The wedding planning has been mildly stressful. Even though we aren't having a full blown celebration, we still want to celebrate this time in a nice way with the people who can make it.
The dress I bought online from the U.S. was really disappointing. It didn't fit well and it was pretty blah. We promptly returned it, but returning things to another country from Germany is complicated and time consuming.
Here is a picture I found of the dress online:
Once I realized the dress I was really excited about wasn't going to work, I kind just gave up on the idea of a white dress or of a new dress. I plan on wearing a dress I've had for about a year that I have already worn to my cousin's wedding and my friend's wedding rehearsal. I think people feel bad for me when I tell them I'm wearing a dress I already have. A girl from Morocco in my class kept asking me today if it was too short when I showed her a picture of me in the dress on my phone. I think she expected me to wear a traditional wedding dress like she sees American women wear in movies.
We finally found a place to hold our reception. I was honestly beginning to worry that we wouldn't be able to find a place. We don't live in a big city or really even near a big city. We had 2 tentative options near the place we are getting married, the Rathaus (city hall). One is a restaurant connected to the hotel my friends will be staying in (I think Johnny Depp frequents the hotel) and the other is a restaurant where the DJK has some of their big meetings.
The hotel restaurant had the charm and traditional German character that we liked, but the room was too small for our modest guest count. The other restaurant was your typical, sterile-white banquet hall, but the prices were incredibly steep.
Then we checked out a restaurant that was a bit further away and as soon as we walked in, I knew it was perfect. The room was bright and not too small or too big. And the view. The view was AMAZING! Unfortunately, they were booked for our entire weekend. I still hope to take my parents and sister there while they're in town.
We spent the following Saturday driving all over neighboring towns looking at possible venues. We ended up going with the first one we visited. It is almost a perfect solution. If I didn't know the restaurant with the gorgeous view was ever a possibility, I'm sure I would be even more thrilled with the venue we booked.
It's a cute, traditional, small German Weingut (vineyard) called Weingut Eulenmühle (Vineyard Owl Mill). The dinning room looks like a traditional wine cellar. Unfortunately they don't have many pictures on their website or floating around the internet, but here are the few I was able to find.
I'm slightly worried that it's going to be hard to hear anyone talking with so many people in one room, but I think it'll be okay. The room holds up to 55 people and we are expecting more like 35-40.
We had our final meeting last week at the Standesamt with Herr Scherer and Frau Jans-Barclay (our translator). Herr Scherer didn't think I needed a translator with my language skills, but since we will be hiring her for our wedding day anyways, we figured why not? Basically we just had to verify that all the information we had given them was correct. They also asked Felix if he had found the man of his dreams and if I had found the woman of mine. Ha, ha! We were also asked if we were related in any way or if we had children together. I signed a bunch of papers and that was that. Now we just have to wait to hear back that our application was approved, pay a fee, provide proof that we've paid the fee, and THEN we can get married.
Next on our agenda is to figure out what food options we want to provide at the reception and order our rings.
As far as my life in Germany goes, things are pretty much the same as usual. I go to language school during the week. I've gotten back into running recently. I actually love running through the fields, but I hated going through the streets.
The fields are gorgeous and I've worked out a pretty good route.
The weather has been all over the place. It gets chilly and scalding. Blue skies and black. Dry for days and then soaking for a week. But the sunsets are always stunning.
If you look closely you can see 2 hot air balloons in the distance.
I made a friend at language school. He's from Maine, is married, and has 3 kids. Of course shortly after we met he had to leave the school for 2 months. He's having family visit and he's going back to the U.S. for a visit, so the school said he would miss too much. He, Felix, and I met up for drinks a week or so ago and we are hopefully meeting up again tomorrow. Felix is away for training this week, so I'm a little bored holding down the fort by myself.
