Weddings in Germany

My wife and I have been invited to a wedding in Germany in early September and we are wondering what the normal wedding is like in Germany, in terms of church service followed by reception etc.
Is it normal for all invited guests to go to a wedding reception following the church service and does the wedding reception normally take the form of a formal meal and speechs by members of the family and the wedding party.
What is the expectation in terms of gifts for the couple that are getting married.

I went to a German wedding a few weeks ago. It was the first one I had been too. The reception began at about 3:30pm after the ceremony where, upon arrival, snacks and champagne were being dished out (like in the UK). Where it differed from UK weddings was that people drunk and socialised for about 4 hours until the meal began to be served at around 7pm. There were 3 courses in all, and each with a break for speeches and what I can only describe as cabaret performances by family member in-between, There was also a short play as well conducted by a small theatre group that had been hired for the occasion! At about 10:30pm the first dance arrived, and then it was disco and party time until well into the early hours.

The basic difference I found compared to a UK wedding was that it was more sociable and much, much longer and drawn out. Great fun though if you are in the mood.

And most German weddings have party games for the bride & groom organised by the Trauzeugen and other friends.

And from my experience, the guests dress better at British weddings.

also they have polterabend - lotsa fun, as long as you're not the one getting married!

they have played "Wer wird Millionär" for the bride and groom at EVERY German wedding I have been to - yaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwnnnnn!

Thankfully not at ours...


In fact I think we all had fun. It was the first time both sets of parents met up. my father ended up carving the 3rd & 4th hams we had...


Our wedding pre-dated that thankfully...

The type and length of games varies quite a bit depending on the friends and family of the "Brautpaar". Often the games are meant to demonstrate the ability of the couple to work together (My husband had to pantomime the things for which were given gift certificates and I had to guess what they were.) No "Who Wants. . ." for us.

I also agree on the clothing - we let people know we were going a little more formal and people did ask if that meant "no jeans". But I was at a wedding where the maid of honor had a ball gown on and there were guests dressed very informally.

The 5 hour wedding reception is rare (it can go til the wee hours) and the ceremony may be followed by an "agape" - sekt + oj, coffee/cake etc for those who came to the ceremony, not all of whom may be invited to the wedding reception.

At all of the weddings we have attended the first dance was a walz or there were walzes.
No formal wedding party in matching dresses!
A lot more of the decoration done by the couple than is average for the States.
You can still throw rice!
The style of wedding photos is different and the amount of time the couple is absent for photos may be lower than what you are used to.
The bride doesn't walk in with her father.

There is often a lot of honking as the cortege of cars travels to the place of the reception. I have been to several weddings at which balloons were released or there were games requiring guests to send additional gifts to the couple. (One situation was uncomfortable for us and the game organizer won't let it drop!!)