This past weekend we attended our third German wedding. It had some commonalities with the other German weddings we'd attended, and also a few new things. It took place in the town of Limburg an der Lahn, which is a bit north of Frankfurt. Below is a picture of Martin and myself walking up some stairs to get to the church and then a picture of the church from our hotel room window (taken the following day, when the sun was actually out).
It started with a church ceremony which was the same as any church wedding ceremony we've been to in any country. A few differences were that the bride and groom hung out in the church as guests arrived and greeted people, then the wedding started - exactly. on. time. Afterwards, we all wandered outside the church and drank some sparkling wine and ate some soft pretzels in true German style.
After we enjoyed our hors d'oeuvres, we walked a bit to the reception location, "The Little Kitchen". This was a catering company that had a reception hall with indoor and outdoor space. It was really nice. There we ate a nice dinner, enjoyed an open bar, and chatted with the other guests. We were sat at a table with other Americans (and one Brit, the photographer), which was fun. Below is a picture of the bride and groom giving a little speech. The father of the bride also gave a speech but that was it for speeches.
Our "American table", and Martin and I together.
One of the unique things about this wedding was that the bride and groom had to saw through a log of wood! We'd never seen that before, and it's apparently not a German tradition but just something fun the best man decided to put the bride and groom through. Germans, especially Bavarians, like to play games on the bride and groom on their wedding day and they're usually challenging or embarrassing in nature like this. But this looked like a lot of work.
Later on, some of the groom's friends performed a song that they had written about him. Germans really like to sing and entertain at weddings. And anything goes - singing, short skits, games, even ventriloquism.
At 10pm, the bride and groom cut their heart-shaped strawberry shortcake, then the second round of cocktails is started up, the DJ starts up, dancing gets going, etc. Then at midnight a second dinner is served. This is typical at European weddings, which go at least until 3am.
My friend Kara and I starting our second round of cocktails.
An extra special thing about this wedding was that the bride's father made a whole newspaper about the bride and groom! It was a solid 18 pages long, full color, and came with a quiz inside! Martin and I got the quiz correct but we were third place in finishing it. Not to bad for the Americans though, considering the whole paper was in German.
