Quite a few people making speeches at a friend’s wedding recently used the expression Verliebt, verlobt, verheiratet. Those are 3 adjectives in German, and it’s hard to find an English translation that uses adjectives in the same way.  Moreover, it’s even harder to find an English phrase that  also has the same alliterative ring to it.  The closest I could come up with is “enamoured, engaged, espoused,” and for me, that doesn’t  have the same ring at all – it doesn’t even sound like it’s even anything anyone would really say.

A better English translation, albeit one that doesn’t so closely follow the German grammatical construction, would be, “fell in love, got engaged, got married.”

Anyway, as I said, this is a popular expression to say here at weddings when talking about the bridal couple.  I wanted to mention this on the blog at some point, and it  seemed particularly appropriate to bring this up today. You see, today is May 20, 2014.  20 years ago today, on May 20, 1994, Chris and I — since we were indeed verliebt and verlobt — got verheiratet.

20 years goes by in a flash, and it seems like only yesterday in so many ways … until I realize how many different countries we’ve visited — and lived in! — since then,  and how many different experiences we’ve had together. Then I think, how did we fit all that in, in only 20 years? 😉

Of course, one of the biggest changes in the last 20 years is that no one had a digital cameras back then. So although we have a lot of printed photos from the wedding, only a few of them were ever scanned into the computer, and that’s all we have with us here in Germany. But I’ve include a photo below to give you a glimpse of us at our wedding in 1994.

Plus, a friend just sent me a photo of us taken two weeks ago at that wedding of  another friend that we went to earlier this month. So I’ve included that, too. You’ll notice at once that we haven’t changed a bit.

OK, well, maybe just a little.

But we are still verliebt and verheiratet – luckily some things never change. 🙂

*****

P.S. There’s even a rather goofy German pop song called Verliebt, verlobt, verheiratet, used in a 1950s German movie. You can view a short clip of the song in the movie here; there’s a longer clip here. Enjoy.