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Lack of magazines

I am finding that to my surprise, there seems to be very few wedding magazines here in Germany. I noticed this a few weeks ago, that my average store with several racks of magazines had no wedding magazines. At first, I didn't want to mention it here in the blog, as I thought "Aha! A gap in the market! I shall take this gap and claim it as my own!" But since this very entrepreneurial (and extremely over-ambitious) idea, I have come across 2 wedding magazines. Both entitled something exciting like "Hochzeit" (wedding in German). I finally tracked them down at a large magazine shop in the main train station, but I didn't have time to browse through them properly to pick one over the other. And as I was already carrying my briefcase from work, I didn't particularly feel like adding another kilo or so to the heavy load. I will get one this weekend though and tell you what I think of it next week.

I do wonder about this significant difference between Germany and North America. In Canada and the States, wedding magazines can easily be found in most places that sell magazines. Does that mean that North Americans are more pressured into getting married? How can our values or opinions be so different that they can create an entire publishing industry?

I've never really thought of Germany as being very supportive of women's movement. The idea of a woman's place being "Kirche, Küche, Kinder" (church, kitchen, children) is no longer said directly out loud, but lots of things about living here seem to indicate that it is still expected. Children finish school at 1 in the afternoon, which is not very conducive to both parents working, is it? I can name a very large company here in Germany where over 60% of the employees are women, but only 2% of the top management is female.

But now I wonder...

An entire industry built up in North America for getting married; easily 6 magazines to choose from in an average store. Here, I had to search to find two. Are North American women being led to believe that getting married is the ultimate achievement? For no matter how much you deny it, advertising has an effect.

First tries

Tried on a couple of dirndls today. It wasn't very successful, as it was just a last minute idea with 15 minutes to go before the store shut. The women running the dirndl department were trying to be nice, but they actually really wanted me out of there so they could leave work punctually. I tried on a couple just to get a feel for them. G was with me. I don't think it's a big deal if he sees Zee Dress before Zee Big Day. In fact, I would rather know that he likes my outfit as well as I myself. Anyone have any strong opinions on the matter?

"Do It Yourself" Wedding Tips - Save!

Website review - So You Wanna...

I found this link for advice on purchasing a wedding gown. SoYouWanna buy a wedding gown? It's very well-written with very practical advice, with a bit of tongue in cheek humour thrown in to keep it interesting. If you are thinking about getting married and want some first advice, look here! They have related SoYouWannas as well, including buying an engagement ring, being a maid of honor, hosting a wedding shower and renting a tuxedo. Great website, not just for wedding things.

Zee Dress

We have decided. We are going to wear traditional Bavarian clothes for the wedding. G in lederhosen and me in a dirndl. For those who perhaps don't know, lederhosen are traditional leather pants or shorts that men wear and dirndl are those milkmaid/Heidi dresses you see the women wearing. I'm wearing one in my profile picture in fact.

There are several reasons we decided to do this.
1. As we decided that the wedding here in Germany is likely to be small with big parties back in Australia and Canada, it would make for good pictures when we went back to said places in our "Trachten" (traditional clothing). Most people haven't seen that type of clothing, so they would find it interesting.
2. It would feel comfortable. I'm used to wearing a dirndl and G has lederhosen too and we wear them often enough that they wouldn't feel weird to wear.
3. It's not clothing that we would only wear that time and never again. While we still live here in Germany, there are plenty of opportunities to wear Trachten.
4. It won't cost the earth. Although you can spend a lot of money on this type of clothing, the industry isn't already trying to gouge you by saying "Oh, it's your special day, you should spend the money". There are lots of nice outfits to be had for a reasonable price.
This is probably the main reason:
5. Part of the reason G and I got together in the first place was that he was interested in joining the Bavarian oom-pah-pah band that I play in. In fact, he did join it, after borrowing my old cornet for the first 5 months. When the band has a concert, we also play in Trachten, although there's a set uniform. So, in a way, it would be significant to show what brought us together.

So although it won't be a standard white dress, it will still have a lot of meaning. And I still get to go shopping! Yippee!

"Do It Yourself" Wedding Tips - Save!