The former only German but in the meantime also internationally used custom to celebrate the evening before the wedding can be traced back to pre-Christian times: The noise made by breaking earthenware items was supposed the fend off evil spirits. The actual term eve-of-wedding ceremony ("Polterabend") was mentioned the first time in central-Germany in 1517.

After the motto “broken crockery brings luck” the ceremony as an event is still enjoying popularity in our times. Nowadays the event takes place two days or even earlier before the wedding, mostly on a weekend. Originally the ceremony took place the day before the wedding and lasted to exactly midnight. Every guest must bring pottery to the party and smash it in front of the happy couple: it brings luck. Usually cups, plates and other dishes are used (but definitely not glass which brings luck only when not broken). Even though toilets and sinks are made of out porcelain it is a not funny and bad taste to bring those items since nobody really laughs about that anymore.
Very important is the right location for the eve-of-wedding ceremony. It doesn’t matter if it is the driveway, the sidewalk or the yard, it should be limited to a small area and everything should be protected to avoid damages. There shouldn’t be any grassy or planted areas where the broken pieces would have to be picked out. Kids – who love to take part in the fun - should stay away from the area. Unfortunately, due to not paying attention, there have been too many accidents. The happy couple has the honorable duty to sweep up the broken pieces. Here we would like to appeal to the ladies even though traditionally only the men do the sweeping in Northern Germany: Don’t miss the fun because by sweeping the broken pieces together the couple shows that they will work well together in the future. Jeans and t-shirt is the ideal choice of clothing. Don’t forget to have brooms and dustpans handy and to dispose of the pieces right away: Many a guest had great fun by spilling the already swept up pieces again. A container might be a good choice for the debris, you wouldn’t believe how fast a trash can could be filled up. Neighbors should definitely be informed about the party if they are not invited anyway.
The eve-of-wedding ceremony is ideal if you have a big circle of friends who cannot all be invited to the wedding: distant relatives, colleagues, neighbors or people from your country club. Everybody can come since the party is a casual event with music and dancing and traditionally no invitations are sent out.  It should be a very casual event, the more casual the better which goes for the food as well as the dress code. The party is supposed to be a sociable gathering and not an elegant evening affair. It is very important for the happy couple to keep the efforts to a minimum, assuming that there are more important things to do just before the wedding.
A lot of guests, especially those who are not invited to the wedding, already bring their wedding gifts to the party. You should have a table available for the gifts and ask a friend to help with the gifts and to see if the name of the guest is on it. It is very embarrassing not to know later on who gave what. A nice memento is a guest book everybody can sign, pictures can be added later on.