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Sawing the log, and the newspaper about you
German weddings come with organized games, and guests are expected to take part rather than watch. The best known is Baumstamm sägen: the newly married couple are handed a two-person saw and a log on a trestle, and must cut through it together in front of everybody — a symbol of the cooperation marriage will require, and genuinely hard work. Guests may also stage a Hochzeitsspiel quiz testing how well the couple know each other, and friends often produce a Hochzeitszeitung, a printed newspaper of photographs and embarrassing stories from both lives, distributed on the day. Speeches are less formalised than in Britain — there is no fixed running order of best man and father of the bride, and anyone who wants to speak generally may. The evening runs late, frequently past midnight, and at some point the bride's shoe may be auctioned or her veil danced off. It is warmer and sillier than the German reputation suggests.