Germans sure know how to celebrate a wedding

Part of the impetus behind this European journey of ours was to attend the wedding of Sam’s childhood friend Anna.
By Saturday, June 5, that day had finally arrived.
Sam and I traveled north by train from Cologne to Nottuln, a small town next to the city of Munster in western Germany.
Nottuln is the hometown of Anna’s husband-to-be Felix Frie. Since Anna is American and Felix is German, the couple decided to plan two weddings, one in America and one in German, with the German wedding coming first.
German weddings typically consist of two ceremonies, a state ceremony and a church ceremony. Anna and Felix decided they would save the church wedding for Weston, Missouri, in the fall, but their ceremony June 5 didn’t have much of a governmental feel.
The service started at 11 a.m. and lasted an hour and a half, likely due to the English translation of what was being said in German.
The German state marriage officer discussed the importance of marriage, how Anna and Felix met in American and how they moved to Singapore together.
It was a touching service, with Anna crying as the talk turned to love and devotion.
The wedding made me think back nearly a year ago to Sam and my wedding in St. Joseph.
Once the ceremony was over, Anna and Felix were greeted in the town square by dozens of friends and family members. We all drank Champaign to toast the new married couple.
Then we walked a block to Felix’s parent’s house for lunch, where we had open face sandwiches and split-pea soup with sausage.
Anna said she wanted to serve split-pea soup for lunch on the wedding day because that was the first meal she had with Hubert and Magdelena, Felix’s parents, on her first visit to Germany.
With lunch finished, everyone had a couple of hours to kill before the wedding reception started at nice restaurant in another small village about 10 minutes from Nottuln.
Sam and I decided on a nap since Anna informed us that a typical German wedding ends at dawn.
I’m glad we got in that nap.
The wedding reception started at 6 p.m. in the garden area of the restaurant with more champagne, pictures and an ice-breaking game.
Germans love doing games at wedding receptions as a way to get guests into a festive mood.
For the first game, each person was given half of a note card with information about Anna and Felix on it. The idea was to locate the person who had the other half of your card, introduce yourself and make a new friend.
Sam found her partner right, but I never found mine.
The four-course dinner started at 7:15 p.m. and didn’t end until about 11:30 p.m. because a variety of different games and speeches were conducted between courses.
The mean was excellent.
We started with a simple soup, and then had a plate with eight different portions on it. The main was chicken with cheese and spinach wrapped inside, white asparagus and fried potatoes. Several different selections were offered for dessert. I had what I think was huckleberries with vanilla crème.
Then the real party started.
Anna and Felix performed their first dance as man and wife, then the dance music started and didn’t stop until 4 a.m.
Throughout the night we had champagne, wine, pilsner and shots of schnapps, a German favorite.
Sam and I made it back to our hotel room at 6 a.m. the next morning, closed the curtains and didn’t wake up until 1 p.m.
That’s definitely one wedding reception we’ll never forget.