guitar.

We want to do the welcome in all three languages, the vows in English and German, and include lots of bilingual material in the program. The speech will be translated at least into English. We also want to do as much as possible that speaks WITHOUT words ? beautiful music, special ritual, nice setting. We want to face our friends and family, and have our brides and groomsmen standing with us. If there's anything I've learned from years living abroad, it's that eye contact and facial expressions can tell so much, without words.

So basically: we're excited! Any suggestions from our there in the blogosphere? We are most especially looking for ritual ideas and ways to make our Multilanguage group feel included without giving everyone headsets and translating like in the UN. They should all be present, in the moment, even if they don't understand the words. Big task, I know.

DIY Guestbook gilded frames, Part II – German wedding ideas

So this is part II of my collection of German wedding ideas, and this is one I love and have seen at a bunch of weddings here.

1) Take an antique frame (perhaps from a garage sale or your own attic) with lots of curlicues and embellishments - and remove the backing, leaving only the frame.

2) Spray-paint it gold (or silver, or whatever color you wish).

3) Then, take a picture of each guest/group of guests in the frame, having them write their entry in the guest book and later glue the picture to the page.

I have found that giving people any sort of prop makes them less stiff when it comes to photo taking – something about the object breaking the tension, and serving as a nice distraction. The gold (or silver!) frame provides a nice distraction while looking elegant the whole time.

As a nice extra touch, send copies of the pictures to each guest with their thank you note – we have both of ours hanging in our living room, we love them!

In these photos, we just used the background of the reception room. It would be possible, of course, to hang a sheet or some other solid backdrop, to make the frame "pop". This would also be a possible activity with a polaroid camera. In general, it was a lot of fun to do and it allowed the guests to get to know each other too as they were waiting for their photo. Some even formed new groups to get their photo taken later! A cheap alternative to the photobooth idea...

German Wedding Activity – Paint your own portrait

As part of my planning process, I am doing what probably every bride or groom to be does – thinking about aspects of weddings past attended that I especially liked! For me, this also means integrating various American and German wedding traditions. Most of my readers know about American traditions, so I am going to highlight a few neat ideas that the Germans have, that I haven't yet seen racing through the blog-o-sphere. The first one is the idea of a Communal Painting.

I saw this at a friend's wedding, and I thought it was the perfect way to get guests involved and to have something lovely to take home at the end of the night. The idea is to take a blank canvas, sketch a drawing of you as a couple in a light pencil, set out brushes and paints, and let the guests complete the picture! I'll tell you, the result is really stunning! It's probably a good idea to have someone who can draw well to sketch the picture of you, and it is also advisable for that person to sort of "supervise" the painting and add touch-ups every now and then. But then again, as long as you aren't too concerned with getting a "professional" result, let people cut loose! Here's a quick step-by-step how-to.


1) Purchase a blank canvas of a reasonable size (this one was about 36 x 48in)

2)Using a photo as a guide, sketch the two of you onto the canvas. It is best here to only include the faces, and make sure to outline hair, eyes, glasses, etc.

3) Set up the canvas in a corner of your reception hall with a sign reading "Wedding Portrait – help us create a painting of the wedding couple!"

4) Set up brushes, paints, water and paper towels


5) Let your guests paint! If you wish, ask a more artistically-minded friend to man the table and help people or "touch up" mistakes – although this is not necessary

6) Hang the finished product up in your new married home, and cherish the memories of that night and your guests forever!

Let me know if you try this, I'd love to see pictures of other creations!

Festivities approaching

Hi all, a bit of a stall in the postings due to busyness in general. And, I'm gearing up for two other big parties: my own birthday and Oktoberfest! I will be celebrating my own in a Biergarten with friends at a table with its own beer tap! Should be amusing? In any case, I will try to limit my own beer consumption, because I will be rising and shining nice and early to head off to the opening day of Oktoberfest. There will be plenty of time to shake off the (potential) hangover, given that the tents open their doors at 9 and we won't be served beer until after Christian Ude, the Mayor of Munich, taps the first beer keg in the opening ceremony at 12 noon. But we plan on bringing cards and games (maybe even books) to keep ourselves entertained. And when the beer does come, it will be certainly welcome.

On the wedding planning front, I have mostly been thinking and brewing (haha) over several aspects. It looks like the civil ceremony will be taking place in the morning on Friday, giving us time to do a nice low key lunch with immediate family and friends before heading back to the hotel to hang out and relax (HA! Relax on the day before my wedding? we'll see). I am a bit torn because we will only be inviting our immediate family and the bridal party to the civil service because the room is so small, but I would really like to welcome everyone else who made the long trip to town with some sort of gathering. I was thinking about just having an informal gathering in the evening at some point ? either at the hotel or elsewhere. But then again, I suppose our guests will be happy to fend for themselves in beautiful Alpine wonderland?. Maybe a "welcome back from being legally married" toast, or something, followed by a fun mini golf game, if the weather cooperates? We'll see.. does anyone (including the guests) have any ideas about that? Preferences? I guess there's time to think about it.

We are meeting with Oliver, our officiant, for the first time on Saturday, and I can't wait to see what he's like and what ideas he has! We scouted out potential sites at the Sommerau on Sunday, and it looks like we might be able to hold the ceremony down by the pond if the weather cooperates. If not, they have a lovely ceremony room with a beautiful mural of the town.

On sunday, we bombarded the Sommerau with questions ranging from chair covers to cakes and flowers, and we were very satisfied with a) how reasonably priced everything seems to be and b) how flexible they are. I think we are going to do things how we like, and maybe even throw in a few extras! We also checked out the room again and we loved it, even though it was still being cleaned from the wedding the previous night. The owner invited us to come back on a friday night when everything is set up so we can see it in all its glory, and I can't wait! I might even gather some ideas from other weddings?. Can I go every friday night? :)
We also visited the "mud baths" that are part of the hotel property and watched some people bathing in the black mud and then rinsing off in the adjacent swimming pond. Looked like lots of fun :) And we checked out a hotel room, which are lovely, a mix of wooden old-timeness and nice, cleanly renovated-ness. Did I mention that the hotel is also COVERED in solar panels?? For those who know me, you will understand my excitement at this fact. Well, on we go!