Getting Ready to say "Ja"

Our wedding day was perfect. They say that something will always go wrong, but I think the only thing that was disappointing during the whole day was the fact that my family and our friends from outside of Germany couldn't be there. We had roughly 50 people there, but let me start from the beginning of the day.

My mom, sister and I had an appointment at a hair salon in Nieder-Olm from 8-9:30 am, Felix's dad, Jina, was to pick us up at 10:00 am and our ceremony was set to start at 10:30 am.

I woke up around 7:00 am, took a body shower, and threw my contacts in. Then we hopped in the car and picked up Felix's mom, Manisha. The appointment went a lot quicker than we had scheduled and Manisha was able to get her hair done as well. Originally she had offered to come along just as a translator.

 

I wasn't really sure what I wanted done to my hair. Since my dress had sleeves and was pretty full coverage, it needed to be up. The hairdresser put it up a little higher and made the overall look a little larger than I wanted, but I didn't hate it. I liked my dress and I liked my hair, but I love Felix and that is what I really cared about. The hair flower I made worked out well, so I was pleased.



I also made Jeny a headband with flowers from the same fabric as mine. Her hair looked great!
Even Mom was happy with her hair!



We dropped Manisha back off at her sister's and headed back to the apartment to get dressed.

Partly for cost-saving reasons and partly because I didn't want to deal with communicating what look I was going for to a German make up artist, I chose to do my own makeup. Actually, I felt a lot of freedom with my choices  because we opted not to hire a professional photographer. I wasn't worried about centerpieces or ceremony decor. I wasn't so concerned about my hair, makeup or having everything coordinate. I wasn't going to pay someone to capture those details, so it was a fee pass for me to focus on what I was really interested in.

Anyway, back to the makeup. I never really wear anything more than basic black mascara and sometimes a brown eye shadow. The morning of the wedding I decided to try eye liner and some purple eye shadow. I also hadn't planned what earrings I would wear till minutes before we needed to leave. I ended up wearing some dangly earrings with some pearls that Felix bought me a few years ago.


I pinned on the boutonnière I made onto Felix's suit and asked Jeny to snap a few pictures on our balcony before Jina arrived.

I'm so glad she took these. So far they are my favorites of the day.
Shortly after this, Jina, his wife Ranva, Namira, her other brother Nicolas, and her boyfriend Hein showed up at our door. It was my first time meeting Nicolas or Hein, so brief introductions were made and we headed out to the cars. Namira offered Nicolas to us as a photographer. It's a passion of his and he would like to turn it into a career. He had never done a wedding before, so I think he was a bit nervous. It was this offer that convinced Felix and I not to pay for a professional.

I am honestly so glad he was there. He started taking pictures almost immediately and kept taking them well into the reception. We didn't get any of those getting ready pictures or detail shots (rings, shoes, dress, etc.) that most brides these days, but I generally don't care about those. If I had wanted them, I could have asked for them.

Ralf pulled up to pick up my parents and sister while Felix and I rode with Nicolas and Jina to pick up my last minute bouquet and head to the Rathaus.



I originally wasn't going to have a bouquet because I didn't see the point. There wasn't really an aisle to walk down for the wedding and we weren't having pro photos. However, Felix felt really strongly that I should have one. I think he felt a little guilty about the things we already weren't having and he thought I might regret not having one. We kept forgetting to order one until 2 days before the wedding! Felix just told them my favorite flowers are yellow roses and they did the rest. It was so sweet of him, and I think it was a nice addition to the day.

We walked from the parking lot towards the Rathaus and as we turned the corner, it was a little overwhelming seeing the sea of people waiting there for us. My nerves had kicked in when I woke up and they didn't recede until after we said "ja."

This post is pretty long, so I'll save the actually ceremony for the next post.