Spin-Off from Wedding Vent Thread

[Mrs. Ciz]

Year: December 1990

• Planning: I planned the whole thing. DH only asked for white cake (vs the carrot cake I wanted) and an open bar. My mom came to visit 5 months before the wedding, so I could take her to my final planning meetings with the venue and vendors and to a dress fitting.

• Venue: Catholic church in our college town and a hotel ballroom. The church and hotel were close enough to travel to and from in a horse drawn carriage. Made for the BEST pictures!

• Style: Traditional. Wedding was a full Mass at 12:00 noon. Reception from 1:30 to 5:00 - short cocktail hour with hor d'oeuvres, buffet luncheon, open bar, DJ. I wanted a plated lunch, but we had a ton of college football players in attendance. They could have eaten 3 plated lunches and still been hungry - not good with an open bar!

My dress was off white silk shantung, made for me by a seamstress. Bridesmaids wore Jessica
McClintock dark green velvet dresses, also seamstress sewn. Men rented tuxes. Wedding colors were
green and white with a hint of red - Christmas wedding.

• Finances: Budget $10,000. I paid almost all of it. DH paid for my bouquet and the groomsmen's flowers. My mom gave me $1000 towards the reception and $200 for the lace on my dress. My parents had 3 kids in college at the time, so money was tight.

• Attendants: 7 bridesmaids, 7 groomsmen

• Guests: 150

• Kids Included: only a couple of family members

• Pre-Wedding Events: 2 bridal showers (1 with friends, 1 with groom's family, both at houses). A Bridesmaids' Luncheon the day before the wedding given by my mom at the condo she rented for the wedding. Rehearsal Dinner at a Cajun restaurant planned by DH's family.

• Post-Wedding Events: Right after the reception ended, both families met at my parent's rented condo to have food, drinks and watch us open gifts. It was unplanned but fun. DH and I spent our wedding night at the Williamsburg Inn in a room with twin beds. The Inn screwed up and comped us the $300 a night room. Brunch with just family at a restaurant the next morning.

• Honeymoon: a week in Ixtapa, Mexico. We used my timeshare; DH paid for the plane tickets.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Before it was Pinterest, it was Martha Stewart! Her first Weddings book came out in 1987. Her Weddings magazine started a few years later in 1994. I poured over her first book when I planned my own 1990 wedding. I couldn't afford some of the stuff in it, and vendors hadn't gotten that fancy (vodka bottles encased in blocks of ice with flowers frozen in it) with their offerings yet, so it was really hard to replicate anything. With her book, she raised the bar and gave people a vision (attainable or not) of what a wedding "should" look like. I use the term "should" very loosely because to me there is no "should", but people bought into it. I remember being slightly disappointed that I had to have my wedding reception in a nice but generic hotel ballroom verses on the grounds of a historic estate (like the weddings in her book). Believe me - I quickly got over it! I refused to go into debt for my wedding! If I couldn't pay for it in cash on my starting salary, I didn't have it.

 

[Kimberlyann11]

• Year: 1998

• Planning: Mostly done by DH. He knew what I wanted and planned it while I was at work as a surprise.

• Venue: Graceland wedding chapel in Las Vegas

• Style: Vegas tacky-fun

• Finances: 100% paid for by us.

• Attendants: The folks from the chapel

• Guests: The folks from the chapel (including Elvis, who sang)

• Kids Included: none

• Pre-Wedding Events: Shows, tours, buffets and fun.

• Post-Wedding Events: Sleep

• Honeymoon: We took it a few months before. A few days in the Bahamas. The destination was kind of a honeymoon in and of itself

 

[leebee]

YEAR: 1992

PLANNING: I did all of it. We were living in San Francisco at the time, DH's family is from Indiana and Ohio, my family lives in southern Maine. We got married in my "hometown" in southern Maine.

VENUE: Ceremony was non-religious in a church in York Beach, Maine, conducted by a justice of the peace. Reception was in a restaurant function room in Portsmouth, NH.

STYLE: Traditional/generic... neither we nor our families are religious. We just wanted a simple/traditional ceremony and a party. There was an hour-ish break between the 4pm ceremony and 6pm reception, for pictures. Reception was chips/dip/veggies for grazing, a buffet, cash bar. We provided champagne toast and 2 bottles of wine per table for dinner. DJ (who fought with one BIL through the entire reception).

FINANCES: Total budget was $6000. DH and I paid for it all. We had frequent flyer miles to cover our rt airfare (SFO/BOS), I made my dress and veil, my sister runs shops so she went to a buyers show where I bought the bridesmaids' dresses (floral summer dresses $35 each), earrings for bridesmaids' gift, and our gold bands. My sis and BIL gave us our wedding cake as a gift, and a friend did the photography as a gift. For flowers, I had my bouquet and bridesmaids' made at a local rose grower and then bought pails of roses- wholesale- and made boutonnieres, corsages, centerpieces, church pew decorations. We rented a car for 2 weeks, and paid for sea-front cottages for us, MIL, and DH's siblings. We knew many wouldn't be able to afford coming, so we said if they could get there, we'd pay for accommodations. We had 5 cottages and 5 of his 6 siblings, plus kids and MIL, came to the wedding. We had a hotel room for his dad. We also paid for the rehearsal dinner.

ATTENDANTS: MOH (my sis), BM (DH's grad school roomie), 4 bridesmaids (my other sis and DH's sisters), 4 ushers (3 of DH's brothers, 1 BIL), ring bearer (only nephew on my side of the family). We asked 2 SILs to be guest book attendants/cake table attendants.

GUESTS: 125 invited, 75 attendees, plus wedding party. Many of our friends from SF who swore they would come ended up RSVP-ing "no." That was a little stressful, as I'd not chosen my favorite venue (which had a max capacity of 90) because everyone said they'd come, always wanted to visit Maine, etc.

KIDS: Ring bearer and nieces/nephews from DH's side. Nobody would have been able to come if they couldn't have brought the kids because all family members were coming to the wedding- nobody to leave the kids with for a weekend+! There were 8 cousins, from 3 weeks to 12 years old, but they are all very accustomed to playing together and really weren't a problem.

PRE-WEDDING: Friends at work in SF had a shower for me. DH and his brothers, best man, father, my brother, 2 brothers in law from my side of the family, went for a bar crawl in Ogunquit on Thursday night. Good thing, because it wasn't pretty and nobody would have been in very good shape for a wedding the next day! We held a rehearsal dinner for my family, DH's family, and our photographer on Friday night- old fashioned clam bake. YUM! We got a very good deal on this as the facility is owned by our neighbors- and we've been neighbors for generations.

POST-WEDDING: As we were all staying in the same cottages, DH's and my sibs came to our cottage and we had a brunch and opened gifts. Brunch is a formal term for bagels, fruit, yogurt, cereal, and MIMOSAS. My mother wasn't interested, but my MIL was there!

HONEYMOON: We went for a long weekend to Bar Harbor the week BEFORE the wedding. I wanted to be relaxed and ready to do the final push to make the wedding happen, and it was the last weekend before summer pricing took effect. We'd been living together for 7 years at this point, so we figured, why not? We spent Fri-Sat-Sunday on MDI and on Monday DH left for a 4 day conference in Albany, arriving back in Maine in time for his bachelor party. Yes, it was a busy week! After the wedding/reception, DH and I changed and went wading in the Atlantic Ocean in the moonlight. It felt like heaven on my poor, tired, swollen feet! After DH's family left on Tuesday morning, we stayed in our cottage until the 1st, when DH started a new job in Boston and I went back to SF. He came back to SF in Sept. and we moved east in October (I had medical issues that needed to be resolved. This kept me at my job in SF so my health insurance would cover me. DH's at his new work wouldn't cover my "preexisting conditions." I am really glad that the ACA takes care of that now- it was very difficult for us.)

 

[rastahomie]

• Year: 1997
• Planning: DW did 98%, with my mom and her mom pitching in the rest. The only things I wanted (and got) were two songs to be played while the guests were filing into the church: "In The Morning Light" by Yanni and "Anata Ni Aitakute" by Seiko Matsuda.
• Style: Call it "Country on a Budget." Everything was very traditional and understated. Married at the bride's home church (a little country church with a congregation of about 60), reception at the town country club. Dinner was a buffet of baked ziti and such, provided by the country club's in-house catering. My BIL was (and is) the boss at a radio station, his gift to us was making one of his DJs do our reception.
• Finances: Extremely limited. We were both flat broke, and our families, though not broke, weren't rolling in it. Still, we put on a beautiful wedding with what we had. My side kicked in for the rehearsal dinner. Her side kicked in for a lot, but by no means all of it.
• Attendants: 3 groomsmen, 3 bridesmaids.
• Guests: Invited about 50-60, about 50-60 came.
• Kids Included: Yes. In this small town it would have been scandalous to send invitations that specified "No Kids," and a couple of families probably would have boycotted had we excluded kids. My half-sister, 11 at the time, was a junior bridesmaid. Her little cousin (5) and my niece (4) were ring bearer and flower girl, respectively.
• Pre-Wedding Events: Her friends threw her a bridal shower, but they were (at the time) all church-going, ministers' daughters, so it was less Two Broke Girls and more Little House on the Prairie. My best man and I went to a nearby state park and had a picnic lunch. We also had the rehearsal dinner, where my dad's wife at the time tried to take over the show and Les got so upset we were *this* close to just driving off to Pensacola and getting married in the courthouse.
  
• Post-Wedding Events: We went straight to our hotel, about 30 miles away. I don't know what anybody else did - probably all went home.
• Honeymoon: We didn't have a lot of money, so we went to Chicago (about seven hours away) and saw the sights and a Cubs game (we were so close to the field, we could see the gray hairs on Ryne Sandberg's head), then on the way home stopped by Saint Louis and saw the sights and a Cardinals game.

 

[CPanther95]

The only really important thing to determine whether it was a wedding worth attending is: Open Bar or Not.

If you can't afford an open bar, invite fewer people until you can.

 

[shoney]

The only really important thing to determine whether it was a wedding worth attending is: Open Bar or Not.

If you can't afford an open bar, invite fewer people until you can.

It is a very foreign concept to me. I have never been invited to a party that had a cash bar. for smaller christenings or communions, some people may do beer and wine, but never just pay for your drinks. Alcohol is served at just about every function i can think of. I guess we are a bunch of Long Island Lushes! The only exception would be a kids only party held at a children's party place.

There is always someone that makes a bad joke....this rounds on me...when the server comes over to take the drink order. My mom and her co workers went to another coworkers daughters wedding held in New England. It was a cash bar and that guy got the bill! LOL Jokes on you for making the dumb joke! They were all stunned!

 

[happybaker]

YEAR: 1992

VENUE: Ceremony was non-religious in a church in York Beach, Maine, conducted by a justice of the peace. Reception was in a restaurant function room in Portsmouth, NH (Yoken's).

Every summer when we'd vacation in York, we'd always go to Yoken's. My brother and I LOVED their gift shop and the "Thar She Blows" whale sign.

 

[bjscheel]

Year: 1996

• Planning: Mostly my mom! I was at college and she was good at it.

• Venue: My church for the wedding, and the 4-H building at the county fairgrounds for the reception

• Style: Simple/traditional/country

• Finances: I guess my parents paid for most, but it was pretty inexpensive. I know DH's parents got the photographer. Mom made my dress, flower girl dresses, and my sister's bridesmaid dress. Actually she made the bridesmaid dress twice, because my sister ended up being 8 months pregnant by the wedding day. My MIL made the dress for SIL. The moms made the majority of the food for the rehearsal dinner and reception.

• Attendants: Two

• Guests: I don't know, maybe 100?

• Kids Included: Absolutely.

• Pre-Wedding Events: We had two traditional showers. For my "bachelorette" I watched a movie at a friend's house. Could possibly have been Disney. I'm not sure if DH did anything with friends.

• Post-Wedding Events: Rode in a horse and buggy to the fairgrounds a few blocks away. Reception at the 4-H building. The local diner and the moms cooked and it was a buffet line. My brother was DJ. No alcohol at my request. We stayed in a local hotel the first night (by ourselves- I don't think any of our guests needed a hotel). The next morning we opened gifts with immediate family (most gifts were actual gifts, not cash), before heading to the airport.

• Honeymoon: Colorado. My first time on a plane!

 

[leebee]

All in all, we had fun. But would have loved my mom being more excited & involved. She even seemed resentful at times. Explains why I wa so happy to participate in my kids weddings. We gave money, no strings attached & gave whatever help or input we were asked for. And made sure to always be enthusiastic & supportive.

I wish my mom had been even slightly excited that we were getting married, but she wasn't. In fact, in Feb. when my sis and her fiancee (they got married 6 weeks before us) were visiting, we received an ugly phone call from my mom, including her recommendation that we get over all our wedding foolishness and just elope to Las Vegas together. Of course, she was Lady Bountiful at my wedding reception.

Every summer when we'd vacation in York, we'd always go to Yoken's. My brother and I LOVED their gift shop and the "Thar She Blows" whale sign.

I almost put the "Thar She Blows" in my post!! My sister and I had the photographer take a picture of us, in our wedding finery, under that sign!

 

[DisneyHardin]

What a fun thread. I have loved reading about everyone's weddings.

Year: 2008

• Planning: Just me

• Venue: A church of my same denomination, but not my actual church due to a scheduling conflict for the ceremony. My dad/step mom's back yard for the reception.

• Style: Traditional, but fairly informal.

• Finances: My parents pretty much paid for everything. My mom told me upfront that she would pay $5000 and my dad offered the same (although I think he probably ended up spending more than $5000 with having to get the house and yard ready for the reception). My mom did end up paying for half my dress above her $5000.

• Attendants: Two (my sister and my cousin). DH had his dad and brother.

• Guests: We invited just under 200 and I think we had about 150 there (I didn't ask for RSVP, so I don't have an exact head count)

• Kids Included: Yes, but there weren't a lot there - maybe 10 or so kids total (and 3 of those were my ring bearer and flower girls)

• Pre-Wedding Events: I did end up having 4 showers (one with my mom's family, one with dad's family, one with DH's family, and one at work). My "bachelorette" night was a small group of friends that went out for sushi and then bowling.

• Post-Wedding Events: No real post wedding events. The reception lasted into the night (DH and I left before the party was over). We did meet back at my dad's house the next morning because we had to fold up the tables and chairs for the rental company to come pick up and we opened presents then.

• Honeymoon: None - we spend the night after the wedding at a fancy hotel downtown.

 

[Kiren]

• Year: 2015
• Planning: I did a lot of the planning. Had some input from DH and my mother but I picked the colours and decorations and floral arrangements.
• Venue: We got an "all Inclusive" wedding package. The ceremony was in one section of the Inn and then the reception was in another room.
• Style: Mostly Traditional non-religious. We wanted quick and dirty. I think our ceremony was maybe 20 minutes tops. After that we had a cocktail reception while my bridal party got photos done and then had a three course plated meal with wine included. Typical wedding fare roast beef with potatoes and veg but had a lovely stuffed chicken breast. Open bar for four hours with an AWESOME bar tender. (Seriously she made special drinks for my girls and I and the management specifically ordered Waterloo Dark for my husband as it's his favourite beer). Midnight buffet with cheese and crackers fruits veg and the cake. Also had a champagne toast for the speeches.
• Finances: My parents gave me the limit that they were paying of ours. They ended up getting the venue as well as half my dress and they paid for our extra room for the night as we got married out of our area but in others. I ended up basically winning the remainder of my wedding dress at a bridal show. My husband and I essentially paid for our cake, photographer, officiant and the flights to the wedding. (easier to fly three of us across the country than 80 people to our place haha)
• Attendants: 3 for me and three for my husband. My best friend was my MOH and my other two friends were my bridesmaids. My DH had his best friend as BM then his brother and my brother for groomsmen.
• Guests: 100 invited, 90 said yes and about 85 showed up.
• Kids Included: Yes. Two of my SILs came and couldn't get sitters and then my Uncle brought his son and there was one other child there. My DSS(step son) was in the bridal party so of course he came!
• Pre-Wedding Events: A bachelorette at a strip club during Lady's Night (didn't think the dudes would you know, bear all! haha) and DH had a small bachelor of hanging out with his buds and went out for supper I think.
• Post-Wedding Events: Over the course of a few days we went through all our cards and collected all the money (we were flying back home so a lot of people were thoughtful and gave us cash) After that we visited family for another week and then flew back home so my DH could start sailing again with work.
• Honeymoon: 7 Days and Disney leaving in.... 12 hours! Woohoo!!!

 

[dazedx3]

YEAR: 1994
PLANNING: My Mom,oldest sister, and me
VENUE: Catholic church where I was teaching( my 3rd. graders sang at the ceremony which was very special)
The reception was at a restaurant/hall.
STYLE: Traditional/ Christmas
FINANCES: My parents paid for reception,flowers, and dress. DH and I paid for band and little extras, In-laws paid for liquor and rehearsal dinner.
ATTENDANTS: 4 each
GUESTS: 175
KIDS: just nieces and nephews, and two friends' children who were not invited.
PRE-WEDDING EVENTS: two showers[ one from each family] Our friends did a co-bachelorette/bachelor party for us which they titled a "stock the bar party"
POST-WEDDING EVENTS: DH and I spent the night at a small quaint hotel. The next day we had a gift-opening party with immediate family.
HONEYMOON: None, I couldn't take the time off, and we really couldn't afford one. We still joke that we should go on a honeymoon.

 

[Rence]

Year: 2016 (last weekend)

Planning: My partner did almost all the planning; I'm not big into weddings but exercised veto power a few times. No others involved with the planning. Older couple 50 & 60, been together for 21 years, getting married now because it is finally legal.

Venue: Semi-destination wedding at a resort community (Wisconsin Dells), many guests chose to stay at the resort, but almost all guests were less than two hours away, so guests did not have to stay over if they didn't want to. Small "Vegas-style" wedding chapel. Reception was in the VIP lounge of a local night club early in the evening before the club got crowded.

Style: Short simple civil ceremony. Very casual, we asked guests to come in tropical attire. Reception very informal. Dinner buffet style, assortment of cupcakes for desert. We had our own bar in the lounge and we ran a tab for the evening.

Finances: We paid for it ourselves.

Attendants: Two - my sister and his cousin. We wore Hawaiian shirts with a light blue suit, the attendants both wore sun dresses in fabric that matched our shirts - all bought on-line. ABBA has a lot of meaning for us (night we met etc.) – so a lot of music was ABBA, having the full wedding party consist of two men and two women worked perfectly with the theme.

Guests: Around 50

Kids Included: Kids were invited (cousins). The family that had younger kids declined due to a conflict. We had six teens (15 and older)

Pre-Wedding Events: Went to a local casino to play Bingo the night before (Bachelor Party Bingo!!), open to anyone who wanted to come – about 20 participated.

Post-Wedding Events: We had rented a small condo at the resort so we served breakfast in our room the next morning. Resort included an in-door water park so some guests went water parking after breakfast. Most of the guests showed up for breakfast.

 

[TechieRose]

Year: 2015

• Planning: me, DH, and a local wedding planner at our destination

• Venue: Merrimans Restaurant in Kapalua, Maui (http://www.merrimanshawaii.com/kapalua/) We got married on the deck overlooking the ocean with happy hour on the same deck space and dinner in a cabana adjacent to the deck with firepits on the deck being lit for after dinner drinks.

• Style: Not one particular style but I would say it was laid back, geek chic with the tropics thrown in!

• Finances: DH and I paid for the actual wedding ourselves, my mother picked up a family lunch a few days prior and DH's parents did a dinner the night before. We likely could have asked for more support but we wanted full control of the guest list, etc. Major expenses were we covered cost of rental condos for our friends, the venue and food/drink. I was able to get a fully custom made corset dress from a dress designer in Toronto for around USD$800 and a pair of custom shoes for another USD$200. Because we didn't care much about the exact flowers the flowers and accompanying accessories came in very reasonably.

• Attendants: Two bridal sidekicks and one groomsman

• Guests: Including our two photographers we had 21 people in total at our wedding.

• Kids Included: No, no one who was invited had kids and if they did we would have asked for adults only.

• Pre-Wedding Events: Everyone arrived several days before the wedding - we did a family lunch, a friends party at night, and we were going to do a group luau but it got rained out so we got reservations at a pizza place on the water the night before the wedding.

• Post-Wedding Events: No real post wedding events.

• Honeymoon: We left a few days after the wedding and were in Fiji for around 7 days and then went to New Zealand for a few additional days, spent time in New Zealand wine country - it was amazing.

 

[MrsDuck]

• Year: 2012
• Planning: I planned with our venue provided wedding planner.
• Venue: Swan and Dolphin - Crescent Terrace (ceremony) | Garden Grove (reception)
• Style: not super traditional... We didn't have dancing or speeches at our reception as it was a public restaurant. But, we did go to Atlantic Dance Hall after the reception for dancing and drinks. Guests were invited to attend Atlantic Dance Hall but really only our wedding party and immediate friends/family showed up. The fact that we had a Disney wedding was decently untraditional amongst my group of friends/relatives. I was happy for no DJ, dancing, and speeches.
• Finances: My parents paid for everything at the wedding, including beer and wine at the reception. Guests were on their own to buy drinks at Atlantic Dance Hall (another public venue). DH bought his suit and his groomsmen bought theirs, too. My bridesmaids bought their own dresses. My grandma paid for my dress.
• Attendants: MOH and Best Man plus 3 bridesmaids and 3 groomsmen
• Guests: 120 (?) invited; 54 attended... our wedding was 12/22/12 - super close to Christmas and a lot of our guests were not in-state.
• Kids Included: Yes, but we just had 1 kiddo. My cousin's son. He was 2, I think.
• Pre-Wedding Events: Bridal shower, bridal tea at the Grand FL, rehersal and rehersal lunch.
• Post-Wedding Events: None.
• Honeymoon: Disney Cruise!

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Year: 2011

Planning: DW and I planned what little there was to plan.

Venue: County Courthouse, a 5 minute ceremony. Then we went to a restaurant with the guests.

Style: Late 1960s Government Office

Finances: All paid for by DW and me.

Attendants: Official witnesses were my brother and DW's friend

Guests: 12

Kids Included: DW's two daughters, already adults

Pre-Wedding Events-: None

Post-Wedding Events: Two weeks after the ceremony, we had an open house reception at our home and backyard. 2PM until whenever. About 100 were invited, about 75 came. The most present at any one time was about 40.

Honeymoon: 5 Days in Myrtle Beach and Charleston, SC

 

[Hutchy]

• Year: 2016 (June 18)

• Planning: I did everything and had a friend local to the ceremony location check out the restaurant and park I want to use.

• Venue: Park in historic Savannah, GA

• Style: Non-Traditional. A close friend will officiate and it will be very simple.

• Finances: I'm paying for the photographer and our clothes, got my dress for $40 and I'm using family heirloom rings. My best friend bought the cake for us. We will have dinner after but will not be paying for the meals because we are also in the process of buying a house the few friends in attendance are aware and have no issue with it.

• Attendants: None

• Guests:Should be 20 total including us

• Kids Included: There will be 6 children there ranging from 7-17

• Pre-Wedding Events: None. Close friends and family are aware we are getting married and I haven't announced it on FB or anything. We plan to post a picture from the wedding with the caption about a beautiful day for a summer wedding LOL We decided to get married about 2 weeks ago and planned the wedding for my next weekend off.

• Post-Wedding Events: After dinner we may go down to River Street and have some fun.

• Honeymoon: No honeymoon, buying a house is more important right now.

 

[RedAngie]

• Year: 2016 (June 18)

• Planning: I did everything and had a friend local to the ceremony location check out the restaurant and park I want to use.

• Venue: Park in historic Savannah, GA

• Style: Non-Traditional. A close friend will officiate and it will be very simple.

• Finances: I'm paying for the photographer and our clothes, got my dress for $40 and I'm using family heirloom rings. My best friend bought the cake for us. We will have dinner after but will not be paying for the meals because we are also in the process of buying a house the few friends in attendance are aware and have no issue with it.

• Attendants: None

• Guests:Should be 20 total including us

• Kids Included: There will be 6 children there ranging from 7-17

• Pre-Wedding Events: None. Close friends and family are aware we are getting married and I haven't announced it on FB or anything. We plan to post a picture from the wedding with the caption about a beautiful day for a summer wedding LOL We decided to get married about 2 weeks ago and planned the wedding for my next weekend off.

• Post-Wedding Events: After dinner we may go down to River Street and have some fun.

• Honeymoon: No honeymoon, buying a house is more important right now.

DH and I spent a day and a half in Savannah on our way home from Florida earlier this month. My first visit there. We really enjoyed it and hope to return again some day. Best wishes for your wedding.

 

[robinb]

• Year: 1993
• Planning: I planned most of it with my DH's help
• Venue: Small former synagog on city park land on the lake.
• Style: The wedding was a traditional Reform Judaism ceremony with a chuppah, ketubah and breaking wine glasses. It was a little too religious for me, but our rabbi's son look ill the night before so I didn't mention that he included some passages we didn't want.
• Finances: We paid for almost everything. My in-laws paid for the open bar (and maybe the rehearsal dinner). My family was tapped out from paying for my sister's wedding a couple weeks prior to mine.
• Attendants: We had one each: my sister and my DH's brother. My grandfather and my mother and my in-laws held up the chuppah. We had two friends who were ushers. Everyone wore whatever the heck they wanted to. I didn't care.
• Guests: 75 guests, the limit for the synagog. My father's brother and his wife (uncle and aunt) did not even bother to RSVP. Klassy.
• Kids Included: Yes, my DH's cousin brought her kids.
• Pre-Wedding Events: Two events. One was a pre-bridal party at our house to celebrate with our co-workers and friends, some of which we could not invite to the wedding because of the size of the venue. We still wanted to party with them though. The second was a small bachelor/bachelorette bowling trip to a local county 4-lane alley. It was goofy.
• Post-Wedding Events: We had a horse and carriage pick us up from the the wedding and we rode down State Street to the University and then went back to the Wisconsin State Capitol to take photos. Our reception was in the garden of a local fancy restaurant on the Capitol Square. Our guests picked us up in our chairs and whacked our heads into the hanging baskets during the hora. It was fun .
• Honeymoon: We took a 7-night County and Western themed cruise with a local radio station months later.