As we were very unlucky with our choice of location in the first place, we had to change plans three weeks before our wedding and decided to have the ceremony in our garden. This was the best decision EVER!

As we haven’t been able to find a catholic priest who wanted to marry us under the open sky on top of a hill close to the Riedbergpass in the Allgäu, we decided to find a free sermonizer. In the end, I think it was fate that no priest wanted to do the job as he would have never agreed to the change of plans and held his ceremony in our garden. But the great sermonizer we had, was open for everything!

But first things first…!

We were also lucky that one of Moritz close friends is a musician: the singer and songwriter Alex Straub. So – of course – we included him into the ceremony 🙂

As we got married in Vegas last year already, we wanted the same song Elvis sang for me while he walked me down the aisle. So this time, when my dad walked me down the aisle, Alex performed “Can’t help falling in love with you”. It was such a special moment. For all of us.

Then, the ceremony began. And what a wonderful ceremony it was. Our sermonizer was Oliver Bisanz. He is a free theologian, who has studied catholic religion. We met twice before the wedding. During the first meeting, he wanted to find out who we are, how we met, what we love about the other and what not so much 🙂 This meeting lasted for three hours but it felt like chatting to an old friend and we didn’t even notice how time flew by. Oliver also gave us a lot of texts, songs, prayers and so on so that we could decide what we wanted to include into our ceremony (the great thing about a free ceremony is, that you are in charge of the contend!). The second time, we met again a few weeks before the wedding. During this meeting, we figured out what parts we wanted to include, when they should take place and who should perform them.

From these two meetings, we knew already that Oliver was a great listener and that he has a lot of experience with weddings. But when he started to perform our ceremony, we were speechless HOW great he was.

His speech included all the important details of our history. And it was a great mixture of funny…

… and serious moments.

He made us – and our guests – laugh…

… and think.

And of course, he led us smoothly through the important moments:

Our guests told us later that the ceremony was so full of esprit and so diversified, that they felt sad when it was over. And we felt exactly the same way.

I also asked him for you guys, if he would perform weddings in English as well. And actually, he has done it already !! 🙂

And if you’re not convinced that Oliver is the greatest sermonizer of the world, you will be now:

Yes, he  also knows how to play the guitar and how to sing! 🙂

At the end of our ceremony, our friends and families surprised us with a special song – and they had asked Oliver to play the guitar to accompany them. And he did 🙂

Well, what can I say? I think every bride states her wedding is the most wonderful one she can imagine (…and that’s exactly how it should be! 🙂 )

For us, the ceremony was perfect. Thanks to our families and friends who contributed with songs and poems. Thanks to Alex Straub, who performed “our” Elvis song for us. And thanks to Oliver, who held the most wonderful ceremony ever!

Thank you guys. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making this day so special and wonderful!

This was the last post about our wedding day. But stay tuned for an article about the hotel where we spent our Mini-Moon! 🙂

More information about:

Alex Straub (only in German)

The post Our wedding 2013 – part 3: The ceremony appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

If you follow this blog for a while, you might remember that we had originally planned to get married in a mountain cabin close to Oberstdorf in the Allgäu. But things turned quite nasty so three weeks before the big event, we were forced to change plans. But guys, I think some things that happen to you are just fate. At the beginning, I thought we have to cancel the whole thing, because I couldn’t believe it might be possible to organize a wedding withing 20 days. But everything just fell into place and we had the most wonderful wedding Moritz and I could have dreamed of.

As we have a small garden behind the house we live in, we decided to have the ceremony there. We wanted a very relaxed and free ceremony under the open sky anyway, so who needs the Alps when he has a backyard, I ask you?! 😀

A colleague of mine organized two pavilions and 14 benches for us. As wooden benches don’t look like much, one of my bridesmaids organized the white covers. We rented them from Festservice Querner & Berger in Stuttgart-Obertürkheim. They fitted the benches just perfect and made the whole setting look very lovely.

On amazon, I got this red aisle. It really did it’s job! Some of our guests said it looked like the wedding locations in some movies 🙂 I arranged some rose petals on the left and the right, et voilà 🙂

Our guests entered the garden by walking through theses bushes. We decorated them with paper streamers and white ribbons, which I got from the creative shop idee in Stuttgart.

We put up a lot of different kind of decoration pieces, like hearts and flowers.

In the afternoon, we changed locations. We had chosen Namaste India in Stuttgart-Dürrlewang for the reception and party. It is one of the best Indian Restaurants in Stuttgart, even Trip Advisor and the magazine Prinz recommend it. They have a huge room in the basement designed for events and parties.  Again, my bridesmaid organized the chair covers and table cloths for us. This time, they came from hussen-exklusiv, which is a small, family owned business in Ludwigsburg, with very fair prices.

We love this Namaste India. The manager is so friendly. He really gave everything to make this night very special for us! After the flop we had experienced with the – in our eyes – unprofessional and unfriendly management of the mountain cabin, it felt like heaven on earth. So, Mr. Taneja, we would like to say thank you again, from the bottom of our hearts, for your help and support. We had a wonderful time at Namaste India.

The food was amazing. The chef surprised us with a starter buffet (even though we had only ordered soup – how amazing is this??!) that was so good, we had to tell our guests that the main course is yet to come so they should not fill up their stomachs already 🙂

The main course buffet was a dream. Six different meals were offered, including Murgh Shahi Korma (Chicken in Cashew-Coconut-Cream-sauce) – my favourite :-D! One dish was better than the other. We had some guests who had never eaten Indian food before and who were a bit worried at the beginning – all of them told us afterwards how much they loved it.

For dessert we had our wedding cake and an Indian dish (Gulabjamun).

We had ordered the cake from one of the loveliest cafés in town: Café Geiler. When I went there three weeks before our wedding, and asked them if they could do the cake for us, they were originally fully booked for this weekend. But when they found out what has happened to us and that we were in urgent need of their support, they squeezed us in! On the 20th, they prepared the cake after they had closed their café, so when they delivered it to Namaste India, it was totally fresh. Where do you find people like that anymore? Thank you so much Mrs. Rahm and family! By the way, it was the son of the owner who did the cake for us. And he just finished his apprenticeship – as the best of his year! He has even participated in a video clip where he shows school kids what a pastry chef and confectioner does. So check out this fascinating guy: http://www.azubi-tv.de/lebensmittelgewerbe/konditor-in/beitrag/oliver-1-lehrjahr.html

And the cake itself was a dream: Two hearts of strawberry cake, very fluffy, with a ribbon with our names on it. And the best: The white heart on top was lactose free – just for me!! WHAT A DREAM! 😀

Some more words about the decoration:

As little presents for our guests, we had individualized M&M’s:

Some of them had our names on them, some the picture of two rings. We had chosen the colors yellow and orange to make it look a bit Indian. Mr. Taneja’s team organized them on the plates before the first guests arrived.

For the tables, we had wonderful flower decoration, designed by Mayer Blumen, which is also located in Stuttgart-Dürrlewang. I wanted something traditional to suit the ceremony in our garden, but also something exotic. We decided for a combination of white roses and pink orchids. It looked stunning!

Mayer Blumen also decorated the car…

… and prepared my beautiful bridal bouquet:

OK, I think that’s enough for the first post about our wedding. 😉

Stay tuned for the ceremony and the fotoshooting! 🙂

More information about:

Festservice Querer & Berger

Creativmarkt idee

Namaste India

Hussen-exklusiv

Café Geiler

Mayer Blumen

My M&M’s

The post Our wedding 2013 – Part 1: Locations, cake and decoration appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

Big bummer, hm?! But it wouldn’t be us if we would let something like that get us down. And as my bridesmaid Nadi has put it: Who needs more than 20 days to organize a wedding?? Not us, that’s for sure! 😉

So this is a quick post about my “Wedding Rescuers!”

I would like to introduce you guys to what is in my opinion the best Indian Restaurant in Stuttgart: Namaste India in Stuttgart-Dürrlewang! That’s where we will be for dinner – and for the party afterwards 🙂

Where there is a wedding, there needs to be a cake! And thanks to  Café Geiler, also located in Stuttgart-Dürrlewang, there will be a veeeery yummy cake on the 20th of July!

But a wedding wouldn’t be a wedding without flowers. Well, I think Stuttgart-Dürrlewang is just the place to look for awesome Wedding Rescuers, because thanks to the team of Mayer Blumen, I will not only have a beautiful bridal bouquet but there will be also beautifully decorated tables at Namaste India!

The only thing, I did not find in Stuttgart-Dürrlewang, was the hair-do. Here, my Wedding Rescuer is called Nicole Kohler from the “Haarschneiderei” in Stuttgart-Vaihingen. She even squeezed in a hair trial last saturday and I LOVED the magic she performed on my head! 🙂

Not to forget all those wonderful people who supported us – and will support us on Saturday – to make our wedding the BEST WEDDING that was ever performed in someone’s garden (yes, you read that line correctly, the ceremony will take place in our garden! :-D)  and in an Indian Restaurant! It is very moving when you find out HOW GREAT your friends and families really are. Thank you guys. We love you. Can’t wait to share our special day with you this weekend!! !! :-*

The post Let me introduce you to my “Wedding Rescuers” appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

It has arrived safely at Rena Sposa and I have had my “accessories appointment” already 🙂

What’s an accessories appointment, you might ask now. Well, that’s when you put on YOUR wedding dress (not the one on display) and try your jewelry, shoes etc. with it. Rena Sposa has a lot of stuff in stock but I had already found the perfect necklace, earrings and shoes for my dress a few weeks ago, so I brought them along for the appointment.

I also I found this cute pearl necklace plus earrings.

I love that they look quite delicate – and that they have pearls! 🙂

When I saw that the jewelry I had bought just went perfect with the dress, I was quite relieved. Now, it was time to try on the shoes. And the shoes are not normal bridal shoes. Why not? Well, they are bright red. I love them! 🙂

One thing I did get from the selection, Rena Sposa offers, is a fascinator. I tried several ones. Check out this funny one… 🙂

But this one was just a bit too big for me and the beige colour did not suit my dress very well. I got another one… 🙂

I also chose a bridal veil and a little jacke,t but unfortunately I cannot show you pictures of these as they show too much of the dress (of course, I would show you guys my dress without hesitation, but as Moritz is reading my blog too, I would spoil the surprise 😉 )

I had a great time at Rena Sposas and with owner Michaela Rena again, just like last time when I was there. I love this boutique!

When I was finished choosing all the accessories, I left my dress at Rena Sposa and they transferred it to the tailor. And one week after, I went to “Atelier Beerwerth”, where Johanna Beerwerth did a great job making the dress fit perfectly.

I have already tried it on after she had finished and it suits me great. You can imagine how happy I am! 🙂 Now, it is back at Rena Sposas, waiting for me to come get it!

So that’s all from the command center of wedding planning and about my wedding preparations in Stuttgart for the moment. As I mentioned, there’s still heaps to do until the big day arrives and I better get going… 😀

More information about:

Rena Sposa (only in German)

Atelier Beerwerth (only in German)

The post Tied up in wedding preparations appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

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!

The post Getting inspired for the big day – at the wedding fair “Wir heiraten!” appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

Anne and I met in Prague in 2008 while I was there, doing an internship and writing my thesis and she was teaching English. We were flatmates and liked each other from the beginning (well, that’s at least how I felt, Anne might tell another story about this weird German girl living next door… :-))

We kept in touch ever since and met again twice after Prague: The first time, Anne visited me in Stuttgart and we went to Heidelberg and Schloss Neuschwanstein together. The second time, she was staying in Garmisch-Partenkirchen with her family for Christmas and New Years Eve. I drove down there for one day and we sledded down the Alps. As Anne is also my idol when it comes to blogging (She has a very successful blog called “fannetastic food”),  an article exists about this awesome day in the snow.

Well, and on the 13th of October we met again on her wedding day! Moritz and I flew to Washington DC the day before and stayed there at the Courtyard Dulles Town Center by Marriott – a very nice hotel close to the airport.

I liked their Lobby very much:

On the 13th we drove to Winchester which is about one hour away from Washington DC. The ceremony and reception took place at Rosemont Manor. Rosemont is a lovely mansion, close to the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge Mountains.

It is surrounded by 5.000 acres of land, what makes quite a nice garden and an even nicer setting for a wedding. It is also full of history that dates back to 1811, when Rosemont was built by the first High Sheriff of Clarke County, George Horton Norris, as a wedding gift for his bride. In 1864, during the Civil War, parts of the Battle of Berryville took place on the property as well. But even if you are not into history, this place is so beautiful, you just have to love it.

The wedding ceremony was performed outside, behind the house, overlooking parts of the garden. It was a beautiful October day, sunny and not to cold. During the vows, two condors were circling above, letting out their cries and making the event even more magical.

The ceremony was followed by a cocktail hour which gave Moritz and me the opportunity to explore the house…

… and the surrounding.

We moved into a big party tent for the dinner reception afterwards. Anne has done a great job choosing the decoration. There were floating candles and flowers in glass vases of different sizes on each table.

As I am not Anne, I do not take pictures of my food on a regular basis, so you have to simply believe me when I say that the dinner was very, very yummy.

After dinner, we moved into another house where a band was playing and Anne and her husband Matt had their first dance as married couple.

It was a magical day and I am so grateful we could spend it with Anne and Matt.

More information about:

Rosemont Manor

fannetastic food

The post A magical day at Rosemont Manor appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.