At the end of July, we went to Germany to attend the wedding of our good friends, Mareike & Richard. We flew into Bremen and then took the train about 1.5hrs south, just north of Osnabrück, to a sleepy little town called Stemwede-Levern. Stemewede was in the middle of lush farmland with cornfields and cows all around, which reminded us a little bit of Oklahoma!
Lunch at the only pub in town!
We arrived the day before the wedding and of course the Germans put us straight to work! We helped set up at Mareike's dad's farmhouse, where the wedding was to be held. Over the years I had heard about the strange traditions at German weddings so I was really looking forward to finally experiencing it all first-hand.
The church they were married in was just beautiful and the minister was really something special. He greeted us at the beginning of the ceremony in English, then said that he understood there were people from all over the world attending. Then he proceeded to recite the same message (at least I think he was saying the same thing to all of us!)...in 4 different languages. He had such a great speaking voice and I was so impressed at his ability to communicate with all of us in our native tongue. He told us that it would take quite some time to translate the ceremony into 4 different languages, so he was going to stick with German and the rest of us could follow along!! Hilarious.
One of the German traditions was to hand out little slips of paper that we would attach to balloons. On the paper we wrote a few wishes for them and then gave them some sort of task we would do for them if they actually found our balloon and note. We all released the balloons at the same time and wondered if they would ever find them.
Silly boys
The wedding was in the late afternoon and afterwards we hitched a ride over to the farmhouse, where we had cocktails and canapes in the garden before the balloon ceremony. We were treated to some champagne elderflower cocktails and the elderflower syrup was homemade from the elderflower on the property and there were fresh sprigs of mint from the garden in each one! Totally refreshing for a warm day. Our first meal of the evening (ha...it was a long night) was a delicious buffet of salads, BBQ, and all kinds of yummy food.
Later on in the evening the ice cream truck showed up and gave us all a sweet treat.
Fellow Horned Frogs: Mareike, Jen & Cristina
They also had a photobooth area so we had fun dressing up and playing with the props.
And of course we had to do our trademark dance...Gagnam Style!
Dancing under the 'money' veil
The remaining few
There was also an epic guitar battle at the end of the night which made for some interesting pictures...
Sun is on its' way up!
During the last dance we all gathered around Mareike and Richard as everyone sang a popular German song together. By that time the sun was on it's way up and it was time for the ride in the, er, stretch car, which awaited us outside.
Unlike American weddings, German weddings last all night and the bride & groom would never leave their own party, so they stay with all the guests until the end.
Our stretch ' limo'
The ride through the countryside was a blast, and soon we arrived at Mareike & Richard's house (just around the corner from the farmhouse and across from the Church) where the groom carried the bride through over the threshold. Upon arrival we were cooked eggs for yet another meal of the day, then we all dispersed, hoping to catch a quick nap before we had to be back at the farmhouse to clean up!
As a wedding gift we put together a video of the wedding for Mareike & Richard, it took a while condensing all of our footage down but it was worth it in order to preserve some really great memories!
The next day was...tiring. But luckily we were able to recover and spend it in the beautiful countryside at the farmhouse.
Beautiful tree in the Garden
We even snuck in the cornfields!
Rooster in the Garden
They even had solar panels!
Baby Linus played with us in the garden the next day and we all relaxed in the sunshine after a really fun marathon wedding. That evening we hopped back on the train back to Bremen and landed, exhausted (!) in London a few hours later.
The church they were married in was just beautiful and the minister was really something special. He greeted us at the beginning of the ceremony in English, then said that he understood there were people from all over the world attending. Then he proceeded to recite the same message (at least I think he was saying the same thing to all of us!)...in 4 different languages. He had such a great speaking voice and I was so impressed at his ability to communicate with all of us in our native tongue. He told us that it would take quite some time to translate the ceremony into 4 different languages, so he was going to stick with German and the rest of us could follow along!! Hilarious. 
During the last dance we all gathered around Mareike and Richard as everyone sang a popular German song together. By that time the sun was on it's way up and it was time for the ride in the, er, stretch car, which awaited us outside. 
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