Die ersten Schritte

The first steps

Wedding Planner Stuttgart | In my previous blog post, I shared the story of my engagement. Today, I’d like to tell you how we started planning our wedding — and what our very first steps were.

Once we got engaged, the first big question was: When will we get married? For us, the answer came quickly — we had already decided that we’d simply reverse our anniversary date. We also knew right away that we wanted a church wedding. Even though a symbolic ceremony can feel more personal, we wanted something traditional — a blessing under God.

Civil & Church Ceremony

Wedding Planner Stuttgart | Next, we needed to secure our dates. We started by contacting the registry office (Standesamt). In Germany, you can get married civilly in any city — so if you, like us, don’t want to marry in your hometown, that’s no problem. At our registry office, dates can be reserved one year in advance, so exactly one year before, I received a call to confirm our reservation.

Then came the church ceremony. We had our hearts set on a very special church — but they only offer a handful of weddings per year. Since our civil ceremony would take place on a Friday, we wanted the church ceremony the next day. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible at our preferred church. Because the date itself wasn’t as important to us as the civil ceremony, we decided to hold our church wedding on the next available date after the civil one.

Documents for the Church Ceremony

Before we could officially begin planning, we needed to make sure the church date was confirmed -

and that meant providing a few documents:

Dimissoriale (permission from your local parish to marry in another church)
Certificate of the civil marriage (if the civil wedding has already taken place)
Record of publication of banns (Aufgebotsniederschrift)
Marriage application form
Photo of the couple

You might be wondering: what is a Dimissoriale? Since our chosen church was not in our hometown, our local pastor needed to confirm that he approved of us getting married elsewhere. Usually, this is just a formality.

It’s also important to note the difference between Protestant and Catholic weddings in Germany: For a Protestant wedding, it’s enough if one of you is Protestant. For a Catholic ceremony, at least one partner must be Catholic — the other can be Protestant, but not of another or no faith.

After submitting all our documents, we finally received confirmation for our church wedding — and the planning could officially begin! 🤩

Finding Our Vendors

Wedding Planner Stuttgart | Then came a setback: the first COVID-19 lockdown. We had already selected several venues we wanted to visit, but everything came to a standstill.

To use the time wisely, we started looking for a wedding photographer and videographer. Each professional has their own style, so it was important to us that their aesthetic matched what we envisioned — and ideally, that they had already worked together before.

We also started looking for a DJ. A live band wasn’t the right fit for us since they usually have breaks and focus on one style of music. We wanted a DJ who could play everything — from 3 PM until the early hours of the morning! 🥳

So by that point, we had already booked two key vendors.

Next, we discussed the style and theme of our wedding. Since we’re not particularly into bright colours, we decided on simple elegance — white and gold. Once we agreed on that, we started collecting decoration ideas and working with a wedding decorator to bring them to life. We didn’t yet know which venue we would choose, but we already had a clear vision of the look and feel we wanted.

Finding the Venue

Wedding Planner Stuttgart | By mid-May, when the lockdown finally ended, we could start our venue tour. Within two days, we visited five different venues.

For us, a few things were non-negotiable:Enough accommodation for our guestsDogs allowed 🐶Spacious, bright rooms with natural lightWhile each venue had its strengths and weaknesses, the very first one we visited turned out to be our favourite — and we booked it right away!

Save-the-Date Cards

Wedding Planner Stuttgart | With our venue booked, it was time to send our Save-the-Date cards in May 2020. We didn’t want anything “standard,” so we designed our own on www.printkiss.de Save-the-Dates aren’t mandatory, but since our wedding would take place 500 km away in Dresden, we wanted to give guests enough time to plan their trip.

Of course, before sending them, we had to decide who to invite. We kept it simple — just close family, friends, and the people who truly mattered to us.

💡 A little advice: Invite only the people you really want to celebrate with — not out of obligation or guilt. It’s your day, and it should reflect what you want — free from expectations or pressure.