Putting on our dancing shoes

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?

76 trombones or... 4 blue shirted men?

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?!

The Band Story

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.

Dance dance dance

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?

Musical thoughts

So I have been thinking a lot about music lately. It's been making me really excited, especially because I am a person who LOVES to be in a great atmosphere with lovely music. But really, don't we all? Luckily, Mr Schnitzel and I have very similar musical taste, so I think we should be able to agree on some wonderful songs that will complement our wedding. We have already decided that we will have a band for our reception, a cover band with an alpine vibe. Our venue gave us a list of about 20 bands that people book for weddings often, so it shouldn't be too hard to find something!

But recently, I have been thinking about the ceremony music, because it's something that I've never really thought about. I just started to click my way through online wedding classics, and then crept out of the box and into some of my favorite non wedding songs about love. I came up with a huge list of music we both adore! We still have no idea about which songs for the processional, recession etc, but then again, we do have 10 months to go! I did get this little thought in my head that I would adore it if my dad would play for at least a portion of the ceremony.

My dad is actually a law professor, but in his spare time he is part of a fabulous bluegrass band called Midlife Crisis. He plays the upright Bass and the guitar. I think I wouldn't make him schlep his Bass all the way across the ocean, but he just so happens to have a guitar hiding out in Vienna (long story – he plays songs for lawyers there every year for a moot court competition – for more details go here) or for a video, here. So I thought – wouldn't it be great if he played some tunes for us on his guitar at the ceremony? He has tentatively said yes – and then I started daydreaming about having my uncle (who I am not sure will make it. But if he does..) play with him on his fiddle. And then I recalled that my brother also plays the guitar! At any rate, I do hope there will be some family guitar music going on. I fell asleep so often to the strumming of my dad's guitar downstairs…

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.