Overwhelmed

[erinwrites]

Originally published at erin-go-blog!. You can comment here or there.

And so here’s a discussion topic. To my married readers…tell me about your wedding. What did you do? Where? Big and lavish? Small and intimate? Share as much or as little as you’d like.

Comments

[pafuts.livejournal.com]

How much time do you have? :)

I wanted a 20's style wedding in my parent's backyard. Fringed dress, pin-striped suits, jazz band. But their yard would hold 70 tops. The "must-invite" guest list was 80.

So we ended up with a full-blown, black-tie optional, early evening, 200+ people wedding. It was in 1990, so it was sort of the last hurrah of the 80s for us.

You can see a pic in my journal on July 28th.

I really let my mom just have her way on everything, I lost all control at some point.

Would I change anything? Nope. Not a one. It reflected who I was at the time. What our relationship was like at the time. It included everyone I wanted to be there. And the food was REALLY good.

If I were to offer any advice it would be this: People will remember the dress, the vows, the flowers and the food. Oh, and anything that is out of the ordinary.

But make it a reflection of YOU. We just went to a wedding this weekend where the bride wore black satin and they said their vows in Dr. Seuss style rhyme. Then there was a celebratory drum circle. It was perfect for them and we all had a grand time.

When we get remarried, sometime in the next 10 years, we're going to Vegas and get Elvis to do it.

[quadrivium.livejournal.com]

Let's see:

It was outdoors at 6 pm in June.

I rode up on horseback (sidesaddle)

The groomsmen all had Looney Tunes vests except my brother and my Dady who thought was silly. Everyone else including Wesley really liked theirs.

Colors were red and green, so many red roses scattered about.

The groom's cake was shaped like two six sided dice, and had a baby godzilla on top.

Two of my fellow music majors -- both Jennifers -- played for the wedding: one on flute, one on digital piano.

I was very tired.

[lizjonesbooks.livejournal.com]

Ours was in Phipps Conservatory's outdoor garden in Pittsburgh. Had about 115 people. Ish. Family and friends. Started about 6 in the evening, reception also in the garden. My cello teacher played a Bach piece during the wedding and we had a (CMU music student) string quartet play a couple pieces for the ceremony, the a friend of my mom's from grad school played jazz piano for the reception, along with a bass and a sax. Almost forgot to hire a photographer-- my bro takes really good photos, and his were the ones we looked at anyway. I think we could have just skipped the pro.

Followed up by a honeymoon camping and hiking in West Virginia-- we just got in the car and looked at topos and stopped when we felt like it. It was great.
The only think I'd have done differently would have been to have a longer time at the reception-- it went by too quickly! And there were so many people I wanted to talk to that I barely saw.

[poltr1]

For our wedding, mariasmom and I did all of the planning. No parents were involved. We treated it like a one-day con, where were were the concom and the GoHs. I think people who went still talk about the great party it was.

It was indeed a great day. 8 years ago today, as a matter of fact. But alas, her and I divorced this past year. Bittersweet memories, indeed.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Heck, since I only got married 3 years ago, within the span of my journal, you can read all about it as it happened:

http://autographedcat.livejournal.com/125367.html

(other posts with that tag are at http://autographedcat.livejournal.com/tag/wedding -- which includes some of the planning and aftermath)

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

Quite small -- well, we'd wanted 7 people (us, the JP, the best people and their spice) but ended up inviting about 40 -- about 30 showed up. Too busy to do a lot of planning, and we ended up getting married about a month after we decided we would. We had the wedding at a friends house (gorgeous view) and then we took everyone out for Chinese. (We'd arranged that ahead of time -- the restaurant had a special room, and we needed to pre-order for folks, so we e-mailed everyone the menu.)

[trystel.livejournal.com]

Luis and I got married twice - once in civil court and 6 months later in the Catholic church. Civil ceremony was very small with only Tommy, my parents, my brother and his wife and kids, and the Lindermans (close family friends). Very casual! I wore a black mini-skirt, tights, and a shimmery top. Luis wore a maroon dress shirt & tie with black jeans.

After completing all of the hoops necessary to get married in the Catholic church, the ceremony was in the church we were attending at the time by a very cool priest, on a beautiful sunny day in July, and maybe 40 people came. Had the full dress/tux/wedding party (though small). Private communion directly after the ceremony with Luis and Tommy was really special. Pretty great reception at a nearby local restaurant that we loved. We spent about equally on the wedding and our 3-week honeymoon to Greece & Buffalo. Looking back, would opt to spend even less on the wedding and more on the honeymoon. Custom table floral arrangements seem silly now. Had professional still & semi-professional video photography. By far look at the still pictures more frequently. Great memories. :-)

[it-aint-easy.livejournal.com]

Neither, actually: we had big, but not lavish. :{)}

I'd always thought that one's wedding should be a big party where you invite everyone you know. I was not big on pomp; I just wanted the event to be loaded down with happy people who we loved and who loved us. Beckett agreed on the focus (although I think she could have done without quite as many people).

We had an entirely self-catered reception. We cooked the food and cake in the day or so before the event, with help from family. Beck's family made her dress. We had a large wedding party (16 or so people, not counting the couple or parents), and the only sort of dress coordination between the bridesmaids was that they had to pick a color ahead of time, so that we could have a whole rainbow. The groomsmen likewise had different-colored cummerbund/tie sets, so the photos were very colorful.

The wedding was in a Catholic church in Davis (the town where we met, going to college), and the reception was in their hall. The wedding party helped set up, decorate, and carry food in, as well as clean up afterward. As it was 6 days before Christmas, part of our decoration was a Christmas tree. There was dancing, eating, and lots of talking and laughing.

And people had a great time. I got just what I wanted: people still say that our wedding was just so much fun. :{)}

[erinwrites.livejournal.com]

"And people had a great time. I got just what I wanted: people still say that our wedding was just so much fun."

That's just what I want, too. I want to be able to have a good time, to share the day with friends and family, and not go all crazy!