I arrived Tuesday morning and was excited to take the train
from Frankfurt to Hagen to meet up with Martin (we hadn’t seen each other in
over a week since he left to go fishing in Norway and I hadn’t taken a proper
train ride in Europe since leaving Switzerland). However, in less than one hour of being in
Europe, I managed to get completely lost and my two hour train ride turned into
four. On a positive note, I was able to
see the entire surrounding area of Martin’s home town including Dortmund, Essen,
Koln, Dusseldorf and Oberhausen. And even
better, it gave me a funny story to tell the girls that night…Martin’s sister
Meike and best mans Peter’s wife Steffi had organized a girl’s night out to
celebrate the upcoming wedding and hear all of the details. Unfortunately I couldn’t give them details…Meike
had done of all the hard work so she had to fill in the blanks, but on the
upside, it left me completely stress free!
My parents arrived Tuesday afternoon and Dana, Cody and the
kids arrived shortly thereafter on Thursday…the American invasion had
officially begun and was officially complete with the arrival of McKane and
Galvez the following day.
The days and nights leading up to Saturday were packed with
sightseeing, large breakfasts, dinners with the two families and a constant
translation between German and English.
Between the upcoming wedding and being an interpreter, I think Martin
finally appreciated the stress and pressure of planning and organizing a
wedding.
I woke up Saturday morning at 8:30am and prepared myself for
a long and full day. First stop, the
hairdresser for my $35 up-do and then back to the hotel for make-up by McKane
(only a slight change from the pampering and star treatment I had received in
SF, but high quality nonetheless).
With the dress on and everyone looking their best, the American
contingency then made the quick walk to the 900 AD church where we were to make
it official in Germany. The hour long
ceremony, in German, was beautiful.
Between the gorgeous voice of the vocalist singing Ava Maria, the history
and age of the church, Cassidy sleeping and Blake snoring on Dana’s lap and the
fact that Martin tried to put his large ring on my right-hand ring finger in a
moment of confusion, I was brought to near tears of joy and happiness. Things were right in the world…I was even
able to pronounce “I Do” correctly and without offense in German (“Ja, mit
Gottes Hilfe”).
The recessional took us outside the church to the courtyard
for congratulations and champagne before heading to the reception a few miles away. And from there the party got underway, slowly
at first, but escalated as expected with both the German and American friends
drinking and dancing until 4am, a marker I never thought I would make…it was
just too great to meet all of Martin’s friends and finally be able to put faces
to the names I had heard so much about. Martin has an incredible group of friends and
family and I am so lucky knowing that he is willing to be away from them while
in San Francisco.
We ended the weekend with brunch on Sunday and then sent my
family to Munich on the early train Monday morning…Martin and I were ourselves
heading south, first to Nuermburg and Eichstatt and then on to the South Tyrol
region of the Italian Alps for a few nights away. One might call it a honeymoon,
but to us, it was a just a nice trip to finally be able to relax and enjoy
married life. The proper honeymoon is
still to come.
Just a few of our favorite photos!
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