I've got Mail

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

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"

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

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

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

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

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?