international spring wedding

There is plenty of things to think when you are about to get married.

You will be forced to have an opinion about things that never crossed your mind you need to have any opinion about.

Like choosing a photographer after looking on million of photos of happy people getting married. Or color of napkins, type of decoration on wedding table: famous dilemma we were put in front of was "Two or three candle holders" ??

We were dealing with an international wedding, I will try to organize things one has to take care of but then the truth is the chaos is bound to occur ;)

golden rule: ask for rules and regulations million of times, because probably nobody really knows ;)

Part 1 (the date)

- decide on the date
- find a party/reception place
- find a church and a priest who speaks more than one languages that your guests demand
- decide on guest list (remember that roughly for 100 people invited around 30 might not come)

- send out save the date information
- talk about traditions you would like to follow (e.g. blessing from parents, seeing or not each other before church ceremony, throwing flowers)

Part 2

- decide on dj/band
- deciding on having or not an after party (we had a breakfast for guest that stayed at the wedding hotel)
- menu (it will dictate the price of the reception and you might have to agree on that when booking the reception place)
- remembering about food allergies while discussing menu with the reception site owner/manager

- find a hotel for guests (I recommend having a party at the hotel where most or all of the guest can get a room) and reserve it for your guests

- decide on schedule (what time is the church ceremony and what time the reception starts)
- send out invitations (include names, when and where, and additional information if you want to)

- choosing best man, maid of honor - they might need some documents

- bridesmaids

- bachelor party

- bachelorette party (maybe in more than one country)

Part 3

- church wedding papers (if you getting married in church)

- matrimony office rules for both sites

- translation of some documents

- wedding dress; shoes; vail; underskirt; something to cover shoulders in church; jacket (during colder months)

- suit; shoes; belt; vest set; cotton napkins
- organizing traveling of the bride and groom to the city where the party is
- organizing any events that are taking place just before or right after the wedding (like in our case a short trips with friends/wedding guests)
- buy wedding rings (it might take up to month to make them)
- make sure your guests know how to get to the city where the wedding is (send out some practical information)

Part 4 (at least month before)

- decide on hairdresser (trying session very important)
- flowers in your hair (yes or no), discuss with your hairdresser

- decide on make-up (same trying session is essential)
- book time for manicure, pedicure, waxing, facial or whatever you want for a day before the wedding
- write down a wedding day agenda
- go to tailors and do the fitting of the wedding dress and the suit
- get to know wedding traditions of both nationalities
- meet with dj/band, priest and wedding site owners
- take some dancing classes
- decide on first dance song
- send out information about wedding ceremony to people that are not invited to the party maybe they would like to participate in the church ceremony

Part 5 (chaos)

- decide if you will take wishes from guests right after the church or at the wedding reception (for us it was easier at wedding reception - it was cold in the church and guests were happy to first go to hotel before lining up to give us congratulations)
- wedding gifts table

- wedding cake taste

- table plan

- table name tags

- photographer

- camera man (we didn't have one)

- choosing alcohol/ drinks

- labels on alcohol e.g."wedding vine"

- decide on the decoration of wedding reception room

- detailed agenda of the party (speeches, traditions, meals, first dance, wedding waltz, ....)

- transport for guests from hotel to church and from church to party

- presents for parents

- wedding bouquet (should fit more or less flowers in hair if you have any)

- choosing a new family name (or deciding what about surnames after marriage)

- learn the first dance choreography (we did swing)

- practice waltz to concrete song you will have to dance to during the wedding (I mention it if your first dance is not a waltz)

- choose church hymns that are known in both nationalities

- prepare a speeches

- decide if you want kids to through flowers in church or carry rings 

- ask what is allowed to through in front of church (rise, money... - for example many priest do not want rise because of difficulty of cleaning it afterwards)

- prepare menu in all languages that your guests demand

- it might be fun and useful to print little essential dictionaries

- in case your guests might not know each other languages you might like to decide on a translator

- decide how bride and groom are going get to church
- special car/ or car decoration
- decide on the form of the after wedding thank you cards

...

And no matter what else I was adding to this list I had a constant feeling that there was something I was forgetting about...

But, now when it is over, I can say that if I forgot about something then it was nothing big because it didn't ruin the party.
Where there things that went wrong YES hahaha like for example I forgot my wedding bouquet at the hairdresser and realized it 15 minutes before the church ceremony (I have awesome friends so it was solved very quickly). Were I excited and nervous YES but it was all natural and if one is surrounded by good people on that day they will make everything go very smooth :) I was lucky and I had friends and family being very engaged in making the wedding day special and they also took care to have a lot of fun!

We had only one candle holder, green napkins, pink name tags and pink/white flowers. It was very spring'ish. Weather was fantastic, quite cold but beautifully sunny.
I had a time of my life. I got so much love, kisses, hugs and wishes that I have now energy of thousand persons ;) My legs were so tired from dancing! I woke up at 6:30 am to got to hairdresser at 7:30 am. At 11:00 I started putting my dress on.
The marriage ceremony started at 1pm in church. We got a short photo-session in a park where we got engaged. At 3:30 we entered the wedding reception room and the party started. At 2am we ate last hot meal and went to bed 5am.
We met most of our guests that stayed at the hotel where the reception was held for breakfast at 10am. Were we tired? YES but it didn't matter because we were infinitely happy :)

I think it is priceless how important it is for both families to get to know each other, and I can not describe how much positive energy such a meeting can produce. Every single minute we invested in preparation of this day was worth it!

Both trips before and after wedding were a blast. We were lucky and the weather was sunny all the time.

It was a half a year project. It was a lot of work. But it was worth it! I am very glad we made it!
It just proves that putting a lot of heart into something will blossom with some type of goodness.

Lots of love from me and my husband :D