Mike and Emily were married at home. Their September wedding was Bavarian themed, inspired by their many trips to Germany! “We feel our wedding was pretty unique”, began the bride. “It was hard to find resources for a Bavarian wedding in America so we did so much ourselves and really enjoyed every minute of it. We had a biergarten, circus tents and live music from a variety of our talented friends all day and night. We called our theme a Bavarian street fair, and a fairytale meets Oktoberfest!”
“One of the best moments was the ceremony”, she explained. “As soon as we were pronounced husband and wife we partook in a German tradition of jointly cutting out the shape of a heart from a bed sheet, then jumping through it! Two of our friends played beautiful originals songs and the groom, who is a professional musician, also sang.”
The bride designed her own wedding dress which was then custom made at Prime Thread Alterations. She also hand-painted her shoes with a blue and white gingham pattern. Her jewellery featured pretzels, deer and hearts to fit the theme and was made by her father. The groom and his groomsmen wore authentic lederhosen from Germany and the bridesmaids were in dirndls, also ordered from Germany.
“Pretty much everything was DIY!” Emily said. “We had so much help from my mom and other close family and friends. For decorations we had handmade forest animal silhouettes, painted wooden lebkuchen hearts, tiny painted toadstools, biergarten sign, two bars, and our shed transformed into German candy haus!”
“Our centrepieces were floral arrangements in beer stiens on top of records. The ring bearer, our nephew Cormac, carried the rings in a felt nest with toadstools made by me and my best friend. For dessert, and instead of wedding cake, we served each of our 200 guests a traditional gingerbread lebkuchen heart made by the groom’s mother and cupcakes made by an aunt.”
“Do what you want, people will really enjoy a unique, personal experience”, advices the bride. “Support each other, invest in the details, and get your hands dirty. Also, start early with all the DIY stuff, that is a BIG one!”
