S\o wedding location:WHY did you get married where you did?

[Catherine]

I mentioned this briefly in my response, but I'll elaborate here: we got married in City Hall, with one friend, one Friday before we went to work. We have a few pictures and we both look absolutely blissful. Our church wedding, strongly wished for by both families, was already well into the planning stages and paid for.

 

I was preggo (planned, believe it or not) but not visibly. Our church wedding was 6 weeks later. Still not showing, which my Mom was extremely grateful for. It was our way of satisfying everyone, including ourselves. No one knew until years later that we were already married that day in the church.

 

I truly understand people who want very small weddings. Ours was so, so special and wonderful, even though it was tiny and short and involved a person we didn't even know. It was our secret, KWIM? I hope I will be able to support my kids in whatever ceremony they choose, assuming some of them at least choose to marry.

[Laura Corin]

Husband and I had met in Taiwan. After five years there, we wanted to move on. Each of our companies offered us transfers. A week before our departure, my company backed out. All our plans were made, so we went anyway. Of course this meant that I did not have a visa to work in the US. We had been engaged for some time but had planned to marry in the UK. We arranged our wedding in the space of two weeks and were married in Northern California. Husband's parents and some old friends made it to the wedding; we later had a wedding party in the UK.

 

Laura

[somo_chickenlady]

We got married at the country club where our reception was held. We were supposed to get married in a church, but they never told us that we needed to put a deposit down (even though we asked) and they gave away our spot. It actually worked out in the end, though, b/c we didn't have to travel between the wedding and the reception, and it limited the number of people that could attend the actual ceremony so we only had our close friends and family members. Everyone else was just invited to the reception.

[Parrothead]

For a very long and convoluted reason I told dh's mother that she could plan what she wanted. I only picked my dress, the colors and the cake. She did everything else and it was held at her (and dh's) church.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Because my MIL wanted it there. I didn't learn to say no to her until much after the wedding.

[Ottakee]

We got married the first Saturday in April. I was student teaching and that was the only week I had off. Ends up we were married a year to the day from our first date.

 

The wedding was at church. I had my sister stand up with me and dh had his brother stand up with him. Everything was super simple and the wedding and reception was under $800 (that was 20 years ago though). I wore a friend's wedding dress. Dh wore a suit coat he bought. My sister wore her prom dress and his brother wore a jacket he had worn to another wedding. Since no one had to match it was easy to do it this way.

 

I don't regret for an instant our simple ceremony and low key buffet style reception.

 

I do regret that for some reason we headed NORTH in MICHIGAN in APRIL and did much of our sight seeing in the SNOW. I also wish we would have spent a bit more for a nice hotel for the wedding night instead of the "romantic cabin" we did get.......which turned out to be more of an "hourly" establishment. :scared: At least we have a lot of memories and stories.

[Wheres Toto]

Dh and I were engaged and planning a wedding for May. To save money, dd and I were moving in with dh in October. Because dd was at an age where I was worried about the impression we were giving, and to save money on medical insurance (I had, dh didn't), we decided to have a small town hall wedding, not tell anyone but dd and our witnesses, and still have the wedding in May. We had stopped any birth control (because all I ever heard was how hard it would be/how long it would take to get pregnant given my age (35) and dh's age (48)) and instead I was pregnant two weeks after the wedding. So, we never did go through with the church wedding since I would have been about 6 months pregnant. We announced our pregnancy and our marriage to everyone at Christmas.

[Durriyyah]

Our wedding was really small, and we just did the paperwork in the imam's (like a pastor) office with our friends, but not our family. When we finished signing everything and did our vows, we walked out to eat with our immediate family members and that was it.

 

I would have liked something bigger, but we knew that his parents disapproval would be a big, dark cloud at any event, so we kept it small and the engagement was really fast. We figured it would be like ripping off a bandaid.

[HelenNotOfTroy]

We were supposed to get married in a hot air balloon, but the weather was bad, so the hot air balloon people found us a pretty spot under a pavilion in a state park.

[AlmiraGulch]

We were married on the beach in Key West at sunset. It was just the two of us, along with a good friend of DH (and his wife) who crashed the wedding and serenaded us with his saxophone after the vows, and brought champagne for a toast. It was beautiful, and exactly what we wanted.

 

We both love Key West, and did even before we knew each other. We plan to retire there one day. Both of us had the large, church, everyone-and-their-brother-invited weddings previously. This time we wanted to focus on each other and our marriage, in a place that was meaningful to us, rather than worrying more about guests and the wedding itself.

[maize]

The LDS church teaches that marriages performed under proper authority in a sacred temple are valid not only for this life but for eternity. Members of the church are strongly encouraged to have their marriage sealed in the temple, and that was what both dh and I planned on so the only real question was which temple to choose. I chose this temple in the tiny town of Manti, Utah because that was where my parents were married. We were both living in Utah at the time. My parents had recently moved to Virginia after being overseas, dh's parents had just moved from Ohio where he grew up to Texas. Since neither dh nor I knew anyone in those locations it didn't make sense to get married out there. We got married around Christmas so everyone in school or with kids in school would be able to travel. The wedding ceremony was just immediate family; that is pretty standard for LDS weddings, it is quiet and very intimate. Everyone else gets invited to the reception, which is where all the celebrating happens. We actually broke tradition by holding our reception the night before the wedding, because I felt the wedding day would be less stressful that way.

[MeaganS]

Yup, we got married in an LDS temple too because of religious reasons. We chose the St. Louis because it was nearish to both our families, and by nearish I mean within a one day drive. Also, both my husband and I participated in the dedication of it when it was built when we were young teenagers and before we knew each other. There were a few other temples (Dallas, Oklahoma City) that were also nearish to our families, but we thought St. Louis was the prettiest of those choices so that, combined with our own histories with it, are why we chose it. It was a good choice. Like maize, our ceremony was only close family.

 

Our reception was held at my in-law's home in another state the next day, and that's where our friends and parent's friends came to celebrate with us.

[lynn]

DH and I did not want a big production. I wanted to do something a little different and always wanted a champagne brunch for my reception so we got married in a hotel ballroom at 10:30A followed by a champagne brunch. we had a friend starting a dj business and gave us a great rate. The ceremony was beautiful and meaningful and the reception was awesome. Everyone had a great time even that early in the day.

[Impish]

Economics.

 

By marrying at the church that Wolf's uncle was a pastor at, and having him do the ceremony, it saved us officiant fees, as well as renting a space. We also used the church basement after for a brief reception.

 

That was the *only* reason we married where we did.

[Karen in CO]

It was Vegas. Enough said. Besides that - where else can you get married by Elvis at midnight?

[Farrar]

The cost was part of it. We also picked a place we thought just was nice looking - a lovely rose garden in full bloom. We never seriously considered a church. We got married right out of college and neither of us had a longstanding relationship with a church that was special - especially not together since I was raised Baptist and he was raised Catholic.

[Belacqua]

It was Vegas. Enough said. Besides that - where else can you get married by Elvis at midnight?

 

 

Now that would have been my first choice!

 

We were married in a church because it was important to my MIL. I adore her and it's the only thing she's ever asked of me, so I agreed.

[Mommyof4ks]

We got married in a beautiful garden. No great reason other than I really wanted an outdoor wedding.

[MerryAtHope]

When I was in college, I worked at a summer camp for inner city kids run by the Salvation Army (Camp Wonderland). About half way through my first summer there I thought it was such a lovely place that I hoped to get married there some day.

 

The next summer, I met my future husband there! And the next summer after that, we were married in the camp chapel :).

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

We got married in a picturesque little church. The only problem was a giant ,and I mean 3x the actual size, cross hanging at an angle over the alter area. And my side of the family that filled more than half the church think that it's a (bad) pagan symbol. (No offence ment to the pegans on here. That's just how they see it.) Other than that it was pretty, I got the right size aisle to walk down, and dh's dad was the minister which meant we got the church for free.

[KungFuPanda]

I got married in the church I grew up attending. This was before everyone had the Internet, so I didn't realize there were other options.

[PeacefulChaos]

We got married in the church I went to from age 9. We're pretty traditional, and that's sort of the traditional way to do things - wedding at the church of the bride/bride's family, whatever. :)

[weaver_67579]

We got married at the church I attended in my hometown. DH lived out of state-so I had to do all the planning. It was also inexpensive and I loved the little rural church.

[Alice]

We met at church and got married at the same church. The reception was about a block away at a small neighborhood park. It was somewhat of an inexpensive choice for a venue but we also liked that it was so close to the church and we liked the outdoor reception. We still attend the same church 13 years later.

[lllll]

.....

[WiseOwlKnits]

We got married in the church that we'd started attending after moving to the city we live in. Now we've not only been married there, but it's the same church that Lily, John, Mia have all been baptized in so it's very special to us. In a bizarre turn of events, DH (who'd been told that he was baptized as an infant when he really hadn't been) was even baptized there.

[Georgiana Daniels]

Originally we'd planned a destination wedding on the island of St. Lucia--think sandy beaches, sun and surf. Ahhhh...

 

But my oldest was 9 at the time and she didn't want to be left out, so we had a teeny wedding in our church, planned in less than 3 weeks. Looking back, I'm glad we did it that way because it was a much better way to start our life as a family.

[Danestress]

I got married in a church in my home town. It just seemed like the thing to do. I still live here, and while it is not the church I attend, I feel happy every time I drive past it.

[mommaduck]

We married in our church because we viewed our marriage as a religious event, not just a secular partnering. It is sacred to us and involves our faith and God, not just us.

[Dmmetler]

DH and I got married at a church summer camp. WE wanted an outdoor wedding, and it worked really well to book the camp for a couple of days, because it gave all the out of town guests a place to stay (the camp had a nice retreat center, which worked for parents/grandparents, and we put the college-age folks in the cabins). Since DH and I were getting married in my home area, which wasn't where DH's family lived, or where either of us had done our undergrad work, or where DH'S and I were doing our grad work, about the only local guests were my parent's friends. We also had a limited budget-and the requirements as far as flowers and the like for my parent's church would have required a far more expensive and fancy wedding than we wanted-a simple outside wedding in a green field at the camp followed by a sheet cake and punch in the camp dining hall was about perfect.

[VeganCupcake]

We married in the LDS temple for the reasons posted above, but we chose the Salt Lake temple because my parents and I had been sealed together as a family there when I was 11 years old and so it held extra special memories for me. We could have chosen any number of other temples in the area, though. My parents came from Canada to attend, but none of my other family members could (or would have wanted to). The ceremony was very small--I think we invited about 15 family members and very close friends. It was so, so lovely.

 

Our reception was the next evening, outdoors, at a private park in a subdivision where one of my friends lived.

[jennynd]

We did it in a country club. I so wanted it in my school basillica, but there were a lot counseling and marriage preparation stuff was required. With me lived 3 hrs away from my hubby, there just not going to happen. So we settle in th country club

[Meriwether]

I got married in my Grandpop's barn...kind of. My maternal grandparents lived on the homestead although it came to them in a roundabout way. The house is one of those huge stone houses that the Pennsylvania Dutch built back then. I would literally give my eye teeth to be able to buy it and fix it up. Grammy still owns it but it is worth too much for any one of the kids to buy it and it is zoned for business now. When she dies it will probably be razed and someone will build a factory there. :crying: I wish she'd just give it to one of the family that live back there, but she wants to leave it equally between the kids.

 

Anyhow, the barn that went with the place was build around 1750. Before Grandpop died, my uncle who lives in Kansas asked him if he could have the barn. Grandpop said yes, so they dismantled the barn and moved it from PA to KS. My uncle put new floor boards and siding on it, but the he used the frame and some of the special things from the original barn. He was working on it when I was engaged. I had kind of thought about being married in the barn, but I didn't seriously consider it until my uncle offered it. They made it really nice for the wedding. My aunt even put a finish on the wood floorboards so that my dress wouldn't snag.

[justLisa]

The place was called The Belle Chapel, a small chapel in a small town just north of here, with a white picket fence and antiques that had been inside for over a hundred years. I wanted a small intimate place with the people we loved most. It was beautiful and I remember 10 years ago like yesterday. Granted I could barely whisper my vows through tears, but it was lovely. The outside was covered in roses, climbing everywhere and up the trellis where we had photos taken. The minister had such beautifully and real written vows and I don't think it could have been more perfect for us.

[Scarlett]

A bed and breakfast....because we wanted simple. We were 43/45 with 3 kids, 2 exes, and visitation schedules between us. It was a perfect wedding where we invited only our parents ànd children and that was that. The most upset siblings, two years down the road are fine now......life goes on. Relax and enjoy.

[lailasmum]

We got married in the Ice Hotel in northern Sweden. We'd previously had a wedding booked somewhere else in the UK but realised we couldn't afford it without it hanging round our necks for years. We saw that it was possible for us to get married in Sweden and decided to just do it. We just went on our own then told everyone afterwards. The thought of being the centre of attention at a big wedding made me want to puke too. Afterwards we had a blessing in a church because my husband was hanging onto the last strands of his religion (he is an aetheist now) and wanted that but I hated the blessing. The vicar seemed to hate me and want to embarrass me in front of everyone and basically did nothing we had discussed. I still can't stand thinking of that blessing it was awful. We than had a little party at fil's house. The blessing and party were 6 months after we got married.

[Reya]

We got married in a teeeeeny church that some distant ancestor had founded. Reason? My actual childhood church was enormous, and I wanted a very small wedding.

 

The reception was a 4-star restaurant that we had opened specially for lunch. Cost a lot less than a caterer + reception.

[Donna]

We got married in the small church where we grew up. It was DH church and the church the church I grew up in partnered with for youth group and other things. It was smaller than the church I grew up in, we were having a smaller wedding, and we both knew the pastor so felt comfortable with him. I had been away at college for 5 years and didn't know the new pastor at my church. We now go to the church where we got married and have since we got married.

[JenC3]

Today is our 12th anniversary!:) We got married in the Catholic church we were attending and had premarital counseling there. The church was decorated for Christmas and Beautiful so we didn't do a thing. It rained before the ceremony, but turned to snow when we were leaving-so magical! Our reception was in a refurbished vintage theater overlooking downtown. I wore my Grandmother's dress. Everything was classic and 40's and Awesome! 95% of our guests were from out of town since this was my college town and dh had moved there for a job.

[Hunter's Moon]

We got married in my parent's living room in front of their electric fireplace by a JP.

 

We got married there because it was free and we wanted a small wedding. Also, my dad cooked all the food, so we were going to eat at the house too. Honestly, I would have rather eloped, but our mothers would have flipped.

 

It was beautiful though, and I am so glad we did it there.

[Ewe Mama]

Dh and I met and married at the church at which I was the parish secretary and attended.

[Heather in Neverland]

We got married in a random church near our home town because dh was a divorced catholic and I was raised pentecostal. Neither church would marry us. So we found a Congregational church that wasn't too picky and they married us.

[JFSinIL]

We used the chapel of the college I went to (and Mom worked at) in my hometown - it was a cute little older building, not like the modern brick behemoth of the local Catholic Church. It was also in California as that is were i am from and where all my family lives. So my future in-laws had to travel (I planned the wedding long distance in the pre-internet days from Chicago! I also planned the honeymoon since it was a drive up the California coast and to Yosemite etc. to show off MY state to my Chicago-bred hubby.)