Topping-out ceremony, house completion, whom to invite, whom not, traditions?

Hello,

although there is still some time until our topping-out ceremony, I wanted to ask in advance.

How was it with you? Who did you invite (craftsmen, family, friends, neighbors)?
How much did the topping-out ceremony cost you, for how many people?

For those who celebrate/celebrated it in winter, did you have heater lamps (costs)?
Who usually provides the topping wreath/tree?

We are still considering whether to invite only craftsmen and neighbors. But from what it sounds like, family and friends also expect an invitation...

Thank you very much for your opinion/experience

Everyone was invited - current as well as future neighbors, friends, relatives, colleagues, craftsmen, the construction company... we wanted to show everyone our pride and celebrate with them. Those who didn’t hold a topping-out ceremony because of the weather are having a housewarming party here in the new development area. The construction company brought the topping wreath for us; otherwise, everything is the responsibility of the builder. Costs: 500 bucks for homemade chili con carne for 50 people and plenty of drinks.

Hello, everyone is invited to the topping-out ceremony. With us, there were also people who "just wanted to take a look." One should be generous with that. If the food runs out, then it just runs out. We had costs of about €600, although we were able to return the drinks that were unopened. We were able to borrow the topping wreath from the florist in our current village. That was ideal because it was very inexpensive but still professional. You can also decorate a real tree yourself. But I can't bring myself to kill a tree for just those few hours.

No topping-out ceremony. The craftsmen were not very keen on it either..... They had a journey home of about 1.5 hours. We will have a housewarming party.

I’m bumping the thread again because today was our topping-out ceremony.

We had two special circumstances which meant we had significantly fewer guests. Firstly, we are building about 600 km away from all our relatives – so they were ruled out as guests. Secondly, the topping-out ceremony took place today, Tuesday, and was conducted around 3:30 pm (the roof structure had already been in place since 1:30 pm). Unfortunately, this meant the working population (friends), who did not happen to have time off, were also not present. Well – the craftsmen probably also wanted to be home around 6:00 pm to watch the Football World Cup (apart from the fact that the roof structure was finished around 1:30 pm and the carpenters surely didn’t want to hang around forever).

We had planned for about 30 – 35 guests, consisting of 4 carpenters, 6 shell construction workers, 4 people from the general contractor, 2 neighbors + their construction manager (the occasion was used to discuss nearby work), 4 friends, as well as various acquaintances who like to chat with our general contractors about their own projects. We also expected that other neighbors might possibly drop by. In the end, 17 guests actually came (3 of whom didn’t eat anything). For all the others, the second reason mentioned above is why they couldn’t make it. This is exactly where our problem with “catering” lay. We could hardly estimate who would come and who wouldn’t. Especially the potential prospects seemed quite certain but then didn’t come for various reasons.

Costs: We ordered 5 kg of meatloaf and 35 meat patties from the local butcher. We also got 70 rolls and a ton of drinks. The total cost was 200 euros (including the topping-out tree). The ceremonial schnapps came from our own stock (I’m glad I didn’t have to buy any of that too). Today was another very hot day – so I expected a relatively high beverage consumption. Considering now what was left over, I’d probably say costs were under 100 euros. For example, 24 beers (out of 37), 10 colas 1.5 l (out of 12), 6 bottles of juice (out of 7), 10 sparkling waters 1.5 l (out of 12), 10 Vittel 1.5 l (out of 12), at least 10 meat patties and 10 slices of meatloaf as well as about 30 rolls (after we had already given some away to our friends and acquaintances and secured our lunches for the next few days).

Once again, terribly miscalculated. But it’s not dramatic. I’m just glad I reduced the initially planned 6 kg of meatloaf, 40 meat patties, and 80 rolls a bit. We will use up the drinks over time – only with the beer do I see a problem, since I rarely have a beer myself. I hope REWE is accommodating enough to take back two small crates. Otherwise, at least the workers on the construction site are covered for an after-work beer.

Surpluses of meat patties and meatloaf as well as rolls will be frozen and gradually used for self-catering.

Topping-out wreath / topping-out tree: Since we really didn’t feel like buying an overpriced wreath for a one-time thing, we asked the carpenter company if they had one. To our surprise, we learned that around here it’s not so common to hold a topping-out ceremony. The company couldn’t provide a wreath but suggested that a topping-out tree is an alternative. This is decorated accordingly (similar to a maypole). It cost 20 euros + about 10 euros for the ribbons. See picture.


So long. A pity – could have been a few more guests, but it can happen.

Is the topping-out ceremony still celebrated nowadays? I have the impression that it is slowly "disappearing." Who among you has celebrated a topping-out ceremony? For us, the roof will be put on next week, which means it's time for the [Richtfest], but in this cold weather, you really don't feel like it.