8th Anniversary

Hi y'all,

exactly 10 years ago, hubby and I met for the very first time, and exactly 2 years later we tied the knot. At the age of 30 (not 37) I thought this is it, my life, predictable, stable, meh. I couldn't be more wrong - since I met this guy, it turned out very funny and anything but boring!

But I don't want to dull you with our relationship and instead tell you a little bit (haha) about my wedding preparations). First of all, there was the question of all questions, presented to me at some friends' wedding, and of course I answered with "Yes" (this is typically German, we say yes instead of I do). We fixed a date and searched for a nice location to have our civil marriage. As we didn't want to get married in church we needed a registry office offering their services on Saturdays, otherwise we would've had the ceremony during the week and the festivities on the weekend - which we didn't want. But we were successful and received our marriage licence in an old castle - very romantic. And after the location hunt and all admin tasks (and these were a lot, we are in Germany, after all) were done, I could go over to all the fun tasks (at least for me), namely: looking for dress and outfit, decoration and flowers, stationery, Give-aways et cetera, et cetera. I can't list everything because this is only interesting for someone planning their own wedding, I guess. (If applicable, don't hesitate to contact me, will gladly help!)

But let's start with my outfit. I always wanted a black wedding dress and then I just wanted to demonstrate to the shop assistant and my maid of honor that the color of that particular dress wouldn't suit me at all... and then I stood in front of the mirror with tears in my eyes. And so I ended with a gorgeous peachy wedding dress. I didn't find matching shoes but changed the shoelaces of some cream colored shoes to peachy satin ribbons. I cut off the original straps of the bodice and changed them to the same satin ribbons. The leftover fabric I turned into a flower with the help of some yarn, pearls and a lighter. First I thought of wearing it in my hair but it ended on the bolero jacket.

And that was my next DIY: After excessive search I found some yarn matching the dress color perfectly - with a subtle glow it was ideal for my knitting project. Now I hear you whisper - a knitted cardigan to wear with a wedding dress??? To be honest, it was not the typical cardigan, and I really, really liked it.

Then I went to the salon to test my updo and make-up. The chignon slightly resembled H.R. Giger's alien, but I am not the type for delicate curls and braids. Therefore, no veil, no flower wreath but only two hairpins adorned with pearls. 

Outfit - check; next topic: stationery

The first notion of an upcoming wedding for the guests are the save-the-date-notifications and the invitations right after that. Thus I chose themes and motifs for the stationery even before I engaged myself in finding an outfit. I settled with a dark green (very elegant), a calla lily (my favorite flower) and the Papyrus font - which I used for all decorations and paperwork. This is what I made: 

•  Save-the-date-note with a knotted hanky 
  (explained that a while ago in another post)

• Invitation (even the postage stamp matched the color scheme)

• Menus (I took picture frames with a pedestal which could be used from both sides, they were embellished with silver wire, green rocaille beads and green satin ribbon) and the printed version was in color, of course. 

• Seating plan (menus had the same colors) 

• Place cards/name tags, which I opted against later on
• Coloring books to keep the little guests occupied

• Stickers for the water bottles (we had a typical German reception with bubbly at our hotel, but not where our marriage ceremony took place. Therefore, I wanted to make sure that nobody suffered from dehydration). Please note: bottle caps matching the color scheme :-)

• Hankies for tears of joy (yes, they exist - for real)

• Thank you notes afterwards

Outfit - check; stationery - check; next topic: decoration and flowers

Calla lilies were a no brainer, at least for my wedding bouquet and in plan also for hubby's boutonnière. But he decided against a dinner jacket and thus the boutonnière had to be fixed on his red suspenders. As the Calla was too heavy, our florist changed and took a peachy rose. Side note: it didn't make it through the party... I left these flowers (and also my hair and make-up) to the experts, there are things I cannot DIY. 

But I layed my grubby little hands on the table decorations. On each table there was a silver chandelier (which I bought from a colleague after her wedding and which I sold right after ours - what would you do with 10 candle holders???). Around the pedestal of the candle sticks I placed green glass nuggets and tealight glasses filled with green glass granulate, water and white carnations. On the kids' table there were no candles but a large jar with green wine-gum frogs and coloring books and crayons for each child. My sister placed some single-use cameras in wedding decor on the tables and we got some very funny shapshots!

The hankies for the tears of joy were distributed by my oldest godchild before our ceremony, and his little sister showered us with fabric flower petals afterwards. She had so much fun that she collected the petals and threw them again and again :-) For both purposes I bought white wicker baskets which I decorated with green handles, ribbons, silver wire and pearls.

Nowadays you can't let your guests leave the party without some give-away - that reminds me of my kindergarten days when it was your birthday and you had to prepare little goodie bags for all other kindergardners. Anyway, in our case I took little chocolate bars (called naps - short for Napoletaner, instead of non adaptable player, as my gaming expert would assume), stripped them from their outer paper layer and wrapped them again in newly designed wrappers printed by myself. Then I took three of these bars with different shades of green (not grey), put them into a dark green organza bag and decorated it with a mini calla.

Outfit - check; stationery - check; flowers and decor - check;
party - definitively check!

Is there anything more? Sure, there are so many things to mention - about our rings, about fotos in which all people are named Alex, about the old and new castle in Neckarbischofsheim, about our party, our wedding pogo dance, but that would be way too much. Only this: It was spectacular, awesome and unforgettable!!!

Love one another, please do!