On the way..

So I haven't written in a while, and this is because I haven't had much to write about, wedding wise at least! Ever since deciding on our photographer and officiant there hasn't been much "big" stuff to take care of, and plus we have been focusing on enjoying oktoberfest :)

But there are some pretty purple letters with silver writing flying over the ocean at this moment and pretty soon I'll be able to blog about them and their surprise contents... until then... ta ta!

Yet another crazy German tradition..

Here's yet another crazy German tradition. This is from a wedding I attended and I'm sure there are many variations on this theme. Basically, at German weddings,

the friends of the Bride and Groom plan (secretly) all manner of surprises for the couple such as a "wedding newspaper" (I'll cover that one in another post), various games, Guestbook Frame Photos, a quiz, etc.

This one made me laugh SO hard and people had SO much fun that I would love it if my friends recreated this one for the wedding (hint hint). I think that a lot of Americans would have trouble with this as it's a bit messy, a bit "not so classy", and in general, I don't know a lot of American Brides who would be comfortable not knowing exactly what is going to go on at their reception. But I think it says something about German wedding planning, for although the Deutsche are renown for being thorough in their planning, they do leave some things up to spontaneity! In my experience, the attitude is more "provide good food, good music, and plenty of drink, and we'll see what develops!"

So the friends grabbed the groom. He had to stand behind a sheet that was rigged up behind a table, and stick his head and arms through separate holes. He got a baseball cap put on

his head, and his arms served as his feet and they even got little shoes. The sheet had a body drawn on it, sheet had clothing attached to it and his bride had to come up behind him and stick her arms through the sheet ? they were his arms! It looked so funny just like that that I was already nearly in tears. Then, they had to "reinact" a day in the life of being married. A friend stood behind them with a guitar and strummed a rhythm while a story was told about his day (he got up, brushed his teeth, shaved, ate breakfast, washed his face etc etc..). For each event, the bride got something put into her hands ? "shaving cream and a razor" (whipped cream and a piece of blunt plastic), water for him to drink, etc, and she had to perform the task described. Of course, she could not see anything, so he ended up getting pretty messy! It was so funny and, of course, at the end the groom simply toweled off his face and he looked good as new! (we would, of course, never do this to a bride!!)

So there you have it! another completely "unique" German tradition. What do you think? Would you do it?

New Layout

so..what do you think? It still has some bugs - help me to figure them out! Since I'm not an HTML wiz, I am using this template (inspired by my second longest friend and neighbor's blog pgha). My "Diplomat" logo is gone... but I wasn't that attached as it is. Thoughts? suggestions?

Actually, I switched back. Something about it just annoyed me... give me a few days to fix up the formatting.. let me know if you have trouble with anything!

Office Love

I just sent this to Mr. Schnitzel by mms:

awwww (drippy sappy love music)

Photographer choice #1

So I met with Andrea Basile, a potential photographer, on Tuesday. I have to say we almost completely dismissed him because his price quote was SO low and his website was not particularly professional. But I left him on my excel table and when Mr. Schnitzel and I sat down to discuss photographers we looked at everyone's sample photos without looking at the prices and we actually liked his the best! So we scheduled a meeting and actually, his work is fantastic. Andrea is Italian and started out as a stock photo photographer, but after meeting his German wife on a photography trip to Argentina, the two of them decided to get married and moved to Germany! She begged him to find a job that didn't send him all over the world, so he got into the world of wedding photography.

Andrea's photos have a natural touch with professional flair, and he is just such a friendly, down to earth guy that I was tempted to say yes on the spot! But, for the sake of comparison, we are meeting with our second choice photographer next week. If we are happy with either of them, we will make a decision then.

I particularly like this wedding that he shot: he says he took these photos of the couple as they were walking from the church to the reception site, with all their guests. The photos are portraits, but they are so natural because they are walking and enjoying ? and of course the rustic look of the Italian streets doesn't hurt!What do you think?

Happy Birthday to Me!

Can you tell I'm in the midst of wedding planning? (this is what I brought to the office today)

The font is unchanged thought from dafont.com

Love is in the air...

Since I am still waiting to meet with a potential photographer this afternoon, I will regale you with yet another neat German wedding tradition: the helium balloon/postcard send-off.

This is a fun, photogenic, and touching action that extends the excitement of the wedding for weeks to follow. The concept is simple:

1) Each wedding guest/couple gets a postcard which is already addressed to the happy couple and stamped. There is also a note/sticker on the postcard that says "if you find me, please toss me in a mailbox". You can also include a space for senders to note their location before they toss it in, so you can find out where the balloons made it to!

2) Guests fill out the postcards by either writing happy wedding wishes or by "promising" the pair something special in the future, like a game night, a dinner invite, something like that.

3) Postcards are hole-punched and affixed to helium balloons (heart-shaped ones look especially nice)

4) All wedding guests release balloons at once. Picture opportunities abound.

5) The newlyweds enjoy receiving lovely wishes in the mail from their guests over the next weeks.

Now I know this isn't strictly environmentally friendly. I wouldn't recommend doing it if you're on the beach, since fish and other marine life can choke and die from popped balloons. But it is a lovely, beautiful event and the two weddings where I experienced it, the couple received over half the postcards back! Some of them had made it a hundred kilometers or so! Amazing, eh?