Twelve month ago | Our First Wedding Anniversay

Hello everyone!

First of all we would like to apologize if you are coming to see the number #10 tip of the Candi Guide, since today is our first wedding anniversary this has to wait for Tuesday :)

So here we are now, a year later. Twelve month. WOW! It’s been a really great first year actually and there is not a single day where we aren’t walking down the memory lane.

You can imagine that this is a lot easier having those memories beautifully captured on photos and we will be forever THANKFUL for what Nadia Meli has created for us.

With every day, these pictures get more and more important to us and someday to our little daughter Malia as well. BTW, she is 4 month with today and we love her more and more every day. Did we say we love the number 12 ;-)

The planning for our wedding started not earlier than 4 month prior to the big day. We were about to schedule and plan a couple of flights for our trip around the world and getting married during this trip was rather a bit spontaneous. One day while talking about where we would like to travel, we decided to elope in New Zealand while visiting because we love this wonderful and magical place. Just the two of us.

Right away we contacted Nadia to hear how her bookings in February are. We knew she had to come and capture our love for each other in her unique way.

So, one more time: THANK YOU Nadia and sure Eddy as well for sharing this amazing time with us.

An elopement of course does not need as much planning as a “regular” wedding but believe it or not, there were enough things to do. Besides the paperwork we of course needed a dress, rings, a suite, shoes, a location, flowers, food you name it.

But what to do, if you are traveling and have to plan a (small) wedding?

What could not be organized directly in New Zealand we simply picked up in the countries we traveled to or ordered online and have it shipped to our dear friend Kate Holland (Magnolia Rouge) in New Zealand.

During our stay in South Africa we took the chance to get our both wedding rings done, quick and easy. While it wasn’t easy to find the right dress for Carmen, Ingo’s suite was tailored in India at our arrival and ready before we left Bangalore.

After tons of wedding dress websites and inquiries Carmen decided to design her own dress and find someone manufacturing it. She always dreamed of a dress blowing in the wind. With Miss Tashina, a young and very talented California based dress designer, she found her perfect partner for this project.

Sure this was risky but as you can see, Miss Tashina did a fantastic job. Carmen sent her the sketch on the left and she returned a cleaner drawing (on the right). After she got the measurements of Carmens body, she started creating the one perfect dress for Carmen.

We never saw anything in between the processes and sure Carmen never tried the dress before it was shipped to New Zealand. We would say, Miss Tashina nailed it :)

Together with our friends Nadia and Eddy, we stayed in that beautiful venue and enjoyed every minute. Even though it could not go fast enough to celebrate our love and get married.

We have witnessed over 180 weddings till date and we have seen so much emotions and happy people. Never ever could we imagine how we would feel being on the spot. And what to say? It was way more emotional than any of us would have thought. We laughed, we cried and we simply enjoyed celebrating our love after 11 years.

It sounds cheesy but it has been one of the best days in our lives and it brought us once more closer together. Sure we missed our family and friends during the day too. We tried compensating that with lots of Skype, Facetime sessions and calls.

After enjoying the shoot at sunset we went back “home” to have dinner together. Little did we know, that Nadia and Eddy had “brought” our friends and family to the table and also we got a lovely video message from all of them. Again, laughter, tears and joy!

Our love for each other is the foundation of what we do everyday. We doubled this during the year with our little babygirl and we are very looking forward to everything what life has in store for us.

Here are some photos of our wedding day, all copyright by Nadia Meli. Lot’s of these photos are different from the ones she posted over at her blog. Check them out too, if you have not seen them last year.

Also, if you would like to see motion pictures from our trip in New Zealand be sure you watch the video below.