One particularly endearing tradition involves the bride collecting pennies for years to buy her wedding shoes.

Traditionally, a German couple gives each other gold bands (no diamonds), which are worn on their left hands. Throughout their engagement, the couple is referred to as the bride and bridegroom.

Weeks before the wedding, the groom and his friends go out to spend the evening drinking and having fun. (Whether this is the last time he gets to party with his buddies wasn’t documented…)

The night before the wedding there is an informal party where friends of the bride show up at her home to smash plates and dishes on her doorstep. Only china is used - broken glass would bring bad luck. This is done with a lot of noise and merriment because the more smashed pieces, the more good luck for the bride. All the friends are then invited in for a piece of cake and a glass of wine. Afterward, the bride and groom get to clean up the mess. (Welcome to married life!) This is called Polterabend, which roughly means “ghost evening.”

The bride traditionally carries bread and salt in her pocket to bless their union with plenty and the groom carries grain in his for wealth and good fortune. Or the couple may carry candles trimmed with ribbons and flowers. When the couple kneels during the ceremony, the groom may kneel of the bride’s hem to show that he’ll keep her in line. As she rises, she may step on his foot to prove that he won’t.

After the celebrants throw the rice over the bride and groom as they leave the church, tradition says that the wedding couple will have as many children as rice grains left in her hair.

An old tradition has the path of the newly married couple strewn with fir boughs as the leave the church. This paves their first married steps with fresh greenery for luck, hope and fertility. They might also encounter a log on a saw horse waiting for them outside the church. Their first task as a married couple is to saw it in half. This is supposed to show how they will manage to accomplish tough tasks together. (Too bad they’re not dressed for the occasion!)

The bride may carry pieces of white ribbon with her bouquet and give one to each driver after the ceremony. They tie them to their radio antennas for the drive to the reception. The hood of the wedding car is decorated with lots of flowers and a car procession forms after it, driving through town honking their horns. Other cars honk back, wishing the couple good luck.

In some areas, friends or the best man kidnap the bride from the reception and take her to a pub. The groom has to find her and then pay for all the champagne they drank.

The first dance, traditionally, is a waltz and only for the bride and groom. The following dance is only for the bride and her father and the groom with his mother, while the bride’s mother dances with the groom’s father. Later every man or woman who wants to dance with the bride or groom has to pay for the privilege. This is sometimes called the Veil Dance.

At the reception, games may be played, speeches are given (normally beginning with the father of the bride), songs are song and sometimes even a wedding newspaper is handed out. The wedding cake is usually large with lot of ornaments and must be cut by the bride and groom together. Another tradition is to give wedding guests kerchiefs so they can carry the leftover food home. This may be updated by having the caterer send the food to a charitable organization for distribution.

In the time-honored tradition of good friends everywhere, the German wedding night custom is to make things as difficult as possible for the newlyweds. These pranks are sometimes funny – sometimes bordering on the cruel. They may fill up the bedroom with balloons; hide lots of alarm clocks there or even take the bed apart!

Sheila Stone is a content editor for Simply Family