It's wedding season!

[karlamo]

Tell us about your Wedding/Civil Union. What'd you wear, drink, eat...

If you had to do it over, what would you change?

[kona]

karlamo, thanks for starting a thread!

As is probably the case for many of us we had 2 ceremonies. We had a traditional wedding in 2004 with the whole wedding/reception at a hall etc. It wasn't legal but we felt it was important to show our families our commitment to each other.

After marriage was legal everywhere in the US we had a legal ceremony in 2014 before O was born since we felt it was important to be legally married for her and our family going forward. It was really just the ceremony with our immediate family in attendance.

Honestly, I would go back and not do the whole big wedding deal. It was fine at the time (and it was really important to M). It was expensive and I think completely unnecessary. Although I am also sometimes practical to a fault so there is that.

[wittyandwaiting]

Although gay marriage has been legal hear for over a decade, C and I aren't married.

I came into the relationship with DS and we always knew that we wanted to have more children so we held off on marriage so that both of our children could participate in our wedding.

A wedding could be coming soon so in I'm excited to hear your stories.

[2brides]

We had our ceremony/reception in March 2003. It wasn't legal, but I wanted to go ahead and have a ceremony to show our commitment (we knew we were going to TTC soon.) We had 50 ppl for our ceremony followed by brunch at a local hotel. We had a harpist and violinist doing music for part and then cd's (LOL) we'd made playing after. I wore an off white long dress and L wore a black long dress. We didn't carry flowers or have our fathers walk us down the aisle (L's parents/siblings didn't come.) We wrote the entire ceremony ourselves. That night we went to dinner with 30+ people who had come from out of town.

13y later we still aren't legally married.

[crazyaunt84]

We got married in 2012, and had the wedding at our house. Our "backyard wedding" wound up having 300 guests, crazy catering with raw bar, cooked to order grill and pasta stations, and an open bar. Our backyard is a combo of wood and clearings with crazy elaborate decorated trails, so we did an enchanted Forest\Alice in Wonderland theme. As our guests walked from the clearing where we had the ceremony to the clearing where we had the reception, they were greeted with champagne and strawberries. It was very over-the-top, but I do it all again.

[JustJudy]

We also have 2 wedding dates though we strictly celebrate one. We were married at the courthouse Oct 31st, just a few days before Prop 8 passed here in CA. But we'd been planning a big wedding for a while and didn't want to miss out so we forged ahead.

We had 150 people at an outdoor ceremony on May 30th and it was so so much fun! My parent's pastor married us and he was really excited he got to wear his rainbow stole

Here are some photos.

[Deleted]

I chose to get knocked up out of wedlock, and am currently living in sin. So, no wedding here!

[karlamo]

crazyaunt84, If you do it all over again, invite me. Wouldn't be opposed to being greeted with strawberries and champs!

[karlamo]

Sorry to post and run. I had to go see about a house.

My story. We moved from Chicago to Boston so we could get legally married. Back in 2008, it was one of the only states that allowed it. My have times changed.

We had 80 guests and held the ceremony at a UU church. The minister marrying us was the person who brought my wife and I together during our Americorp volunteer year. The church has two separate aisles so we both walked down at the same time to a version of The Beatles, Love you Forever. We handed each guest a river stone to say a prayer on/a wish for us and then had them come forward and fill a vase with all those well wishes. We have it displayed in our house. We each chose one attendant, for me, my sister for my wife our good guy friend. We both wore gowns but no viels. The photographer we chose is the husband of my first and only high school boyfriend! I loved being surrounded by so many people who were part of our journey.

The reception was held at a country club. It was nothing extravagant. Catered, open bar, cupcakes instead of wedding cake. We hired a bus for our guests to go from venue to hotel. We honeymooned in Puerto Vallerta.

If I could do it again I do an outdoor summer wedding and make it romantic with lights.

[cetcar]

I'm loving all these stories and pictures! We'll try and post today.

[2brides]

Jun 16, 2016 6:37:52 GMT -5 karlamo said:

We handed each guest a river stone to say a prayer on/a wish for us and then had them come forward and fill a vase with all those well wishes. We have it displayed in our house.

We did this too! We each got river stones from places that were meaningful to us (mine were from Maine and L's from TN) and handed them out. We had people place them in a table top fountain that we had in our house until toddlers tried to flood the house. We also gave our engraved river stones with words like, believe, love, faith, peace. etc on them.

[kh826]

We got married in 2012 -- wedding ceremony and reception with family in friends in PA in August 2012, then a trip to NYC to make it legal in December 2012.

Our wedding day was everything I could have ever hoped for. I LOVED my dress, I thought J looked amazing, our venue was perfect for us (a converted barn that they have turned into a conference center, they use it mainly for weddings - the ceremony was outside), approx. 100 guests (not too big, not too small), J made almost all of the décor by hand including my bouquet that was made out of fabric/silk flowers... it felt very intimate and "us" and it really was just perfect.

Our Officiant was the college professor who taught the class that we met in.
Our colors were ivory, cream, plumb and taupe.
We did a sand ceremony during the ceremony with sand from all of the beaches that we have been to together. We have one of the containers of sand, and we gave the other 2 containers to each of our mothers.
The DJ was awesome. I DO NOT dance in regular life, but I danced my butt off that night.

The ONLY thing I would change would be our photographer. Our photos are nice, but I feel like they could have been so much better.

[JustJudy]

kh826, Not looking for a better photographer is 100% my biggest regret. I wish we had amazing pictures to go along with such an amazing day.

[sdfonz619]

We had two ceremonies.
One just the two of us with our closest family member, and witness, along with the officiant on a private beach. The second ceremony was at the park we went to on our first date that had beautiful views overlooking the city. It was a lei ceremony as the spirit of aloha is something that is very dear to the both of us. Here, about 120 people showed up. After, we had a reception where about 75-80 people came. I made all of the desserts; vanilla bean cheesecakes some topped with guava and some with mango, and red velvet cupcakes. The food was catered by the restaurant and was kept simple but absolutely amazing! I wouldn't change anything about how either ceremony went down. We preserved our leis and have them mounted in a shadow box, and every time I walk past, I think about those days.