Tell us about your wedding!

It was the site that made our wedding such a success. It was a pretty little inn, with beautiful gardens, surrounded by lush greenery, as well as being a well-known restaurant, with a wedding planner on staff. The planning for us was almost non-existent. We were married in the garden, with seats for 80 or so people on the lawn, and then went inside and sat at white-linen clothed tables with fresh roses from the garden on each table. The room was windowed on 3 sides, so the lush green hills were the decor. It was just lovely.

Enjoy yours!! :D
 
My wedding is fresh in my mind---just got married on August 18th!! Despite the fact that it downpoured all day, and I came home Sunday morning to water in my basement, my wedding day was easily the happiest day of my life (I know, sounds kind of hallmark cardish, but it's true!). I think I've watched my online video clip at least 5 times in the past 2 days!

In the end, I ended up liking that it rained. Our reception location had lots of windows, and it was kind of romantic watching the rain come down.

Enjoy the planning!!!

lisa
 
I had a traditional style wedding. We got married in a Church with the dresses and the tuxes, etc and had our reception at a beutiful catering hall. We did not spend alot of money as far as weddings go but everything was beautiful and we had a fantastic time! I even had fun planning it!!!!:)
 
We had originally planned on going away on vacation and getting married there (by ourselves), then we thought we'd invite a few family members and close friends (a la destination wedding style), and we then threw in the towel and had the ceremony and reception at home because it wasn't worth the hassle. That said, we are SO HAPPY that we did it this way. I wasn't about to go into debt for the wedding, so we kept it as small and simple as possible and it totally paid off. Our friends still tell us 5 years later that it was the most fun they've ever had at a wedding - and we agree! :)

The most important thing I can tell you is to make sure that you're doing what YOU want, not what other people (namely parents and in-laws) want for you. This can get tricky if other people are helping you foot part of the bill, but this is YOUR wedding. MY parents were pretty chill and laid-back about the whole thing, but I don't think my MIL has ever forgiven me for not marrying her only son in a traditional Italian Catholic wedding with 500+ people and ALL the bells and whistles. She still wants us to go get our marriage blessed by the priest (even though I'm not Catholic), but she's finally warming up to me now. ;)

Because of the change in our original plans, I ended up only having 2 months to plan everything pretty much on my own (DH was in charge of the DJ!), but I'm actually glad it worked out like that - I have several friends who stressed themselves out over the course of a 1-2 year engagement and it was NO FUN! I'm lucky that things really fell into place fairly quickly and easily in that short amount of time.

I'll second (third, fourth, fifth) the earlier motion to NOT skimp on the photographer - this is the one area that we paid a fairly pretty penny for and our pictures were fantastic! I think it was mostly because the photographer was really funny and creative.

Good luck and congratulations!
 
I've had two, and thankfully did not spend a lot of $$ on either one because they did not last. I don't believe in expensive weddings or honeymoons, or engagement rings. A real party pooper, eh? That money would be better spent on stuff like a house, retirement savings, etc. OR, a really cool car!
 
I agree with you 100% Cakebaker. My wedding was cheap (I can't believe it was only $10,000 6 years ago, and my Dad insisted on paying, even though I was 45 years old), my dress cost $300 and I don't have an engagement ring. We used our saved money on a down payment for a bigger apartment and are very glad we did. :D (I have small, gnarly hands and look awful in rings anyway ;) )
 
I think a good tip is to splurge on whatever is most important to you. My dress was the most expensive dress I've owned, but was relatively inexpensive for a wedding dress (I think $400) and we didn't spend a ton on anything else. For some reason it was my flowers that I splurged on and I loved them--and though they didn't last I can close my eyes and picture those beautiful flowers and remember how they added to my glorious day.

My dress was another thing I went pretty traditional on. I had thought about a sleek sheath type or something cool and daring. When I started trying them on, though, I started going totally princessy with it. I ended up with an off-the-shoulder short sleeve with very flowery beaded bodice and full skirt. It had a removeable train--which was very handy for the reception.

OK, and I guess picking the groom is probably the most important decision. I've been married 8 years and it seems I chose pretty wisely. :)

[font face="palatino linotype" font color=purple font size=+1]***Lainie***

http://web.mac.com/lainiefig/iWeb/Site/Exercise/Exercise.html

"The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself." -- Mark Twain[/font]
 
Thanks for the compliment, Nancy! I can't believe what you said about your hand! My fingers are really short and any kind of ring larger than my thin wedding band goes all the way up to my knuckle...thus, I'm not a big fan of rings, either!

Our wedding was very cheapo, as well, and our friends and family pitched in a lot!. DH's mom did the food, we had the ceremony/reception in a recreation hall in an older building in our neighborhood--it was only $150 (I think they charge $1,500 now, because it's become more popular). I had my dress made--I bought two patterns that, when combined, looked like one in a magazine that I loved. One of my employers at the time (my flower girl's mom)recommended a tailor who made her clothes, and I didn't realize until I went to pay for it, that she had taken care of it as a wedding gift! All I paid for was the fabric. I found a pill box hat (that was the only preconceived notion I had about my wedding--a pill box hat! Hey, I liked Jackie's fashion sense when she was a "K" not an "O")in a thrift shop, covered it with the same fabric as my dress and attached a veil (another thrift store find!) to it.

As a wedding gift, DH's employees chipped in for the band (our friend in the band declined his part of the fee to make it cheaper); my OTHER employer (the dad) gave us a case of champagne for the reception; a friend took pictures (I know that's been frowned upon here, but they were fine...not professional, but very candid!); two friends got behind the bar and served; the judge wouldn't take money (he was a friend of my employers who are lawyers)so we bought him a nice bottle of wine. (I saw him in a restaurant a few years later and paid for his meal and left before he could figure it out!.) We paid for the license, the hall, the flowers, my gloves, the beer, some of the food, the cake, the birdseed to throw (which I left sitting on the dining room table at our house, so it ended up feeding the birds in our backyard later that year!!!),the napkins,and the cheapo glasses forks, and plates. Oh, and the invitations, which we designed ourselves.

As well as being a nanny, I also worked as a waitress at the time, and my co-workers' and boss' wedding gift was money. We used it on our honeymoon to England. (And my boss let us use white tablecothes from his restaurant.)

Maybe not as classy as some, but people still tell us it was one of the best weddings they ever attended. What can I say: it takes a village!
 
It also makes for a great story, TeTe. It sounds like it was loads of fun!

The birdseed reminded me--we weren't allowed to use birdseed at our wedding (church rule) so we handed out bubbles for people to blow instead. It made for some great pictures.


[font face="palatino linotype" font color=purple font size=+1]***Lainie***

http://web.mac.com/lainiefig/iWeb/Site/Exercise/Exercise.html

"The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself." -- Mark Twain[/font]
 
My wedding was quite nontraditional. DH and I paid for everything ourselves, and decided we would rather spend tons of money on a new house, than on a wedding. So the wedding budget was set at $5,000. (This was 3 years ago) We did pretty well, budget-wise. I made the invitations, save-the-dates, programs, crystal bouquets, veil, placecards, etc myself and saved TONS of money. I got my designer dress on eBay for $110. Our biggest expenditures were (1) the photographer - it was really important to me that we have good pictures and (2) the food - it may have been a casual lunchtime wedding, but the food was outstanding. :)

Our ceremony and reception both took place in a historic bed & breakfast - it was absolutely beautiful. The wedding was in February, but the sun was shining and it was 60 degrees - we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day! :) It was a very intimate affair, with only about 25 guests - mostly family. It was so much fun and it was the perfect wedding for us and our personalities. :D
 
Emily - that sounds absolutely wonderful! My wedding was not super expensive because I did a lot myself as well - but I had over 200 attendees and that was just too much. If I could do it again, I would have a MUCH smaller intimate wedding.
 
Liann, we don't even know 200 people! It was easy to keep it small because, well, we're nerds without friends. :p Oh, and every guest was from out of town, except for one of my bridesmaids. When you have a lot of out-of-town invitees, the attendance really drops off.

Shelley, thank you for that nice compliment darlin'. :) You're too kind!
 
Emily - I grew up at the church where I had the wedding. I even went to the private school associated with the church, so we felt obligated to invite a lot of those people. I do not even talk to or see half of them anymore though and we actually left that church after the wedding (LONG story). For our 10 year anniversary, I would really like to take a cruise and renew our vows alone on a beach somewhere with maybe a few super close friends. :) All that said though, my actual wedding day was really nice and everything came together despite several people doing all they could do ruin things.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top