Danish Wedding Traditions
Traditionally Danish weddings would start earlier in the day and be broken up into three seperate events. The ceremony followed by a reception that has dinner, cake and speeches. And boy do Danes love their speeches (often in form of song). So I'd be prepared for a few at ours. Then there would be a party after the reception where the dancing and debauchery would fully kick off. Read this Boston.com article for a candid recap of a typical Danish wedding!
The Wedding Waltz
Every Danish couple dances the waltz at their wedding. The Danish tradition would have it that the dance be done at some point before midnight, but we are going to dance it as our first dance.
Guests gather round the couple and clap to the beat. (This will help the severely uncoordinated and musically challenged bride understand when to move her feet). As the song draws near the end the guests enclose the circle smaller and smaller until there is no room for the couple to dance anymore.
Check out how (Jill's beloved) royal Danish prince and princess danced the waltz at their wedding:
Kissing the Bride & Groom
Here's a fun one. Well they're all quite fun. So whenever the bride leaves the party for whatever reason (like to use the bathroom... or a keg stand... potato patado) all the female guests rush to give the groom a kiss. And vice versa. I think Christian will win the odds here as there are slightly more female guests than male. Don't be shy... have another glass of wine and pucker up.
More kissing
When Danish guests bang their fork and knife on their plate the bride and groom are to stand on top of their chairs and kiss. When guests stomp their feet the bride and groom are supposed to kiss under the table. Not sure we'll hear any stomping on the grass but any excuse to kiss each other we always welcome! ;)
Cutting socks
Now... logistically I'm not sure how this will be represented at our wedding but there will be enough Danish men around to hoist up Christian and cut off the toes part of his socks. I've read several different explanations of symbolism. All seem like Danish humor but really it's just because Danes are freaks. I think this is supposed to happen at the end of the wedding waltz.
Night before traditions
Like in American tradition, the bride and groom spend the night before the wedding apart. The groom is not to see the bride in her dress until the ceremony. However, traditionally the groom is responsible for picking out the bride's bouquet. I already picked one out/ordered it but the love of my life never fails to surprise me. Who knows, maybe we will honor the flowers bit somehow.
Gate of honor
One tradition I'm not overly familiar with is something called a gate of honor that is erected in the front of the bride's home. Don't think we'll be incorporating this one. There are already enough things to erect like tents with lighting. ;)
Something old... something new...
Again, the concept of something new, old, borrowed and blue is similar to American tradition. Thanks to my amazing friends and family I have quite a collection of all of the above. :D
Read more
Here are some sites I came across explaining the traditions above:
http://www.rineandjim.com/wedding-traditions.php
http://www.earthoria.com/traditional-danish-wedding-with-all-the-customs-beauty-and-fun.html
http://www.worldweddingtraditions.com/locations/scandinavian_traditions/danish_traditions.html
http://www.juulsgaard.net/wedding-activity-info/wedding-dinner-and-the-first-dance/