Weddings

[Zombie]

Married folks: what kind of wedding did you have? Big? Small? In a church? What were the colors like? Feel free to share anything you really liked about your day.

Unmarried folks: what kind of wedding do you want?

(Yes, I'm a guy who likes weddings.)

[Edwards1984]

I guess we had kind of a "big wedding" - though it seemed like the reception had more people than the church building had. Mary might be a better judge on that. A lot of our initial wedding plans were much more modest, but then, over time, as more family got involved, it got bigger and bigger One nice thing is I designed our wedding logo, which got put on every from coffee mugs to t-shirts to even our cake. For Mary, I guess that's one advantage of marrying a graphic designer.

[little_tigress]

I go back and forth on this, all my life the idea of a small wedding with just us, our closest friends, and our immediate families seemed like the most perfect wedding possible.

Now I'm not quite as antisocial as I used to be I still don't want a huge wedding and I cringe at the idea of inviting relatives who don't actually care about me to witness the most important day of my life, but hey... I'd still prefer a smaller wedding, but I'm over the extreme of it being as tiny as humanly possible. Of course it all depends on what my future husband (assuming he's out there) wants. I don't want to be one of those brides who tells her husband what his wedding day will be like. I want to plan it *with* him

[mina]

We had a small wedding compared to other weddings I've been to. It was around 120 people; mostly family. We had the ceremony at an art deco chapel at the botanical gardens and the reception across the street at a really pretty conference room. I guess my theme was southern vintage. I made a lot of things myself for our wedding: my veil, welcome baskets for out of town people, flower girl wreaths, ring pillow, gifts for bridesmaids (clutch purses), invitations, ceremony programs, we made a slideshow and put music together for the reception, I made vintage framed chalkboards for pointing the way to the reception /ceremony and for the reception menu, I made reception favors with my dad's help (homemade jam and seating cards along with table numbers). I'm sure there is other stuff I made that I've forgotten. All my nieces and my nephew were in the wedding party. We made pew toppers- the "bride's side" had framed pictures of me growing up/ the "grooms side " had framed pictures of my husband growing up and on the last pews of each side we had pictures of us together. My colors were green and brown with purple and ivory thrown in. I had a really really fun time planning my wedding; things went wrong but it was a super fun day. Our cake was a disaster; but it tasted AMAZING. Usually wedding cake looks pretty but tastes like cardboard- but ours was insanely good it just looked weird. I picked a fun cake, and my cake baker SWORE to me that she could do it...... yeah, she couldn't. But, at least it tasted good! I was on a mission to plan a high end wedding for much much less and I think I pulled it off! One fun thing we did for the reception was a photo booth! I think it was one of our best ideas. We made all the cheesy props for people to use and dry erase boards so they could write us messages. It was so much fun! We have all the pictures of our guests and it's hilarious, I love all the personal crazy messages! My husband and I did photobooth pictures as well and I have our romantic and crazy photo booth strips framed.

I didn't want to be married at my home church; it looks like an auditorium and there was no center aisle. There is one coming down the center then it splits off into two aisle. I'd been to weddings there before and it just seems really awkward. Plus the sanctuary is huge; having a smaller wedding looks awkward. So, my pastor said he would marry us anywhere and I found a beautiful chapel with a center aisle.

[Marycita]

I apologize, I'm a sappy, sentimental, hopelessly romantic newlywed....this could become a novel

I guess we had kind of a "big wedding" - though it seemed like the reception had more people than the church building had. Mary might be a better judge on that. A lot of our initial wedding plans were much more modest, but then, over time, as more family got involved, it got bigger and bigger

I guess it depends on what you classify as big. I would say it was. There was about 250 people there. I am not sure if there were more people at the reception or the church because a)the reception was more spread out so it was hard to tell and b) I was only focused on Tony during the ceremony, so I have no idea. Obviously we got married in a church. Fortunately, the church my mom had dreamt about me getting married in for years Good to make her happy on that one!

We really wanted a simple wedding. I guess I was kidding myself to think that with my family being as big as it is, that I could have a simple wedding and still have all my family there. We wanted, originally, an evening ceremony with just dessert and a bit of dancing. But my dad was adamant that we feed people dinner. That floored me (in a good way) because I didn't know he'd be so willing to contribute. But he went FAR ABOVE what I expected. It was actually so sweet (and forgive me for babbling). He made a special evening out of going to the reception hall for the final preparation meetings with me. We went out to dinner just the two of us then to the hall. When we were there checking it out and talking about decor, I expressed to him how I was uncomfortable with such an expensive and elaborate party. He said that I shouldn't worry about it. That he wanted to do this for me, that after years of heartache in our family (my brother's death, my grandpa's death, and my sister's death) he wanted to give our whole family a chance to have a good time and he thought my wedding was a great time to do it. Then we both cried, but anyway...

Some details about our wedding - the colors were pink and silver, with an emphasis on hearts. (and although Amber will tell you hot pink, it was a deeper pink, I've grown to like calling it winter pink). I never thought I'd have a pink wedding - I always thought I would have a blue and silver wedding if in winter, but my sister had a blue wedding and took all the blues, so pink it was. Which is actually me so it worked. We had three girls, three guys, a flower girl and a ring bearer in our wedding. My mom did our flowers. I love them - she used fake, so I still have my bouquet and will be able to display it for forever. Our ceremony was short (or I thought it was given that I've been mainly to Catholic weddings my whole life and those go on forever). It was very meaningful though. We had passages from Genesis and Ephesians read (LT was kind enough to read one ). We "wrote" our own vows. Though really I had taken it from someone else who wrote it and tweaked it. Tony basically wrote his. They made me cry.

We had a pianist who played hymns before the ceremony. Take My Life and Let it Be for the seating of the grandparents and the mothers lighting the unity candle. In Christ Alone for the processional. One Hand, One Heart for the unity candle bit. Then And Can it Be for the recessional.. Then we had You're the One that I Want for the entrance at the reception. Our first dance was to Once Upon a Dream from Sleeping Beauty. I danced with my dad to Cinderella by Steven Curtis Chapman and Tony danced with his mom to Bridge Over Troubled Waters. The cake cutting song was Let Me Be There by Olivia Newton John. The last song was The Glory of Love - I can't remember who does that song. I know I sound like a nerd, but the music was a huge part of it all for me. I put a LOT of thought into what songs should be played when. I always notice the music when I go to weddings - I hope people at ours noticed

Oh gracious I'm talking tooo much aren't I?

One nice thing is I designed our wedding logo, which got put on every from coffee mugs to t-shirts to even our cake. For Mary, I guess that's one advantage of marrying a graphic designer

And invitations and thank you notes..AND my grandma cross-stitched it and framed it as a shower gift, so now it's on our wall for good So wonderful!

[Marycita]

I don't want to be one of those brides who tells her husband what his wedding day will be like. I want to plan it *with* him

And you know what?! It's so much fun to do so. I hope your future husband wants to help. Tony was so involved and actually had opinions on things (granted, a lot of the times certain family members shot our opinions down, but hey). Despite that, I feel like having him so involved in planning was just one more way we grew together. AS odd as that sounds, since it's just one day - but getting to plan such an important day together - I thought it further built closeness between us. (maybe it was just me?)

[Zombie]

I like the descriptions. I want a small wedding with immediate family and close friends, followed perhaps by an open reception. I'm a traditionalist when it comes to the ceremony of things, and would prefer to be married in a church (as opposed to a beach or a Star Wars convention). I like the traditional music, the white dress, the black tuxedo, the cake, etc. I would like us to write our vows, but beyond that, I've decided there's not a lot outside of "I do" that matters in the long run. Like others have said, I want to plan my wedding with my wife, not fight with her over it or "tell her" about it.

[Sara]

Dustin and I had a really small wedding with less than 40 people in attendance. Two of my siblings and their families didn't show up and it really hurt my feelings at first, but I've decided I have to let it go. My foster kids were still with me at the time, and I'm happy about that.

I wore a short white wedding dress, and shoes similar to Converse low-tops. Dustin wore a pair of slacks, and a white button up shirt with a black dragon on it. I think at one point he had a suit jacket on, but I can't make any promises.

One thing that I really wanted since we were having such a small wedding was a photo of everyone in attendance. And I have it. I love it!

Our wedding colors were pink and silver (way to go, Mary!) and I actually had about 5% decision making. Dustin's mom and aunt REALLY want to put together a wedding for us, so we decided to let them. They asked me about colors (pink is both mine and Dustin's favorite), and how I wanted the silverware bundled (I have no idea?). LOL. That's pretty much it. We didn't have a cake; we had cupcakes from a really nice bakery in Amarillo (The Ruffled Cup) and we all had lunch together.

Since it was just after the holidays, the church was still decorated for Christmas and I loved that.

Another thing we had that was important to me is that we had a candle stand over to the side to represent members of my family that passed away. Since my Daddy died when I was very young, it was a big deal to me.

We had my father in law (a deacon in his church) get special permission to marry us, with his pastor in attendance. That was a very special part of our ceremony. Hearing him ask his son if he promised to love me forever. WHOA. I'm tearing up right now!

Okay, I think I've gone on long enough.

[mina]

I hope I'm not talking too much about my wedding either! One thing we both really wanted was a really traditional ceremony with hymns and classical music. One thing we had to have though is the song my parents had sung at their own wedding- One hand/one heart from West side story. We included it in our ceremony and I'm so glad we did! We planned together as well; it was such a blessing to do so! We still have friends and family telling us that it was one of the most memorable and sweet weddings they have ever attended and that means a lot! We wanted to do and make things ourself b/c we wanted our heart and soul to go into our wedding and really show a reflection of us.

[mina]

Sara- I loved your dress in your pictures! I adore short wedding dresses!