The wedding!

Well, the wedding was beautiful and the reception was such a great party. I bet I took 200 photos, but I'll try to select he few best ones to show here! First of all, the weather was just as gorgeous as it could be, sunny and maybe 80 or so. The church where the wedding was held was a beautiful little chapel at the top of a scenic hill.

It was so great to see all the relatives and old friends again, we stood outside and talked a lot even before the wedding started. As expected, the actual wedding service was not traditional. To start with, Almut wore a lovely BLUE dress. There were no bridesmaids or groomsmen. The "pastor" was one of Almut's friends and wore all black, including a black hat!

As it is typical in Germany, the bride and groom sat in chairs at the front during the service.

 There was a band playing very lively music before and during the service. There were several songs, a stand-up comedy routine (on tape), a puppet show, a few readings, and lots of interesting music. There were also traditional elements, like the vows and the kiss! It was nice.

My niece and nephew Charlotte and Bela!

My sister-in-law Lauren, baby Marion, and my Mom!

After the service we all went outside for a champagne reception and soft pretzels, either with or without butter filling (yummy!). We also took photos of and with the bride and groom.

The bride and groom with their parents!

They also did a German tradition where there was a huge canvas painting of a heart and the bride and groom cut out the heart and then the groom carries the bride through the heart-shaped hole. It was cute!

After that we left the church and drove to where the reception was held. The bride and groom drove through the towns along the way in a little red convertible with balloons and tin cans attached to the back of it. Many of the wedding guests followed and honked our horns. It was fun!

The reception was outdoors but under a roof, part of an old barn or a mill it seemed. There were many peacocks running around wild, which was really fun for the kids. Ben took about 27 photos of the peacocks, I'll show the few best ones :-)

Alex and Ben made tissue paper flowers for Almut and David as a wedding gift!

David and my best friend Nicola!

At the reception there were drinks, food (Indian -Yum!), dancing, a program (poems, readings, games) and a slide show. It was great and went on all night! We finally left around 11:30 pm. Ben was exhausted, since he's been fighting a slight cold (stuffy nose, sore throat, etc.). I heard the last guests left at 4:00am!!

Cutting the cake!

Mom and I read an Irish blessing

At some point in the course of the evening, the bride and groom changed clothes, I guess to be more casual or more comfortable for dancing, etc. Almut's other dress was beautiful, too, with a wide petticoat skirt!

Charlotte brought 3 of her girlfriends with her to the wedding. They dressed up to the hilt and looked like  they were about 19 instead of 14 and 15!

Those teenage girls had a blast dancing ... except there were no teenage boys to dance with, so they wound up dancing with Alex and Ben! Alex says this was his favorite part of the evening :-)

Overall, it was certainly a memorable occasion for all of us! We even got one photo with the whole family in it!