QOTD 2/21

[lilqt3929]

What was your wedding like (for anyone not married-what would your dream wedding be like)?

[lilqt3929]

We were married in Maui, it was just DH, me, the officiant, and the photographer on a beautiful secluded beach. It was always our dream to get married in Hawaii and are so grateful we were able to do it. We were married in the morning, had brunch back at our condo, spent the day at the beach, and closed the night with a dinner and a show. It was such a relaxing day and we have nothing but wonderful, happy memories from that day!

We did have a small reception (dinner, cake, music) at a lakefront restaurant back home for about 30 family members because a lot of them wanted to celebrate with us. Honestly, it was a good time and I'm glad we did it but it was so much work to throw together in a month. Being in october we went with a fall theme and everything came together beautifully (for last minute DIYers).

[mommabakes]

Small, immediate family only ceremony at a local nature park, on a dock over a pond. Huge,250 people reception with a taco bar and lots of booze and good music. An amazingly delicious 4 tier cake with every tier a different flavor. No wedding party, sil was my photographer.

Honestly, if I could redo it I would elope someplace in the Caribbean. I am not a social person and never wanted a wedding. We only had one to pacify our families.

[jlprybs927]

Feb 21, 2015 8:00:40 GMT -5 lilqt3929 said:

We were married in Maui, it was just DH, me, the officiant, and the photographer on a beautiful secluded beach. It was always our dream to get married in Hawaii and are so grateful we were able to do it. We were married in the morning, had brunch back at our condo, spent the day at the beach, and closed the night with a dinner and a show. It was such a relaxing day and we have nothing but wonderful, happy memories from that day!

We did have a small reception (dinner, cake, music) at a lakefront restaurant back home for about 30 family members because a lot of them wanted to celebrate with us. Honestly, it was a good time and I'm glad we did it but it was so much work to throw together in a month. Being in october we went with a fall theme and everything came together beautifully (for last minute DIYers).

Maui is so breathtaking! That sounds beautifu and perfect lilqt3929!

[lilqt3929]

Feb 21, 2015 8:31:56 GMT -5 jlprybs927 said:

Feb 21, 2015 8:00:40 GMT -5 lilqt3929 said:

We were married in Maui, it was just DH, me, the officiant, and the photographer on a beautiful secluded beach. It was always our dream to get married in Hawaii and are so grateful we were able to do it. We were married in the morning, had brunch back at our condo, spent the day at the beach, and closed the night with a dinner and a show. It was such a relaxing day and we have nothing but wonderful, happy memories from that day!

We did have a small reception (dinner, cake, music) at a lakefront restaurant back home for about 30 family members because a lot of them wanted to celebrate with us. Honestly, it was a good time and I'm glad we did it but it was so much work to throw together in a month. Being in october we went with a fall theme and everything came together beautifully (for last minute DIYers).

Maui is so breathtaking! That sounds beautifu and perfect lilqt3929!

It is amazing there! This cold, snowy weather has me day dreaming of that wonderful place!

[lilqt3929]

Feb 21, 2015 8:31:53 GMT -5 mommabakes said:

Small, immediate family only ceremony at a local nature park, on a dock over a pond. Huge,250 people reception with a taco bar and lots of booze and good music. An amazingly delicious 4 tier cake with every tier a different flavor. No wedding party, sil was my photographer.

Honestly, if I could redo it I would elope someplace in the Caribbean. I am not a social person and never wanted a wedding. We only had one to pacify our families.

Your ceremony sounds like it was beautiful and I bet the taco bar was delicious, such a great idea! I understand not being a social person, the thought of a "traditional" wedding made me so anxious and unhappy.

[Unknown]

We got married in Jamaica, and had a small (50 people) reception 3 weeks after we came back.

ETA: almost 11 years ago!

[Deleted]

We were married in my childhood church, then had a large reception (because DH's parents invited everyone they'd ever met, as since the parents were paying for their own guests, there really wasn't anything we could say about it) of about 150-175 people. Our reception was at a country club - the place was absolutely gorgeous and the food (and amount of food) was out of this world. We did have a Viennese hour at the end of the reception, complete with a candy cart - I've never seen a room full of adults turn into children so quickly.

Everything was super traditional. If I had to do it all over again, I think I would try to give it more of our own personality. We were just so concerned about making all of the guests comfortable that I think we got a little lost in it. So, if I were to do it over, I try to make it more unique and fun - something that better reflected the two of us.

We'll be married 8 years come July.

[annarose]

I love weddings and I loved our wedding. We had a typical hotel wedding. We had about 90 some guests that were mostly family. Rehersal dinner, ceremony/reception and brunch the next morning were all held on property. The hotel is about 15 mins from our house so it's fun to pass it all the time.

Our photographer has a blog, this is our entry:

www.carriewildes.com/blog/2012/5/24/audrey-adam-grand-hyatt-tampa-bay.html

[lilqt3929]

annarose that blog is such a great summary of your wedding! Gorgeous pictures!

[ajaan113]

We got married in Hawaii. I grew up in Hawaii, so it was filled with local and Asian traditions. We had a morning wedding with a lunch reception. We had a Chinese lion dance, a live band singing Hawaiian music with a hula dancer. All out of town guests received a lei. Special leis were given to my in-laws and best man and MOH. I wore a lei (designed as a choker). DH wore a maile lei. Since we had an early wedding we had the evening to ourselves. We had dinner ocean front at a four star restaurant.

[princessvespa1]

We got married in my husbands hometown. We had about 150 people there. It was a rustic theme. We loved every minute of it.

[sugarkissed]

We were married in Playa del Carmen, Mexico! Everything about it was perfect. It was such a laid back day, we had breakfast together and then I kicked him out while I got my hair and makeup done. We had our ceremony and reception on the beach and three was a beautiful sunset.

We had 34 guests travel down for it and it was an awesome vacation for everyone. Ahh, take me back!

[fiveohfive]

We were married in the fingerlakes in October. Our ceremony was outside overlooking a park/lake and our cocktail hour and reception were held immediately afterwards on the same property. We had our pictures taken ahead of time so we were able to enjoy being with our guests and eating the food we paid for. There were about 150 guests and the theme was rustic/fall with pumpkin center pieces filled with flowers and shades of red, orange, purple and brown.

(DH and I had a friend perform our wedding ceremony. To make sure we were 100% legal we were married in September by a judge in front of just our parents. It was short but sweet, and we were able to celebrate alone with a fancy dinner afterwards we are coming up on 3 years. Pardon the ghetto photo, I don't have any on my phone!)

[joi922]

Large ceremony and reception - about 250 guests - because both sides of my family are huge. Seriously, my husband's family took up 3 tables, mine was 20. Our ceremony was way too long, but the reception was awesome. And we had the most delicious cake ever. We kept the bridal party small - my brother and best friend stood up with me, and my husband's 2 brothers and best friend stood up with him.

The only thing I would change was the length of the ceremony. We are celebrating our 9th anniversary in July (and 15 years together next month!).

[redfraggle]

We had mixed sides (men and women on each side) for attendants; one was unable to attend because his wife went into labor during the rehearsal. (This is one of my favorite parts of the story!) I walked myself down the aisle. I was a member of our church choir at the time, so the choir sang the processional and recessional. It was a relatively short ceremony, no unity candle or extra music, in part because it was mid-summer and the AC isn't very reliable in our church. DH and I were grinning like crazy the whole time; people commented on this after it was all over, as well as the fact that I was really calm for a bride. We didn't do communion at the actual wedding; we did it at our rehearsal instead because our families have a variety of denominations. After the service, we headed out to the church's garden for our receiving line; we were the first couple to do it but have been followed by several others. (The woman who started the garden died about a month later from a chronic illness. She was very pleased to know the garden was a part of our special day.)

We had a traditional reception for our area: drinks for an hour, family style dinner (chicken and beef tips with lots of sides and desserts), an hour to reset the hall, and then a 4-hour dance. Guests really loved that we cut the cake after dinner in front of everyone and served it during the dance as a snack. We were among the last to leave after dancing all night; my feet were so sore!

We had a few snafus, but they weren't worth getting worked up about, so we just enjoyed the day.

[legitsince86]

We had our wedding in our backyard. We just got the house so most of the money was spent on that so it was easier that way. All planned in three weeks. Pretty much a wedding/housewarming party!
We had our local Mexican restaurant cater. FIL was the officiant and we told him to keep it short and sweet. My vintage dress I got at a thrift store. We had a bounce house and music inside.

I'm happy with it. I wouldn't have been able to stand all eyes looking at me forever during a ceremony.

[redfraggle]

princessvespa1, fiveohfive, Can I just say that you 2 are total bettys! Thanks for PIPing!

[fiveohfive]

Feb 21, 2015 19:51:40 GMT -5 redfraggle said:

princessvespa1, fiveohfive, Can I just say that you 2 are total bettys! Thanks for PIPing!

Aww, shucks!! Thanks lady!

[redfraggle]

Feb 21, 2015 19:38:13 GMT -5 legitsince86 said:

We had our wedding in our backyard. We just got the house so most of the money was spent on that so it was easier that way. All planned in three weeks. Pretty much a wedding/housewarming party!
We had our local Mexican restaurant cater. FIL was the officiant and we told him to keep it short and sweet. My vintage dress I got at a thrift store. We had a bounce house and music inside.

I'm happy with it. I wouldn't have been able to stand all eyes looking at me forever during a ceremony.

Please tell me you got pics of you jumping in the bounce house in your dress. That sounds like a fun wedding!

[RedDDD]

We had about 45 people with us in Vegas. Ceremony was at the Monty Carlo and reception was at the MGM. We casino hoped up and down the strip finally ending up at a outdoor kareokee bar. It was a riot. My dress was black at the end of the night and didn't care. Next day we had about 20 people at a poolside cabana and just day drank and floated on the lazy river. For us it was perfect and would do it again. Dh family is all in Minnesota and my whole family lives in California so it was a perfect middle meeting point. people tell us all the time that it was one of the funnest weddings they have ever been to which was exactly why we did it the way we did. Time of our lives

[legitsince86]

Feb 22, 2015 12:10:56 GMT -5 redfraggle said:

Feb 21, 2015 19:38:13 GMT -5 legitsince86 said:

We had our wedding in our backyard. We just got the house so most of the money was spent on that so it was easier that way. All planned in three weeks. Pretty much a wedding/housewarming party!
We had our local Mexican restaurant cater. FIL was the officiant and we told him to keep it short and sweet. My vintage dress I got at a thrift store. We had a bounce house and music inside.

I'm happy with it. I wouldn't have been able to stand all eyes looking at me forever during a ceremony.

Please tell me you got pics of you jumping in the bounce house in your dress. That sounds like a fun wedding!

Yep, we have photos of us in the bounce house. I think us adults were in it more than the kids!

[af1004]

We had our wedding at our church. DH went there since he was a toddler and I'd been going there for 5 years at the time. It was pretty basic with a little over 100 guests. Reception was just fruit and veggies with cake and punch. Dh and I paid for most all of it ourselves. He was 20 and I'd just turned 22 so we didn't have any money...
One of my favorite things we did was had a table on stage with pictures of our grandparents that had passed with white roses in front of each picture. Or siblings walked in with a lit candle for each picture and "sat" the grandparents as if they were there. Then after doing our unity candle we have the roses to his mother, my mother, and my step mother. No one knew we were doing this except the pastor and pianist. It was so special.

I wish we'd taken more time at our reception. We didn't have much food and no dancing or anything so after cutting the cake, tossing the bouquet and garter, people were ready to see us off and we were kinda rushed on out.