44. “Brautverzug”
In Germany, there is a tradition that is called “Brautverzug” which loosely translates to kidnapping the bride. What usually happens is that the best man takes the bride to another room with some close friends of the bride, later the groom has to “search” for them and then to some kind of challenge to get her back, for example drinking some liquor. The most important thing about this is that it has to be entirely planned because you need to prepare the room and the challenge and the bride has to be fine with missing an hour of her wedding.
At the wedding of a friend of mine a super drunk guy, who wasn’t invited but still attended the wedding because he knew both bride and groom walked in during dinner in sweatpants and a stained shirt. At first, everyone was obviously confused, the wedding couple talked to him and he was allowed to stay but he wasn’t allowed to drink any alcohol because he already was drunk.
The evening progresses and suddenly someone asks into the room where the bride is, followed by some jokes about the bride already leaving after just a couple of hours. With some shy laughter, the groom asks the mother of the bride where the bride is, she doesn’t know, so he starts asking around but no one knows it.
Queue 2 hours later, everyone is searching the place for the bride, some people are thinking about calling the police when her mother’s phone rings. It’s the bride calling from a pub in another part of the city, where she semi-violently was taken to by the drunk guy, who thought it was funny to do a “Brautverzug” but didnt think about telling anyone.
And that’s how you do not make friends at a wedding that you’re not supposed to be at in the first place.