Wow! The time is rapidly approaching! We’re scrambling around getting everything finalized and organized. We realize that because we were unable to book the reception immediately following the ceremony, many of you, especially those who are from far away may be wondering what to wear and what to do in between ceremony and the reception.

After the ceremony, Lincoln’s parents house is open to guests for snacks, drinks, and socializing. This is an open invitation for you to come socialize and grab a bite to eat and/or change into something more comfortable if you wish to bring along an extra set of clothes. There will be some nice vietnamese food for you to snack on.

Generally, here is what to expect as the program for the day:

1:30 – 2:30 Wedding Ceremony at St. Louis Parish (Directions)
2:30 – 3:00 Photo-Op activity
3:00 – 6:30 Invitation to Lincoln’s Parents for snacks and socializing, otherwise see you at 7:30 (Directions)
7:30 – 11:30 Reception at Martin’s West (Directions)

For those of you who wish to book a hotel close to the reception, immediately adjacent to the reception hall is Best Western.

Please feel free to give us a call if you have any questions about directions or times or anything! We are so excited that everyone is coming and are really looking forward to partying with you Saturday night!

See you all soon!!!

Happy 4th of July everyone. This day is celebrated best by waking up late, grilling delicious food under the sun, being with loved ones, and watching a magnificent fireworks show. Today was a perfect day. Aside from having to wake up a bit early to prepare food for our lunchtime cookout, it turned out to be more than I could ask for. I invited my mom and sister over for lunch and we had homemade baked potato soup, grilled corn on the cob, and my specialty cheeseburgers. (more…)

It’s finally beginning to feel like summer. After what felt like endless cold weather over the last few months, I had really gotten to a breaking point. I just felt cold to the bone. We moved into our house that we are renting in the middle of December only to find out that the building envelope of the house was so leaky that it was so difficult to keep the house at a steady, warm temperature. I literally had to carry a space heater with me all winter. And when spring came around, I rejoiced at the prospect that finally I could shed my layers and feel comfortable again. (more…)

Nicola worked super hard to put together this highlight video and now you can see the results above. The video consists of footage taken by Mats and photos taken by Louisa and my camera. Everything was mashed together into a highlights video using iMovie. The video is about 50 minutes long and about 200 MB will be streamed to your computer during the process of viewing this video. So definitely give it some time to load or "buffer" before sitting down and watching. It definitely helps to have a nice internet connection! If you love this video and want a high quality download or a DVD please let us know and we can make that happen. Thanks Nicola for such a kickass video and thanks everyone again for being such a cool crowd and making such a nice evening. Even today I can't stop thinking about that wonderful day.

…this was the poem that was read by Marc. It was a poem that was written by the late Charlie Chaplin on his 70th birthday on April 16, 1959. This poem was read in its german translation during the wedding and I wanted to post it on this site in the original english version. It’s a beautiful poem and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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A short update… so I’ve survived the Bachelor party, Wedding ceremony, reception and semi-honeymoon. Everything went very smoothly with the exception of the weather as we had to make a few compromises due to cold and rain. Even though the weather wasn’t cooperative we managed to enjoy ourselves, the wedding ceremony was moved inside and our honeymoon was postponed until summer fully arrives, and we’ll probably just take off for a week and go to some beach somewhere in the US. Unfortunately the weather here in Germany/Europe really decided to be shitty just for the 2 weeks that we are here, because on the day we leave it will be 30C which is upper 80s.

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Thats right, two weeks from today I will be 4000 miles away from my office. I’ll be leaving at the 30th of May and will be gone for two weeks. Needless to say I am totally excited. Basically, we’ll arrive the 31st and our upcoming german wedding ceremony will be on June 6th. That will give Nicola 5 days to finalize all the preparations and give me, the super lucky husband (love you babe!) a few days to celebrate in Amsterdam. My immediate family will also travel to Germany for the wedding and I am super excited that they will come and see Schweinfurt, the Bieringers, and for the first time the Dreschers. Its going to be a really nice time. After the wedding, Nicola and I will skirt off to spend 5 days in Crete for our honeymoon. We’re thinking of a 4-star, all-inclusive hotel on the water so that it will give us all the comfort and amenities, while giving us the freedom to roam the island without worrying about finding a meal when we return to the hotel. Overall, the price isn’t all that bad either… including the airfare, it rounds out to about $800 dollars a person. Not too bad.

I just ordered a Lumix LX3 camera that I will be using for the trip and will surely post many pictures of the Amsterdam trip, the wedding, and the honeymoon on the site, not to mention the countless other pictures (and video) that I will be posting to justify the cost of the camera. (The last camera I bought was in college and since I lost it in Vietnam in 2004, I basically stopped taking photos since.) I really regret not photographing the last few years myself because I always found comfort in looking back at all the good times I’d documented. Well all that will change hopefully by next week.