Well, first there's the part where they parade in and sit down, then they line up, go up on the stage, and stand and face  the audience for a bit; then there's a whole lot of ceremony. After the new PhDs go through the process, they go up and sit with the faculty. When it's all over with they walk off and sometimes people wave at the photographer before they march on out. Afterwards, people find each other, then pose for pictures with relatives of varying descriptions. And then, of course they take the "regalia" back (we loved the sign, somehow).  Then they celebrate; in our case, we went back to meme and Brad's and had some champagne (sekt, really).