Fiddling with photos

So its been a while since my last blog (ok apart from the fact that I've just added the German pre-wedding party photos and the Prague 30th birthday trip editions just before this blog). We have moved from Heidelberg to Neustadt an der Weinstrasse in the last 2 months, and honestly, its been kind of hard to write about anything in a positive light. I've mainly had my head down studying, gaining a little too much of agoraphobia & teutophobia and counting down the days till our departure to the Philippines for our honeymoon, and then onto Brisbane for our next move in life.

A saving grace has been a super fun wedding present from my wonderful bestest lady friends from Australia. We got a new fancy DSLR camera that I've always wanted to document all our new adventures together in married life. Below are pictures of mucking around with the camera at home (and I never said we were professionals!). Thanks again you fab friends!

Pre-wedding party for Neustadt crew

Before our wedding, we had a pre-wedding party for the Germans that my in-laws kindly threw for the hubby's friends, family and locals in the town to come by and celebrate. We had about 75 people show up and enjoy the evening. Below are some of the pics. Thanks to my family and two great friends for coming a LONG way to represent my side.

Married!!!

Yay! We are now officially married! We had our a civil service in Heidelberg on the 19th (mandatory in Germany) and then a church wedding in Switzerland on the 20th August. The Switzerland part was the 'white wedding' side of things where we had a total of 9 guests, 1 priest, 1 organist, 1 bell ringer (who rang the bells for like 25 mins till I stopped getting ready and finally came down to the church!) in a town of 42 people, a handful of houses, a couple of random donkeys and 1 church. 

It was a lovely day and the hubby and I are super happily married. Now onto the next new and exciting stages of life to plan.... details to come soon..... (and no, for those of you wondering, not preggers!)

Below are a couple of the photos from the wedding.

Enjoy!

My 2011 wedding from 1986

Slightly need to vent. This wedding planning hasn't been easy. 

Organising a wedding in Switzerland, from Germany, in German language isn't, in a word, easy. Normally, the slightest details would be easy, especially for me who loves to organise events and fuss over details… but not when I have to get my fiance to organise every detail I want. If I can't communicate with them in German, he has to do it. Weddings also are of a different type, they still like to have roses on their wedding invites (like a grandma's birthday card) and the hair-do's you can find here are all the rage and people are amazed that I'm not wearing elbow length gloves. 

This wedding in the biggest understatement has been exceptionally trying & frustrating. Not saying everyone else doesn't have these issues at their wedding - but come on, we only have 9 guests attending - it shouldn't have been this hard! 

And lets not forget, when in Germany, you must do as the Germans do - their way or really… they'll find a way to still do it their way. Do you know how many arguments we have had with suit store shop assistants when we say "we would like to purchase a grey suit for the wedding for my fiance" they proceed to demandingly tell us "This MUST not happen, he must be in a black suit for a wedding". They even go and pull out all the non-grey suits they can find to prove a point… not understanding the point they are trying to proove I ask "why it 'must' be that way?", they just tell me "because it MUST not happen"…. - all in german of course so sounding way more harsh. Yay, another one for german 'quality' customer service. (Don't get me started on asking for a blue shirt instead of white.....).

Truthfully, there has so been many compromises because it was the 'best of the bad bunch' when trying to source things here that aren't looking like they are stuck in 1986. Hopefully things will come together on the day less disjointed.

Below is a picture of the variety of wedding shoes you can purchase here. This is not just what it was like in one shop, it is what it is like in every shop. Thank you again, 1986 fashion for remaining in Germany.

To quote an old work colleague friend who took this picture: "it's like...would you like the fugly pointy witch one, or the fugly long leprechaun one, or the frumpy nurse one..?!?! it's like, ugly, ugly, really ugly, super ugly, or extremely ugly. Decisions, decision, decisions..."

Did I mention I'm getting married?

I haven't said much here about the pending marriage since the proposal. I suppose it's time for an update as it's coming up soon and whilst I've been working on my marketing diploma, doing freelance english jobs more frequently than not and trying to stay sane here, I've been wedding organising.

Our wedding will be in August, a small occasion with only mums/dads/bro's/sis's. We needed to find a location that a) spoke mainly german b) wasn't far from my fiances parents home town (they can't/won't go far) and c) gave some purpose/relevance to my family flying across the world. Oh, and I didn't want to marry in Germany (sorry to the Germans who can't understand that). Luckily, we stumbled on a gem of a location that ticked all the 'must have' boxes! Turns out, my parents married in a mini church in the german speaking part of Switzerland, only 4 hours drive away from my to-be-parents-in-laws house and ticked all the above criteria. 

So, more on wedding planning later, but for anyone interested (seeing as I've spent much time on the internet alone looking for wedding things I love), here are a few wedding blogs that are just beautiful…. 

PS. Regardless of weddings, they have great party and sometimes household decoration ideas in them also!

My favourite blog of all time:

http://www.beforethebigday.co.uk/

Great inspiration boards and they have bunting as their banner - which I'm currently obsessed with

http://www.oh-lovely-day.blogspot.com/

One word, martha!

www.marthastewartweddings.com

Super helpful

http://www.i-do-it-yourself.com/

Great pics and ideas, not just for weddings!

http://ritzybee.typepad.com/my_weblog/

And if you want to find which ones of the best you like, they are all listed here in the top 100!

http://www.weddingblogs100.com/