German wedding etiquette and protocol

On 13 Jul 2006 12:42:23 -0700, wrote:

I have been invited to a wedding near Stuttgart in October and I am
wondering if anyone here could offer any input on German (or more
specifically Swabian) wedding protocol, how to avoid faux pas and what
I can expect.

As you enter the teeming stadium, it is expected to give a proper
salute to the Furhrer, who will be presiding over the event. You
should then march smartly to your place at the side of the groom.

As Fuhrer Merkel gives her impassioned speech about "young couples
continuing the bloodline that marks the greatness of the Germanic
peoples", it's best not to snicker, or you may be taken away for an
unscheduled visit to central Poland.

Don't let your armband spin around the wrong way, and try not to
flinch when the Wermacht fires off their gun salute. As the happy
couple is carried off to the reception in a Leopard2 A6 battle tank,
you can throw flowers on it as it passes.

March smartly in your rank as the crowd leaves the stadium, then meet
up with the wedding party at the beer house. Once inside, it's OK to
let your hair down, get drunk and talk smack about the French.

Have a good time!

- TR

Bill Burk wrote:
We have sent gifts from the USA to 3 different German friends getting
married over there. Expensive gifts ! And all 3 got divorced within 4
years.


Were your gifts the cause of the divorces?


007





--
******************
Bill E. Burk
Publisher, Elvis World Magazine

[Remove "NOSP" from my e-mail address]

george wrote:
wrote:
I have been invited to a wedding near Stuttgart in October and I am
wondering if anyone here could offer any input on German (or more
specifically Swabian) wedding protocol, how to avoid faux pas and what
I can expect. For example, what is a typical wedding gift, what
constitutes formal dress, if there's anything like a bachelors' party,
etc. I am a friend of the groom and will be travelling from the US to
attend the wedding.

Wedding customs can vary considerably in even a small area of Germany.
I would wear a suit to a "normal" wedding, but some can be quite posh,
but then that should be mentioned on the invitation. The kidnapping of
the bride and the search by the groom and friends is fairly common, and
something has to be paid to get her back, probably just the drinks that
they have meanwhile drunk. Although my wife is Swabian, she could not
explain to me a custom that we observed in Marbach near Stuttgart, the
bride and groom sawing a large log together. Perhaps he was a
forester? One thing that my wife used to have to remind me of, unlike
in the US where putting your arms on the table is considered bad
manners, in Germany it isn't, and if you don't do so you will be
considered cold and aloof. I personally don't like giving money as a
wedding gift. You could consider a gift certificate from Breunninger
in Stuttgart (Germany's second largest department store). One gift we
received for our wedding was a gift certificate for the Romantik chain
of hotels where we could use it for dinner or an overnight stay.

Have a fun trip.

George in Stuttgart

Great, thanks for the input! It's not clear as to whether accomodations
will be provided (the groom's sister is checking on this for me), since
you are in the area, do you have any recommendations for cheap
hotels/Gasthofs in the Denkendorf/Scharnhausen/Esslingen area in the
event I need to get a room? (I would assume there to be plenty because
of the area's proximity to the airport).

wrote:

Great, thanks for the input! It's not clear as to whether accomodations
will be provided (the groom's sister is checking on this for me), since
you are in the area, do you have any recommendations for cheap
hotels/Gasthofs in the Denkendorf/Scharnhausen/Esslingen area in the
event I need to get a room? (I would assume there to be plenty because
of the area's proximity to the airport).

The hotels by the airport tend to be on the expensive side and not that
convenient to the places you mention. The Stuttgart tourist
information office www.stuttgart-tourist.de has a listing of Stuttgart
and near Stuttgart hotels that you can book through them. Esslingen
itself has about 14 hotels ranging in price from 26-165 euros for a
single room with breakfast. The places that you mention lie fairly
close to Stuttgart to the SE on both sides of the Neckar River. The
U-bahn line U-7 terminates in this area, so if you aren't going to have
a car and have to rely on public transportation probably somewhere
along this line would be best for a hotel, but you really need to know
where you will have to be for the wedding and reception as all places
may not be that convenient to reach. It probably would be best for the
bride's family to come up with a place to stay (maybe they'll pay for
it, we did for distant guests to our wedding).

If you need or want to find a place in Stuttgart itself, I can
recommend the City Hotel where we suggest our guests stay if we can't
house them ourselves. It is in central Stuttgart a five minute walk to
the absolute center of town (the Schlossplatz) or a couple of minutes
ride on the U-bahn. One of the four U-bahn lines that are a short
block away is the U-7, and you can quickly access anywhere in Stuttgart
from there. A single there is 79-85 euros. Within a block of there are
also two other hotels: Wirt am Berg- 50-70 euros single and Espenlaub
29-61 euros single. All include breakfast and are bookable through the
website above.

If you have time to visit Stuttgart, you can stop in the tourist
information office opposite the train station or at the airport and get
a free map of Stuttgart which has a several hour long suggested walking
tour. The Mercedes Benz museum (S-1) is excellent and contains the
first automobile and motorcycle, after all, Stuttgart is where the
automobile was invented. There is a much smaller Porsche museum (S-6)
which would appeal only to its enthusiasts. The old town center of
Esslingen is also an excellent place to visit (S-1) as is the largest
perfectly preserved Baroque palace in Germany at Ludwigsburg (S-4 or
S-5) with its tourable rooms, several museums, porcellan factory,
extensive gardens, and two nearby smaller palaces. Stuttgart also has
Western Europe's largest mineral springs, and at the Leuze bath (U-1,
U-2 or U-14) you can swim in a pool of carbonated water. Wilhelma
(U-14) is Europe's largest combination zoo and botanical gardens set
amidst the nice Moorish architecture of this former palace.

I hope that you have some time outside of the wedding to enjoy
Stuttgart.

George

george wrote:
--snipped---
Most places in Germany can be accessed on the internet by
www.PLACENAME.de. However, Denkendorf's website lists no hotels
although it probably has some. Scharnhausen is now a part of
Ostfildern and the following website does list hotels there
http://www.ostfildern.de/content_page_152.html .

My statement above concerning hotels near the airport is correct if you
don't have a car as to not being convenient.

George

Excellent, thanks again. I was actually in that area in 2004 for a
couple of days (while on a longer trip to visit a friend in Berlin),
visiting the couple who is to be wed (they live in Denkendorf), so I
hope to see more of the area this time. I did get a feel for the area
and liked it quite a bit. I may stay in Stuttgart, as it is a
different thing to be a guest of a wedding than a houseguest, as I was
before. I will be on my own more and can't expect the same attention as
a wedding guest. I'm glad that you mentioned the mineral spring, as I
am a fitness swimmer and swim 3-4 times per week, and I know finding a
pool in Germany is never really much of a problem, it would be
interesting to check out a mineral spring as well (though I know that
they are generally not conducive to lap swimming).
george wrote:
wrote:

Great, thanks for the input! It's not clear as to whether accomodations
will be provided (the groom's sister is checking on this for me), since
you are in the area, do you have any recommendations for cheap
hotels/Gasthofs in the Denkendorf/Scharnhausen/Esslingen area in the
event I need to get a room? (I would assume there to be plenty because
of the area's proximity to the airport).

The hotels by the airport tend to be on the expensive side and not that
convenient to the places you mention. The Stuttgart tourist
information office www.stuttgart-tourist.de has a listing of Stuttgart
and near Stuttgart hotels that you can book through them. Esslingen
itself has about 14 hotels ranging in price from 26-165 euros for a
single room with breakfast. The places that you mention lie fairly
close to Stuttgart to the SE on both sides of the Neckar River. The
U-bahn line U-7 terminates in this area, so if you aren't going to have
a car and have to rely on public transportation probably somewhere
along this line would be best for a hotel, but you really need to know
where you will have to be for the wedding and reception as all places
may not be that convenient to reach. It probably would be best for the
bride's family to come up with a place to stay (maybe they'll pay for
it, we did for distant guests to our wedding).

If you need or want to find a place in Stuttgart itself, I can
recommend the City Hotel where we suggest our guests stay if we can't
house them ourselves. It is in central Stuttgart a five minute walk to
the absolute center of town (the Schlossplatz) or a couple of minutes
ride on the U-bahn. One of the four U-bahn lines that are a short
block away is the U-7, and you can quickly access anywhere in Stuttgart
from there. A single there is 79-85 euros. Within a block of there are
also two other hotels: Wirt am Berg- 50-70 euros single and Espenlaub
29-61 euros single. All include breakfast and are bookable through the
website above.

If you have time to visit Stuttgart, you can stop in the tourist
information office opposite the train station or at the airport and get
a free map of Stuttgart which has a several hour long suggested walking
tour. The Mercedes Benz museum (S-1) is excellent and contains the
first automobile and motorcycle, after all, Stuttgart is where the
automobile was invented. There is a much smaller Porsche museum (S-6)
which would appeal only to its enthusiasts. The old town center of
Esslingen is also an excellent place to visit (S-1) as is the largest
perfectly preserved Baroque palace in Germany at Ludwigsburg (S-4 or
S-5) with its tourable rooms, several museums, porcellan factory,
extensive gardens, and two nearby smaller palaces. Stuttgart also has
Western Europe's largest mineral springs, and at the Leuze bath (U-1,
U-2 or U-14) you can swim in a pool of carbonated water. Wilhelma
(U-14) is Europe's largest combination zoo and botanical gardens set
amidst the nice Moorish architecture of this former palace.

I hope that you have some time outside of the wedding to enjoy
Stuttgart.

George

My parents say that german traditions involve breaking plates, then again
they are German so they know xx Best luck