Full of Joy

Saturday, August 13 brought Tim and Anni to their "American-style" wedding.  Let me tell you, those Germans like to really extend their celebrations!  That is something to be desired for Chuck and I.  We really love that the German culture takes TIME with each other.  They are not in a rush, they do not have plans after plans, and they can just sit and enjoy each other.  It's a lovely experience, until my Northern VA attitude kicks in and then I have to remind myself to just BE and enjoy the moments with people.  This wedding went on from about 12:30pm until 12:00am.  I've never experienced any other wedding like it.  It taught me a great deal about the value of being together without being in a hurry.  As the honored Groom stood at the front of the church that Saturday I was struck with how LONG he stood at the front of the church.  Tim had plenty of time to observe his surroundings, smile at his guests, but mostly he just gazed down ...

Just about to be MARRIED! (Tim and Anni, that is!) I know this sign says something about marriage, but I can't quite remember.  In Germany, the "real" wedding takes place at the courthouse, and that actually counts as the anniversary date.  In the case of Tim and Anni, they also had another wedding celebration the next day that was more like an "American-style" wedding. The courthouse wedding was wonderful, even though I couldn't understand a word anyone was saying! Chuck did an amazing job of interpreting for me, but I still constantly felt frustrated in not knowing the language.  I wanted to know every detail of what was going on, but that just wasn't possible.  So, I found myself paying closer attention to facial expressions, body language, and the environment around me.  I have heard that when one of the 5 senses is lost, then the other senses kick into over-drive.  That's how I felt in Germany.  Though "understanding a foreign lang...

My posts have been a bit wordy, so thought I'd keep it short today.  Here is the happy couple, just one day before they married...

Present time at the Bridal Party was full of sweet moments.  Anni has a silly side to her personality, but also a thoughtful, emotional side which we got to see a lot during the wedding week.  The little ducks she was holding up in this picture were so cute!  Perfectly representing her silly, fun-loving side.  Bride and Groom rubber duckies that Maria (in the background) found in Berlin.  The Groom duck even had red hair, just like Timmy. One of my favorite gifts that Anni received was this HOME MADE memo board, hand-crafted by her friend, Lissie.  Lissie created the wood backing, as well as the sewing of the front cloth.  It was absolutely adorable!  What talent!  Plus, the time and thought she put into her gift was really touching.  Talk about a sweet gift.  I noticed that Germans seem to put a lot of thought and creativity into their gifts.  They don't just throw gifts in a bag, they'll hand-wrap a gift with some sort of p...

Can you guess who the beautiful, blushing, bride-to-be is in this picture?  If you'll look carefully, Anni is wearing the blue sash in the middle.  In English the sash translates to, "Germany is searching for the super bride!"  It's a take off a popular show over there called, "Germany is Searching for the Super Star".  The sash was perfect for our "Hollywood" themed bridal shower that we (the Dubbe women) threw for our sis-to-be, Anni!  It was a perfect theme since Tim and Anni went to Hollywood, CA for their honeymoon.  If you didn't know, Chuck and I flew over to Germany the first couple weeks of August to help celebrate his brother Tim's marriage to Anni.  Yep, that's our second trip to Deutschland in less than a years time.  Chuck and I were happy to go and spend time with our fam over there and help out as much as we could with the weddings (Yes, I said weddingS- more on that later).  Truly, it was an honor to be there.  Germany...