Hello friends and family!
As you have probably heard by now, we have decided to get married. And, more importantly, we want you to be there. While we are still hashing out the details of the event, we created this website to serve as the main information hub for everything related to the big event.
Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!
- Heiko & Claas
Frankfurt am Main is a major international hub and is easily accessible by air, train, car, or postal carriage (yeeha). The airport is one of the busiest in Europe and is served by most major airlines. The train station is a major hub for the German rail network and is well connected to the rest of Europe. Also, at least half of you live in or around the city anyways, so we we trust you to get there!
Frankfurt is a major city and has a wide range of accommodation options. Around the Oosten, there are several hotels to pick from. We will stay in the Scandic hotel. The venue is easily accessible by public transport, so you can stay pretty much anywhere in the city.
As everywhere, the point of a wedding is to share your joy with your friends and family. In general, weddings in Germany are a lot more "chill" than in North America. There is no bridal party, no rehearsals, showers, or big stag parties. Civil proceedings are usually only attended by the core family, and friends and the wider family are invited to the party. Outside of religious weddings, there are no big ceremony, so the party is the main event. But we will still make sure that the event is special for us and for you! Our party will most likely include a reception, dinner, speeches (we will enforce a time limit!), dancing, and, important for many Germans, games.
Wedding games and guest contributions are a big part of German wedding culture. They often include tasks for the couple to complete that show that they know and trust each other. Games are often organized without the couple's knowledge (or even against their will :D) and coordinated by the "wedding witness", a rough equivalent to the best man or maid of honor. In our case that is going to be Stefan Pilot (contact in the RSVP link). For our wedding, due to the international nature of the event, we'll coordinate to make sure that all the games include everyone, and that they are fun and not (too) embarrassing. Stefan is also your first point of contact in case you want to contribute something to the wedding, be it a speech, performance, or game. Guests in Germany are invited to add something to the event, but you are not required to do so.
The party can go on for long, depending on the venue and the crowd, in our case we don't yet know when the venue will kick us out. We are tentatively planning with an end time of around 2:00 in the morning.
Do you need a real reason to love raccoons? Look at them, they are mischievous, smart, and adorable!
Jokes aside, there is no deep reason behind all the raccoons, we just learned to love the little critters. Toronto is also known unofficially as the raccoon capital of the world, so this brings a bit of the joy of our new home in Canada to the wedding. You don't have to bring raccoon themed gifts, or wear raccoon themed clothing, but we won't stop you if you do!
Finally, raccoons are Toronto natives who have become permanent residents in Hessen, so they are in some way a mirror of our journey.
Because we have family and friends from at least Spain, Germany, and Canada, this will be, to the best of our abilities, a trilingual wedding. This is also why we are building this website instead of sending out classic printed cards, because this allows us to make sure everybody gets in the information they need in the language they speak.
Please help us with the big task of translation by making things available early to us if possible, for example if you give a speech. As a grad student, Claas knows that 95% of all good talks are prepared on the evening before the conference (ask me about the NeurIPS poster), but if you do manage to prepare something in advance, you can help us make the event more inclusive for everyone.
As most of you know, we live primarily as vegetarians. We managed to find an amazing caterer who is going to provide us with a delicious and creative menu that will accommodate most dietary preferences. However, please let us know about any allergies.
Please keep in mind that even we don't fully know in what city or country we will be living in in the future, or even how often we will have to move. Therefore, if you want to give us something physical, please make sure it is small and sweet.
In addition, we know that some of you already have huge travelling costs, and everybody's finances varies wildly. We are inviting you, not your gifts, and your presence is the most important gift to us!
If you have any questions don't hesitate to reach out!
