Spin-Off from Wedding Vent Thread

[ronandannette]

http://www.disboards.com/threads/just-need-to-vent.3511644/page-16#post-55791993
I absolutely loved how this post (#350) put so many aspects of the "Wedding Vent" thread into perspective. Everybody had their own vision of the type of wedding they wanted, based largely on their family traditions, local culture and what was common "in the day". Let's talk about the kind of weddings we had - NOT to critique what one another ended up doing, but just because it's interesting to see where everybody's coming from. I'll start:

• Year: 1995
• Planning: DH and I planned it all ourselves with me doing most of the leg-work. We were both "older" (29 & 41) and independent, living in a different city than our families. I chose my gown and bridesmaids attire entirely on my own without any input from anybody. DH and I chose the date, venue, menu, invitations, flowers and music together.
• Venue: Church ceremony & country club reception.
• Style: Ultra-traditional; formal religious ceremony and dinner-dance (punch and passed hors d'oeuvres while we had professional portraits taken, 3 plated courses followed by dancing to a hired DJ and a midnight-snack buffet).
• Finances: My parents paid for my gown and the reception. DH and I paid for everything else, including all the attire for the attendants - moderately priced dresses and rented tuxes. We went cash-bar as there were very few drinkers in attendance and we had champagne poured throughout the evening.
• Attendants: MOH and Best Man, 7 bridesmaids and 7 groomsmen.
• Guests: 75 invited; 71 attended.
• Kids Included: No, although 2 couples brought nursing infants, which was fine with us.
• Pre-Wedding Events: No bridal shower, bachelorette brunch at a local landmark restaurant for 10 of us 2 weeks before. (Only 2 of my attendants came because most of them did not live local.) A super-early round of golf and bachelor brunch the morning of the wedding for DH and his buddies. Rehearsal at the church the night before with a casual dinner (that I cooked and my sister served) for the wedding party/parents/clergy only in the church kitchen.
• Post-Wedding Events: None. We spent the night in the bridal suite of a hotel 30 miles from the reception venue; no idea where anybody else stayed. We (briefly) visited with out-of-town family members the next afternoon before they all headed home.
• Honeymoon: None. We took a few days off work to move-in together and get our new home set up.

Overall, DH and I saw it as a blessing that our friends agreed to be our attendants. We asked virtually NOTHING of any of them other than show up and wear what we picked for you. Several of them were our family members and those ones pitched in to help with errands and decorating the day before and making sure stuff was gathered up and under control after the reception.

 

[superme80]

• Year: 2007

• Planning: My mom did most of the planning, with my blessing, and DH and I did the approvals.

• Venue: The church we were attending. Ceremony was in the rose garden, reception was in the sanctuary

• Style: Traditional.

• Finances: My parents paid for the majority of it. In laws paid for the chair rentals and tuxes. Grandma paid for my dress. I paid for my dress alterations, bridesmaid's dress, my shoes, some stupid stuff because my mom wouldn't listen to me, the flowers, the boutineers, corsages, and the table decorations.

• Attendants: MOH and Best Man, 1 bridesmaids and 1 groomsmen.

• Guests:Do not recall actual number. My guess is around 80-90 people showed up.

• Kids Included: No. We had baby-sitting available for smaller children.

• Pre-Wedding Events: Bridal Shower in my hometown and Bachelorette party about 30 minutes from where I lived. My MOH picked up my bridesmaid and we got a hotel the night before the wedding. I did make them pick up some good tequila for me.

• Post-Wedding Events: I could not get out of the wedding fast enough. It was fun, but I was exhausted. Could not wait to sleep!

• Honeymoon: Spent the night in a horrible inn on our wedding night. Then our friends rented us an awesome cabin in Tahoe for our honeymoon for a couple of nights.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

Okay, I'll play.

• Year: 2015
• Planning: I did what little planning was required for the venue and I hired a wedding planner to assist with the legal/paperwork aspects since it was international.
• Venue: Giraffe Manor, Nairobi, Kenya
• Style: Uber laid back, five-minute ceremony, no reception
• Finances: Paid for everything ourselves
• Attendants: None
• Guests: Didn't invite any, but after we said 'I Do' we turned around and realized the entire Manor staff had come outside to witness it.
• Kids Included: Not a chance
• Pre-Wedding Events: Not really. We went out with three friends for a last minute, low-key dinner and drinks right before we left the country and called that our bachelor/bachelorette.
• Post-Wedding Events: Between the Manor and a visit to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, we spent the rest of the day feeding and playing with giraffes, elephants, warthogs, and a rhino. We didn't do anything to celebrate once we got back to the states.
• Honeymoon: Continued our safari of Kenya and Tanzania

 

[kimblebee]

• Year: 2014

• Planning: My fiancé and I did the ceremony planning and my parents planned the open house reception afterwards

• Venue: My parents sunroom for the ceremony and their house for the open house reception.

• Style: Low key and low stress.

• Finances: We covered everything for the ceremony except my dress..my mom paid for that (all $100 lol) and they paid for the reception. It was low key and was just finger sandwiches, cake and refreshments (open bar)

• Attendants: my daughter was my maid of honour

• Guests: ceremony had 12 people, all immediate family, then about 30-40 close family and family friends for the open house

• Kids Included: just my daughter

• Pre-Wedding Events: Our wedding was Boxing Day so the pre wedding event was all the lead up to Christmas lol. My rehearsal dinner was held at my sisters in-laws and it was Christmas dinner.

• Post-Wedding Events: I was so tired from planning Christmas and the wedding (low key as it was) that an hour into the reception I was DONE. I don't do well at large family events as it is..add in the fact that I was the centre of attention and I was itching to get out of there.

• Honeymoon: We don't have a lot of money so we just rented a nice hotel room in the city for a few nights, just to 'get away'. My parents actually called the hotel and explained the situation and the hotel upgraded us to a super nice suite. It was a nice surprise. The next day we woke up and went Boxing Day shopping LMAO. Scored a good deal on a flat screen tv too..

 

[ronandannette]

Okay, I'll play.

• Year: 2015
• Planning: I did what little planning was required for the venue and I hired a wedding planner to assist with the legal/paperwork aspects since it was international.
• Venue: Giraffe Manor, Nairobi, Kenya
• Style: Uber laid back, five-minute ceremony, no reception
• Finances: Paid for everything ourselves
• Attendants: None
• Guests: Didn't invite any, but after we said 'I Do' we turned around and realized the entire Manor staff had come outside to witness it.
• Kids Included: Not a chance
• Pre-Wedding Events: Not really. We went out with three friends for a last minute, low-key dinner and drinks right before we left the country and called that our bachelor/bachelorette.
• Post-Wedding Events: Between the Manor and a visit to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, we spent the rest of the day feeding and playing with giraffes, elephants, warthogs, and a rhino. We didn't do anything to celebrate once we got back to the states.
• Honeymoon: Continued our safari of Kenya and Tanzania

Aww, a newly-wed - cute!! And you're totally winning for "Coolest Venue Name" so far too!​

 

[TipsyTraveler]

Awe, a newly-wed - cute!! And you're totally winning for "Coolest Venue Name" so far too!​

Google it, it's purrrty.

 

[E&Cmom]

• Year: 2001

• Planning: DH and I did all the planning. No family input except to veto the initial date we picked. My mom had passed away 5 years before, my inlaws lived across the country and I could not see my dad planning. DH and I were both in our 30s, in careers and lived together a year prior to marriage.

• Venue: We were married in an old manor home that did weddings. We had the ceremony outside on the lawn and the reception indoors. I loved the venue. It was very pretty and it was nice having everything in one place.

• Style: Fairly traditional even though we didn't get married in a church.

• Finances: We paid for it ourself but my inlaws have us a nice cheque as our wedding gift which did help.

• Attendants: 2 on each side. My SIL and best friend and DHs two friends.

• Guests: we had around 55. nice and small.

• Kids Included: yes, those of close family and friend.

• Pre-Wedding Events: My sIL threw me a bidal shower. Here showers are usually at someone's home which it was. My brother and SIL also hosted a family dinner for both families the night before at their home.

• Post-Wedding Events: We has our family and some close friends over at our apartment the following day for the gift opening. I believe we ordered pizza and ate leftover cake.

• Honeymoon: Spent the wedding night at a hotel down the street from us. Lol. It is a nice hotel but odd thst we we could have walked there. We had my best friend and her DD staying at our place. DH also slept there the night before. 2 days later, we went on our honeymoon to Bali for 2 weeks.

 

[mummabear]

Year: 2005
Planning: DH and I planned it, both mothers came with us to look at venues, we visited 3 and had booked one within a week of the engagment (we had been together 3 years)

• Venue: Historic Decommentioned chapel for ceremony and The lodge at the inlet for the reception.

• Style: Fairly traditional (except for music). White Dress, tux, father giving away. etc all very standard. Colour theme was red, white and pink.

• Finances: Went thirds with the parents. Buffet dinner, Had a high bar tab that we never hit.

• Attendants: MOH and Best Man, 1 bridesmaid and 1 groomsmen, 1 ring bearer and 1 best dog.

• Guests: 75 invited; including wedding party/us.

• Kids Included: Yes, from family only.

• Pre-Wedding Events: Kitchen tea followed by a spa afternoon then a hens night out in town for the girls (very basic everyone paid for themselves and had an old school sleepover at a friends place that night. Boys had a stag do (same sort of thing, just a night drinking in town.) A rehersal dinner that was rather large as I am a Canadian living in NZ so we had all the family who had travelled here and we were getting married Thanksgiving weekend so we had a thanksgiving dinner for about 40ish people as our rehersal dinner.

The night before the wedding we each had dinner with our respective families and I stayed at our reception venue with my bridesmaids.
Boys played golf the morning of the wedding

• Post-Wedding Events: In Laws put on a brunch for family (I honestly can't remember if the bridal party came or not) before we flew out that afternoon.

• Honeymoon: 5 weeks, stopover in Singapore, then Greek Islands/Athens. Vegas/Grand Canyon and then LA. With our first trip to Disneyland (DH's first trip ever). Lol little did we know what that kicked off (10 years 10 Disney trips )

 

[mummabear]

Google it, it's purrrty.

Is it what! Gorgeous!

 

[mummabear]

 

[scrhsa]

Year: 1989

Planning: We did all the planning...though there really wasn't any planning involved.

Venue: Chapel on NAS Pensacola and a local restaurant after.

Style: Simple. Just a basic dress from Penny and my husband wore his uniform

Finance: Small stipend for the Chaplain, I only carried a single red rose. A friend bought our cake...just a simple sheet cake. In-laws paid for the dinner.

Attendants: My sister stood up with me and my husband's brother stood up for him.

Guests: Just family. About 9.

Kids: Yes. 3-niece and 2 nephews under 4 yrs

Pre: Just making sure all family was present and accounted for Edit: My mother in law did have a "pantry" shower for us at her church. She brought it all with her when she came for the wedding. It was fantastic. All kinds of stuff to, well, stuff our pantry with We had absolutely nothing. Things I never would have thought of.

Post: A giant freeze was coming in so everyone hit the road the next day.

Honeymoon: Since they left early, my parents let us have their hotel room We were by ourselves in Pensacola, Fl. The first 2 yrs of marriage were basically our honeymoon

I don't regret not having a big wedding at all. I don't like a lot of attention so it was perfect for me My mother in law told my middle dd recently that my wedding was her favorite Which surprised me because my husband and I only knew each other 4 months when we got married. I didn't think she cared for it at all.

 

[indimom]

Year: 1995

• Planning: I did most of the planning. DH was in the Marines and serving in the Med so we only got a couple phone calls and lots of letters in the months leading up to the ceremony. He was fine with that. lol... My parents went wedding dress shopping with me as my bridesmaids were scattered about and busy with college, etc.

• Venue: Church ceremony & VFW Hall for the reception (think large open barn-like space with concrete floors - we're country and we don't mind that).

• Style: Traditional. Religious ceremony. We had about an hour or so gap for pictures (because we didn't see each other prior to the wedding). Then everyone drove the 30 minutes to the hall for a buffet dinner (made in the home of a very sweet farm wife who made huge buffet dinners as a "side job"), cake, dj and dancing. We provided beer and a few bottles of wine for the toast (did I mention we're country? but there was an open bar in another room of the VFW hall so some guests bought other drinks).

• Finances: My parents paid for the hall. My in-laws paid for/prepared the rehearsal dinner in the church basement and for the pop at the reception (MIL does not like drinking and politely asked to be excused from paying for the alcohol). DH and I paid for everything else, including all the attire for the attendants (really just the fabric and pattern, since my mother made their dresses). I made all the floral arrangements and table decorations. My family set up the church and the reception hall (in those days in this area, you couldn't hire someone to take care of those details, so we just did it ourselves.)

• Attendants: MOH, Best Man, two bridesmaids and groomsmen, flower girl and ring bearer.

• Guests: 300 invited, around 250 or so attended. We both have large families, and this is a pretty typical wedding size in our area at that time. We invited our church family, close friends and a few co-workers, but most of the guests were close relatives.

• Kids Included: Yes. The meal wasn't priced "per plate" and our hall/meal were kid friendly, so children and their noise or messes were welcome.

• Pre-Wedding Events: I had a bridal shower in the church basement. DH had a bachelor party at a local bar. I went out with a couple friends that night, but we didn't call it a bachelorette party.

• Post-Wedding Events: Although it's not common for our area at that time, we actually had a lunch (with wedding leftovers) in the church basement the day after the wedding. We had lots of out-of-town family who we knew would like to see the gifts opened, so we ate and opened gifts. We spent our wedding night in our apartment in town, I was so tired I was glad we weren't driving anywhere that night.

• Honeymoon: We took 3 days/2 nights in Indianapolis (just an hour away). We toured museums and just enjoyed each other's company before we had to get back to work (we were both "new" employees and really didn't have any vacation time yet. Our bosses were lenient and we didn't want to take advantage).

 

[mnrose]

• Year: 1982

• Planning: Entirely DH and I

• Venue: Judge's office

• Style: Simple.

• Finances: DH and I paid for everything...the license, my dress, and dinner afterwards. LOL.

• Attendants: Two

• Guests: Zero, unless you count the judge's secretary.

• Kids Included: No.

• Pre-Wedding Events: My husband went fishing...does that count?

• Post-Wedding Events: Road the bus from downtown St Paul to downtown Minneapolis (the back, ala "The Graduate"), and had dinner at a restaurant.

• Honeymoon: None.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

• Year: 2002

• Planning: Both families contributed to the planning, especially my grandma.

• Venue: My husband's Catholic church for the ceremony, then we rented a local restaurant for the reception.

• Style: A formal Catholic wedding. The priest gave us a booklet with suggested readings for the ceremony and it took me DAYS of poring over those readings to settle on some that wouldn't horribly offend my liberal, progressive, almost militantly feminist family. They were still kind of offended by the ceremony, but not as badly as they would have been if I'd thrown in the reading about woman being created to serve her husband, or the one about how women need to "obey". My color scheme was black and white: the bridesmaids wore black dresses with white accents, I carried a bouquet of white roses and wore a white dress, my husband and the groomsmen were all dressed in black tuxes with white tie. The flower girls and ring bearers were the only pops of color--the flower girls carried flower balls made with red roses and wore red ribbons in their hair and the ring bearers had red vests on their little tuxedos and wore top hats with a red ribbon.

• Finances: We paid for everything except the priest and church, my MIL made the donation to the church. She also pulled some strings (probably financial strings) to get us the priest we wanted and to get special permission to take photos in the church, something that's normally not allowed in that church. We even paid for the bridesmaids' dresses and the groomsmen's tuxes, they only had to worry about making sure they had a pair of black dress shoes to wear to the ceremony.

• Attendants: 6 on both sides, plus 2 flower girls and 2 ring bearers.

• Guests: A little over a hundred, I don't remember exactly anymore. given that we both come from large families, the guest list was kept as small as possible.

• Kids Included: No, except for the families of the flower girls and ring bearers

• Pre-Wedding Events: Shower thrown for me by my aunts, no bachelor or bachelorette parties, our rehearsal dinner was given by my MIL and it was just pizza at her house, very informal.

• Post-Wedding Events: reception at a local restaurant. It was a sit-down dinner, very yummy. there was music, but no dancing. Just food and socializing. It was also a dry wedding, thought I'd throw that fact in here because it seems like a very controversial subject. I had to fight with my grandma to keep it dry, she threw down and insisted that there had to be a bar and I insisted just as hard the other way. I won, but that's probably the only time in my life that I've stood up to my grandma and gone against her wishes. Somehow, even though the reception was dry, my photographer managed to get falling down drunk. He was recommended by a friend who had gotten married the year before, but she forgot to mention that he was an alcoholic.

• Honeymoon: Nope. We spent all our money on the wedding and neither of us took any time off work, just went home and spent the rest of the weekend there, alone. For a couple days our large, close, somewhat intrusive families left us alone! That has never happened again. I love having a big, close family but I've never gone a day without getting a call from someone asking for a favor, or inviting me to some get-together, or just sharing family gossip.

 

[mamamary]

Fun thread OP!

• Year: 1989
• 
  
• Planning: I (along with my parents & 2 sisters) planned most of it. I think the only thing DH really wanted input on was the music portion.
• Venue: Full Catholic mass at my family's church and reception at a banquet hall. All of it took place in NY and both our families lived within walking distance of the church so everyone was familiar with the area on both sides of the family which was convenient.
• Style: Traditional formal wedding and reception. After the mass both families either went back to my parent's house or to my MILs's house. Wedding party went for pictures. Reception was 7pm to either 11pm or 12 - can't quite remember. Full cocktail hour with tons of food, open bar, sit down dinner, dessert.
• Finances: My parents pretty much paid for everything. When we got engaged they said that would be their present to us.
• Attendants: MOH was my older sister. My younger sister and three friends were bridesmaids. DH had his best friend as best man and his two brothers and two other friends as ushers.
• Guests: Somewhere around 150 invited and I think we had 125 rsvp'd as a yes.
• Kids Included: My brother had two little boys and my sister in law said she'd rather have a night our without them plus it would be late so that was easy. We had about 3 kids (around preteen age).
• Pre-Wedding Events: I had a bridal shower that was held at a restaurant. DH had a bachelor party about a week before the wedding. His best man rented a hall and they had lots of fun. I had a dinner out that same night with my bridesmaids. Rehearsal was the Thursday night before my Saturday wedding. After the rehearsal everyone went back to my parent's house to eat. Just remembered that my office gave me a surprise shower also. It was so nice of them but I felt bad that I just started working with this group and none of them were invited to the wedding.
• Post-Wedding Events: None. We went back to our apartment as we had to get up super early the next morning for our honeymoon. As far as I know everyone else went home. That's just what most did at that time. Furthest guests were prob. an hour or so from their home so I don't think anyone stayed at a hotel.
• Honeymoon: Barbados. We had a very early flight the day after the wedding. I should have waited at least a day to unwind. Spent a week in Barbados. Would love to go back one day.

 

[design_mom]

• Year: 1996
• Planning: I planned most of it. My mom helped some, and DH was willing to do things if I gave him a list and told him exactly what questions to ask (he's still kind of that way.)
  
• Venue: Church ceremony. Reception was in a room at the offices of the catering company. The room itself was very nice, but the outside looked pretty much like an office building (not a lot of ambiance). However, it was affordable, the food was good, and it served our purposes. We decided to spend our money in other places.
  
• Style: Traditional, I suppose. Catholic Church wedding (full Mass) followed by a buffet dinner with dancing. We had a limited hosted bar -- beer, wine and soft drinks. (Had a DJ. In retrospect, wish we'd chosen a band, but at the time I'd never seen a "good one" at a wedding.)
  
• Finances: My parents gave us a modest budget to spend how we wanted, we covered everything over it. (We actually ended up pretty close.) I think I kept it pretty non-Bridezilla. Bridesmaid dresses were nice dresses from the department store ($60, I think). I told the attendants that I didn't care what hairstyle, makeup, etc. they wore -- do it how they felt they looked best.
  
• Attendants: 4 for me; 3 for DH. This was the only area where we really had any drama. I had intended to keep it small -- my sister (MOH), my SIL to be, and my best friend. My mother suggested I could invite my cousin. It's not that I *didn't* want my cousin, but 1) I was trying to keep it small and 2) I didn't think she'd really want to do it. She had social anxiety and being on display is not "her thing." To be honest, it's not "my thing" either, so I understand. Hence my desire to keep it small. However, when I told mom these reasons, she apparently talked to her sister (my aunt, my cousin's mom), and my aunt talked to my cousin and my mom reported back "She'll do it." So then I felt like I *had* to ask her. So I did, and she did it. And I was glad to have her... but I still think she would have rather just been a guest. My DH had 4 scheduled attendants, but only 3 came. When my cousin was added to "my side," my SIL's then-boyfriend thought it would be weird to have an uneven number of attendants and "volunteered" to be DH's 4th. DH felt kind of put on the spot, so he told him OK. So he was one of the attendants until he and SIL broke up 3 days before the wedding, and he decided he didn't want to do it anymore, so he withdrew. (Whatever.) They have always had a more volatile on-again-off-again relationship than I'd care for, but they did eventually get married to each other (and are still married).
• Guests: 128 invited; 109 RSVPed "yes", 103 showed up. Most of the guests were family of some sort. I know I've mentioned it in other wedding threads. But in my family, if you're family, you're invited... and if you're invited, you're expected to attend unless you've got a really good reason why you can't. (This is changing somewhat, but I did not buck tradition.)
  
• Kids Included: Yes. In my family it was (is) tradition to invite whole families. It never occurred to me not to invite children.
  
• Pre-Wedding Events: Two bridal showers (one was a surprise. I honestly can't remember if the bridesmaids were at that one or not). No bachelorette party. There was a dinner after the rehearsal that included the wedding party and the out-of-town guests (if they were in town already).
  
• Post-Wedding Events: My in-laws hosted a brunch at their house the next morning and we opened our gifts. This was mainly because my husband's family had quite a few people come in from out of town (my family was mostly local). They felt like if they came all that way, they should get more than a dinner and a "thank you for coming." I believe the bridal party was invited, but not expected/required to come. I think only my sister and SIL were there. We left for our honeymoon the following day.
  
• Honeymoon: 5 days at Disney World.

 

[lorimay]

Year: 1987

* Formal Catholic ceremony

* I did most of the planning

*Reception at another Catholic Church with a beautiful Hall- Amazing cocktail hour with all kinds of delicious appetizers then a wonderful Italian buffet dinner with 2 amazing food center pieces , the food was so delicious of course I couldn't eat :/ nerves.

*100 people, a few kids

* My parents paid for the reception and my dress a beautiful Eve of Milady, first one I tried on.

* My husband and I paid for the rest.

* No after party, we went to the Airport Hilton and then had a very early flight to Hawaii the next morning.

* my sisters threw me a bridal shower. No bachelor or bachelorette parties

Sorry not computer savvy, doesn't look as pretty as all of yours.

 

[mousefanmichelle]

Love it!

Year: 5/1992 (24 years in 2 days!)

Planning: I did most of it by myself. My mom and I picked the menu, dh and I chose the music and I conferred with him on most everything else.

Venue: Catholic church for ceremony with a full mass and banquet hall for reception. I had the bridal shower at the same hall. We had an hour between the ceremony and the reception but they were about 30 minutes apart so we had a few minutes to get some pictures in-between. Our hall served a family style meal (plates brought to the tables vs buffet line). I didn't want people standing in line to get their food or table called up 1 at a time. Our reception was from 7pm until 12am. We got the dj to stay an extra 30 minutes and then it was all over :-(

Style: Traditional with all the fixings from daddy-daughter to throwing the bouquet/garter.

Finances: My dh and I paid for 95% of the wedding. We came up a bit short for the reception hall so my parents helped us with that. We paid for our 2 nieces dresses and our 2 nephews tuxes as well. My parents paid for the bridal shower since my mom wanted it in the banquet hall where the reception was. My oldest sister was to stand up but she ended up pregnant and due days after the wedding so she stepped out and luckily I had a cousin who offered to step in and pay for the bridesmaid dress that my sister ordered but could no longer wear. My in-laws paid for the rehearsal dinner at a vfw or something (I don't honestly remember what the place was exactly) - it was catered.

Attendants: 5 bridesmaids/groomsmen, 2 jr bridesmaids and 2 jr groomsmen plus 1 ring bearer.

Guests: Around 150

Kids included: only ones invited were the ones standing up otherwise no kids.

Pre-wedding events: My mom threw the bridalshower about 2 months prior to the wedding date. I had my bachlelorette party 1 week before and dh had his bachelor party 2 weeks before - both were held in my sisters basement.

Post-wedding events: None. We were basically the last ones to leave the reception with my family and some relatives that were staying at my moms and dads house. I could barely see out of my contacts at that point - they were so blurry from crying and wiping my eyes that I had a hard time seeing on the way home! We didn't tell anyone where we were going that night and so we drove back to our apartment and that was the first night we stayed in it together! We were given a gift basket by some friends and they filled it with goodies to eat. I remember sitting in bed, opening our cards and ripping through the food in that basket. We were starving!!!

Honeymoon - We were married on a Friday and on Saturday we got up did some running around, saw my parents and got ready to leave for our cruise on Sunday morning. My cousin, who was going to stay at our place while we were gone, drove us to the airport Sunday morning and we went on a 7 day cruise and spent 3 days post-cruise in Ft. Lauderdale. All in all I took 3 weeks off of work for this event. That was nice!!!

 

[Lady Marie]

Fun thread!

• Year: 2014
• Planning: All me via the internet!
• Venue: The Cliffs of Moher, Ireland
• Style: Celtic, and brief
• Finances: All financed by DH and I
• Attendants: 0
• Guests: We both invited our parents who did not want to make the trip, so it was just us, the priest, and a photographer
• Kids Included: Only the ones visiting the cliffs that day that thought the wedding idea was cool and wanted selfies with us
• Pre-Wedding Events: DH's parents threw us a party for our families to attend (about 40 guests) before we left. I bought myself a big wedding cake to be served there since I wouldn't have one in Ireland hehe! My two best friends flew in to attend the party and with them had a small bachelorette night out the day after the big party after I was already legally married in the states!
• Post-Wedding Events: Ate dinner at an Irish pub near our B&B, gown and all
• Honeymoon: Spent a few more days in Ireland, then headed to England and France for two weeks.

 

[DiannaVM]

• Year: 2016

• Planning: As other persons of my generation, I had a whole dream idea on Pinterest on how I wanted my wedding to look. However, my opinions were constantly vetoed by my MIL who wanted the wedding done her way. So in order to have someone to stand up for DH's and my decisions, my Mom also helped us with the planning. (BTW my mom was also slightly scared of insulting my MIL, so there were times when we all had to buckle to her decisions.

• Style: Rustic-like. My colors were blue and purple. I had envisioned alot of baby's breath and chalkboards and burlap ribbons. What we had paid for was for the centerpieces to be done using flowers that were used at the church in small little mason jars with a lantern at each table. However, the gentleman responsible for the lanterns didn't deliver said lanterns, so the centerpieces were alot more low-key than planned. I was OK with it, my mom and MIL were having fits the day of. Otherwise the decor was simple organza draping from the ceiling with a chandelier to camouflage the look of the reception hall. Also, our reception was just a buffet and a dessert table. There was some dancing and stuff, and I had people say they really enjoyed our wedding (some saying that was the best wedding they had been to) so I guess all is well that ends well.

• Finances: I paid for my own gown because I knew that was one of the few things I didn't want to compromise on with anyone. I think I paid like $400 for it and I was quite happy with it. Otherwise, except for the photographer which DH and I paid for ourselves, everything else was split down the middle by both sets of parents.

• Attendants: MOH and Best Man, 4 bridesmaids, 4 groomsmen.

• Guests: I know we invited well over 100 guests because we kept worrying we would hit the reception hall's limit of 120 which would've caused us to have to pay for a second room. I think maybe under 100 came (most people came to it) because in the end there was only one empty table of 8.

• Kids Included: Not technically. The youngest we had were 11 years old. And one of them was my bridesmaid so I considered them more pre-teens than kids.

• Pre-Wedding Events: My friends and family threw me a surprise Bridal Shower at MIL's house. We had the Rehearsal Dinner at my parents' place, and then my friend decided to throw us a Jack and Jill party with all of the wedding attendants (except for the ushers who were our aunts lol) and their significant others at her place the night before the wedding.

• Post-Wedding Events: None. We had all planned to crash at my friend's condo to hang out for a while (with my other friend and sister planning on sleeping over to he place), but by the time everyone changed their clothes, etc., no one was into it any more. Only my other friend and one of the groomsmen went and apparently they fell asleep within an hour.

• Honeymoon: We spent a couple days at the Atlantis resort right after the wedding. Pretty uneventful since neither of us was able to take any real time off. Our "honeymoon" was to Disney World last October.