How to Have a Traditional German Wedding

Weddings are unique events because they not only reflect a country's long-held traditions, but also its sense of play. If you're having a German wedding, you'll find a variety of both. While the bride might carry salt instead of flowers and the celebration may last three days instead of three hours, traditional German weddings aren't that different from ones in America.

Things You'll Need

• Salt
• Grain
• Old China
• Fir boughs
• Flowers
• Sawhorse
• Log
• Saw
• Bridal cup
• Beverages for toasts
• White ribbons
• Rice

Instructions

Before the Wedding

1. Forget about spending thousands on a diamond ring. A German bride to be wears a simple gold band on her left hand. After the wedding, the bride and groom wear their rings on their right hands.

2. Involve family and friends in the German custom of creating a wedding newspaper. Include photos, personal mementos and anecdotes about the engaged couple. In Germany, this newspaper is traditionally sold at the wedding reception to help pay for the honeymoon. This could simply be given as a gift to the bride and groom.

3. Advise guests if you decide to follow the traditional three-day German wedding. The first event will be a civil ceremony which only family and close friends attend. After the ceremony, everyone goes out to dinner.

4. Gather friends and family members the following night for a "Polterabend", or wedding-eve party. This is where everyone smashes old china in front of the bride and groom to grant them good fortune. The couple sweeps up the pieces together as a symbol that nothing will be broken in their home again. An informal party follows.

At the Wedding

1. Gather friends and family again for a traditional religious ceremony. This second ceremony is necessary because it's illegal in Germany to have only a church wedding.

2. Provide the bride with salt and bread to carry during the ceremony as a predictor of a good harvest. The groom should carry grain which symbolizes wealth and good fortune.

3. Add German humor to the festivities whenever appropriate. During the vows, while the couple is on their knees, the groom could kneel on his bride's dress to show who will be "wearing the pants". When the two stand, the bride might step on the groom's foot to show her disagreement.

4. Decorate exit doorways with garlands of flowers, greenery and ribbons. After the ceremony, the groom must "ransom" the couple out of the facility by promising everyone money or a party.

After the Wedding

1. Ready the cameras. As the couple leaves, they'll toss coins to children in the group and then it's time for the log cutting. Have a log on a sawhorse ready and provide the couple with a saw. The bride and groom must then cut the log in half, symbolizing the first tough task of their lives accomplished together.

2. Gather family and friends again for the wedding reception after the religious service. Enjoy traditional German foods, such as wedding kuchen. In Germany, it is customary for the best man to steal the bride from the reception and take her to a local pub where they drink champagne until the groom finds them. Of course the groom ends up with the tab.

3. Join in for the traditional reception toasts and dances. The bride and groom drink from a Brautbecher (bridal cup) together, symbolizing their union as one. The newlyweds will then have the first dance which is traditionally a waltz.

4. Provide rice for guests to throw as the couple departs the reception. According to German tradition, the amount of rice that stays in the bride's hair is the number of children the two will have. Continue tradition by having the bride give a white ribbon to the driver of each vehicle to tie to the radio antenna. Cars will then line up in a procession and drive through town honking their horns, celebrating the happy day.

Tips & Warnings

• Add a nice touch to the invitations by including the following wedding toast for guests to memorize or bring to the event to recite at the appropriate time: "Jeder sieht ein Stückchen Welt, gemeinsam sehen wir die ganze." In English that means, "Each of us sees a part of the world; together we see all of it."

• Search for recipes for Hochzeitssuppe, a wedding soup made with beef, dumpling and vegetables that guests eat from a large bowl.

• Search for recipes for Wedding Kuchen which is not a cake, more like rolled up dough strips.