#ninaxpatrick: Our Wedding

The day has finally come: I’ve been eagerly waiting for our wedding photos to arrive so we can indulge in all the wonderful memories of our wedding day again.

To kick off the wedding series on the blog, I wanted to start with thanking you all again for all the heartwarming congratulations we received from all sides! Our wedding took place almost two months ago already and so much has happened since then, but Patrick and me are still over the moon and it feels like it was just yesterday that we tied the knot.

Our wedding day.

Growing up, I remember me and my girlfriends would imagine what our wedding would be like and we’d play to get married. Although I played the role of the groom most of the times (I wasn’t really the princess type of girl), I always imagined I would be wearing a huge white dress with a perfect bun coming out of a church with my imaginary husband. Fast forward two decades, our wedding was nothing like that, but it was more perfect than I could have ever imagined. I can’t say we broke all traditions, but we only did what felt right for us. I did not want our wedding to be an event, I wanted it to be me and my person giving ourselves to one another for the rest of our lives. We got married in a beautiful garden, above us nothing but blue sky and sunshine, our little dog Maxi running free and our family and friends right beside us. We just wanted to be surrounded by our closest people, the ones who are always there for us through highs and lows. At the end of the day, that’s why we picked Salzburg as our wedding location, so everyone who’s dear to our heart could attend our wedding without complications. We met in Salzburg, we fell in love in Salzburg. It just made perfect sense.

Getting ready.

We both got ready in a beautiful hotel in the middle of Salzburg, which was in walking distance of our wedding venue. My family already stayed there the night before and I got to spend the night with my Mom. In the morning, my three wonderful maids of honor joined me in our wedding suite and we got ready together until my Dad picked us up to drive us to me future husband, who was waiting for us on top of one of the little mountains surrounding the city of Salzburg. Patrick and me wanted to do a first sight before the wedding so we’d have a very intimate and private moment with each other before meeting in front of all our guests. I’ll never forget the car ride with my Dad and my three best friends on the backseat. Although it only took us 10 minutes to get to our meeting point, it felt like forever and a day. The whole car smelled of Chloé Nomade because all my Maids received an engraved bottle of one of my favorite scents to remember this special day. I’ll never forget how Maxi was sitting on the floor at my seat and laid her head into the soft tulle of my dress and looked at me with her big brown eyes as if she exactly knew what we were up to. It played some funky jazz music on the radio and I remember saying to myself, this is one of those rare feelings I’d like to bottle up so I’ll be able to remember it for the rest of my life.

The first sight.

When I walked towards Patrick who was standing facing away from me, waiting for me to arrive, we were both very shaky but didn’t cry at all. We were just so excited to see each other. I remember how it felt so surreal to see him in his gorgeous wedding tux and it was the very first moment I actually realized that we’d get married in just an hour. Patrick then left to our wedding venue because he wanted to be there to welcome all our guests, while I was waiting with my girls and my Dad and sipped an Aperol Spritz (my favorite) and we talked about our favorite memories with each other.

It’s getting real.

It’s really hard to pick one single favorite moment of this day, but when we arrived at the wedding venue just a couple of minutes before the ceremony, I remember my Dad whispering something very special into my ear so only I could hear it. I remember my eyes tearing up and he squeezed my hand harder than I think it has ever been squeezed. I then peaked around the corner and saw our beautiful flower girls with their cute little flower crowns and baskets filled with petals, Maxi was rolling in the grass and Patrick was standing there with the biggest smile on his face. Everyone was just waiting for me to finally arrive. My dad walked me down to the ceremony where my husband was already waiting for me as I walked through the little crowd of our people. The enormous amount of energy and love that was in the air in that very moment gave me goosebumps on my whole body and when I saw my Mom in the first row, tears running down her cheeks, I couldn’t hold back my tears any longer either.

As we sat at the ceremony Patrick was holding my hand for the entire time, one of our friends played the acoustic guitar and sang some of our favorite songs, and Maxi was sitting right beneath our chairs. Everything was just a blur and at the same time I remember all the details so precisely, as if I’ve relived the very same moment for a hundred times already. After the ceremony one of our friends told us she’d never seen any other couple exchange more kisses at a wedding ceremony than we did. I loved that she said that.

Let’s have a garden party!

After the ceremony we spent the whole afternoon in the most beautiful garden of the old town villa right where we got married, our favorite jazz band was playing the best music, our little flower girls were dancing and everyone was just having the best time. The whole garden was filled with so much love and positive energy, Patrick and me felt as if we were floating above the ground. We had wedding cake and champagne in the afternoon and our friends from Restaurant Paradoxon served our wedding dinner at night – needless to say they outdid themselves and served all of our favorite dishes, we even had a Crêpe station outside as a second desert at night.

All the feelings.

We were surprised with the most amazing speeches from our family and best friends, the thought alone makes me smile so hard while typing those lines because they seriously were the best speeches I’ve heard my entire life. We laughed, we cried, we celebrated, and we just felt so loved by everyone around us.

Before we got married Patrick and I always said it’s rather sad to refer to our wedding day as the “best day in our lives”, because it would mean there’s no better day to look forward to anymore. But honestly, our wedding day was better than we could have ever imagined and I’m very curious to see which tricks life is going to have up its sleeve to top that day.

Photo credit goes to the incredible Melanie Nedelko. We can’t say enough about Melanie, she’s such a talented photographer and also such a beautiful soul to have around, we didn’t even notice she was there most of the time because she just felt like a friend taking a few photos here and there. She’s also the most humble and kind woman, and has worked like crazy to get all these shots on her analogue camera – she absolutely killed it! We will love these timeless photos forever. They are the perfect little memories of an unforgettable day.

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On that note, I know some of you are eagerly waiting for some more details about our wedding like decoration, flowers, and so on. I do have some more blogposts planned regarding those topics, but if there’s something in particular you’d like to know, just leave your question in the comment section if you like and I’ll make sure to include it in the upcoming wedding posts. xo, Nina