Bridal Shower

I had a great time at my bridal party Friday night. Many of the ladies came out to celebrate with me. We had a short devotional with words of advice to keep my marriage together.....afterwards we enjoyed some fellowship with fun games and food.

I especially loved how the decoration turned out....Do you?

Courthouse Wedding

So today...June 9th 2014 we got married at the courthouse.

Let me explain:

So does that mean we are married now or not?

I get this question every time I tell my American friends about the courthouse wedding. Let me explain.  First of all in Germany you don't pick up your marriage license and have your Pastor sign it in the church on your wedding day. In Germany you have a separate ceremony..... that's how the law has you do it. After you have your courthouse wedding they don't care what you do. Some leave it at that others have a church wedding. What is important to them is for you have to have a courthouse wedding.

In many Christian circles they will have the courthouse wedding the weekend or the Friday before the church wedding. You celebrate that day with your closest relatives....something like the rehearsal dinner.

So why are we doing it in the US?  

One, it is cheaper and easier for Patrick and I as US citizens to do it here in the US. Two, this way we can get his visa and work permit applied for before he comes back to Germany. This is also the reason we are doing it almost 2 months before the wedding. Another reason we are doing it this early is my dad wanted to be here for it and we scheduled it during his time off the boat (where he works).

So which one is the real wedding? What is the difference?

For the courthouse wedding we might be a little dressed up and celebrate it with the melting pot. ☺ I will also be changing all my documents and signing my name with my new last name but Patrick's and my life won't change much until August 16th.

I still will only be wearing my engagement ring... after the ceremony, we still will call each other "fiance" and we won't be living together.

For us, before God and our friends August 16th is the real deal. That is when you will see us become husband and wife.

Just being silly...."look at me!"

Story of the special day to come soon!

Officially Engaged

Yes! We are finally engaged.

We felt engaged for a very long time. I mean, to be engaged means that those two people want to be married..... and we knew for sure we wanted to be married. Circumstances just did not let us become officially engaged.

At the end of March & early April doors started opening and we knew it would be happening this year..... sometime before I start teaching in September. Of course Patrick wanted to ask me & put a ring on my finger in person so we had to wait till I got to the US. But we already started some planning....the main thing settling on a date so that our US family could start planning & looking at tickets.

In the beginning of May we were already telling close friends and family we were getting married on August 16th.....but we weren't officially engaged yet. Different, I know, but our story.  This also made it hard for Patrick to surprise me though.....I knew it was coming.

I was graduating on May 18th and Patrick, his mom and sister were coming down to celebrate with me. Patrick already had plans on asking me in Florida but he made me believe he was going to ask me in Tennessee so I was NOT expecting anything during our trip in Florida.

Saturday, May 17th every one went to the beach in Clearwater, FL. We got a late start like we had been the days before but finally we were on our way to the beach. We had lunch at Skylines to eat Cincinnati Chili. My dad loves it and I think it's yucky.....if you don't know what Cincinnati Chili is let me tell you. It's Chili with Cinnamon & Chocolate....yeah....yuck. Anyway. Back to the story:

Finally we made it to the beach. It was more busy than the Atlantic was the day before but the beautiful sand and clear water made it worth it. Some got in the water, others sat at the beach and watched our stuff. I decided to walk up and down the beach with Patrick's sister a few times.....we found quite a few neat things!

When we came back to the others we were told they would be having fire works at 8:30 pm and I really wanted to stay and see them. The sun was already starting to set so I made myself comfortable in the sand and most of us just hung out, took pictures and waited. Patrick's mom then told me that she wanted to get some nice pictures of Patrick and I right as the sun hit's the water line......"ok, no problem".

Finally it was time. So Patrick and I made our way to the water and stood there. Well, not only was there Patrick's mom but my dad was standing there with his phone and my step-mom with my camera. Patrick's sister was taking pictures of the sunset but she stood near them and I was thinking  "What in the world?! Paparazzi!" but not once did it enter my mind that "it" could be happening.

At one point Patrick suddenly went down on one knee and at first I didn't know what to think and it finally hit me "It's happening!! Right now!"

"Will you marry me?"

"Yes!"

He put the ring on my finger.

I gave him a hug. I cried.....everyone gave me/ us a hug and congratulated us. I was shaking so bad & still couldn't believe it really happened.

Afterwards we all started talking about how the planning was and if I knew, etc and then we saw the fireworks go off!

What a beautiful ending to a special day.

Welcome

You are excited to hear our exciting news?

We are excited to finally share it!!

The blog is still being updated but you can already find a lot of information you might be interested in. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us!