PULTEVENT
German wedding games: 8 ideas from the Polterabend to the veil dance
A farmyard outside Lüneburg, the evening before the wedding. A crate of chipped plates from three flea markets sits by the barn door, a cousin is testing the floodlight, and the bride's English flatmate is holding a gravy boat and asking, very politely, whether she is really supposed to throw it at the ground. She is. The couple will sweep up every shard together afterwards, which is the point of the whole thing.
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German weddings run on a rich set of customs, and a lot of the fun comes from guests who organise games for the couple: the Polterabend, the log-sawing outside the registry office, the wedding newspaper, the shoe game at the reception. When half the guests are from abroad, or the couple has friends who have never seen any of it, the host has a translation job as well as a hosting one.
PULTEVENT helps with the part that happens indoors, in the evening. The host runs it from a laptop browser, games and photos go up on a projector or the venue TV, and guests answer from their own phones after scanning a QR code. No app, no account. Phones need internet, and in a converted barn in the countryside that is worth testing before the day.
8 German wedding games and customs, with the screen doing the heavy lifting
1 Polterabend welcome screen
The barn wall shows the couple's names, the date and a slideshow of the two of them over the years. When the first plate goes down, fire the fanfare on top.
How to run it. Add one caption line in English for the guests from abroad: porcelain only, never mirrors or glass.
It tells new arrivals where they are and whose night it is, before anyone has to explain.
2 The couple quiz
Questions about the bride and groom that the guests answer from their phones: where they met, who proposed, the first holiday that went wrong. The friends who know them best climb the scoreboard.
How to run it. Write two versions of each question in the builder if the room is split between German and English. Keep each one short.
Both families learn a few stories about the other side. Useful the night before they become relatives.
3 The shoe game with live voting
Bride and groom sit back to back with one of each other's shoes, raising the right one for each question. At the same time the guests vote on their phones and the screen shows how the room saw it.
How to run it. Reveal the room's vote only after the couple has answered. The gap between the two is the joke.
It is already a reception favourite. The vote gives the rest of the room something to do besides watch.
4 The wedding newspaper, on the wall
Many German couples get a Hochzeitszeitung written by friends. Put its best pages on screen as a slideshow during dinner, with the photos large and the in-jokes readable from the back tables.
How to run it. Export the pages as slides and run them in a loop between courses.
Printed copies sit on tables unread until dessert. On the wall everybody reads the same page at once.
5 Baby photo round
Childhood photos of the bride, the groom and a few siblings. Phones guess who is who, the host reveals names one by one.
How to run it. Ask both mothers, separately, and do not tell the couple which photos you picked.
It works in any language because the answer is a face.
6 Messages from far away
The grandmother in Porto who could not travel, the best friend on a ship somewhere. Their clips sit on one-tap buttons in the console and play on the big screen.
How to run it. Ask for subtitles or a written translation for the ones in a language half the room does not speak.
Bi-national weddings always have someone missing. This is how they get a place at the table.
7 Team scoreboard, bride's side against groom's
Every game of the evening adds points to one of two teams, and just before the veil dance the scoreboard opens its awards ceremony.
How to run it. Invent silly special awards: best plate smashed, longest speech, most dedicated Schnaps runner.
It gives mixed tables a reason to cheer for the same side.
8 Midnight: veil dance and credits
At midnight the bride's veil comes off in the traditional veil dance. Straight after, the screen rolls end credits with the names of everyone who helped: the cooks, the drivers, the uncle with the floodlight.
How to run it. Collect names from the couple a week before, and do not forget the people who never go on stage.
The veil dance marks the end of the official programme. The credits make it feel like the end of a film.
Explains the customs on screen
A short intro slide before each tradition, so foreign guests know why the plates are breaking.
Phones in every guest's own language
Guest screens follow each phone's language. The Italian aunt and the Swabian uncle both see buttons they can read.
The shoe game, but with votes
The whole room votes along with the couple and the result shows on the big screen.
From Polterabend to midnight
Splash screens, clips, break countdowns and credits live in one console on one laptop.
What the Polterabend actually is
It is a party on the eve of the wedding, or a week or two before, often at the bride's family home. Guests bring old porcelain and smash it on the ground for luck. Glass and mirrors are left out because they are associated with bad luck. The couple sweeps up the pile together, a little test of teamwork that every German guest watches with enormous interest.
It is informal. Some families invite the whole village. That makes it a good setting for screen games, because nobody expects a seating plan and everyone is standing around waiting for something to happen.
Customs that happen outside the screen
Some of the best German traditions need no technology at all. After the civil ceremony at the Standesamt, the couple often saws through a log on a trestle with a two-handled saw while friends watch. In some regions, especially in the south, friends kidnap the bride during the reception and the groom has to find her, usually in a nearby pub, and pay her ransom in drinks.
The host's job there is timing. Put a break screen up with a countdown during the log-sawing so the guests inside know when to come back, and show a photo from the saw on the big screen ten minutes later.
Hosting for two languages
In an international German wedding, the host console runs in English and the guest phones follow whatever language each phone is set to. That covers buttons, prompts and instructions. It does not translate your own questions, so either write them bilingually or keep them short enough for everyone.
"Soll ich das übersetzen?"
"Just say it twice. Once for each side of the family."
The order of a German reception
Receptions here often run late and loose: coffee and cake in the afternoon, dinner, speeches, the first dance (frequently a waltz), then games and dancing until the veil comes off at midnight. Put the quiz between dinner and the first dance, the shoe game after the first dance when the couple is back from the photographer, and the baby photos wherever the room needs a quieter ten minutes.
Leave the newspaper slideshow looping in the background. People drift over to read it with a glass in hand.
If the wedding is in Austria or Switzerland
Much of the same applies, with regional variations. Couples in rural Austria sometimes have a Polterabend too, and the bride-kidnapping custom turns up in Alpine areas as well. Ask the families rather than guessing; if nobody at the table has heard of a custom, leave it out rather than inventing it.
Try it before the big weekend
The free demo lasts 3 days and needs no card, which is plenty for one rehearsal at the couple's flat. The full version is a one-time licence with no subscription, so the best man who hosts the Polterabend can reuse it at his own wedding. Current pricing is on pultevent.ru/en.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to host German wedding games on a projector
- 1
Agree with the couple which customs they want and which ones the families would rather skip.
- 2
Collect quiz facts, baby photos and video greetings from both families, separately.
- 3
Build the couple quiz and shoe-game questions, bilingual where the room is mixed.
- 4
Set up the Polterabend welcome screen with names, date and a slideshow.
- 5
On the evening, test the venue Wi-Fi with a guest's phone and put the QR code on screen.
- 6
Run the games between the reception moments and close with the veil dance and credits.
FAQ
Can guests throw plates and play on phones at the same evening?
Will the phone screens be in German?
Are there ready-made German wedding quizzes?
What if the barn has no Wi-Fi?
Can a friend host it instead of a professional?
Can relatives abroad watch?
How is it paid for?
See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
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