Wednesday, August 28, 2013

A rustic Wedding with a lot of Culture

Can I just say how much I love weddings. My heart always skips a beat. Last Saturday two of my friends got married and oh what an honor it has been to plan this wedding. I feel so honored and this wedding definitely made it into my list of favorite weddings.
There ist something so beautiful about two people commiting to a covenant. No decorations, details or flowers could ever be as beautiful than when two people who love each other decide to spend the rest of their lives together. It is romance in its purest essence. That is what makes a wedding special and beautiful.

Now about the planning, the wedding and all the details. This one was a very virtual affair I must say due to the fact that the bride still lived in the States and the groom here in Germany. Therefore all of the planning went over email (good thing I had a class on virtual teams in university - who would've thought I'd need it!) and in essence the groom was kind of the planner on site.
We started the planning process in February and had 7 months for everything which was plenty of time. We actually did not have an official meeting with the three of us until 2 weeks before the wedding, but I had a skype meeting with Claudia and lots of emails followed. The two already had an idea about how they wanted their wedding to look like and a few variables.
It's always so interesting to see the process from the first inspiration board to the acutal wedding where you really have narrowed it down to what you really want.
They wanted their wedding to be a bit more rustic, natural and with both their cultures (Bolivian, German) and their personal love story (from Australia to the States to Germany) flowing into the details of their wedding.
As always I created a pinterest board for them and then gathered a lot of the first ideas and the colors to create an inspiration board for the two of them.
If you have read any of my other events you will know how much I emphasize the importance of a concept. It not only helps you stay focused but it also makes the events look like everything belongs together.
Two things I cannot stress enough when it comes to planning an event, party, wedding are:
1. Don't try to do it all at once with all the ideas you have.
2. Make a checklist and narrow it down from things having to be done first to the last tiny details. That way you will not get lost in the process.
Start with the date, the location and the Save the Dates/Invitations and go from there. That combined with the concept you have in mind gives you a great framework to work in.
Lukas and Claudia chose to get married in an old church in one of the villages and have the reception at the "Zum Fröhlichen Landmann" which is a hotel and restaurant which used to be a farm and one of the oldest ones in the village. It is basically on top of a mountain in the Southern Black Forest and surrounded by pure and beautiful nature.
The ideas for the invitations definitely came from all the travels they had made with meeting in Australia, visiting each other on other continents. We created a bit of a logo for them which then was used on all the other paperwork as well.
Before I go into the details of the wedding and show you all the pictures I just want to give you the concept a little bit. Claudia wanted the main color to be lavendar combined with very soft yet rustic elements. Lukas' sister has such a gift for decorating and made all of the bride's dreams a reality. There was one day a few weeks before the wedding where the whole family and bridesmaids met for a day to craft all the little details. And that joined effort is what made it so amazingly beautiful.

 I still totally swoon over this ceremony. The romance and love were so tangible. It was beautiful.
The time from before the wedding until everybody arrives at the reception place is always the most stressful because everything comes together. People need to be coordinated and everybody is excited and nervous. My attempt and one of the most important things for me at the day itself is to make sure that the couple can lean back, relax (apart from the obvious nervosity) and just enjoy the day with their family and friends.
Like I said before all the decorations were hand made by the groom's sisters and all the bridesmaids. On each table guests had the opportunity to fill our some questions for the couple. There were purple paper straws for the water and for each woman a fan if it got too warm. The flowers were rather simple, lots of lavendar and white roses.
I personally love the "Senor", "Senora" signs. We tried to include both cultures into the wedding as much as possible so the favors were tea from Bolivia.
One of the things I also really loved about this wedding was that it wasn't just two people becoming one but it was two families, two cultures, three languages emerging. The sermon at the ceremony was translated into Spanish and Lukas' parents prayed over the couple in German and Spanish. After the couple had danced their first dance together, the couple together with the bride's parents danced a traditional dance together and I loved that. That melting of two cultures.
It was just an amazing wedding and I am so happy for the two of them. To be part of their special day and to have been given the chance to be involved in the planning process fills me with great pride. Thank you, Lukas and Claudia for including me.

xoxo

Ramona

PS: I will try to get some offical photos from the photographer and also share them here.

1 comment:

  1. Bellisimo todo Ramona! :) y felicidades a la feliz pareja!! :)
    Con cariño, Claudia Gosalvez.

    ReplyDelete

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