Looking for Wedding Ideas!

[SonjaB]

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[KrnB]

For our wedding in May, we had a portrait with a huge mat as the guest book. It had our engagement picture in it for the wedding, but we are having our photographer put the big group pic we had taken at the church steps in it instead.

For favors, we had sugar cookies that had beautiful blue and white icing. The color blue matched my bridesmaids' dresses perfectly. We decided to go with food since we knew that everyone would like it. I had initially wanted to do little picture frames but was afraid too many people would leave them behind.

If you have someone in your family that can sing, ask them to sing a song during the ceremony. My DSIL is a soprano opera singer. We asked her to sing Ave Maria just before the procession. It was absolutely stunning. DH had never heard his sister perform before, and he cries everytime he sees the video.

We got a great deal from our photographer that if we ordered our invitations through him, he would give us a wallet sized photo for each invitation we ordered. We put one in each of the thank you notes we sent out. We keep hearing from people that were so pleased to receive the photo - that they had never seen anyone do that before, what a great idea, etc. It is especially nice for those that were unable to attend.

I love the idea of dancing with the married couples - I wish we had heard about that in time for our wedding!

Have a great time at your wedding! Enjoy every second of it - it goes by so fast!

 

[Mad4Mickey]

Congrats on your Wedding !

One thing to try to remember is make it yours , I had so much stress from MIL and SIL . We ran away and got married In Cozumel on the beach at sunset.We were both barefoot just the way we wanted it. MIL was mad for about 6 months but we wouldnt change it for anything !

 

[2bemarried]

We also did the engagement picture with a 5 inch matte all the way around and we purchased two acid free pens ....and it made a wonderful "guest picture"...... one of my favorite signatures is from our ring bearer...it's right on the bottom for everyone to see...say "I love you" from Blaine

It's going to be a wonderful picture to hang in our formal living room. I also took portraits before the big day...and our favorite is one of just my face with my bouquet right below it. Very unique as a "bridal portrait".

 

[The Princess]

I am in the process of planning my parents 50th wedding anniversary which will take place next week. I just did favors of little bottles of wine but I made labels with their picture on it, name, date and Thank You For Celebrating With Us. They turned out really nice. It could get expensive if you have a lot of people, I have about 60 and I am splitting the cost with 3 brothers.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

I heard from a freidn who had a special song played for the couples married different amonuts of time,people got a kick out of 3 hours or less

 

[Fire14]

My DH and I had ink pens and note pads made up with Our names and wedding date as favors. We had Mickey and Minnie Cake topper, Invites, napkins etc. We had childhood friends as our honor attendants and college friends as our other bridal attendants. We had a friend decorate with balloons for us. WE did disposible cameras on tables. Had colored M+m's and mixed nuts on reception tables. WE kept it small and honeymonned a month aftterwards.

 

[tinaw]

We had an unusual wedding. We were married outside at a beautiful gazebo on the river. We wrote our own vows which included our daughter, pledging to love and protect her within our family etc. and presented her with a necklace set with a diamond from my grandmothers ring.(the other diamonds are set in my ring).

Immediately following we had a luncheon in a restaurant on the river just around the corner. During lunch we played a CD we made. "Our song" and great older songs like "My girl, Going to the chapel, I've got you babe, When a man loves a woman etc. Everyone loved it and we gave each person a copy of the CD as a favor. This was 3 years ago. I hear it's pretty popular now! Maybe we started a trend!
We got lots of cmpliments for "stepping outside the box". It was nice just to have a quiet lunch with friends and family without all the hoopla. ***Nothing against the hoopla, just wasn't what we wanted****

 

[LuvTigger]

I went to a wedding this past May that was absolutely the most beautiful wedding I have ever been to, or that I could ever imagine. Some of these ideas may be duplicates, but I'd like to share the entire idea and you can pick and choose what might be appropriate for your wedding.

First of all, the wedding was in a beautiful botanical garden near Glendale. There is an older style beautiful house, with a large lawn next to it, and a very large patio. There were maybe 80-100 guests. First of all, to get to this house, you either have to hike, or they provide a "tram" ride. It was really cool because almost all the guests arrived together on the "tram" (it was kind of like a tractor thing pulling a trailor with seats on it, not the Disneyland-type trams!). There was a harpist playing before the ceremony began, and there were TONS of fresh flowers that my friend and her friends put together, which I thought made it even more beautiful.

At the reception, my friends and I were checking in people. When people checked in, we gave them a packet that was personalized with their name on it. It also had the name of a flower. Instead of numbering the tables, they were named after flowers (only about 10 tables). When you open the packet, there was a CD with a variety of songs (which they played most of during the reception). There was also a card that said, "C" or "F" on the tab, with a menu on it. These were to be placed in front of us so the waiters knew whether we ordered the chicken or fish. There was also a little program in the packet. (Both of them are graphic designers, so that skill helped a lot!) Oh, and the dining portion of the reception was outdoors on the patio. Each table had fresh flowers on it, and the favors were very simple little paper bags (nice paper) with candy in them, with a beautiful little ribbon and some fake flowers (flowers were a major part of the theme here).

After dinner, we were invited inside to view a slide show/video of each of them separately, then their lives together. The last shot was a classic...it was an actual video of him proposing and her response! They also decorated the inside of the house that people would be wlaking thru with fresh flowers, and they had some pictures, just in regular photo frames like you would have in your home, placed in various locations, and a bunch on a big table near the front door of the house.

Also, the invitations, program packets, and thank you notes all matched! (Again, designed by them.) I thought it was really cool in the thank you notes that they attached a black and white photo from their wedding. A lot of times you only see their wedding album, but I thought it was really special to actually receive one of their wedding pictures.

My friends and I cried almost the entire time, it was so beautiful! Best wishes to you, and happy planning!

 

[house_of_princesses]

Like KrnB, our niece had an engagement pic of the two of them that had a large matte. We signed it as we would the guest book. (KrnB, she is also from Shakopee.) Her parents (my s&bil) own a nursery and tree moving business. They had a pine tree for every guest waiting at the doorway. The pot was wrapped in her colors. Our tree is thriving in our front yard now!

My bouquet had a sprig of ivy suitable for planting buried in it. It is not quite thriving, but it is near 13 years old.

We used my parents cake topper. Just replaced the lace and it looked good as new!

We edited traditional vows, and then jointly made a separate vow to keep a Christian home.

Wishing you joy and laughter!

 

[KrnB]

Originally posted by house_of_princesses
Like KrnB, our niece had an engagement pic of the two of them that had a large matte. We signed it as we would the guest book. (KrnB, she is also from Shakopee.)

Small world!

It's an idea that seems to really be catching on. Some friends of ours that attended our wedding liked it so much, they've asked our photographer for one as well for their wedding next month, which is unusual since they live in the Chicago area. It's much more useful than a standard guest book. A friend of mine has the signature matte as well, but she has her invitation in it instead of a picture.

 

[SonjaB]

I'm loving these!!! The signature matte is on my list to discuss with Don, too. You guys are so creative!!!

 

[BarbN.]

Just returned last night from a wedding in Wisconsin, the bride and groom had a table set up and on it were the wedding pictures of the bride's parents and grandparents and the groom's parents and grand parents, that was neat to look at!

 

[adamak]

Congrad!! I only have a couple of suggestions.... First, get really good photographers. Don't pose too much, and just let him/her take candid pictures. Mine are just like that and everyone who has seen my pics all said it's the best they have ever seen.

I also use paper dollies to hold flower petals (I don't know if I spell 'dollies' right). They're the round lacy paper normally for the bottom of your cake. I cut them in 1/4, then roll each up as a cup. Put a couple of rose petals in it, and hand them out to guests. Costs alot less than bird seeds, and very elegant. I saw it in Martha Stewart and made them myself.