Chris and Seppi's Wedding

Welcome to Chris and Seppi's Wedding! 1 July 2000 Graz, Austria

From Die Kleine Zeitung, 24 July 2000: Immigration to the USA
She was an exchange student in Graz when she met her future husband: Christina Augsburger from San Diego, California and the Graz Computer Engineer Josef Kriegl will soon be moving to the Southern United States.

Okay, since when is Califonia in the South? But it is very nice that we were included in the Styrian edition of the newspaper!

Schedule of Events:

10:15 Meet at Franziskanerkirche for the "False Bride" (Surprise One). This is a tradition* where the groom is lead to his 'bride', a man dressed as a bride and then the pair parades to the Town Hall accompanied by music.
11:00 Ceremony at the Town Hall. The guests are ushered into the room and the bride, groom and 2 attendants enter accompanied by music. The officiant gave a nice speech and then we exchanged vows and rings. Next we signed the book and the officiant congratulated us!
After the ceremony (approx 11:20) Exiting the town hall, we are greeted with bubbles and music, and a surprise (Surprise Two)! We were shown a sheet with a large heart painted on it, given scissors and told to cut out the heart, as a first challange as a married couple. After completing it, we walked through together! Then the guests blew more bubbles at us and threw rice.

Surprise Three: Seppi's dad shows us a miniature tandem bicycle that we must ride around. Seppi rode in the front (does that mean he will be steering our marriage?) and I hopped on the back. We didn't get far, since there was an environmental festival on the square.
Then we proceeded to walk to the Schlossberg elevator and ride up to the top of the 'Castle Hill" for pictures.
After pictures, we walked up to the Schlossbergrestaurant for some refreshments before heading to the hotels or elsewhere to freshen up for the reception.

Chris and Seppi try the tandem at the Rathausplatz

Stephanie and Melissa, sisters of the bride

5:00 pm The Reception
The lovely weather had been interrupted by heavy rain between three and five o'clock, so there was some delay in getting a taxi. Finally after a quick, if hasty, arrangement of the table settings, Chris and Seppi greeted the guests with a champagne toast.
The First Toast was a lovely greeting from the Kriegl family read by Erich Kollnitz, cousin-in-law of the groom, and translated by Jen Hamlow, freinds of the couple.
Dinner started with appetizers of proscuitto, lax and spreads with rolls. There was also a salad bar with fresh salads and dressings. The main courses were Tafelspitz, the Kaiser's favorite meal (a special beef dish), Venison ragout and duck. The side-dishes were red cabbage, mixed vegetables, bread dumplings and potato cakes.
The First Dance was a traditional Viennese waltz - the Beautiful Blue Danube.

Surprise Four: Well, not for us, but for Seppi's brother, Michael. Erich read a cute poem about his birthday and Jen did an amazing job of translating it so that it even rhymed! We all sang Happy Birthday (in English and in German).
Surprise Five: Terese Blass, friend of the groom, surprised us with a giant ice-cream cone made of tissue paper: inside 2 badmitton rackets and many birdies, each stuffed with rolled-up dollar bills. The cone represented married life, you get a little of all flavors. A good marriage is not a competition, but the goal is for each partner to try and serve the ball so that the partner can return it - so we got to play some badmitton!
Surprise Six: Stealing the bride. And the groom. Some friends ushered Chris away while her maid of honor was dancing. This tradition says that the maid of honor has to find the bride, who is at another bar, and then pay for all the drinks consumed. Apparently this works for the groom as well. Chris has no comment.

Surprise Seven: Which legs belong to the Bride? And which to the groom? Seppi was blindfolded and had to guess which legs belonged to Chris. Surprisingly he got it right, even though he was sure that Eli's legs were American. Chris had a little help with Seppi, and guessed his legs, too!
Surprise Eight: Georg (friend of the couple) and Ernesto (friend of the couple and one of Seppi's roommates) played 2 lovely songs. Georg played the violon and Ernesto the guitar. One song was The Girl From Ipanama (?) and the other - does anyone remember?

We also had the Cake Cutting ceremony - which was a surprise because the cake was mushy - it should have been in the refrigerator. Oh, well. It still tasted wonderful. There were three layers: vanilla cream, Sachertorte, and strawberry cream.
We also had a birthday cake for Michael. Everyone sang happy birthday to him (again) as the cake was brought out.

Some of the guests from Carinthia, Austria singing traditional songs at the reception.

Chris and Seppi in a Vortex, created by Gwen Habegger, aunt of the bride.

Bouquet-Toss: The bride tossed her bouquet to the available bachelorettes and Stephanie, sister of the bride, caught it (not without a little skirmish).
Garter-Toss: Seppi tossed the garter - first toss was short, but landed near Seppi's brother. The second toss went right towards him. Of course, none of the other guys tried too hard!
Surprise Nine: Seppi had the band play the song (from CD) "From This Moment" by Shania Twain for a special dance. How sweet!

Finally the night was over and people started heading out, some of the younger crowd to the disco, others to bed and to rest their aching feet. Seppi and Chris left at 2:30 or so, the last to leave.
Surprise Ten: Seppi had picked out a lovely hotel in the Old Town, but the arrival was bittersweet. We were both tired, but the bed was covered with balloons!! This tradition, called "Wegversperren", meant that there was a chair turned over in the doorway and balloons everywhere. Then at 3 am, while Chris was showering, an alarm clock went off! It was hidden under the balloons. Needless to say, we checked everywhere for other clocks and then swept some balloons into the closet and under the bed! The next day it was noisy as we popped them all!

*Tradition is used lightly here. These so-called traditions were modified by those participating in them and the word tradition has been streched to include things that were seen at other weddings or mentioned by others as being traditional. Still, there is an inkling of tradition in the grand sense of the word. See the traditions page for further information about Austrian wedding traditions.

Return to Chris' Homepage Coming Soon! Traditions Page and More Pictures!!