German Wedding Traditions

vollebell

My fiance is of German decent and I am of Scottish decent. We are having our ceremony in Scotland and we have found a TON of Scottish wedding traditions that we love and want to incorporate. We want to use traditions from both places to include both families. The problem we have is we can't find very much on German wedding traditions. The only thing I've been able to find on German traditions is that most ceremonies are traditional Catholic ceremonies (we are having a non-denominational) and that they still treat weddings a lot like a business transaction! We have seen the bridal cup, and his family has one that we will be using, but is that it? A Scottish ceremony with a German bridal cup? There has got to be something else that others have heard of!

MobKaz

Honestly, unless the traditions are actually meaningful to the family, there doesn't seem to be a point to throwing a tradition into a wedding "just because".  Traditions will vary from region to region in Germany.  What is done in the south may have no bearing to what is done in the north, and vice versa.

I attended a wedding in southern Germany.  The night before the wedding they had some sort of plate throwing/breaking ritual.  

At my wedding, I did incorporate some edelweiss into my bouquet.  We also made sure the bar was stocked with plenty of Jagermeister.  A large group of my parents friends, all of whom were German, sang some sort of traditional wedding song, and followed it up with the traditional German song/toast "Ein Prosit".  You could incorporate pretzels, either the hard Bavarian or large soft pretzels, into your appetizers, or have some strudel, linzer cookies, or linzer tortes for dessert at the rehearsal dinner. (They are also considered Austrian.)  Your first dance could be a waltz, or you could include a polka in your dance music.

vollebell

Those are some good suggestions. We don't really know which ones other than the cup that are meaningful for his German family because the last relative from the old country he was in contact with died three years ago, when we weren't even thinking about getting married.

His family is from the Black Forest region, so pretty southern. I'd heard about the plate breaking, but I thought that might have been made up because it's kind of strange, cool, but strange.

rjamison721

My fiance is also German, so we're also looking for some German traditions to incorporate! The most common one that we've heard (both from our own research and his family) is the glass-breaking one. It typically takes place a day or two prior to the actual wedding (for example, the day of the rehearsal). Different people from around the community will come by to wherever the bride and groom are (I'm not really sure what the location usually is) and break plates (or other glassware/ceramics) on the sidewalk, which the bride and groom sweep up together. It symbolizes the bride and groom working together.

Again, as PPs have said, German traditions are regional (my fiance's family is from Southern Germany), so these things may differ from place to place. I also like the idea of having German food/drinks at the reception - definitely a fun way to incorporate some of the culture! Happy planning

icecreamS04

You don't break glass! That's considered bad luck. You break china or pots. It originates from pagan times and evil spirits are supposed to be displaced...

A popular tradition in the southern parts of Germany and in Austria is the abduction of the bride, where the bride is 'hijacked' by some male guests during the reception and taken to a bar/pub. The groom and his groomsmen have to look for her and pay the tab. 
I don't like this as it takes you away from your own party and leaves the rest of the guests on their own + if you don't have a 10 hours+ reception you miss a large proportion of your reception. 

where I come from 'Kränzen' is a popular weddig custom. Your neighbours make a fir wreath or fir garland and hang it on the bride's families door a few days before the wedding. Usually neighbours, family and the bride meet up a few days before the wedding to make this wreath or garland. 

really popular almost everywhere:
- sawing the trunk of a tree after the ceremony on their way out or just before entering the reception (showing that bride and groom can overcome all obstacles in their way if they are working together)
- guests prepare a bed sheet with a heart drawn on it before that... bride and groom cut it out using stump nail scissors and the groom carries the bride through this cut out heart afterwards

- traditionally it's the groom's responsibility to buy the bridal boquet