Swiss Wedding Weekend
Thomas and I went to a wedding this last weekend. His good friends Thomas and Karin were married! I spent the day freezing and also noticing all the little differences between weddings in Switzerland and the US.
We have been to one other wedding before but we weren't invited to the reception, difference number one. Everyone is invited to the ceremony at the church and the following "appero." Directly after the ceremony, everyone goes to another building where appetizers and drinks are waiting. It is also common to play a game of some sort with the guests.
After a few hours, a lot of the people leave and the remaining go to another location to have dinner, those who were invited to this part. I'll get back to the reception later.
So, the actual ceremony is a little different as well, just little things. For example, the Bride and the Groom walk down the aisle together, followed by the Best Man and Maid of Honor. That's all. The couple sits down at the front of the church near the pastor and the ceremony continues. (The rest of it I couldn't understand.) The Flower Girl and Ring Bearer sit with their parents until the rings are exchanged, then they take the rings to the couple! Here it is also common the bride and groom have the same rings, no big diamonds here! (That I wouldn't like . . . ) :-)
I did like that all the guests gathered around and then photographer took a big group picture. That would be neat to have, but with 275 people it could be tricky.
So, back to the reception. The dinner was long and very good. We had a salad bar, then we ate. After 30 minutes or so we had soup. Then another 30 minutes or so we had the main course, then we waited some more and had a desert bar. All of the food was very, very good. I think we got there around 7:00 and dinner was over by 11:30 or so. It's hard eating that late for me. In between courses there was entertainment. Two comedians came and put on a show, then later 15 guys came and walked throughout the room with large Swiss Cow Bells, very loud. (If you are on Facebook, check out my video!)
Then there was another entertainer, these two were actual guests. They pretended to be French artists, they called guests up to "show art work." This was interesting for many reasons, one was I couldn't understand anything and second the "French Artist" called me out numerous times. I was his love interest throughout the whole show. I couldn't play along with him because I didn't understand what he was saying!!! I had to go to the front of the room and sit on a chair. Then he called two men up to hold a towel over my head. "Frau unter tuch" Lady under the towel (I don't know). I was so scared he was going to ask me something or to do something but that was it. He did many "art pieces" like that. He kept coming back to me to though and making "Ooh La La" sounds. It was the ongoing joke of his show. Afterwards the grooms mom walked by me and said something. I just shook my head and smiled. Those around me told me she said, "He was hard to resist" or something like that. It was funny. Later on I said to him, "Ich spreche English" and he thought it was very funny that he singled me out in a room full of German speakers.
Before the desert, the bride and groom did a taste test thing. They were blindfolded and had to guess what they were eating.
After the dinner, we all went outside and lit candles under paper "balloons". It was sweet. It was dark and we watched the balloons float away. That was very nice. I want to bring a few of those back in December and light them when we celebrate Christmas. New tradition????
So, that was the wedding. There was only one dance and the bride danced with one of the bell ringers. It was very different, but I can only expect that now.
