Standesamt (The Civil Ceremony)

Germans can get married twice: Standesamt and Church. The Standesamt wedding is required whereby the church wedding is optional. In the eyes of the German state, we were married at our Standesamt ceremony.

It was cold, but very sunny...almost too sunny.

I was a nervous wreck before the wedding. While my German was sufficient and improving each day, I had to prove to the Standesamt that I could speak and understand German. If this was not the case, we would have to have (and pay for) a translator. So, the nerves of getting married was shadowed by my fear that before the ceremony, they would decide that my German was not good enough and force us to get a translator, which would literally cancel the wedding by means of a delay in the Standesamt wedding.

As a side note, there were some papers that we both signed. I did not read these nor do I know what the content was. Eva jokes, at least I hope she's joking, that it signs everything over to her in the event of a divorce.

Us and Eva's parents.
The complete gang, including my grandmother on the front row.

Both families together.

My parents and grandmother.