Hi guys! Moritz and I are getting married next year. Actually, we are already married… Confused? As a German, if you want a religious ceremony, you need to have an official one as well. So we had the official (standesamtlich) part this year and the religious one will follow in 2013. The story about our standesamtliche wedding is actually quite funny, if you want to know more about it, klick here.

This weekend, the fair “Wir heiraten!” (We’re getting married!) came to town. I thought this is a great opportunity to start the preparations for our big day next year. I asked three of my very good girlfriends to join me, and yesterday we went to the fair at the Messe Stuttgart, close to the airport.

More than 130 exhibitors showcased their products and services. You found everything that makes a brides heartbeat rise, from wedding dresses (obviously :-)) to video productions, from confectioners to caterers, from decoration to DJ-services – and much more.

We first set out to have a look at the different shops that offer wedding dresses. I have not decided yet what style I prefer, so it was very interesting to see so many different dresses and be able to touch the one or the other. At the stand of “Hochzeitshaus” they had a wheel of fortune where you could win gift coupons worth 50, 100 or 200 Euro. And I won the jackpot! Of course, I made an appointment with them to try on some dresses in their shop in Stuttgart straight away ;-).

Moritz and I already have the location and catering for our big day, but for all of you looking for a special place to get married in Stuttgart, I found the “Buddha Lounge” very interesting. And when it comes to food, we tried samples from  the Reutlingen based caterer “Uwe Förster” – and they tasted stunning! They offer “food tastings” every month where you can go and try their creations.

We also found a very “sweet “- and I mean that literally 🙂 – young company called “DeinBonbon” (YourCandy). They offer different kinds of candy in different wrappings. They follow the idea of mass-customization, which means the customer can select the type of candy and the type of wrapping individually. Their products looked very cute:

But the one I liked the most was the “Candy Shot”:

You choose your favourite candy, they put it in the little bottle, fill it up with Wodka and – congratulations – you have just created your own, individual Candy Shot! Great idea! 🙂

Next stop: print products. We found the company “wunschprint.de” that showcased I think several hundreds of save-the-date-cards, invitation cards and menus at their stand. Very inspiring.

We have spent three hours at the fair and I got a lot of ideas for our own wedding. Even though the fair doesn’t look big at the beginning, you’ll find yourself not being able to have a look at every stand in the end. So I think the entrance fee of 12 Euro per person is a good investment – especially because you will get a lot of gift coupons from different companies and if you use them for your wedding related shopping, preparations or the wedding itself, you will safe a lot of money.

Before we left, I quickly put Moritz and my name up on the loveboard for good luck. Can you spot our heart? 😉

Last but not least, some interesting information for everybody from the US, marrying in or around Stuttgart: Ever thought about driving to church with a car from the New York Police Department?? Maybe decorated with flowers? Well, here is your chance! The “Royal Service GmbH” offers all kinds of cars for special occasions. One of them is a SUV in the design of a NYPD car. Isn’t that awesome?!

For me, the wedding fair “Wir heiraten!” was a success. Next step will be to show up at the two shops I made appointments with, to find a dress. There will be another wedding fair called “Trau Dich!” in January 2013. If I haven’t found everything for our wedding until then, I might go to this one as well.

More information about:

Wir heiraten!

Hochzeitshaus Stuttgart

Buddha Lounge

Caterer Uwe Förster

DeinBonbon

wunschprint.de

Royal Service GmbH

Trau Dich!