It was finally here… our wedding day :)
Nina and I got up fairly early [7:30 a.m.] and went over to my parents’ house. It was good to start the whole day quietly… Nina went to the florist shop to get the flowers and I had some breakfast with the guys. Strangely enough I wasn’t nervous at all…
Jon, Dhevan, Aaron and my Dad went to get some music equipment for the night and then they went over to the hotel at which Jon’s parents were staying to get dressed. Chris Rigg had the privilege in the morning to be the only guy to see the girls’ wedding preparations *lol* but before we got ready, he had to leave as well.
At 11:30 a.m. Ilka and Kim arrived. I had taken a shower and Ilka started working on my hair. First she put all my hair on curlers and then I had to sit with a drier hood for a while… wasn’t that pretty?!
Then she put my hair in a bun and put strass stones around it. It looked so nice… when Ilka was finished with my hair, my aunt took over to do my make up. It looked really nice as well. I definitely have to learn how to do that myself :)
Ilka did my sister’s hair and Kim’s hair as well and then we had some potato salad and leftovers for lunch.
Then it was finally time to step into my wedding dress… uh, it was so exciting :) I kind of started to get a little bit nervous *hehe* I must admit that the whole pampering that morning made me feel really pretty :)
At 2:30 p.m. the limousine came to pick me up… I drove to the church with my Dad.
The moment I dreaded the most was getting out of the car in front of the church… I really don’t like to be the center of attention and so I didn’t like the fact that all eyes would be on me ;) but that’s the way it is on your wedding day, I guess [and honestly, it wasn’t so bad *lol*].
We had a catholic and a protestant pastor who picked us up at the entrance of the church and then we walked down the isle together.
We had a bilingual ceremony in German and English and the ceremony was musically accompanied by a gospel group that we had picked out. It was beautiful :) We picked out two common gospel songs and then two contemporary songs [ of which my favorite was “When you say nothing at all” by Ronan Keating :)].
The funny thing was when we finally had to exchange rings that the pastor gave Jon his own ring to put on my finger 
I couldn’t help but smile :)
When the ceremony was over and we went out of the church, Jon all of sudden screamed and cheered… it was so funny… and everyone thought it was so cool *lol*
When we walked outside there were a lot of my friends holding heart-shaped balloons… Lukas [2,5 years old] was strewing flowers and he was so adorable.
The whole situation was just overwhelming and I was so happy. After people had congratulated us outside of the chapel, Jon and I, my Dad and Philipp [the boy to whose communion we went the weekend before] drove to the restaurant in the limousine. It was fun :)
Our location for the wedding celebration was an old manor and the reception [Sektempfang] took place in a little room which used to be a stable ;) I must admit – I didn’t get to try any of the canapes and I only had two sips of my Champagne because we had to talk to so many people and to shake so many hands :)
There were quite a few people that I was REALLY happy to see and it was wonderful that they could be there with us on this special day :)
We got some really nice and creative presents [as we had basically asked for people to give us money since we can’t really take anything back to the US – unless we order a big container *lol*].
Then we had to go off with the photographer to take some photos. Unfortunately it kept raining pretty much the whole day, so that we couldn’t take many pictures outside, but oh well… nobody really seemed to care much about the weather… we had sunshine in our hearts :)
The dinner and party took place at the “Tenne” [the old barn floor]… and this was our table decoration. We had a great buffet [which I ate very little of *lol*] and Jon and I were trying to go and talk to everybody for a little bit.
Then there were two speeches by my Dad and my father-in-law and of course some dancing… I didn’t want to believe it when people told me that the day will fly by, but they were right… time just flew by and I felt like I didn’t really have time to talk to everyone.
It was a wonderful evening/night though… we partied till 3 a.m. and stayed up till 6:30 a.m. in the morning :) Susi, Ira, Dhevan, Dirk, Nina, Jon and I were the last ones to hang out in the hotel lobby before we went to bed *lol* the “wedding night” was accordingly short ;)
THANKS to everyone who came to my wedding or was part of it in any other way :) It was a very special day for Jon and me… in fact, the best day of our lives :)
P.S. I know I still owe you more photos, but I will have to post them later… I hardly get to catch up with my diary here…