a German wedding

Last weekend we drove up to a town outside of Hannover for Sönke's wedding. This was my first German wedding and, while similar in many ways to a typical American wedding, it was also certainly different!

I chose an outfit based on my US wedding experiences: summer wedding, ceremony at 2pm, reception into evening...no biggie. I did made an extra effort b/c I'd heard German's could get fancy at their weddings. I thought summer fancy would be summer colors - but whoops! I guess not. I was wearing a bright pinky-peachy skirt, white top and light green wrap, but aside from 2 other people (I'm not kidding) everybody else was in black, navy, or other dark colors. I felt like Toucan Sam among penguins for awhile, but what can you do?

The ceremony was different in that there are no bridesmaids or groomsmen. When the bride comes in, everybody stands up- but who's escorting her down the aisle? Not her father, but the groom! The bride was beautiful and both were radiant as they went right up to the front where the minister and two flower-adorned chairs awaited them. Weddings in Germany are about as long as US weddings, just under an hour or so, but the bride and groom sit with their backs to the congregation the entire time. The ceremony from then on proceeded as I've typically experienced, except every time a hymn was sung, everybody stayed seated, that was different for me. Stefan was part of a group who had written closing prayers and blessings for the couple, so it was nice to see him get to share in his friend's special day.

After the ceremony the couple walk down the aisle and the congregation followed. As we walked out I saw a huge sheet hanging out front and Stefan said, oh, the games have begun! This is where it gets really different from US weddings. Sönke and his bride had to take baby scissors and cut the heart out of the sheet, then he carried her through the open heart created. Everybody clapped and the receiving line began.

During this time colored ribbons were passed out to those who'd driven cars to the ceremony. You're supposed to tie them to the car and leave them on until they eventually fall off, something about good luck. The couple climbed into a waiting Mercedes wagon driven by the groom's brother while all the guest cars lined up behind them. We ended up being first in line and Stefan was thrilled! Everybody then proceeds to honk their horns like crazy as we drive at about 25mph to the reception site. It was like an American funeral procession with happy, honking drivers!

The reception started off outside with toasts by the groom and the bride's father. We then proceeded indoors to "coffee and cake" (German version of British tea time) but this time with wedding cake. They had a large sheet cake shaped like two adjoining hearts, and they also had lots of different cakes family members had brought. Sönke's mother had made a sahne torte (cream cake) that was to die for. WOW, the cake was actually moist, I was in heaven. I find German cakes just SO dry, so this was a total treat for me. Her sahne torte was only the second cake (next to the Apfelwine cake that Stefan's mother makes) in Germany that I've found I really like. I need to get that recipe!

Afterwards we had just over an hour of a break where we were asked to walk around town or something until it was time for the dinner buffet. So Stefan and I found a cute little church to walk around and talk to a few other wedding guests that we ran into. There was a butterfly there who kept landing on Stefan's white shirt, sometimes I caught it, sometimes it was too fast!

Dinner was announced by the DJ playing some kind of intro song and sparklers going off in the buffet area, that was unexpected! After dinner games picked upagain. This time with the bride and groom having to guess the similarities between different groups of guests who would stand up (people who had come from beyond 250km+, guests with glasses, etc), then there were songs that had be re-written to mock the newly married couple, the grandparents of the bride gave the couple a Bavarian silver cup that allowed both to drink at the same time, didn't get a picture of it, but it was cool, apparently an old wedding tradition. The DJ picked up and everybody hit the dance floor doing foxtrot, cha-cha, waltz, etc. Germans really know how to dance, I felt so dumb. We have got to sign up for dance lessons (for me)! Stefan is a stellar dancer, so I told him he had to go ask some folks to dance, so he did one dance with one of the bride's little sister's friends, which was fun. There were also some fun dancing games even I could participate in.

We left at midnight (3hr drive back to Marburg) and honestly, the party was really only just picking up speed. I felt kind of bad that we had decided not to spend the night up there, but we really need to save some money right now. However, it worked out well b/c another couple wanted to ride with us back to Marburg instead of their other arrangement, so Stefan had somebody to talk to since I promptly fell asleep in the front seat!

All in all it was a lovely wedding (don't they look great together?). We even met some people who we felt like - shoot, if we lived closer together they would probably become good friends - how often do you meet people like that at a wedding? Sönke is one of those quality friends that you have for a long time, and who, even though you don't see each other often, remain the kind of friend you know you can always trust and share a good time with. I'm so glad Stefan is friends with him! Good attracts good, so I'm sure that's why we met such great people there.

Congratulations and many blessings to Sönke and Doro!