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?

Meeting with Landhaus Sommerau

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

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

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

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

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

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