Lost in transit

It's not exactly a tradition but it is catching on in my neck of the woods. If you can gain access to the apartment or house of the newly weds get busy popping popcorn. Cover the toilet seat and sink with plastic wrap and fill the room to overflowing. The popcorn coming out from cracks and under baseboards for weeks after will keep them ever mindful of their very special day.

Roberta - where is your neck of the woods? Remind me not to invite anyone from around there to my wedding!!;o) "Welcome back from your honeymoon - now clean up the bathroom". No popcorn in my bathroom, thankyouverymuch!

I'm not sure that the noisy wedding procession is only Swiss, because people sure seem to do that in France as well. My aunt got married in Switzerland though, and my mom sure commented on the honking (as well as driving around in the roundabouts at least half a dozen times before turning off in the proper direction heh).

Kim - doesn't surprise me that the beeping and honking is done in France too. I wonder if other European countries do it also? Hrm.

You know the 'customs' on the night of the wedding dinner, Kris? I'm sure you'll be dying to:

- have your closest friends follow you and your new husband into the wedding chamber (ahem).
- I know something with chickens is involved, but I'm pretty sure it isn't kinky.
- your closest friends will probably make you and your husband get naked under the covers - while they're watching, of course - then tease you mercilessly until they get bored and leave.

Once again, Vegas is the city for me, baby!

They beeped and honked at our wedding in Austria. Not at first, because we walked from the civil ceremony to the church, but afterwards, on the way to the reception, much beeping. Bouquet tied to hood of car bride and groom ride in, too, and streamers tied to all car antennas. We were spared, but there is also a tradition, afterwards, in front of the church, for the groom to saw through a log. And then at the reception: the groom tosses the bride's garter, and the bride throws her bouquet, of course. And the bride, holding a large pot, dances with all the male guests, who throw money into the pot. The bride also breaks a glass on the floor, which the groom sweeps up (it took my wife several tries to get the glass to break; she has since gotten better at breaking crockery). I also remember dancing with all the women while holding the broom, but am not sure what the meaning of that was.

The bride also gets kidnapped later in the reception, when people get a little bored. She is carried off to a tavern somewhere, where the kidnappers start drinking. The groom must then find them, and ransom her by paying for the drinks consumed. In our case, my father-in-law helped out because I didn't even notice, by that later hour, that she was missing.

mig - that sounds like a lot of fun, but also a sure way for a fight on the wedding night if the groom doesn't notice his bride has been spirited away!

andrea - yes. i know about the post-wedding dinner rituals - boiled eggs and grapes up and down the grooms trouser legs, the under-the-covers strip in front of the 'friends', stories of 'friends' who hide in the closet until the bride and groom are in bed, and then jump out to surprise them. if anyone so much as comes near our bedroom on the wedding night, i can guarantee mark and i will be less than impressed. but who would want to see us nekkid anyway? yikes!

Another amusing (for everyone else, I think!) tradition from France is the chamberpot.

Basically, the bride and groom tell one person (in this case, me) where they're staying that night and then leave. Everyone else has to find the person who knows where they are and once they've found them, that person has to lead them to the happy couple at 6 o' clock, the morning after the reception.

The guests take along a chamberpot filled with a mixture of chocolate spread and lemonade and a banana and once the happy couple have been found, they're rudely woken up and made to take a drink from the chamberpot.

As I said, amusing for the guests. :g:

Chamberpot? Gads. I thought the worst was when the guests were obliged to drink drinks out of the brides shoe in order to communicate good luck and the groom's (cowboy country) cowboy boot! That was tough enough but at least it was for the bride and groom's hilarity, not the guests.

hmm, never heard of this chamberpot business. I know there's a game they play at receptions here though, which involves the brides dress and earning money for the newlyweds. every time a man puts money in the pot, the bride lifts her dress up a bit. every time a woman puts money in, it gets lowered back down.

definitely a good reason to make sure to have lots of females attending.