My First German Wedding

Today, Katrin & Thomas were married. They live a few houses down the road from us & are a wonderful couple. Katrin is in her mid-20s (I think Dagmar said 25) & Thomas is 41 (yup, just a little age gap!). The wedding began at 3:30pm at the church in Otterndorf. This was the first time I had been in "our" church; we had been in the Osterbruch church the other weekend for Leena's school service. Anyway, the Otterndorf church is quite small & old. It was built 800 years ago in the 1200s when the village was first established. The ceiling & the altar are all hand carved & hand painted. Katrin did not have any attendants; she & Thomas walked in together. Now in Germany, you have to remember that church & state are not separate, so before you can marry in a church, you have to be married by the state. Katrin also was baptized during the ceremony, which I thought was nice.

Larissa & Leena, thrilled to be at church.

Now the wedding itself was not a "traditional" German wedding, according to Dagmar. First off, because Katrin did not have any attendants. Usually there are 2 bridesmaids & groomsmen. Typically these are couples who are dating at the time. We also went to the cemetery for part of the wedding because Katrin & Thomas had lost 2 infant boys (both were premature), so they wished to have part of the service done there. It was a little odd, but whatever. You can do what you want on your wedding day. For the flower girls, Katrin asked the children (about 6) to take part. They were given baskets of flower petals & walked ahead of Katrin & Thomas, theoretically throwing the flowers on the ground.

Outside the cemetery, Thomas had 2 bundles of coins & threw those on the ground for the kids to pick up. It was quite funny when the older ones realized it was money! Then they were scrambling!

The reception wasn't until 5:30 at a restaurant outside of Osterbruch.

Leena & Larissa; Dagmar made the red dress Larissa is wearing.

The "adult" table that I happened to be sitting at when Leena took this pic. Dagmar is on the left in front of me. Christina, one of our neighbors who has a son in Leena's class, is across from her. Christina's husband is next to her, but I can't recall his name.

Emma, Jurgen's mother, is in the blue; she lives next door to us.

Jurgen

We had a full sit down meal. Spetz, the German version of champagne, was served (& was really good). They also drink beer with sprite, so I had a glass of that because Dagmar told me to. The food was really good - carrots, broccoli, red cabbage, 2 types of fish, some sort of beef, potatoes cooked 3 different ways (they like their potatoes here!), & salad. Oh & the appetizer was a sausage, asparagus, & carrot soup which is a region specialty.

And they brought the cake out surrounded by sparklers! That was a really neat thing to see.

The cake was delicious as well - it was a 3-tier: a vanilla, a chocolate & vanilla, & a chocolate.



And we had ice cream with hot chocolate sauce. They also served wine with dinner. After you eat cake, then you do shots. One of the liqueors was a plum & another was a green "forest-something." Dagmar couldn't remember what it was called. I tried both, but preferred the plum. Oh, & when the guests start banging on the dishes, it means the bride & groom have to go under the archway & kiss & they have to stay there until the guests quit banging. And they always did it at the first minutes, like when they were trying to eat!



They also took "family" photos. Midway through the reception, a scrapbook was passed around that had each family's photo glued to a page where you could write notes to the bride & groom. It was really a cute idea! And some of the pics were really goofy, like the one of Jan-Axel, Jurgen, & Andreas!


Once we finished we eating, they cleared the dance floor. Now, Europeans can dance! Not the grinding Americans do, but proper ballroom. And you're not supposed to say no if you are asked to dance. Granted, when I was asked, it was in German & I just looked a little lost. I danced with Leena & Larissa - they just liked to spin because they had full skirts on. I danced with Jan-Axel, the 23-year-old who lives down the road from us, as well. It was the first time I had met him & he started speaking German to him - so I had to explain "Nien Deutsche" & we spoke a little English. His English is much better than my German!

Leena dancing with Jurgen.

Katrin dancing with Tim.

Leena & Larissa dancing.

By 11pm, the girls were fighting & Dagmar & I were getting tired. I drove Dagmar's car home which was a slight challenge since I had never driven it & it was dark out. Tomorrow we are to go to Katrin & Thomas's for more cake & coffee. Had we stayed until midnight, we would have eaten a midnight breakfast as well.

So my first experience of a German was quite fun. We did sing one song in church in English (& the pastor even made the comment that we were going to because there was an American present, so it must have been me he was talking about!). But I'm tired now as it is past my bed time & I woke up at 8am & helped Dagmar clean out the barn (my idea, & it looks SO much better now). Next weekend I'll have more stories to tell as we are going to a horse show.



And for those of you wondering about my dissertation ... well ... I'm working on it. Slowly but surely. I can't wait for it to be finished!