Hochzeit revisited

The last weekend in May, I attended my first German wedding. I know, you're thinking, what about Cesar & Elisabetta's wedding last summer. Not the same. Not the same at all.

Meet Björn & Christina, residents of the town of Lohfelden, population 13,000.



Björn and I train and race together. We're about the same age. We run about the same tempos. Sympatico. Christina's also a teacher in Kassel and Göttingen, but she teaches kids, where I teach university students.

They got married in a thousand-year old church in Kaufungen, which was followed by a few German wedding traditions, some old, some new:

The new...



"Love Hurdles"




The Old:



Cutting a heart out of a bedsheet...







And crossing the threshold...







I learned a few things about German weddings.

For starters: the gift is money. But the object is to present the money in the most creative diorama... there were lighthouses with little paper (money) boats. There were wedding scenes with money guests (postmodern). At one point, four burly men entered carrying a North Sea beach diorama on a 4'x8' sheet of plywood. Melanie described it thus: "Wir (germans) sind alle oder gar nichts" (We are all or nothing).

For our diorama, we runners ran with another theme:




The reception was held at an old horse stables in Lohfelden. The sister and mother of the bride put on a kind of pageant, which included B&C having do stunts, a fashion show of old sports uniforms (C was a shot-putter when she was growing up), a "Guess the wild mushroom" contest (B spent a lot of time in the forest as a kid). All very organized... alphabetical, even.







Unfortunately for me, Lily had a performance of "Hair" that night, so I flew semi-solo. Luckily I sat with all my peoples at the best table:



Julia & Timm



Melanie & Martin



Markus & Dörte (w/Mel & Martin)



Paul, Robel & Fritzi



And Jörn, who in addition to running me into the ground, I found out can drink me under the table. Yikes.

The guy who is not my father who I also call coach, Herr Aufenanger, made the scene:



At midnight, they bring out another round of food, including the Schmalz pot:



fortifying us for the hours of dancing ahead. At 2:00 a.m., Lily started to worry. I rolled in just before three. Goodness.