S/O--weddings--what was yours like

[Ottakee]

I was reading the destination wedding thread and thought WOW, my life is really different. First, next weekend will be the FARTHEST I have EVER gone for a wedding---about 5 hours away for our former pastor's son. Dh and I are doing for the entire weekend as a "get away" for us as well.

 

Back to our wedding--almost 18 years ago. Entire cost for the church wedding and reception was $500.

 

Dh wore a suit coat his parents' bought him. I wore a very nice wedding dress my friend had worn a few years ago. Best man wore a suit coat he had and maid of honor wore a prom dress she had--so no cost for wedding attire.

 

Our decorations were simple and our wedding gift from 2 ladies at church. Another one made the cake as her gift. Our rehersal dinner was pizza eaten in the room next to the kitchen at church.

 

Our reception was simple in the gym of the church and the meal was under $400 for everyone.

 

It was simple, not fancy at all. I think the farthest anyone came was about an hour, maybe 2 at most.

 

I think we spent $500 on our week long honeymoon as well.

 

We are very happily married almost 18 years later and had a wedding paid for in cash---we had to pay as I was raised by a single mom who would not have had money to pay for a wedding. Honestly, we didn't even think of anyone else paying. If we wanted it, we paid for it.

 

I still get comments on how NICE our wedding was. People will say that the focus was on the bride and groom and their wedding vows without a lot of distractions, etc.

 

I have NO problem with people who chose other types of weddings. I just hate to think of young couples (or their parents) feeling a lot of financial pressure to have the "perfect" wedding and ending up in debt over it.

[sheryl]

Sounds good. Yes, the focus on the bride and groom and not the other components of the wedding. How tragic it would be if the flowers were remembered over the happy couple.

 

We were married in my home state of Ohio. I chose the 2nd to the least expensive wedding dress...my parents could not afford much. I didn't have another dress to wear. My dad was in public school administration for his career and that profession is not high paying. My 2 bridesmaids wore bridesmaids dresses.

 

We did have a church wedding, flowers and music. No sit down dinner.

 

It was in no way a fancy wedding even 30 years ago when we married. By today's standards it would be considered even less. But, that's OK with me.

 

2 days later on a Tuesday...while we were honeymooning ;) our villa unit caught on fire. We were actually in a game room on the complex playing foos ball. When we returned the entire unit was in flames and spreading. We were safe, had the clothes on the back and our car. THAT'S IT! So, I'm glad we had our little modest wedding, for 3 days later we were to be confronted with this crisis.

 

We were very grateful! S <><

[littlebug42]

My dh and I had a pretty big wedding but we did it within our means and both of our families helped with the wedding. We had a lot of people travelling from all over the country and we wanted to make the most of it. It was a several day event.

 

On Thursday evening, a couple that was in our wedding hosted a get together for the others. We got to visit, watch movies etc. Very laid back.

 

On Friday, I took my 7 bridesmaids and flower girl to Olive Garden for lunch. That evening, we had the rehearsal and dinner, deep fried turkeys, hosted by dh's parents.

 

Saturday was the wedding. We got married at 1:30 PM in the afternoon with about 200 guests. Afterwards, was a reception at the church with catering paid for by in laws. That evening, we had a casual party for friends etc at the clubhouse of the apartments where I worked. We ordered a lot of pizza for everyone and had a keg and other beverages.

 

On Sunday morning, my Mom paid for a catered brunch for all of the out of town family and wedding party. We opened all of our gifts and visited with everyone one last time. That afternoon, we left for our honeymoon in the Poconos. My Mother also bought my wedding dress.

 

It was a big weekend but it gave us an opportunity to really spend some time with those that travelled so far to be with us. We were engaged for 1.5 years prior to the service so we paid for things as we went along and kept it all within a budget. We had friends and family that chipped in and it was just the perfect weekend. We just celebrated our 12th anniversary.

[ktgrok]

http://www.belladrum.co.uk/pages/weddings.aspWe were married in Scotland, but it was just the two of us. When my husband proposed he suprised me by saying that he had the money saved to take me to Scotland for our honeymoon. I've ALWAYS felt drawn to Scotland. I was thrilled, but worried about how we would afford the wedding and such an extravagent honeymoon. (we actually spent less on the honeymoon than I had expected...my husband is an amazing bargain shopper/traveler). Anyway, I didn't want an expensive wedding, but my husband wanted it to be something special and romantic. What we ended up doing was getting married while we were in Scotland, in a tiny candlelit chapel in the Highlands. I wore a dress I bought online and he wore a rented kilt. We had no flowers, just my bouquet which was made of heather and thistles. We did pay for a videographer and photographer so that we could share the event with our family when we got home. We ate dinner afterwards in the hotel pub where we were given a free glass of wine. We ate a traditional wedding fruitcake in our room later. And when we got back we held a huge, casual party for our friends and family where I cooked traditional scottish food and we showed our wedding video. Oh, and my husband made a cake that looked like the loch ness monster ;)

[DarlaS]

I was reading the destination wedding thread and thought WOW, my life is really different. First, next weekend will be the FARTHEST I have EVER gone for a wedding---about 5 hours away for our former pastor's son. Dh and I are doing for the entire weekend as a "get away" for us as well.

 

Back to our wedding--almost 18 years ago. Entire cost for the church wedding and reception was $500.

 

Dh wore a suit coat his parents' bought him. I wore a very nice wedding dress my friend had worn a few years ago. Best man wore a suit coat he had and maid of honor wore a prom dress she had--so no cost for wedding attire.

 

Our decorations were simple and our wedding gift from 2 ladies at church. Another one made the cake as her gift. Our rehersal dinner was pizza eaten in the room next to the kitchen at church.

 

Our reception was simple in the gym of the church and the meal was under $400 for everyone.

 

It was simple, not fancy at all. I think the farthest anyone came was about an hour, maybe 2 at most.

 

I think we spent $500 on our week long honeymoon as well.

 

We are very happily married almost 18 years later and had a wedding paid for in cash---we had to pay as I was raised by a single mom who would not have had money to pay for a wedding. Honestly, we didn't even think of anyone else paying. If we wanted it, we paid for it.

 

I still get comments on how NICE our wedding was. People will say that the focus was on the bride and groom and their wedding vows without a lot of distractions, etc.

 

I have NO problem with people who chose other types of weddings. I just hate to think of young couples (or their parents) feeling a lot of financial pressure to have the "perfect" wedding and ending up in debt over it.

 

I had almost the identical wedding! Right down to the $500. I wore my mother's wedding dress and dh rented a tux and shoes. My parents stood up for us. Oh, and we are even fellow Michiganders who just celebrated our 18th anniversary! :D

 

I do wish we had hired a photographer though. That is my one regret. Nearly every picture of that day turned out poorly in some way. :sad:

[*lifeoftheparty*]

.

[Mandamom]

Our wedding:

 

One Friday I was at work and dh called me at work and asked if I would take off to go get married at the courthouse. After a little while I agreed so we went to a cheapy department store to get wedding rings and then to the courthouse.

 

We had to call friends and family that night to tell them the news.

 

We had both had been previously married with big weddings so this time we just wanted to do the quick and easy thing.

 

 

Our honeymoon which was 3 months later was a week long trip exploring Lake Placid and Vermont. We had no reservations or any plans.

 

We've never done anything like that since.

Edited December 11, 2010 by Mandamom

[Brindee]

We had a small wedding, and it didn't cost very much. I definitely wanted a church wedding, and we looked at 3 or 4 in the area we wanted to get married before we found a little one we could afford! In fact, the church ended up choosing, had just been remodeled, it matched our wedding colors....AND, since we were the first ones to get married after the remodel, they charged us $20 for the use of the church, the people to take care of lighting and sound board guy, and the attached room for our reception! The neat thing about that was that the main guy from the church that opened up and ran things was the dad of a very close friend I'd had when young, and we were both thrilled to see each other again! Our organist didn't want to charge us, but we insisted, so she finally would only take $20. A friend came and did the flowers for free! She had a friend who lived in Hawaii and was independently wealthy. That friend (who didn't even know me) flew over to help my friend, and brought fresh orchids and other flowers from Hawaii to use in the bouquets! One of my good college friend's parents (whom I called Mom and Dad) catered the informal reception without charge. Anyway, we ended up with a gorgeous little wedding for way cheaper than it could have been! Our honeymoon was paid for from money we'd saved specifically for that. My dress was the cheapest one I could find that I really liked. There was one I liked better but it was $800, and we couldn't do that!!! I found the one I got on a huge sale because it was the last one of that kind and they were taking it out of stock. I think it was $180, and I thought that was soooo much to pay! :tongue_smilie:

 

My parents had absolutely no money to help. My dh and I paid for everything on our own. Like ottakee people still bring up how special/beautiful our wedding was, and how happy we were (and still are)!

 

I can't imagine spending thousands of $$ just for the wedding dress ................... then you have the wedding and honeymoon and all else that's involved!!!! :001_huh::blink:

 

We are VERY happily married 22 (nearing 23) years later! :001_tt1::001_wub: I feel very very blessed and didn't go into debt! :D

Edited December 11, 2010 by Brindee

[cathmom]

We had a very nice, elegant wedding in NJ in 1994 for less than $5000 (about 90 people attending, I think). We got married in the Catholic church where my dh had made all his sacraments. My dress was made by a friend of mine who just happened to be a seamstress who specialized in wedding gowns. She made me a copy of a dress that I loved for half the price, and she made the slip, the veil, and the ring pillow included. She also made the bridesmaids' dresses. My dream for my wedding was always to have a dress made for me so that was wonderful! Dh wore a rented tux.

 

The reception was in a historic building. We had a sit-down dinner (a sit-down is cheaper than a buffet) with a piano player. Our cake was chocolate with a white chocolate fondant on top. My mom did the flowers. Dh's uncle, who was a professional photographer, took our pictures for us as a wedding gift. He then sent us the negatives and a set of prints. We had an open bar. My dad bought all the liquor from a discount liquor store, and the guy told him to return anything that wasn't opened and he'd refund it. So I think our liquor ended up being less than $100. We did hire a videographer.

 

So we really had a beautiful wedding for not too much money. I don't think any guest attending would have had any idea where we cut corners. In fact, one guest (the girlfriend of one of the groomsmen) confided in me that she had never been to a wedding like ours, and she had been in a tizzy not knowing what to wear!

[Annie]

We got married by one of our best friends in my aunt's living room at 9am on a Sunday morning. It was literally the day after we graduated from college. I think there were thirteen of us there in total. We had fruit and delicious hot ham with fresh baked rolls. It was perfect for us. After we got married, we left right for the airport. We went to DC for a week (we're not beach people, and DC has a lot of fun, free things to do) for a honeymoon. When we got back, we had our aunts, uncles, and close friends join us for dinner at a yummy restaurant.

 

The ceremony only cost us the ham, fruit, and gift for our friend. My FIL payed for our flight and DC hotel, and my parents probably spent $2000 on dinner.

 

 

ETA - I wore jeans and flip flops. :tongue_smilie:

Edited December 11, 2010 by Annie

[mom4him]

Ottakee, your wedding sounds a lot like mine. We had maybe 50 guest(I hand wrote the invitiations). I made my dress, the brides maid and flower girls dress. My dh did buy a new suit which he wore for years after. I think we spent $15 on flowers. A lady at the church made our wedding cake as a gift also. I really do not know what the total cost was but I can tell you I paid for anything that cost as my parents did NOT want me to get married. I only made $20 a month working for a couple of hrs at the school cafeteria.

 

Our honeymoon? well we waited 3 months as we lived on a small cattle ranch and it was the end of May. No time for a honey moon. I was cooking for a branding crew within the first week of marriage.

 

We have been married 43 1/2 yrs.

[Garga]

30 guests

1 teeny pink and white wedding cake, bought at a shop: about $50

I wore a pink and cream sun dress with hot pink shoes: $40 dress/$30 shoes

Dh wore a suit. I think he bought it new. Probably cost up to $100.

Bridesmaid and best man wore their Sunday best.

2 tiny bouquets and 2 whatchamacallits for the men: I think about $50

Sandwiches from the grocery store: $50

Drinks, mints, chips, etc: who knows. I can't remember.

Friend brought homemade soup: free for me

Balloons: got married in a small room and covered the entire ceiling with hot air balloons; prob $200

 

Total: little over $500

 

Honeymoon was along the same lines. Went on day trips: Went to Wash DC for the day, stayed overnight at Skyline drive, went to Gettysburg for the day. Cost: gas, 1 night at a hotel, meals.

 

 

Been married 18 years. (And this is the first year in my marriage that we have something on the top of our Christmas tree! I wish I'd bought something for the top years ago. It looks so nice.)

[JenneinCA]

We got married the day after we graduated from college at a little church a few miles away from campus(upstate NY), near all our college friends, across the country from my parents (CA) and other relatives (South Dakota), and several hours from my MIL to be (Maine), and an ocean away from my FIL to be (Guam). We picked the location because it was convenient for our friends and not for any other reason.

 

My parents arrived a few days before the big day(s) and reminded me of all the wedding things I had forgotten to do. Most notably upon walking into the church my mother asked, "Where did you get the flowers?" and I replied, "What flowers?" There was a flower shop diagonally across the street from the church. They did an excellent job creating flowers on less than a week's notice. The cake was an ice cream cake bought at Carvel. We put a Lego created bride and groom on top and called it good. The music was a cd that my roommate put in a boom box and played from the balcony. I got to walk in to "When You Wish Upon A Star." It was a big deal to me at the time.

 

The rehearsal happened several days before the big day (remember graduation was the day before). There was no graduation dinner. All the families involved went out after graduation and we went from there.

 

The wedding looked very much like a couple of geeks were getting married. Supposedly my grandmother was appalled that we didn't do everything right. I didn't really notice. The other grandchildren have done much more formal weddings that were 'nicer'.

 

I am not sure how much the wedding actually cost. My parents arrived in town and realized I had not planned well enough for their tastes and paid for stuff I didn't think I needed. (like the flowers)

 

We have been married for a 17 and a half years. Formal or not, it worked!

[kalanamak]

We got married around lunch time in the sunny hallway in front of the cath lab. Baby was best man, and since it was Halloween, he was dressed like a pumpkin. The hospital chaplain, whom I really liked, signed the papers, and a couple of nurses stole some white rice from the kitchen and showered us.

 

I had a young woman with a blood clot downstairs who i'd seen to, but told her I had to come back in half an hour to finish because I was off to get married. It is rare a comment I make as a doctor lights up a patient with such a smile. Of that day, that is what I remember the most.

[KatieJ]

We got married in my parents back yard, under a weeping willow tree that had been there since my Dad was a child. ( He grew up there). There were trees in the background that my Dad had planted and which he later had to cut down and made into tables for each of us kids.

I made my dress. Dinner was catered in the back yard under a big tent.

Music was a guitar player firend of the family and my sister sang.

The man who married us, married all of my brothers and sisters ( 7 of us( and later both of my daughters.

Later I threw my bouquet from the front steps ..exactly the same spot as my Mother had thrown her bouquet from on her wedding day.

[Annie]

We got married the day after we graduated from college...

 

Wow! I thought I was the only insane person to do this! I had zero issues falling asleep the night before our wedding because I was absolutely exhausted from exam week and moving out of my college apartment. That week was crazy. I stressed about none of the normal wedding stuff because there just wasn't time or energy. :)

[specialmama]

We got married in our church in Toronto, in front of 80 guests. Our reception was at a semi-swanky hotel where we hired a harpist to entertain while we did our photo shoot. We had a morning wedding with a huge buffet lunch. We did not do a dance, just lunch and speeches. All was done by 4pm. We did go overboard with food and wine though, mostly because of my in-laws (they're Greek and could not believe we weren't doing a dance) so the food won them over. We had a fancy car rental (caddy, I believe) and our bridal party consisted of 3 people standing for us on each side. My dress was expensive I thought (at $2000) and my mom is a magnificent florist so she did all our flowers. We went to a cheesecake factory and custom ordered 3 different flavoured cheesecakes for our wedding cake, which my mom adorned with orchids matching my bouquet. All together, our cost was about $25,000.00 not including honeymoon. For our honeymoon we stayed close to home (2 hrs away at most) and drove to 3 different places over the course of a week: a b&b, then a rental cottage and the last 3 days were spent at a terribly romantic resort. I've always wanted to go there again. If I could do it all over I'd have less guests, maybe 30 tops, and I'd hire a professional photographer instead of my friend who ruined most of my pics. :glare: I think I'd shrink our cost down to $5000 if I could do it over and not worry so much about pleasing my FIL and MIL.

[Renthead Mommy]

Well we were going to get married "one of these days", but my husband was up for a resident position, and we realized we were better off financially to get married then rather than wait. So with two weeks notice, we threw it together in my best friend's parents back yard.

 

We didn't tell anyone really. Mainly because telling people would have made it spiral out of control. ("Well if we invite this one, then there are another 8 that come along from that group.") In total it was 17 people.

 

My bf's mom made a ton of food (way more than she originally planned. She got excited and it got a little out of hand!). We copied a bunch of music to tapes (yes TAPES!). I even broke down and wore a dress. (Bought at the Sears "bridal department" LOL! Which 6 years later I still had, so I cut it up to make a christening gown for the kiddo out of.) We even spur of the moment decided to add in attendents and do a flower/garter toss. Okay it was really more of a hand off to my bf and her boyfriend. (BIL actually stepped backwards to get away from the garter. Just over a bitter divorce! LOL!)

 

Biggest regret - Our judge friend couldn't do it, so we settled on minister, and he was sort of annoying. It wasn't until after I found out my bf's parents could have gotten another judge they were friends with or the mayor.

 

Coolest thing - friend of bf's mom just happened to stop by, clueless about the wedding. We sent her next door, which was a high ranch house, so the porch was second floor level. She took the best picture looking down on all 17 of us standing together in the back yard!

 

Other cool thing - the bakery screwed up and instead of 6" tier and an 8" tier cake, they sent a 8" tier and a 10" or 12" tier. For 17 people. Bummer! Had to take all that extra chocolate cake, with raspberry filling ontop chocolate mouse layer home! (Hey the wedding was over - I didn't have to fit into a dress then! LOL!)

 

After it was all over, we told all our friends (the ones that weren't there, and hadn't been told we were even getting married) we'd gotten married. We got two different responses. Single friends - How could you do that to us??? Married friends - That was such a cool idea! I so wish we would have thought of that! So much easier! LOL! Now that just cracked me up!

 

Oh and when I told my grandparents three weeks later, they took it very well. As I walked off the porch I caught my G'ma smacking my G'father on the leg and heard "See! I told you she wasn't pregnant!":eek: They weren't there because my cousin was graduating high school as valedictorian the night before and there was no way they could go to that and then get the 12hours out to us. She worked really hard for that. I was just having a party. They would have had to chose between us. I didn't tell them so they didn't have to choose. I never thought of it as a big deal, but my g'parents made it out to be this big thing and made them really happy.

Edited December 11, 2010 by Renthead Mommy

[Shawna in Texas]

My wedding cost a total of $600 total. That includes the dress, shoes, cake, venue, and lunch for about 30 people. The only thing I regret is that we didn't take a proper honeymoon, since I had a baby three weeks before our first anniversary. We stayed at a Fairfied Marriot and we at least sprang for a jacuzzi suite, but dh got food poisoning from Red Lobster. And I'd forgot to bring something to tie my hair back with, so I was scared of the jacuzzi. I was 20, he was 19, and I was living with my grandparents at the time, and they disapproved of me moving in with him. Plus, they bought me a car and I didn't have anything against marriage, so we put one together. My grandfather offered to pay for lunch buffets at Sirloin Stockade for everyone and I couldn't refuse. I knew I'd want to tell that story later. After everyone was fed, we all met at a strip center in Austin, I believe called "The Wedding Chapel". All my nearest and dearest were there, but only 3 people from dh's side showed up. Turns out his mother didn't tell anyone we were getting married because it wasn't in the church. But, that's fine. My family thoroughly horrified her (sister is loud, cousin likes to moon cameras, and my 2yo sister rolled around the aisle the whole ceremony, honestly, I should put in on youtube, but I don't have a digital copy handy).

 

Shawna, who talks a lot when she's had a drink

[gaillardia]

Funny thread. I like reading about your weddings and the side notes.

We got married outside, in the woods at the farm museum, on a nice late spring afternoon in Maryland. We had about 30-40 guests.

My sister made a garland of fresh forget-me-nots for my head. She put together bouquets of azalea, rhododendron, lilies, iris and hosta. The flowers were all from my mom's and dh's mom's gardens.

We had big baskets of peonies too.

My dress was a white gunne-sax I bought with my graduation money ($80). My dh wore white pants and white shirt.

A Mormon missionary married us. No one but dh and I could hear what he was saying, we had no microphone.

We went to the Outer Banks then on to Florida.

[brewer13399]

Ours was pretty cheap. We have been married for 9 yrs. We wanted a small and intimate ceremony. My dad actually married us since he could, and we had only our parents there (his mom and dad and step parents and then my parents). My dress was $80 and his shirt was $25. We had just a few decorations and then after we had a family dinner which was $200. My aunt made the cake and we had a bridal shower to share the occasion with family and friends.

[BethInNH]

We ran off to Vegas, and got married here: http://www.alittlewhitechapel.com/ :D

[Crimson Wife]

We got engaged in May '98 and started planning a big Catholic wedding and reception for June 2000. DH left to start his Army service obligation on November 1st. I was so miserable without him and he was so miserable without me that when I went to visit him for Thanksgiving, he asked me to get married after I graduated college the next month and I agreed.

 

We went down to see the Catholic chaplain on base to ask if he would marry us. He told us that there was a 6 month waiting period and the only exceptions were for terminal illness of an immediate family member or if DH was about to deploy to a combat zone. Neither applied, so then the priest made a recommendation that I now know to be completely contrary to Church teachings- go get married in a civil ceremony & just have the marriage blessed by the Church at a later date. :svengo:

 

So we got married by a drunk :glare: Kentucky judge with no family and only a fellow lieutenant and his then-girlfriend as witnesses. Classy, huh? :lol: I had decided that the fancy wedding gown I'd bought was too formal for the civil ceremony so I wore an ivory lace cocktail dress from my closet. We went out for a dinner cruise on the Spirit of Louisville that night to celebrate. The whole thing cost us less than $100.

 

In June of 2000 we did have a real wedding & reception. My parents gave me a budget of $25k (which is what the average was for New England weddings at the time) but said that if I could get the costs down to half that, they'd give us the difference in cash towards a down payment on a house when we were ready to buy. :)

[KidsHappen]

It was my hubby, his mom, my dd and I in front of a JP. Less than a 10 minutes ceremony but it will be our 20th anniversary on Sunday! :001_wub:

[myfunnybunch]

Small wedding at a B&B.

 

I had a very simple dress made for $200.

 

We got our cake (and some amazing sample cakes) really cheap from a small start-up bakery that has since become the most popular patisserie in town.

 

The wedding consultant (part of the wedding package at the B&B) thought I was nuts when I said I didn't care what color flowers I had on the tables so long as they were pretty and within my small budget.

 

And we all still laugh, because I was still up the stairs and just as the bridal music started, our neighbor's son with autism walked in dressed in a Darth Maul costume he'd smuggled in under his jacket. His mother was mortified, my MIL was horrified, and everyone else thought we'd planned it as a joke.

 

Cat

[Heather in Neverland]

I had a beautiful cinderella wedding with all the trimmings. It was perfect! My dress was amazing, the service was by candelight, the banquet hall, everything was all I ever dreamed of.

 

But I was careful about WHAT we spent the money on. I saw an episode on Oprah shortly before our wedding about money and weddings. They interviewed people COMING OUT OF THE RECEPTION and asked the specific questions (what color were the bridesmaids dresses? what did the table centerpieces look like? etc)

 

The guests could not remember ANYTHING except the FOOD, the BOOZE and the ENTERTAINMENT.

 

Everything else? Totally forgotten. So we made sure we had the best DJ and spent more of our money on food and the bar and we went much cheaper on centerpieces and flowers and what-not.

[Peela]

Ours was cheap too, and in our backyard. Our two kids were present, ages 3 and 5 at the time.

I actually had 8 family members travel across Australia to be at my wedding which completely blew me away. I never expected them to. To me we were already married and this was just something that was important to my dh (to get married- hey, it is his third marriage!) But they came.

We had maybe 40 guests- we asked that instead of presents (since our home was well established and we didnt need more stuff) they bring a plate of food and some flowers. We supplied alcohol (we drank at that time).

It was lovely, paid for, not a big deal but I was very touched that my family came.

[Gratia271]

This thread is so timely, as I am getting ready to celebrate my wedding anniversary. My wedding day was exactly what I wanted, an intimate candlelight ceremony in a beautiful church surrounded by those we were closest to during snowy December. Four members of the symphony performed classical music selections, and an outstanding tenor sang a tribute to my parents. At our dinner reception, a jazz band played all of my husband's favorites. It was perfect.

[Liza Q]

I love reading about weddings!

 

We planned our wedding in about 1 month. We wanted something really small but my parents wanted more family so we compromised on a great restaurant with a room that sat 50 and she paid for the meal.

 

It was sort of a destination wedding as I was living in Massachusetts but we were both from NYC. I have a realllllly large family but I don't believe that anyone was offended. Actually, I know that several suspected that I was pregnant (I wasn't) so maybe they figured I had to get married in a hurry - whatever. And both my grandmothers came, one from Puerto Rico, so I was pretty happy.

 

The dress was a prom dress - seriously, only an insane girl would have worn this to the prom!!!! - that I got for half price, $150.

 

I had a girlfriend who did calligraphy and we (I just used my best handwriting!) hand wrote the invitations. We put some silver confetti in the envelopes to make it more festive. I think the invitations and clothing were all I bought myself. I borrowed the headpiece and real pearls from other friends and I felt beautiful!

 

All the flowers were a gift from my favorite aunt, who was also the matron of honor. She and my sister were my only attendants and I told them to buy whatever dress they liked that fit them both. I didn't go with them becasue I knew they would look fine. They ended up with pink Gunne Sax dresses so I told the restaurant my color was pink and we had pink napkins on the table!

 

My uncle (my favorite aunt's husband) was best man, as my husband was great friends with him long before we started dating. He drove me to the church in his lovely Lincoln Continental - worked for me! The men (we had my brothers and two cousins - uneven but oh well!) rented tuxes.

 

My friend took the pictures - they came out ok. Another uncle had a video camera - again, came out ok. Dress, invitations, place, food, flowers, car, pictures/video - I guess that is all we spent. Oh - I think the church was like $25. so they could get it cleaned up for service the next day.

 

We drove to our new apartment in his Nissan Sentra and he carried me over the threshold, which was very sweet. We had a bed ;), some folding chairs and some kitchen stuff. We ordered Dominos Pizza and ate it off the ironing board - very romantic.

 

We took a honeymoon six months later - spent a week in Disney World and a week with his grandmother and other relatives who were dying to meet me.

[Princess Peach]

We had a fairytale wedding! Everything was absolutely perfect. I wore my Mom's wedding dress, which I had wanted to wear since I was 4 yo. It fit perfectly and needed no alterations. My parents 30th anniversary was a couple days after we got married.

 

Our wedding party came from 4 different states and 2 different countries. In fact, of the eighty or so people in attendance, only 3 were from the state in which we had the wedding.

 

My parents paid for everything. I think they spent around $10,000 or so. I planned it with my mom. We still talk about what a special time it was for us.

 

DH's parents paid for the rehearsal dinner, which was really special, too.

 

DH and I paid for the honeymoon. We went to Paris and it was spectacular!

 

Tomorrow is the 14th anniversary of DH's proposal to me. He is a dream come true!

[....]

We got married in a tiny inner-city church in Chicago. I had 5 guests. The reception was in the basement of the church. We bought the decorations the night before at Party City. Oh well...:glare: Hey, we're still married! :001_smile:

[elegantlion]

I never dreamed of having a big wedding. Ours took place in the chapel of a medical center, mainly because we wanted something small, and my dh's mother worked at one of the schools attached to the med center. The chaplain married us, she was great. My dress came from JCP, we rented his tux. My bridesmaid wore off the rack dresses that I'm sure they wore again and again :lol:.

 

We had immediate family and some friends and that was it. Dh's sister made the cake (which she did for a living), dh's uncle took pictures (which he didn't do for a living), and we requested camping gear for wedding gifts.

 

We took our honeymoon the next month. We camped on the grounds of Atlanta Motor Speedway to watch Richard Petty's final race. It was record cold, the camp showers were not working and I wore a hat for about five days. Dh would get up each morning and brew coffee on the Coleman stove. 18 years later he still makes the coffee in the morning, funny I just thought of that.

[kewb]

I had the big fairy tale wedding. 245 guests. Dh has a really large family. The guests left saying exactly what I wanted them to say "The food was great. I could have danced all night. My feet hurt from dancing and I am tired."

 

I did get married the day after the big Nor'Easter of '92. I had no heat or hot water the day of my wedding. I had to shower and get ready at my aunt's house. My neighbor let me use her house for the makeup artist I had coming to do everyone's makeup. Up until 10 hours before our wedding the place where we were getting married had no power. Due to the weather the best man was still circling the airport when we started taking photos. Most of the bridal party was coming from out of town and all had adventures getting to our wedding. Our Rabbi almost didn't make it because of the weather. To put the cherry on top-our photographer skipped town while we were on our honeymoon. Fortunately, my mom had picked up the proofs while we were away and we were able to eventually hunt down the photographer and get our negatives and an album made.

 

Tomorrow we will be celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary.

 

I love weddings. Big ones, small ones, destinations, it doesn't matter. I cry and laugh and bask in the love and promise of two people pledging their lives together.

[mytwomonkeys]

we got married in the chapel of a church in atlanta (i worked there, so the place was free for us). it was traditional but also intimate. i budgeted very carefully, as my parents offered to pay "X" amount of dollars, and whatever was leftover could be used as we saw fit (we went on a honeymoon and bought furniture:D). it cost under $5,000. this included 200 guests, professional photographer, and a reception following. the big money saver was that we didn't offer alcohol (as we don't drink) or dinner at the reception...just heavy hors d'oeuvre. we were engaged in 1999, married in 2000. it was wonderful!!! great memories!

[MeaganS]

We traveled to St. Louis for our wedding, which was about 4 hours away from my husband's family, and 12 hours away from mine, but was the nearest place we could because we're LDS and needed to get married in a temple. After the wedding (which was free!), we had a lunch for those who attended, which was all just family. The next day we traveled to my husband's home for an open house-type reception. The day after that we left on our honeymoon, which was a cruise and was awesome!

 

My dress was simple and so was our open house. Our families would have gladly done more, but it just wasn't our style. We wouldn't have even had the open house except my husband's family is very involved in the community and they really wanted us to. I'm all for a simple wedding. In fact, my mom offered to pay for a reception at our home, or pay for our honeymoon. You can tell which one we chose. :001_smile:

[NanceXToo]

Well. Hm. It's a funny story (sort of) if you can bear with it...

 

I was almost 6 months pregnant with my now 10 year old daughter, to start with :D

 

We were married by a non-denominational minister who my husband knew because the guy A) owned a pool hall my husband liked to shoot pool in, B) had once hired my husband to paint his house, and C) who years later we saw on TV in a knife-throwing contest, doing quite well at it I might add. Did I mention he drove a big yellow Hummer back before it was common to see them around all over the place? Yes, he was a character. He married us in exchange for a bottle of wine at his beautiful, Long Island, water-front home where we didn't get to appreciate the water front view because there were so many gnats that they drove us all crazy and chased us INSIDE of the house to exchange our vows.

 

No-one was in attendance except for my mother, my brother, my ex sister-in-law and my oldest daughter from a previous marriage. Heh.

 

None of us remembered to bring a camera. So the non-denominational minister said that he had some disposable ones and would give us one. So we took it, had some pictures taken, subsequently went to develop them, and NOT A SINGLE ONE came out. Then we found out that the cameras/film had been expired- by several YEARS. So we don't have a single picture of us at our wedding day.

 

We went out to dinner with the family afterward, and then on a two day "honeymoon" to Atlantic City, where I refrained from drinking, because I was pregnant, refrained from getting in the hot tub, because I was pregnant, and didn't do much gambling because I'm really not big on gambling...

 

....ah, good times.

 

And when the result of that pregnancy, my daughter, was around four years old, it was to be our fifth wedding anniversary, and we managed to book a cruise to celebrate that fifth anniversary. You don't even know how tough this was, to arrange someone to watch our two kids, to save up the money for this cruise, etc. We were going with my husband's brother and sister-in-law, we put down our deposits and booked together, we're all excited, and I'm planning all these shore excursions and thinking of all the fun things I'll be able to do and the drinks I'll be able to have, and how this will be a "real" honeymoon because this time I'm not pregnant...

 

...do you see where I'm going with this?

 

....I then got accidentally (SURPRISE!) pregnant with my now 5 year old son.

 

Frantically counting dates on the calendar, I realized that I would be too far along to be legally allowed on this cruise ship. Fortunately, I was able to push it back and go on the same cruise, but a couple of months earlier, and my brother in law and sister in law were able to reschedule too to go with us, and I had to cancel some of those shore excursions (there are some things pregnant women shouldn't or wouldn't want to do), and we went anyway- minus the alcohol and the more adventurous excursions lol.

 

Admit it- you all wish you had a wedding like mine!

 

:lol:

 

(With that said, we just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary last summer at a dude ranch of all places and we brought the kids with us and yes we all had a blast and no I wasn't pregnant. :P)

[MaMa2005]

Total wedding cost in 1981 - $150. That included the church, invitations, my dress and flowers. We will celebrate 30 years in May:hurray:.

 

No honeymoon, just back to work on the following Monday.

 

We often laugh about our wedding and its' cost. Both of DH's siblings had HUGE, expensive weddings and both are now on their second marriages. Cost of wedding does not equal long term happiness.

[FaithManor]

1988 and cost about $1200.00. We had a luncheon reception served buffet style because I didn't want much fuss and my parents were insisting on inviting their entire church family of 350 people. UGH! They made such a scene that we let them do it and the whole day was exhausting for dh and I. The receiving line took TWO HOURS and people would just not move along and all of those strangers insisting on hugging dh and his parents. I hated that.

 

But, the ceremony was nice. We had white silk roses pretty much everywhere with white bows and greens. The girls had lavender gowns and they were made not purchased. My grandma made three of them and the other girls all either sewed or had mothers that sewed so we kept the design simple and tasteful...well...it was the 80's...I look back at those dresses now and snicker about the style. Both little nephews were in the wedding too and my mom made them little white suits...very cute. Mom also made my custom wedding gown. I tried on one that I loved, well loved with the concept of some changes, and she made it using parts from six different wedding gown patterns plus a lot of ingenuity. She also made the flower girls baskets, centerpeice arrangements for the reception, and the ring bearer pillows. My dress only cost $175.00 for the materials.

 

Pictures were taken by dh's uncle who was a semi-professional photographer. My parents only had to pay for the film and half of the developing costs. He turned all of the photos and negatives over to us and we had blow ups of what we wanted. Total cost - $300.00 and pretty much everyone in the family got several very nice pictures. But, here is the silly thing. We spent all of that time picking out photos to blow up for our family members and then never did any for ourselves. So, on our 15th wedding anniversary, dh had an 11x14 of my favorite pose of us framed as a gift. It is still the only big wedding photo that we have.

 

My cake was a total and complete disappointment. The decorator decided, without mentioning it, that she didn't like what we had chosen and CHANGED IT TO SUIT HER SATISFACTION! She was supposed to charge $2.00 per slice and my parents, angry with her over what she had done and with a furious bride who got a glimpse of the cake five minutes before the ceremony started, only gave her $.50 per slice saying that was all it was worth. I found out later that she did the exact same thin to a dear friend of mine (her parents refused to give her more than 1/3 of the bill because of this), which explains why I thought her cake didn't look like something she would normally pick out! She married ahead of me so it sure would have been nice if she had divulged this information before we chose a cake decorator. GRRRRR...

 

My grandfather and my dad walked me down the aisle. Grandpa was a very, very special person in my life and he had also escorted my dear cousin when she got married. I wanted to be married by my uncle, whom I was very close to and who was an ordained minister, but the pastor of my parent's church was quite a control freak and never allowed any other pastor under any circumstances to do any part of a wedding or funeral in HIS church. I couldn't stand the guy and didn't want him to marry us, nor did I want to be married in that church. We actually wanted to be married in the church that is now our house..the same place that my parents, my aunts and uncles, and my brother were married....nothing doing. Dad was a deacon at this other church and felt that it would be a complete embarassment to him as an elder to have his daughter hold her wedding somewhere else. I was young and acquiesed. The funny thing is that my parents and I have a marvelous relationship and dh is like a son to my folks. My wedding is the only time we've all wanted to strangle each other! Weddings just make too many people nuts. Looking back I can see that it sure wasn't worth the grief to argue about it but I still think the day was supposed to be about DH and I and not my parents or their friends. It's funny though...22 years later I still do not keep any wedding photos out that show any of the identifying features of the church we were married in...just close up shots of dh and I. That's how much I did not want to get married in that facility and we now attend church there, though completely different pastor and leadership, and live in the building we wanted to be married in. The full circle of life thing I guess.

 

At any rate, my dress was wonderful, dh is wonderful, and at the end of the day I ended up married to my best friend. That's the important thing.

 

Oh, my bouquet was equisite. The florist attended my parents church and her gift to me was to do all of the live flowers for cost and no labor...so despite the small budget, we had amazing flowers. My bouquet was made of white and lavender roses (she took a piece of the bridesmaids material and dyed the roses to an exact match for me) with lots of greenery and trails two to three feet long that hung both down the fronts and the sides. She surrounded it with leftover lace from my wedding dress and hand beaded it with pearl beads and sequins to catch the light. Dh dried the leaves and flowers and made potpourri from it after our honeymoon.

 

Oh, and we got engaged on my grandparents 53rd wedding anniversary. Dh planned it that way and they received the first phone call after he proposed.

 

So, some things about the wedding were great and other were not but in the end, everything was fine. We are still together and that's what counts. My sister married here in our living room, in front of the big stained glass window we wanted to be married in front of, with the reception of her dreams, decorations of her dreams, cake of straight from heaven, and literally everything picture perfect and she's getting divorced from the man who turned out to be a slime! In the end, so much of this just doesn't matter.

 

Faith

[KatieH]

Ah, well...I was 6 months pregnant and still in high school. :blushing: We got married at the veranda outside the courthouse, just some family and a few friends. Our 10 year anniversary is coming up :001_wub: It was under $100 for the cost of the license and sterling silver rings, etc. No real honeymoon, we just got a hotel room and spent the weekend together!

[susankenny]

S/O--weddings--what was yours like?

 

Awesome! Of course. My husband showed up. I showed up. We both said yes!

 

 

Susan