Your Wedding Personal Touches

[Jrsy Boy]

Just wondering what you did during your wedding to make it different or unique.

For example, as the groom, I was given only two responsibilities: pick out the tuxes and show up. In order to contribute my personal touch, and without my wife-to-be's knowledge, I bought a pair of black Chuck T. Converse high tops. Since the tuxes were black with vests that were black with white polka dots, I polka dotted my black Chuck T's with white fabric paint. My groomsmen all wore solid black Chuck T's. My wife thought it was great and my father-in-law wished we had told him so he could have worn a pair, too.

We also had a ring bear. The best man carried my wife's stuffed bear, who was also wearing a black vest with white polka dots. The rings were in the pockets of the vest.

Finally, we escorted family members into the church to "Chapel of Love", the bridesmaids and groomsmen entered to "Have I Told You Lately" (Van Morrison version, not Rod Stewart) and finally, rather than The Wedding March, my wife and her father entered to Debbie Reynolds' "Tammy's in Love" (any guesses as to what DW's name is?).

How about you?

 

[taximomfor4]

Instead of having the "typical" reception with the same songs, dances, routines, etc, we found a restaurant in the area. We got them to give us a whole room, and mass-ordered appetizers for an hors d'oevre table. Invited only 50 people, and the restaurant scheduled several servers just for us. Everyone at our "reception" got to order dinners off the menu, feast at the hors d'oevres table, and drink on our bar tab. Everyone happily meandered around the room, enjoyed good company and great food, and then we had wedding cake (we brought it in) for dessert. No loud music, etc. As angry as the inlaws were at our plan, they were full of admiration at the end. Several thousand dollars poorer, and our reception was a friendly, intimate, easygoing gathering.

 

[barkley]

'barkley the duck' who is featured in the photo below was a part of our wedding party. we took the fabric from the bridesmaids dresses/silk flowers and made him a bow tie and cumberbun. he also had a boutineer that was identical to those worn by the groom and male attendants. barkley sat on the gift table on top of a pre-wrapped box that was labled 'cards' (had a slot in it so people who gave cards with money inside did'nt have to be concerned about leaving them out in the open) he was an official member of the wedding party and was featured in some great photos.

other than that? umm-gold foil wrapped chocolate coins sprinkled on all the reception tables (i hate jordan almonds) and (people loved this)-when dh went to remove my garter i said 'if you get to toss something to the boys, so do i' and reached into his vest pocket to pull out a 'little black book' which we'de prepared ahead of time with names of guests at the wedding and humerous comments.

i like personal touches at weddings-they are much more memorable than the standard stuff.

 

[TurboKitty]

I love the shoes thing and the bear sounds too cute!

Let's see...

DH and I made our Huppa, a pretty gold canopy, with white flowers and white lights wrapped around the poles. Even though it was a Jewish ceremony, my colors were red and green. We also gave out tree ornaments as favors and made sure Santa would be at the reception. (It was a Dec wedding.)

For the cake, I had them leave out the friut filling, and we had a delicious custard filled white cake, with red roses and porcelain carousel animals that we still use as ornaments on our holiday tree.

All these things horrified my mother, but it was my wedding, and it's lasted 13 1/2 years so far, so I think she got over it.

 

[Jennasis]

Well we held our wedding on our farm. The ceremony was on the lawn between our house and our riding arena (it's a horse farm). The reception was held inside our indoor riding arena. We had BBQ pork, slaw, mac/potato salad and two giant steel water troughs filled with ice, beer and soda! During the ceremony our 3 dogs were two flower girls and the ring bearer (respectively). I told our guests to wear ANYTHING they wanted as long as they were comfy and happy (it was 100 degrees that day in NC). Some wore sun dresses and some wore shorts and tee shirts. My dad and uncles brought their guitars and amps and I set up a stage made out of hay bales for them and they jammed during the reception. For the ceremony they played "It's Magic" (by the band Pilot) when we said I do.

Basically our wedding was like a huge family reunion type BBQ. I wore a white dress (it wsa a bridesmaid dress I bought in white) and DH picked out a pair of Khaki Ralph Lauren pants and a white short sleeve button down RL shirt.

It was awesome.

 

[Aimeedyan]

Hmmm. Let me think.

- we had a congregational "unity" candlelighting. It was gorgeous to see everyone with candles, and we sung a hymn and did a responsive reading during that time.

- we had my "kids" at the time sing the call to worship (kindergarten through 5th graders)

- we did the slideshow of pictures of us growing up (that a lot of people do now) but we ran it to our favorite love songs during the 30 min prior to the ceremony when the musicians usually play instead of the reception. It gave people something fun to watch while waiting (esp those parents that had to get there early for their kids because they were singing!)

- we had 2 really unique cakes, mine was similar to the "mad hatter" lopsided cake that WDW does and featured on that travel channel show but honestly, ours looked better. It was flawless and perfect. Guests kept asking members of my house party if it was real or plastic =) I designed it myself with the baker's help. DHs cake was modeled after his Guild guitar. Both very unbridal but instead very "us"

- we skipped the bouquet/garter toss but I instead presented my bouquet to my great grandmother who had made a huge effort to attend.

- DH had a close girl friend as a groomswoman. I don't think that should be anything unique but evidently it is She wore a black strapless gown and carried a bouquet like the bridesmaids - she was gorgeous!

- I chose pink/purple/red plaid gowns for my bridesmaids. They were stunning in color but the black and white prints looked even more fantastic because it added texture to the pictures.

- we had a dessert reception

 

[Dznypal]

what we since they got engaged at WDW

they had a picture with their mouse bride and groom ears in front of spaceship earth

so we scanned the pic in the computer made them smaller put their names on top with dte on the bottom and wrapped them around hersheys minis!!!

then she got small draw string white bags and put 3 in each alnog with confetti of red hearts, white doves and bells

the girls came over last week and worked on them--I'm still vaccuuming up confetti

my DS got married when we were in Hawaii 2 years ago and we had the reception for them when we got back and we did this for them

so of course DD wanted them too

 

[Jeafl]

- we skipped the bouquet/garter toss but I instead presented my bouquet to my great grandmother who had made a huge effort to attend.

What a wonderful idea! I'm sure it meant the world to her.

 

[mking624]

I had DH walk up the aisle just like everyone else. He came out first before my bridesmaids...and waited up front. A lot of people told us afterwards that they really liked how we did that.

This was by accident, but my baby brother (then only a year and a half) was supposed to be one of the ring bearers and walk up with my then 10 yr old brother. He had been sick that entire week and he didn't want to go with anyone but my dad. So when my dad was giving me away, he had me on one arm, and in the other arm he held my baby brother (whow as holding his favorite stuffed animal). I loved it. I adore my baby brother and was in the room when my mom was giving birth to him, so I thought it was just fitting.

At our reception, not only did I have a father/daughter dance, I also had a grandfather/granddaughter dance. I was super close to my grandfather so having a dance just for me and him was something I really wanted to do.

This has become really popular at a lot of weddings now, but we didn't see it happening very often when we got married (6 years ago), but we had a few disposable cameras at each table at our reception to allow our guests to take pics of the reception. Some of the pics we saw afterwards were sweet, some were just odd and candid, and some were downright hilarious. We loved it.

Aside from groomsmen, we had 2 ushers who acted more like our "attendants." One was a friend DH chose, one was a friend I chose. I had known my friend since I was 12 years old and wanted him to be a part of the wedding. Our ushers stood one on each side of the church...mine stood of to the side of my bridesmaids, DH's stood off to the side of the groomsmen. Mine held my personal vows for me as well and gave them to me when it was time to read them. We had them sit at the table with our parents and siblings.

 

[aunt kelly]

I'm very traditional and so is DH. Our wedding was very traditional, except for the colors. It was a winter wedding and my bridesmaids wore simple tea length black velvet dresses and carried a bouquet of red roses. My DH and his groomsmen wore black tuxes w/ red rose boutineers.

Some people are horrified when I tell them my bridesmaids wore black but I thought the combination of black, white (my wedding dress) and a touch of red was eloquent. I thought the pictures of the entire wedding party at the front of the church were beautiful.

 

[LindsayDunn228]

The grandparents were seated to "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music, my fave movie of all time.

When it was time for us to kiss, my husband got down on one knee. Being in a wheelchair it was really personal for us to kiss face-to-face instead of him leaning down.

 

[tinkluver06]

dd12 and I just watched the sound of music yesterday......

 

[kdibattista]

DH had to have zoot suit tux and it turned out pretty good. The guys looked great. We also had a bag piper lead us back down the aisle (and also played outside the church). His firehouse surprised us with the firetrucks outside of the church.

 

[Jeanny]

Well, I went to a wedding which had a lot of different personal touch's.

As we entered the Church, the bride & groom were standing there having their reception line BEFORE the ceremony. At first, I thought I was late and had missed the ceremony. It was a little weird, but as they explained, this way they were able to relax and see everyone as they came in and got to chat with them etc. (Some people couldn't come to the reception, just the ceremony).

They had a "bus limo" pick the entire wedding party up at the hotel and they all drove to the church & then to the reception together. That way all got to experience the pre-wedding festivities together!

At their reception, the groom's sister put a slide show set to music of them growing up, it was cute to see them in a different light than just co-workers.

The bride didn't throw her bouquet, they had all married couples up on the dance floor and the DJ eliminated couples married 5 years, then 10 years, then 20, etc., etc. etc. until the only couple up on the floor were the great grandparents who were married 65 years. They got the bouquet.

Another thing they did was -- no annoying, ear-spliting, clinking of the glasses to make the bride & groom kiss during the reception... instead if you wanted them to kiss, YOU had to get up and sing a song in front of everyone. Their 4 year old Nephew sang "can you feel the love tonight" Yeah, they kissed!!!

They did the "pass the dollar" to get the table centerpiece. The person who ended up with the dollar had to go up and give the dollar to the groom, and the person who gave the original dollar got the centerpiece.

 

[torismom]

I had 2 male bridesmaids stand up for me. We were very close and it only made since for them to be standing with me on my very special day.

I also walked down the asile to Cannon in D instead of the traditional wedding march. We had a harpist who played during the ceremony and reception.

 

[Stepharoonie!]

Well, during our sand ceremony part, I forgot to put in the paper "funnels" for the vases, and I ended up spilling a lot of my sand on the floor. Whoops! Lots of laughter I also tried to kiss my husband WAY before it was time to "kiss the bride" and the Pastor loudly announced it wasn't time for that yet... More laughter

I carried my husband's baby bonnet wrapped around my flowers.

My dress was very non-traditional. Red and white. My hubby was in the loonnnnggggggggg "old west" tux coat. All of the guys in the wedding party were dressed that way. Very cool.

Our cake was made by a friend, and it looked like a Mad Hatter cake. A lot of people thought the cake was falling over, but it was made to look like that.

Our table names were words on the tables...metal signs that I had found like "love", "friends", "giggle", etc.

And my daughter was our flowergirl. She spent the whole time going down the aisle telling the ring bearer how to throw flowers

 

[pilikia97]

I let my bridesmaids pick their own dresses. The only requirements I asked for were choose either deep green or burgundy (my theme colors for our December wedding) and to try to get some kind of flowing detail at the back of the dress which echoed the short train my gown had at the back. One bridesmaid chose a princess cut burgundy gown and the other chose an A-line style in deep green, both had a long sash-like drape of fabric attached at the back waist so it echoed my dress really well

My dad could not bear a full tux so he got to wear just the shirt and jacket (can't remember if he did the cumberbund or not) with a pair of brand spankin new Black Levi 505's and his black cowboy boots, lol. DH family are all New York traditional Italians so our wedding was way more casual than they ever usually see, and everybody just thought my dad was the best lookin' guy there, lol!

DH wore the Mickey vest and tie with his tux, of course, and I echoed with CZ Mickey head jewelry

 

[RadioFanatic]

we tried to do a lot of fun things:

1. we had two MOH's and Best Men
2. When saying our vows, we faced the congregation and the priest had his back to them
3. everyone in the congregation had a candle for the lighting of the unity candle
4. dh and I spoke of those who we wanted there and were not (grandparents) and gave roses to their spouses in remembrance of them
5. we had a bagpiper lead us out of the church and into the reception
6. after dinner, the DJ started playing "HOT, HOT, HOT" and the staff passed out glow sticks, leis, sun glasses, etc. and we partied all night with them - the pix are hysterical b/c my grandmothers were covered in leis, glow stick necklaces and sunglasses.
7. Our wedding cake was made into a story book with a castle coming out of it b/c we always said it was like a fairytale wedding - around it we had all of the wedding pix of our parents and grandparents

 

[puffkin]

Our wedding was fairly traditional........

When we walked into our reception they played "When you Wish Upon A Star" The DJ ran over to us with the microphone and said "Troy and Kelly, now that you just got married, what are you going to next" and we yelled "We're going to Disney World" which was true!

As a surprise for the last song of the night, the DJ played the Mickey Mouse Club theme song.

 

[mickeyboat]

Well, my mom put a troll doll bride and groom on our bread plates before we got to the reception. I decorated some "ballet slippers" to wear under my dress at the reception so I didn't have to wear those uncomfortable heels any longer than I had to. I made chocolates as wedding favors which people left on the table because they thought they looked like guest bathroom soaps. There was a bat flying around the church when DH arrived on the morning of the wedding, so he and his groomsmen captured and released it before I got there.

Denae