What kind of tradition is this? (home, live, kindergarten)

[tvdxer]

Originally Posted by stockwiz

must be a local thing, never heard of it in eastern WI but they do plenty of drinking there. This occurs during the reception when people are sitting and waiting? Sounds like fun for the bride, not so for the people attending. Unless it was my son or daughter getting married, once it went beyond 30-45 minutes of waiting.... must be a small town thing.

It usually happens at the reception, after the dinner, when people are disco dancing to whatever the DJ is playing.

However, at weddings I've been to, it's been common for the wedding party to disappear between the ceremony and the reception to go to a local bar. At such a party, here would be your schedule:

3:00 Wedding
4:00 Wedding over. Talk with people outside church, etc.
4:45 Begin driving to reception
5:00 Reception begins, sitting and waiting
5:30 Wedding party arrives, hors d'ouerves
6:00 Dinner begins, speeches made
7:00 First dance, open bar, etc.
7:45 Free dancing, conversations, etc.
11:00 Go home.

Here would be what the bride does:

3:00 Wedding
4:15 Drive in limo with the rest of the wedding party to local bar
4:25 Arrive at local bar with wedding party
5:15 After some champagne, drive with wedding party to reception
5:30 Wedding party arrives at reception
6:00 Wedding dinner, hear your elegy
7:00 Dance with dad / groom / dollar dance
8:49 "Kidnapped" to local bar
10:06 Arrive back at wedding

[Sarimn00]

Yeah, it happens a lot here in Central, MN. As another poster said, it might be fun for the wedding party, but everyone else gets really tired of sitting around waiting for the reception to start. The longest time I've seen people wait is about an hour and a half, then they all came back drunk. Classy.

[uptown_urbanist]

I'd never heard of it before reading about it on this forum some time back, but when I asked some friends and relatives a few of them said that yes, they were familiar with the tradition, and thought it was a small town MN thing. I grew up in the Twin Cities and have attended a bunch of Twin Cities weddings, and have never heard of it happening there.

If you have access to a database like JSTOR you could run a search to see if anyone has written an academic article on the topic -- seems like the perfect topic for some MN-based anthropology professor or grad student, since it does seem to be very localized. (sort of like duck-duck-gray-duck. Or meat raffles, which I had also never heard about until recently.)

[ocsid]

It's definitely a rural MN thing. I'd never heard of it until my wife was in a wedding just after college.
There are two ways I've seen it done:

1. Bridal party steals the groom and they go to a bar. Grooms party steals the bride at the same time and they go to a different bar. This is how my own wedding worked. I haven't seen this in a long time. It's definitely a rural thing.

2. The entire wedding party takes off in a limo and goes to a bar between the wedding and reception. This is more common, and has been the norm in every wedding I've ever been in. Time can be from a half hour to 2-3 hours.

[carroll4628]

All 4 weddings I've attended in Fargo/Moorhead have had this happen. As a guest, it is "kind of" annoying, especially if you don't know many other guests and are waiting an hour for the reception to begin. BUT, the wedding party always seems to have a glorious time, so I'm all for it.

[redwolf fan]

Originally Posted by Sarimn00

Yeah, it happens a lot here in Central, MN. As another poster said, it might be fun for the wedding party, but everyone else gets really tired of sitting around waiting for the reception to start. The longest time I've seen people wait is about an hour and a half, then they all came back drunk. Classy.

One wedding the guests really got upset because the "instigator" of stealing the bride was the bride's old " flame "

After leaving the guests sit 2 hours. the bride and her ex-boyfriend arrived, drunk and laughing.

I truly felt sorry for the groom and the groom's family !

[SnowPrincess]

Originally Posted by redwolf fan

One wedding the guests really got upset because the "instigator" of stealing the bride was the bride's old " flame "

After leaving the guests sit 2 hours. the bride and her ex-boyfriend arrived, drunk and laughing.

I truly felt sorry for the groom and the groom's family !

This sounds like a lovely way to get a not so nice name applied to oneself, especially in a small community.

[sholomar]

there's always women that any sensible guy would not consider marriage material. There's two at work that go through boyfriend pretty fast... they consider themselves 'fun' ... Just gotta be careful who you marry if you get married.

[crazyme4878]

Originally Posted by uptown_urbanist

If you have access to a database like JSTOR you could run a search to see if anyone has written an academic article on the topic -- seems like the perfect topic for some MN-based anthropology professor or grad student, since it does seem to be very localized. (sort of like duck-duck-gray-duck. Or meat raffles, which I had also never heard about until recently.)

Thank you! I grew up in wester Wisconsin and learned "Duck-duck-gray-duck." My husband and his family make great fun of this.

[SnowPrincess]

Kind of off topic but I looked up duck duck gray duck and I think this is awesome. One of the neat things about moving around the country is coming across variations like this to games or standard traditions. Here in NW lower MI for example when a person is being buried the ride between the church and cementary will include a drive by of the deceased's home. Never heard of that before until I moved here and I have lived in 3 other states.