A few things have happened since my last post. I'm going to leave out a few details because it's been a crazy, hectic, insane time and I can't even hope to remember them all.
We flew to Germany, spent a week in our new town/new neighbor town while R worked and I drank coffee and explored.
The next week we drove over to the Berlin area where we had the most perfect wedding day imaginable. The weather was perfect, the ceremony was wonderful (and fully translated in German and English, so both the bride and groom knew what we were agreeing to), we got our pictures taken in a forest with a lake (the nature touched me at times, but I lived), and then in the lovely courtyard of our hotel. I'm not sure how old the place was, but old enough to have the perfect character for it. There was even an old well in the middle of the yard. The photographer wanted R to crawl into it for some cute pictures, but after closer inspection realized that would make us late to the reception, and require a visit from the local fire department. Possibly the hospital.
We made it to our reception with time to spare, drank some champagne while we waited, then greeted the guests and collected presents. More champagne and some tasty snacks later, we ate a sumptuous supper, made the rounds, danced our little choreographed danced, auctioned the garter for almost 300€ (we're pretty sure we took advantage of a drunk colleague who didn't understand that the Euro is about 1:1 with the dollar, oops), I tossed my flowers, we danced some more, at one point there was a conga line that involved probably right around 95% of the 105 guests (surreal, and way more fun than expected), and then we watched our fireworks show. I totally cried through the whole thing, while laughing and jumping up and down at the best parts. It was THE most beautiful wedding.
And after walking through the lot with the fireworks, my dress was thoroughly ruined. It is perfectly black around the hem. I am so satisfied with that. It was a perfect day with so many wonderful moments. The photographer made the comment that he had never been to a wedding with so many involved guests. Usually they quit wanting pictures with the wedding couple shortly after the cake (which is about 11). Our family and friends kept him busy until the wee hours of the morning. He kept trying to back toward the door, then someone would grab him and drag him back to document their new group.
We had Americans, Germans, Slovaks, and Italians. They all mixed and mingled, with varying degrees of comprehension. Unlimited alcohol was a great ice breaker.
It was so great because our family and friends were up for anything. For example, we sent them to an asparagus field while we got pictures taken. While there, they handed out asparagus schnapps to try. Evidently asparagus schnapps are pretty gross, so most groups usually only drink 10 little bottles. Our group drank 40.
I'm so proud.
After the wedding, we did tourist things with my family and his mom for a few days. While thankfully less exciting than the wedding, those days will be cherished memories.
Now, we are recovering from all the excitement in a Gütersloh hotel. IKEA is closed for Pfingsten/Pentacost, so we have to live it up vacation style for another couple days. After that, we can crash at our own sparsely furnished apartment, as all of our worldly possessions are crossing the ocean at the moment.
Except for a wonderfully dirty wedding dress, of course.
