Weddingbee Blog

It’s the home stretch…

Wedding Reception Traditions

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A customary toast at the reception in the southern part of Germany is done with a special Brautbecher (bridal cup). The pewter or crystal cup is in the form of a maiden holding above her head a small cup. Both ends of the cup (the bride’s skirt and the top cup) are filled with champagne or wine. The bride and groom drink their first toast from this cup together at the same time signifying their union as one. A fun toast with this cup is called “Who Rules the Nest?” Before the toast, it is announced that whomever finishes first will rule the nest. Obviously the woman, who drinks from the smaller cup, wins!

OK, this one is pretty much amazing. I really want to do this one, especially because I would totally get to own Mr. S by drinking out of the mini cup. Four thumbs up.

The first dance is a waltz and is danced by the bride and groom.

Um, OK. I wasn’t really even sure if we were going to do anything more than just middle-school swish around. I’m not even sure if I know what a waltz looks like. BRB… I need to figure this out.

………

OK. I’m back.

There’s no way. Just watching that made me nervous, but maybe we could do this as a fun and silly second dance. Sorry guys.

The Veil Dance is a popular wedding game to play. During the reception, every guest who wants to dance with the bride or groom must pay to do so. This money is for the bride and groom to use for their honeymoon.

I know a lot of different cultures have a money dance, and I think it’s awesome if used in one of those cultures. However, ‘round these parts, I don’t think people would get it. Sad day. I’d like some extra change to step on people’s toes.

During the reception, the bride is kidnapped by the [German version of] best man and maid of honor. They take her to a pub and proceed to fill her with champagne until the groom finds her. In order to get her back, he must pay the bar tab.

I don’t see this ending well. I’d rather not leave the reception that we worked tirelessly on to plan and go get tanked at a hole-in-the-wall bar here. I don’t plan on drinking very much at our wedding because I refuse to be any more of a hot mess than I already am. I’m a ball of wackadoo when I’m sober, pretty entertaining after two drinks, but anything more “festive” than that is… well, embarrassing.

However, if this tradition included me getting kidnapped and taken to a McDonald’s or somewhere with copious amounts of cake, then I might be game. Om nom nom nom nom.

To make the first night as difficult as possible, friends of the couple do lots of funny or sometimes cruel things. They fill up the rooms with balloons, hide lots of alarm clocks in the bedroom, take apart the bed, and so on.

Balloons? Fine. Alarm clocks? Annoying. Bed taken apart? Somebody go’n’ die. There are two possible things that I would like to do on my wedding night. One is sleep, and the other doesn’t necessarily need a bed, but would require sleep afterwards.

Whew! That was a lot of stuff, but maybe it will help anybody trying to add in German traditions to their wedding. Again, I hope I didn’t miss anything. (And if I did, tell, tell, tell!)

Next, I really should aggregate the southern wedding traditions (and just plain ol’ wedding traditions) that we’re going to use, and which ones we aren’t going to use. Rule-breaking!