Wedding Traditions Gone Wrong
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A friend of mine told me about a wedding he went to this Spring in a small town just outside of Cologne, Germany. It was apparently a beautiful setting and gorgeous weather to match. The couple decided to have the ceremony outside where they enjoyed the lovely music played by a professional pianist and violinist. The beautiful bride walked down to the outdoor altar while the musicians played the wedding march and the groom waited patiently for her to meet him. It was as picturesque as a hollywood movie. The priest delivered a very warm and funny ceremony, apparently reminding the guests of Steve Carrell from “The Office.” Later, another friend read a poem about the wedding candles, which was very touching.
Afterward, all the guests walked across the way to the hotel hosting the reception, where they were greeted with exquisite real Champagne and hors-d’œuvre. About 30 minutes later, the hotel owner warmly greeted all the guests and announced that they may take their seats for dinner.The dinner was apparently amazing. There were seven courses altogether accompanied by two different wines. The guests were extremely impressed with the selection of dishes and complementary wine. Between each course the guests had anywhere between 20 and 60 minutes until the next course. This was great because it gave the guests a chance to have a smoke or chat with other guests or go dancing a bit on the dance floor. However, by about the fifth course, the groom realized he had not seen his bride for a while. He tried to reach her by mobile, to no avail.
Suddenly the guests were informed that the bride had been “kidnapped.” It is arguably the most stupid German wedding tradition in which some friends of the groom decide to kidnap the bride at some point during the reception. However, the friends are only supposed to kidnap her to the next nearest bar, while another informant remains at the reception and gives the groom a hint as to where the bride could be. He then goes to get her, pays the bill for the beer or two they would have drunk in the meantime, the bride and groom go back to the wedding and everyone laughs and has a great time. This is supposed to symbolize that the husband always takes care of the wife.
The problems at this wedding with this tradition were that neither the bride nor the groom are German, neither one knew anything about this tradition, and it was extremely poorly executed, to say the least. The bride was kidnapped, the groom knew nothing about it, nor did anyone else who remained at the wedding. On top of that, the kidnappers took the bride more than 50 kilometers away to a bar. How is the groom supposed to just guess where to find her?
Altogether she was gone for nearly 3 hours. The families of the wedding couple were furious to say the least, especially since this is completely foreign in their culture. However, when the bride finally made it back, the guests acted as if nothing happened so as to make the situation a little less embarrasing. Unfortunately some of the family members decided not to act like nothing happened and became very violent. Let’s just say the reception ended in a brawl between the family members and those who kidnapped the bride. Lovely wedding memories, eh?
Lesson Learned: think twice about imposing traditions on wedding couples that know nothing about them, and if you still choose to do so, BE SURE it’s organized and executed flawlessly.
danielle @ October 21, 2008
