So here’s the story:

During the first week of our trip we spent two nights at the Grand Canyon.

On our first evening, we decided to have a picnic at the edge and watch the sunset. So when it was late afternoon, we headed out to find a good spot. But Moritz was never satisfied with the places we passed, he was looking for the perfect spot. Finally, we found an area where the walkway passes behind you and where you have an unspoilt view of the canyon, without people walking through.

We had a lovely dinner there and even though I didn’t understand why it was so important for Moritz that we have found a spot all to ourselves in the first place, I came to understand later – when he proposed 🙂

The day after, we started thinking about our wedding. As I mentioned in an earlier post, if you want to have a religious ceremony in Germany, you need to have a civil one before. And as both of us were not very keen on one of these rather demure events, and as we were passing through Vegas the next week anyway, we went crazy and came up with the idea of just getting married there…

After some research (Yes, as a German you can get married easily in Vegas! And yes, the act does count as an official wedding – as long as an authorised person had performed it.) we were sure, that’s exactly the right thing to do for us. So we made an appointment at the “Graceland Wedding Chapel” for the 14th of Mai 2012 – and felt thrilled! 🙂

We arrived in Vegas one day prior to the wedding and had a ton of things to do: find a wedding dress and proper shoes for me (even though we wanted it to be a very relaxed ceremony, hiking boots or flip flops just didn’t feel right… :-)), trousers, a shirt and new shoes – and a wedding ring!! – for Moritz plus we had to get our Marriage Licence at the  “Marriage License Bureau” in Las Vegas. You wouldn’t think so, but actually everything worked out just fine and we had a fun hen AND stag night on the strip – together 🙂 Yeah, we are not for the normal way of doing these things, are we…

And at the afternoon of the 14th of May 2012, we got married in Vegas. Just the two of us. With Elvis singing two of this best know songs (“Falling in love with you” when he walked me down the aisle and “Viva las Vegas” at the end of the ceremony).

I had expected a very funny but also businesslike event but I was surprised: We felt special from the moment we stepped into the little chapel: The minister treatet us like he was here just because of us (of course he had tons of couples married that day before we came and we even met the next ones when we left – but he did’t show it), the photographer – who became our best man – made us feel like we were old friends, only Elvis could have been a bit more motivated. But I don’t blame him. After years in this business, it must be hard to sing the same songs again and again and again every day. And he sang well! So after 30 minutes, we left the Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas as husband and wife! Man, was THAT an awesome feeling!

So if you are wondering now why for gods sake I am telling all that stuff: The following days, you will read a lot more about the west coast, Las Vegas and other places around here – because Moritz and I came back to celebrate our one year anniversary where it all began 365 days ago… 🙂

P.S: For all of you who wonder why I put up posts about my wedding preparations in Germany in the past: These preparations are for the religious ceremony we want to celebrate this year in July. So more about this is to come up here soon as well.

More Information about:

Getting married in Vegas (on vegas.com)

Clark County Nevada: Wedding Licence

Graceland Wedding Chapel

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