We stayed at a nice little hotel in Gresgen by the name of Lowen (Sven told me that means Lion), a short walk from the wedding hall. There we had breakfast with SvEny and a few other family members who stayed there.
Rebecca standing outside the hotel
View from our short walk to the hall. There was a couple donkeys out there
Random German signs
A view from the wedding hall
A view from the wedding hall
Rebecca outside the wedding hall
After breakfast we went to the a hall for clean up duty. Most of the day was spent cleaning up the hall. Once the hall was clean we headed to Zell, to Sven's parents home. I got to drive Thomas's BMW there (Thomas is the boyfriend of Michèle, the maid of honor). We had a nice dinner of leftover wedding food, with a lovely view from their back yard.
After driving the BMW
Michèle and Thomas
SvEny and family
Us at Sven's parents
Later that night, Sven and Eny went through all their gifts creatively German gifts.
The day following, and our last day there, we took it easy and stayed in Lörrach. In the afternoon we went into the town center to get a drink, some gelato, and a few souvenirs. The weather during our trip had been unusually raining and overcast, normally it is warmer. In fact, on this day while we were having a drink, it started to pour down rain in buckets. It only lasted for ten or fifteen minutes though. Then it started up again for another ten or fifteen minutes. We were making many jokes during our trip about how German summers were nice, because most of the days were between 60 and 75 degrees, sometimes cloudy (I prefer cooler weather to the super hot temperatures of Sacramento).
Pouring rain in Lörrach, during summer
Pouring rain in Lörrach, during summer
Ilya at the patio of a bar
Ilya, Sven, Eny
Eny, Rebecca
Ilya, Sven
Lastly, we went to a restaurant that had a delicious Cordon Bleu Schnitzel. My second one during our trip. Sven's parents, Monika and Albert, his brother, Manuel, and Eny's mom, Gudrun, all joined us for dinner. It was a nice last bit of German culture, and a pleasant send off from some of their family.
Rebecca and Sven at the restaurant
Eny and Monika
Albert and Manuel
Ilya and Gudrun
A picture of the restaurant
A picture of the restaurant with Eny
A picture of the restaurant
A picture of the restaurant
We left the next morning out of Basel Airport. It was hard to say goodbye to such good friends, but at the same time we were looking forward to being back home. About Seventeen total hours of travelling then we were back in Sacramento.
We had a wonderful time on our trip, and we are glad to have such good friends as Sven and Eny are. We look forward to them visiting us in California again!
Music was played at different parts of the ceremony, and there were also several church songs that everyone in attendance sang along to with the priest. After the ceremony there were many people waiting outside the wedding. These were all people that know Sven and Eny, especially Sven. His carnival group was there, his soccer team, his musical band, his police co-workers, and more were all there waiting to celebrate their marriage.
The animal guys are part of Sven's carnival group, that he just got kicked out of for getting married
Us walking out of the church
Sven's band playing music, people with red heart shaped ballons getting ready to let them go
The green shirts were part of Sven's soccer team
Cutting something that looks like an umbilical cord
The police holding up roses
Everyone there was invited to a park connected with the church to have appetizers and drinks. We were there for several hours with no bathroom in sight. This was not good for a pregnant lady, so we searched and asked until Sven's father, Albert, was able to find a man who lived walking distance and let us use his bathroom in his home. We made many jokes about how Germans don't ever have to use the bathroom, since it seemed that no one else had to go during the entire ceremony and the several hours in the park reception.
At the end of the reception in the park, everyone who was attending the dinner reception got into their wedding ribbon decorated cars and made a long, noisy (horn honking) journey to the wedding hall. At the arrival at the dinner hall there were people waiting for SvEny with a banner that they had to race to cut out and walk through.
The dinner reception was very lovely, with lots of food and drinks. Many friendly conversations, dancing, and moments of hilarity. There was one point where Ilya got the whole table we were sitting at to all clap our hands as if something just happened. This was quite funny, as everyone in the hall looked at us to see what was going on, and some people at other tables even joined in, not knowing what it was about. The maid of honor, who had gotten to know us a bit, immediately assumed that this was Ilya's doing.
Date of the wedding (June 8, 2013)
Gifts
The gifts had creative ways to give money. This one had a clothes line of money
Rebecca's back at our table
The day before, Ilya had written a speech to give to SvEny at the dinner reception. But knowing that many people would not understand English, he decided to give the speech in German. Luckily, Eny's sister's boyfriend is going to school to be a translator. So Ilya asked him to translate his speech into German. The next step was to translate the German into Ilya's phonetic version of German so that he could pronounce the words as best as possible. This was quite an undertaking which took many hours to complete. The result was well worth the effort, as the whole hall seemed to enjoy the speech, and both Sven and Eny really appreciated it. We even got it on video, if you want to hear what Ilya's poor German sounds like. =)
There are a couple other videos from the wedding hall.
Ilya's Speech
SvEny did a very nice dance they had been practicing, then a band they hired started playing and many people started dancing. There was a lot of dancing and many conversations for hours on end. At one point several people, including Ilya, played Extreme Musical Chairs. It is like musical chairs, except that instead of walking around the chairs while the music plays, you have to go and find an item that the game host tells you to get, then you have to bring it back and sit in a chair (there is one chair short each time, like in musical chairs). This was tricky for Ilya, because the game host was saying the item in German, then someone had to translate it in English for Ilya, then Ilya could go and get it. Some of the items were as follows: a woman's left shoe, a tie, a road hazard triangle used for your car, a role of toilet paper, a desert fork (the translation for this was cake scissors), and the one Ilya lost on was condoms. Ilya made it almost to the end. All of the losers were given coupons of things you had to do for Sven and Eny. Ilya's coupon was to throw a BBQ for them, which is perfect, since they can come out here one of these next summers and have a BBQ in California. By 1am Rebecca decided it was time to go to bed. Ilya walked her to the hotel we stayed at, only a few minute walk from the hall, then headed back to the party. Sven and his brother Manuel were doing a little bit of funny break dancing which was fun to watch. By 3am Ilya was quite tired and was able to go and get some sleep, despite Sven wanting him to stay even longer. Knowing we had to get up and do clean up the next day, 3am was time to go, besides Ilya was barely staying awake at that point. We found out that people continued to dance and party until around 5 or 6am. The Germans sure know how to party. =)
