- Toast Master- Our good friend Jesper agreeded to be our toast master for the evening which means he will be keeping the flow of the reception moving. He will let everyone know when it is time to eat, as well as introducing people who would like to give speeches or songs. Jesper did an AMAZING job and actually went above and beyond by doing the whole thing in BOTH languages and even recapping peoples' speeches in the non-native language (it was a little bit like the Olympics where you hear everything in multiple languages!!), it was great and everyone loved having him as Toast Master!
- Speeches and Songs- one of the traditions that was pretty different for the Americans is the "giving of songs". Basically, people will take the tune of a common song (Like My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean) and change the lyrics to be about the wedding couple. They will bring the lyrics written out for all of the guests to sing along! We had three songs at our wedding and they were all a lot of fun. The one his mom did came with a cute box to hold the song sheets that she made look like a Ham Radio (one of Klaus' hobbies) and had included yarn and knitting needles (one of My hobbies) Helle's song sheets were rolled up into scrolls with a blank heart attached that in the song she explained that people were supposed to sign their name on the heart and hang them on the branches she had put on our table. What's neat about this is that we have kept the branches in water and they are now blooming and look so pretty!
- Kissing Traditions-
- Clinking on glasses- the Americans will be familiar with this one, however there's a danish twist on it. When the guests clink on glasses the couple is supposed to stand on their chairs to kiss.
- Stomping on the floor- This takes the tradition one step farther and the couple is supposed to crawl under the table to kiss if the guests stomp on the floor.
- If the bride leaves the room the female guests at the party will run up to the groom and kiss him! The opposite is done if the groom leaves the room- all of the men will run up to the bride to kiss her!
- Bridal Waltz- This takes place just before midnight and usually replaces the american tradition of the "First Dance", we will actually do both at our party. During the waltz the guests form a circle around the couple clapping and slowly moving in towards the couple. By the end of the dance they surround the couple.
- This is also when the guests take off the grooms shoes to cut the toes off of his socks!! Apparently this has to do with making sure he doesn't go after any other women now that he's a married man! I've also read that its to make sure the first wifely duty of the bride is to fix his socks... but I like the other explanation better!
- At the same time, the bride is having her veil torn into pieces by the women at the party! Apparently this is supposed to bring luck to both the bridal couple as well as the guests who take home a piece of the veil. They are supposed to make a wish for the couple and tie the piece of veil on their car antenna/ bike wheel/ etc and when the veil falls off the wish will come true. As best I can tell, these traditions replace the garter and bouquet toss that is usually done in American weddings (we opted not to do these since we did the bridal waltz).
We had so much fun with all of the traditions and it made for a really fun evening! I hope some of these explanations help a little bit, but really its all good fun just of the danish variety!
XOXO,
Joy
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