Wedding in Germany

Germany is one of those countries that is proud of their traditions and customs especially glorious occasions like weddings. Germany has many traditions that they still practice until today except for couples that appeal more to modern ways rather than customs. Here are some of the customs that German weddings have:

German weddings are not celebrated in a single day but in 3 days. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the days needs to be consecutive, but it has to be celebrated three days. It is also practiced that couple that are going to marry needs to be wed civilly a day before or a week before the wedding to be witnessed by family and friends only. This is what’s called Standesbeamte. wedding ceremony culture

On the second day, there’s an elaborate yet informal party called Polterabend. This is a celebration of the union of the couple wherein guests are instructed to bring porcelain or kitchenware to be smash in from of the couple. This is a way of symbolizing that the couple will be given a happy and lucky life throughout the marriage and afterward the couples are assigned to clean the mess symbolizing that the couple will have a house that is peaceful and nothing broken in any aspect.

German wedding traditions also celebrate bachelor parties which are called junggesellenabschied. Same thing happened – the friends of the groom celebrate the decision of the groom to leave singlehood choosing a life with his intended bride and wife.

The third day is the wedding itself. Unlike wedding in Western countries, the couple walks the aisle together since they are legally married (Standesbeamte) already. The bride also wears a white wedding dress (some brides opt for designer wedding dresses for practicality or choose a gown of their own liking) and carries salt and bread as a symbol of good omen or harvest. Together with this, the bride carries a white ribbon that is attached to the car (usually long length of ribbon attached to the bouquet). The groom on the other hand wears a tuxedo or a two piece suit also carrying salt.

In addition to this, the couple’s entourage is not as big as those practiced in Western countries with bridesmaid, ring bearer, flower girls, etc. German weddings just have two witnesses, male and female and that’s it. After the ceremony, the couple walks down the aisle again with their guest throwing rice at them symbolizing the children that they may have and for abundance.

Reception in Germany is also a fun and entertaining celebration that doesn’t just have your occasional food and drinks and various forms of entertainment. It is practiced that the best man or friends of the couple kidnaps the bride and leads her to a local pub wherein the groom must locate the group and afterwards assigned to pay for all the drinks that the group drank. The reception is ended whenever the guests depart the venue. It is practiced that the couples are not allowed to leave the venue until the last of their guest depart.

After the reception, the couple can go on vacation for their honeymoon. Prior to that, the first night that the couple spend time together – friends and family often plays a prank or two for the couple making their first night as memorable as possible.