Traditions

Polterabend

The German custom is not to have "stag" and "hen" nights. Instead the couple celebrate together with all of their friends the night before the wedding. During the course of the evening all the guests take pieces of crockery which they have brought with them and they smash it on the floor. The couple who are going to get married then have to sweep all the pieces up, there mustn't be any left at midnight! The idea is to break the crockery into as many pieces as possible: the more pieces, the more luck that it will bring.
So... over the next couple of months if you find any chipped pieces of crockery or you break a plate, don't throw it away! Put it to one side to bring to Germany with you! If you get desperate then raid some charity shops ;)

Literally translated this is a wedding newspaper. It is generally a collection of anacdotes about the couple and marriage in general, maybe with a few funny pictures. If you would like to contribute to this then please feel free to contact Anne Linke who has pulled the short straw in organising this! Her email address is nessi-anni@gmx.de I'm sure she would love to get her hands on new material: the more the better!

The "Schleier" is the bridal veil. Rather than taking it off after the wedding (which would be far too easy) it is the custom to wear it until midnight. At this point in the evening the veil is unpinned by the bridegroom and the veil and the pins are handed over to the man who caught the garter. He then has to pin the veil onto the head of his partner which is supposed to symbolise that she will be the next one to get married. Then there is a special dance to celebrate the removal of the veil.

At the reception the newly-weds have to saw, using a saw with a handle at both ends, through a log to prove that they can work together. This sounds a lot easier than it is!

Garter-throwing rather than bouquet throwing is the standard sporting event of the evening. Also, various people contribute to the festivities throughout the evening with poems and all sorts of other random things. Needlesstosay this may not work terribly well in two languages so there will not be as much ab lib as there generally would be.