Last night we weren’t planning on doing anything special for New Years. We just made a quick trip to one of our favorite sushi restaurants and onto Victory Park to see the opening of the new year. We decided to park close by our venue so (Marie Gabrielle) to avoid the nearby traffic. As we were stepping out of our car, we decided to be spontaneous and visit Marie Gabrielle. The last time we were there was when we got married so it would have been a great time to rekindle all of those feelings. It sure did, even in 30 degree temperatures! Every winter they have a ginourmous and beautiful Christmas tree lit up in the center of the Euro garden with twinkling lights all around the trees. They always have the garden manicured and maintained so its always so pretty and green all year round.

I think we will try to make this an annual tradition to visit our wedding venue and take photos just to capture the moment. I encourage you ladies to do this either on anniversary, or another special celebration. It really makes you remember how special the day was. Maybe in 10 years we will have Huy from F8Studio take our photos there in the garden?! Crazy me and my ideas.

Victory Park NYE

Has anyone revisited their venue after getting hitched?

I love this song. -)

Warning: I look pretty serious in the first part of the clip but I think i begin to relax a little later into the ceremony. haha -)

Our fantabulous wedding videographer Chris Watson @ www.dallasweddingfilms.com worked his magic. He was there for us from 5 am until 11 pm shooting – a long 18 hour day! He did a really great job capturing everything considering we had so many wardrobe changes and multiple venues . When we received both the hard copies and a link to preview the clip, we thought the video quality and editing were both quite good. But above all, we thought he was extremely professional. Also, his creative use of the video images blended well with our musical selections.

I’ve got 4 clips total so I will be posting one every day instead of bombarding you all in one post. As you can tell, I don’t like kissing (pda) in public – even on my wedding day. I’m one shy Apple. -)

Enjoy our morning tea ceremony.

Does anyone know of any good budgeting software for MAC users?

Now that Mr. Apple and I are hitched, we’re really trying to budget as a married couple. Budgeting was easier when I was single since I knew what I was bringing in and what items I was spending on. But now that we’re married, everything doubles up – the food expense, the traveling expense, the income (yeah!). We have our own separate accounts, we also have a joint account, a shared credit card, our personal debt, and future investments.  Though we think we have a good handle on our current financial situation, it wouldn’t hurt to narrow it down to exact figures.  Every penny does count!

Anyone have any good suggestions on software for MACs and Windows?

I think this would be great information for those brides who are still in the engagement stage. You can get started now and it would be an easier transition when you do get married.

i attended a good friends wedding in Germany a few weeks back. here is a capture of the beautiful ceremony.

father of the bride and groom each read a ceremony verse.

my 97 year old Swiss/French train mate on our way to Bern

Mr. Apple and I tasting Swiss fountain water. Notice the blue water, taste just like Evian.

Beautiful bridge and lakes of the city of Bern.

Munster in Bern

We frequented COOP and MIGROS (similiar to a Whole Foods Market with loads of sandwiches and pastries) for lunch and dinner. The restaurants there were just too expensive.

Castle in Thun

Visiting the cheese factory in Guyere

On the chocolate train to Broc

I love dark chocolate too!

Super Mario walking through the chocolate factory

Turbulent weather in Montreaux but creates this cool, eery photo.

Vineyards in France

City walls in Yvoire, France

Ate schocolade and sugar crepes in France on our 3 month wedding anniversary! Check out that tiny wooden table.

Apple and Goat Cheese Pizza and home made lasagna

going back home….

We really enjoyed all of the cities we visited but Zermatt, Yvoire France, and Lucerne were our favorites!

since we vacationed in Switzerland! As we were waiting for our flight to depart, we realized that neither one of us have a watch. We even considered purchasing a $20 watch at the airport but decided against it since we’ll be staying in one of the worlds most popular watch industry. We were hoping we could just use the street clocks, cuckoo clocks, tower clocks that were available – and we did! Yes!

We had a wonderful time visiting Germany, France, and 12 different Swiss towns in 14 days! Yes, we felt like nomads traveling to a new hotel every 2 days but in the end it was worth all of the many days of sore legs and blistered feet.

We took over 700 photos so lets see if i can narrow down to two to three favorite photos for every city we visited.

We landed in Zurich on our first day – luggage got lost so we spent the day exploring the city.

Lake Constance, Germany to attend a friends wedding on the Bodensee.

We visited the towns magestic Munster Cathedral.

Touring Basel by using the itour – a visual and audio self guided tour around the city. What a great device if you’re interested in learning the cities history and architecture.

Beautiful stain glass windows in the late Romanesque Munster

I took this photo from an small opening from one of the towers.

We took the ferry from Lucerne to Vitznau

Views from our tram

We visited KKL Museum

Toured the elaborate gold leaf and fat angels inside the Munster in Lucerene.

the famous Chapel Bridge – a wooden bridge from the 14th Century

Smart Cars in Europe were so compact.

Day 2 in Lucerne, hiked up to Gutsche – beautiful blue/gray skies

Visited some Swiss chocolate shops along the way.

Taking the train to Chur

Those adorable Swiss kids were everywhere!

Glacier Train to the snow covered Swiss alps

Us in 30 years

two thumbs up on our balcony view in Zermatt

Our Swiss Chalet in Zermatt

A Coniferous Tree and Mr. Apple’s hand, doesn’t this look cool ?

I love bratwurst!

ok this post has become too long…will post the remaining 6 days next!

As previously posted, Mr. Apple and I planned to postpone our honeymoon 3 months after our wedding in order to attend a good friends wedding in Germany. The bride and I have been friends for almost 10 years and she met her German fiancee in Med School. It’s coming up next week and I’m clueless as to what I should wear.

Here are the stats:

Catholic German wedding held in a cathedral
I am her Maid of Honor
This will be our honeymoon trip

Afternoon Ceremony held here:

photo found on www.ipernity.com

www.klosterladen-birnau.de

Champagne Reception Preceeding Dinner here: (hotel used to be a former Dominican Monastery)

photo via World Hotels

Initially my friend (the bride) had asked me to be her MOH way before she even began to start planning her wedding. Later, she found out there is no such thing as a “wedding party” in a German wedding. A lot of the American traditions focus on having a MOH, 3 bridesmaids, 1 BM, 3 groomsmen, flower girl, ringbearers, etc but the German focus more on the bride and groom. She informed me that I won’t need to prepare for any rehearsals or prepare to walk down the aisle – basically we’ll be a regular guest. So we won’t need to do anything except relax and enjoy the day. I’m cool with that. -)

So here’s the dilemnia, I asked her if she would prefer me to wear anything – a certain color, style, length since I still sort of am her MOH and they will also still have a BM. She really liked my MOH’s dress at my wedding in May. So we agreed, i’d wear that.

It wasn’t until today that I realized umm…is it appropriate? The dress is by no means risque but I will be attending a German Catholic wedding. My shoulders and back will be exposed, the dress is low in the front, and the material is somewhat sheer in daylight. I don’t want to be disrespectful to Almighty God or any of the guests. I was trying to research, but with little success, some German Weddings online. I noticed that most of the guests were very conservatively dressed, as in even the women are wearing dark suit jackets with skirts. These websites maybe dated but i’m a little concerned.

We’re also really trying to pack light since we’ll be doing day trips for two weeks, traveling by train every 2 days. So, if i could and to be safe, i’d bring 2-3 different dresses with matching sandels/heels but that’s just not feasible. I have a couple of more simple dresses (one eyelit white and one striped grey and white) that I could wear on my honeymoon just in case we go to a nice dinner. So I was thinking about wearing one of those to the wedding but is it appropriate to wear white to a German wedding if you’re not the bride?

My questions from this post. How formal/conservative are German weddings? Which dress would be more appropriate? Do they do TOASTS? Should I prepare one?

Aghhhhh help, If there are German Weddingbee readers out there, HELP! I’ve had no luck finding any information! -)

Grey and white Gap Dress (makes me look pregnant but I still like it)

White Eyelet dress similar to this Lily Pulitzer one

MOH dress photo by Huy