I Got Some More Pictures From My Son's Wedding

I've managed to get my hands on a few more pictures from my son's wedding last December. The pictures I posted before are here. The photographer is my daughter-in-law's sister's boyfriend (there has to be an easier way of saying that!). His website is CB_PIC_ART. I think he did a fantastic job with the photos. He took over 400 (if I didn't misunderstood them since they were talking in German combined with broken English). I want to see them all, but I'm so far away I'm having to take them as I can get them!

They were married at the Schloss Thiergarten. It was built in 1725 as the hunting lodge for Margrave Friedrich. When we took a tour of the Plassenburg castle, which was built in 1135 for Bishop Otto of Bamberg, we learned that at some point the line of the Hohenzollern family that had inhabited the castle for generations ended. Therefore, another branch of the family that had control the area around Berlin sent a cousin down to take control of Plassenburg castle and all the surrounding fiefdom. That was Margrave Friedrich and his wife Wilhelmine who was a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia.

Well, Friedrich and Wilhelmine thought they'd come to the end of the earth in this, what was then, remote 'country' place. Even though its one of the largest, if not the largest, castles in Germany (I can't remember), they didn't like staying there. They were city people after all. To make matters worse, they didn't particularly like each other. So Wilhelmine spent a lot of time in nearby Bayreuth and spent an enormous amount of money building some of the most ornate and beautiful buildings in the Franconia (now Bavaria). She had the Bayreuth Opera House built. We were allowed to spend about $20 per person to spend about five minutes in the opera house while we were there. It is spectacular, even though very expensive for a walk through. Wagner played there but thought it was too small for his music.

Another of the properties Wilhelmine built was the Schloss Thiergarten (Schloss is German for Castle. I *think* Thiergarten is 'the garden' - so that would be the Castle of the Garden (or since they word things backward from us it would be 'The Garden Castle') - if you speak German please don't make fun of me!). We were told in our tour of Schloss Plassenburg that Schloss Thiergarten was built as a hunting lodge for Wilhelmine's husband, the Margrave Friedrich. I imagine she liked having him busy doing his thing there so she could do her thing in some of the residences she had built in Bayreuth.

Now. That HAS to be more than you wanted to know about that little hunting lodge castle. So on with the pictures ....

Michi was having a good time .....

The Wedding

I finally got some pictures of THE WEDDING. That would be my son's wedding we went to in December in Germany. German weddings are interesting in that they go on all day and all night. They start in the morning when the bride and groom have to go to the local court house and get married by the State. I thought that would be just a small official signing of papers and swearing oaths and that would be that. No ... I would have been wrong if I'd thought that. The ceremony at the court house was every bit as long as the religious ceremony they had later in the day. On top of that, EVERYONE came to the court house ceremony as well.

The bride and groom sat at the front of the office and the official sat behind his desk. Everyone else sat in the room and spilled over into the hallway. We waited while the bride and groom signed papers - a lot of papers. When the ceremony started the official gave a very long talk on the meaning of marriage, etc. They had hired a translator for our benefit, which was very thoughtful of them, so everything was said in German and in English.


After that ceremony there was a gathering in the landing at the bottom of the stairs and then it was off in their chauffeured, decorated car with all of us following them in our respective cars, honking the horns and in general calling attention to them. We drove all over Beyreuth honking. Even in the cold weather, people came out on their balconies to wave and other cars honked as they passed us. It was actually fun.

After the ride through all the streets in town, it was off to the castle for the wedding. This was actually the hunting lodge of the woman in the painting above the fireplace in the photos. We had toured their castle a few days before. That's how I knew that. They didn't like it out at their castle so their built a bunch of places in Beyreuth so they could be in the city. They also built the Beyreuth Opera House where Wagner sometimes performed. But that's off the subject. It looked like a castle to this American girl. We don't have castles like that here.


Before they got into the castle, they had to cut through this heart. There were several of these hearts that stopped them along the way and each time they had to cut out the heart to go on. Josh apparently cut faster than Michi. By the time they were at the second heart, he just cut all the way around before she had cut her half very far.

One of the funniest events they did was to have a doll that Josh had to diaper before they could go into the castle. Michi tried to help him, but they wouldn't let her. Being a good Southern boy, after some failed attempts to figure it out, he took out some duck tape and taped the diaper on. I was so proud!!!

After the diapering and heart cutting and other very cold activities, we headed into the castle. We had a brunch. Then socialized. Then had another ceremony that was very similar to the first one only there was music and it was conducted by a minister. Then we had cake - and I don't mean a little cake - there was a table with about a dozen cakes. Then we ate a zillion course meal. Then the 'music man' showed up and there was music and dancing into the wee hours of the morning. A fantastic time was had by all. It really was wonderful.


Here are a few more pictures from the day ....