Inspired by Missus, [name]Sarah[/name] and Alzora’s fantastic wedding photos, and because I am tired of looking at re-touched wedding magazines, I am starting a wedding thread where all you ladies (and gentlemen) can show us your photos and tell us everything we need to know! I myself am getting married in three months and I am certain there are others who would love some inspiration. If not, who doesn’t like looking at wedding pictures? I can’t be the only sucker…
My wedding will take place in [name]Italy[/name] at the end of [name]July[/name], it will be a small rustic outdoors country affair at my parents house there. I’m not a wedding person (I’ve never daydreamed about weddings), so this is new territory for me. Everyone I know has had big church and very fancy [name]Vera[/name] Wang weddings, and that’s not my style at all (think mis-matched tablecloths on rickety wooden tables). And if anyone has cute ideas as to what to do with the baby daughter (who will then be five months) please do tell.
So, inspire me (and everyone else) please! Ready, steady, share!
My gosh I love this! I am definitely a “wedding” person and when I’m not fantasizing about babies, I’m fantasizing about my wedding! Doesn’t help that an integral part of my Hospitality Management degree is event planning! My original wedding day was going to be [name]August[/name] of this year, but has been postponed for a little bit.
My details are still up in the air. I can’t settle on a “style” of my wedding until I settle on a color (Purple and royal? Yellow and rustic? Pastels and spring? [name]Red[/name] and music-themed? I still have NO idea). Either way, it will be amazing and I will stress for months to make it perfect, as that’s my personalty.
Why not have your daughter pulled down the aisle in a wagon? Seems to fit well with a rustic wedding to me!
Haha, okay! Here is the link to the blog where our wedding pics were posted:
There is nothing more surreal than seeing your own photos on Pinterest, lemme tell ya. My flower girl went borderline viral for a minute there, ha!
There is a description in the blog post about some of the things we did, and if anybody has questions I’m glad to answer. Like [name]Ottilie[/name], I am very not a [name]Vera[/name] Wang type of gal. We got married in the woods in [name]October[/name] in [name]Texas[/name] - it was HOT! Ugh! - and we did it all ourselves.
If I could boil my advice down to one nugget it would be this: Stop. Freaking. Out. I felt incredible pressure and stress to have everything be just RIGHT. And it WASN’T. And it doesn’t matter. It was a whirlwind. It all happened so fast I barely got to enjoy it. Make sure your BMs know their duties and keep people away from you. That is a regret I have. My head was whipping around constantly b/c everyone needed me for something. Establish a perimeter of colorfully-frocked 'maids. Eat something. Drink something. Dance. I did none of that. Well, except for our first dance (to “When I Fall In [name]Love[/name]” [name]Nat[/name] [name]King[/name] [name]Cole[/name]) and my dance with my dad (to “I [name]Cross[/name] My Heart” by [name]George[/name] Strait; we cried like babies).
My wedding day was not the most perfect, wonderful, magical day of my life. It wasn’t. And y’know what? I’m glad. I don’t want it to be all a big letdown after that day. I gained 15 lbs. from stress-eating right before the wedding, I spent ALL my money, my dress got stuck in thorny vines when I was trying to get in place before the ceremony (I had to ride in the back of a pickup truck to get into the woods), I was hot and sweaty the whole time, my stepmother was extremely awkward… I mean, sh** happens. Find your happy place before you even start planning. Decide to go with the flow to some extent. Decide to take deep breaths and be present.
See I was not into weddings at all until I met THE [name]GUY[/name]. I never gave a crap about dresses or any of that. The new wedding industry boom is pretty new, y’know. My parents got married in a Baptist church with a cake-and-punch reception. And that was a BIG wedding in the late 70s. They didn’t serve a meal. In fact my parents went thru a Burger [name]King[/name] drive-thru after leaving the church, haha!
A lot of our grandparents and great-grandparents got married wearing suits in courthouses. My grandparents married in the reverend’s living room with a couple of friends for witnesses and their parents. My grandma wore a blue suit and a flower in her hair. It was just after WWII. She was 19 and he was 21.
This idea that everyone - not just members of “society” - needs to have a [name]Vera[/name] Wang gown and a catered sit-down dinner is a very, very new development, and it’s been sold to us by a multi-BILLION dollar industry.
I had a v. minimalist wedding by a lot of standards (the average American wedding - AVERAGE! - costs somewhere around $26K; I spent about $7K) but if I went back I’d spend less. I really would. I regret paying $500 for that dress. I regret fretting my a*% off about the PERFECT DIY invitations and ending up spending $400 on them. (Insane.)
We had a dessert buffet - no sit-down meal - provided by close family and friends. Close enough we felt ok about asking them. It was [name]Texas[/name], so we had a keg of Shiner and a keg of [name]Blue[/name] [name]Moon[/name] pumpkin ale. And some wine. All of it chilling in an old bathtub. I assume there were non-alcoholic beverages somewhere, I didn’t even notice, LOL!
There is so much crap you think you need that you don’t. Soooo much. I bought stuff I never even touched.
I think it’s the same way having babies. My [name]SIL[/name] registered for all this stuff and gave half of it away b/c she didn’t need it. I am sitting here looking at BOXES of wedding crafts and craft supplies and decorations… Argh.
[name]Ottilie[/name], my sister got married last [name]November[/name] and it was beautiful! We got a lot of ideas from http://weddinggawker.com/ the best part of the day was walking into the city centre in the late afternoon and asked if they could have a few photos on a carousel! The photos looked great, and because they didn’t ask before hand, and just turned up in their wedding gear he couldn’t exactly say no! It was so funny there were lots of tourists taking pictures and getting excited!
Yay for [name]July[/name] weddings! Also getting married in [name]July[/name]… at a country club with 280 of my closest family and friends (any one catch the sarcasm at the end there?) [name]Navy[/name], ivory, pearls and lace… and the future hubs all military’d out!
I’m a traditional girl and Hispanics go big on weddings. To be honest, I secretly wish I had done a destination wedding on a Caribbean beach barefoot with a flowy dress and sea shells. The planning has become my part-time job! I want to be married… I’m done planning the thing.
[name]Ottille[/name]- I spend way too much of my life on Pinterest and The knot. But I got so many good ideas from both!
I did a black and red nighttime wedding. My flowers were just roses with no added greenery or fluff, and my bridesmaids all carried a single red rose. [name]Music[/name] was from the [name]Narnia[/name] films. The centerpieces were glass vases willed with water with a single red rose standing in each in a bed of red glass stones and a candle floating on top. Cake was drizzled with chocolate and rose petals. I found a pattern for Renaissance sleeves and had a family friend add them to my sleeveless dress.
The website weddingbee was one of my most useful resources and pintrest was helpful too.
I got married almost 2 years ago in a really simple ceremony in a courtyard at my parents church and we had a short reception upstairs.
I guess my advice would be to not let people convince you that your wedding should be anything other than a lovely day where you express your love in front of your friends and family. I would focus on expressing both of your personalities and making it a fun day about you guys. If you love books, use them as centerpieces! If you love flowers, string them up and use them as a backdrop. If you love word puzzles, have them at each table for your guests to do. If you love art, have your guests contribute to a huge canvas that you can put on your wall after the wedding. If you love pizza, serve pizza!
Whatever it is, don’t just use kitschy wedding stereotypes–I’m so sick of seeing the same 5 weddings repeated over and over again. [name]Do[/name] something that’s uniquely you so your guests go away remembering you guys not the exact same flowers and exact same BM dresses and the exact same food that’s at almost every wedding. I’d rather go to a crazy [name]Star[/name] Wars themed wedding than another red and white rose wedding with red vests on the men and the same gross white tiered cake with red roses.
As for the baby, I’ve seen a pretty decorated pram pushed down the aisle by either a bridesmaid or a flower girl that has a funny variation of the “First comes love, then comes marriage” rhyme.
http://greenweddingshoes.com/ is a link with tips and tricks for the big day - I just love looking at their pictures too… They do mostly rustic style weddings, if that’s what you’re going for, so hopefully it might be useful. Good luck!
Oh no my love of weddings and all things bridal is reemerging!! My wedding theme, if it had to have one, was classic elegance and a Jewish wedding. I got married 2000 miles away in my home town so I left 90% of the planning up to my mom (who has impeccable taste and is a perfectionist). I told her my colors and vision and she did a great job. The location we chose required you to use their catering (which is fine as they have superb food) for the sit-down dinner and even the wedding cake. I kinda just showed up! I had a “big reveal” like on tv, and I was taken aback by how perfectly everything turned out. Originally I wanted an intimate mid afternoon [name]Sunday[/name] wedding on a boat, but the event turned much larger once in our home town. My inspiration was a vision of an old jewelry box full of vintage jewelry … so our colors were cameo pink, coral, pearl, soft gray, and a little gold. We had white linens and simple china with a gold rim. I got my wedding dress in downtown LA in the garment district in the same area where they well all the quinceañera dresses. It was a steal. To make things personal, I had a luckenbooth that my husband gave me sewn to my bouquet, and I attached a blue button from my dearly missed grandmother to my dress. I didn’t really care about the cake at all, but the groom’s cake was red velvet in full school spirit. We didn’t do any crafting. I think I already lost the guest sign in book. The one thing I absolutely regret is not having a videographer!!
Aw, fun. I’ll have to dig up a couple photos. We did a very simple wedding…late spring with lots of tulips, white lights, and very simple decor. Kind of 1920s inspired dresses and black & white accents.
Here is one of my favorite wedding ideas though, plus you end up with something lovely to hang in your home as opposed to a book that gets put away with your wedding keepsakes…
I love everybody’s weddings! Mrs. H, thanks for sharing the blog - I [name]LOVE[/name] all the cowboy boots and everyone looks gorgeous, especially you.
I won’t be much help because I did have a formal, sit down dinner wedding…I did do a lot of DIY and Etsy, though. My colors were citrus - tangerine, soft lime, and a hint of lemon yellow. [name]Both[/name] h and I’s favorite color is orange, funnily enough. We got married in a church, but had the reception at a resort on the beach. It was Sep 4 and very hot in southern [name]California[/name]. We had citrus fruit accents throughout - orange tree and blossom illustrations on the invites and programs, lime slices floating in the vases (all of my flower arrangements were in mason jars or vintage apothecary bottles), and kumquat boutonieres. For seating cards, I wrote everyone’s name and table number in silver pen on a green paper leaf, then pinned it into a clementine with a paper orange blossom. That was my favorite DIY I tried to keep the citrus motif subtle, but I’m sure some thought it was cheesy. I thought it was fun and summery.
This is a fun thread. I am not a wedding person at all. If I weren’t so cheap, I totally would have hired a planner. My advice isn’t revolutionary: Spend (money and time) on what matters to you, and scrimp on what isn’t important. And don’t let anyone convince you to do things that aren’t your cup of tea. We didn’t have centrepieces, real flowers (except boutonnieres and corsages for the moms), a cake cutting, a dance, or a garter toss, and we took a lot of flack. In the end, no one noticed the lack of centrepieces (as the food was served “family style”), the fake flower bouquets looked real, and people told us they enjoyed being able to talk without loud music. The ceremony was at my church which is huge, so no way to make it fancy without spending a ton of cash. Here are some shots of our bouquets (made by my best friend’s [name]MIL[/name]), tables and ceremonies:
The only things we splurged on were the location (an amazing museum overlooking [name]Canada[/name]'s Parliament Buildings), and my dress, which my mom insisted on covering. I’ll post so you can see the beautiful location.
I went into it thinking, “As long as we’re married at the end of it, it will be a perfect day.” The worst thing you can do is make so much of your wedding that you don’t have any fun!
PS [name]Poppy[/name], I adore your framed [name]Italy[/name] map. That is so lovely!
PPS My husband refuses to have his photo posted online, hence the doctored photos.
So I was posting from work before and didn’t have access to my pictures… everyone has fun pics to share! Not my wedding pics yet, but my favorite engagement pictures. My photographer is amazing… beyond amazing. We went big on that because after it’s all over, you have the spouse and the pictures
I know I want green, orange and red to be my theme colours when I get married. I love the colours of autumn (though would rather get married in the summer because… well… it’s [name]England[/name] and that would be my only shot at a warm sunny day ). I like planning things so I’ve already done a ton of research. I’ll put together a photo montage of what my dream wedding would look like
Clearly not married but I’ve ended-up as honorary brides maid in enough wedding parties I wasn’t supposed to be part of its become a running joke. I used to (and sometime still do) wedding make up professionally so it’s turned into one of my go to gifts for close enough friends (super cheap for me, saves the bride a ton of money and ensure she takes at least 1 hour before the wedding to get pampered). I have a friend who is an amazing baker and makes multi-teared wedding cakes as her gift. Tap your friends skills (if they can do them in Italy) and use them. They’ll love helping out and you have less to worry about.
What I’ve picked up over the last dozen-ish weddings is this:
Choose your MoH very carefully. I know you always want it to be your best friend but if she is at all self-centered, ditzy or unreliable. Choose someone else. If she’s younger and has never been in a wedding before, make sure she understands what you expect of her. My friend choose her 16 yr old sister as her MoH and the poor girl didn’t know what she needed to do apart from walk down the aisle. Since they are like sisters to me I just started nudging her through it. This can be anything from keeping track of who you want in what wedding picture to, what time things are being delivered and who contact people are for everything, to making sure you eat before she does. (Trust me this is important, and even more so if you are breast feeding - brides and grooms tend to forget to eat until they almost faint because everyone wants a piece of them).
My wedding is going to be in a small venue. Hopefully no church involved anywhere. My friend did this and it was awesome. Put the dancefloor in a separate room from the dinners. It forces people to awkwardly stand around the wall instead of reliving prom by awkwardly watching the two couples dancing on the floor. (This helps the mood). If it’s all out doors find a way to section them if it’s not too much trouble. The other side of the buffet table that is stuffed with flowers - which I feel like yours will be - totally works.
The more organized you are to begin with the better. Make lists you can hand off to other people the day before the wedding. The day of the wedding GET YOURSELF PAMPERED!!!
Have a rehearsal the day before the wedding not the day of. This sounds self-evident but after going to three day of rehearsals I realize it might not be. It helps everyone involved be more relaxed the day of.
Bring a multi-card reader and laptop/external drive to the wedding. Or get the BM to do it. This will allow for collection of all digital photo’s before your guest leave that evening. So you’ll have all (non-professional) images right away and you don’t have to hunt people down. And, you usually get at least one great picture of every guest because someone else took it for you.
The most important thing for your wedding to be perfect is for YOU TO HAVE FUN!!! The only wedding that’s not perfect is when the bride is stressed out. Don’t Bridezilla.
I think you guys should make Roo a tinny flower girl/ring bearer. I realize she’ll be much to young but your rings could go in a little mini purse for her and someone could push or carry her down the aisle for you. Then when it’s time for the ring exchange your or your FI can hold her while the other gets the rings out of her bag and she can be right there when you exchange them. (Also I’d try to designate someone she adores as “Roo’s MoH” or something. I’d suggest someone who isn’t your parent or his, it will allow you to know that she is always looked after when your not holding her and her needs are tended to by one particular person and you won’t have to constantly look for someone to change her diapers or find her bottle or what not).
(Yikees that was really long. Sorry. Hope at least it’s helpful.)
Well I had a [name]Harry[/name] [name]Potter[/name] (mostly focused on colors) themed wedding in [name]October[/name], on the day my husband and I first met, which is also the same day he proposed. I had a Catholic Ceremony and then a reception followed after. I think photos were the most fun. Me and my girls took photos with our favorite [name]Harry[/name] [name]Potter[/name] book. We also went to a park after the ceremony and took some gorgeous fall photos.
Most of the things at our wedding I had made. I made a total of 100 wands as favors, which we also used in our pictures. I made all the bouquets, including mine! (origami lilies) I also made 988 cranes, my husband made 12 (total = 1,000 cranes), lol! So he helped a little.
Well, except for our first dance (to “When I Fall In [name]Love[/name]” [name]Nat[/name] [name]King[/name] [name]Cole[/name]) and my dance with my dad (to “I [name]Cross[/name] My Heart” by [name]George[/name] Strait; we cried like babies).
I tried to keep the citrus motif subtle, but I’m sure some thought it was cheesy. I thought it was fun and summery.
). I like planning things so I’ve already done a ton of research. I’ll put together a photo montage of what my dream wedding would look like