GTKY 6/5 - Wedding

PinkPrincessPiper

Did you have a big wedding, a private ceremony, or elope? Tell us your wedding story (feel free to AW pics).

If you're not married, how do you picture your big day (if you want to get married)?

Trying to be as inclusive as I can here! 

PinkPrincessPiper

DH & I eloped in August of 2005. We found out we were expecting, and wanted to be married before the baby came. We ended up having a first trimester miscarriage, but were pregnant again 6 months later with our firstborn. 

imwithbaby

So many feels about our wedding! I'd say it's was medium sized (85 guests). We got married 12/12/15 in FL and it was toasty! We actually had a brunch wedding, which was so fun. Ceremony at 11 and then went to the marina for the cocktail hour and reception. Compete with mimosas, bloody marys, and chicken and waffles! 

We did the Southern tradition of "burying the bourbon" where you bury a bottle of bourbon where you're getting married on a day with good weather, and then dig it up and drink it with your guests at the reception! It might've been my favorite part.

Other details: my veil was made from my grandmother's wedding dress, we wrote our own (matching) vows, and I cried like a baby as we took communion for the first time as husband and wife. My something blue was a little ribbon tied to a safety pin with beads that spelled out my maiden name that has been worn by all the women in my family. 

Here's a link to our photographer's blog of the wedding: https://www.lizzierandazzo.com/blog-1/mission-inn-matt-and-amanda 

PinkPrincessPiper

@mrsmatt1212 Gorgeous pictures!!! 

Kathryn0903

We got married 7/16/16 in OH in our college town. Had about 125 guests. Loved how we combined traditions. I'm Jewish, but DH is not, so we did some Jewish traditions(breaking the glass, chair dance) and some non Jewish traditions(unity candle). It was very fun being in a college town because after the reception ended everyone could go out to the bars in town.

kvh22

I was in absolutely no rush to get married, partly because I dreaded wedding planning. We'd been together 10 years+ by the time we got married and I feel like the wedding had some great personal touches. We had 150 people at our wedding - I'd always wanted smaller but it just didn't work out when we started writing our potential quest list to look at venues. We got married by the lake I went to as a kid and the reception was in the ballroom inside which had beautiful chandeliers, bookcases, and a gorgeous fireplace that our sweetheart table was in front of. DH and I love to travel so we did locations of places we've been as the table names and a picture of us at each place there. 2 chalk globes were our guest books and a decorative suitcase held our cards on the gifts table.

Taking a cue from @mrsmatt1212, here's a link to our photographer's blog of our wedding (https://hinkleyphoto.com/?p=4227).

littlebug2010

All of your weddings sound beautiful!  I love wedding stories! 

DH and I had been together for a long time.  We got together in 2004, engaged in 2010, and married on 7/21/12!  We grew up in Maine, and his mom was our pastor, so we chose to do the wedding outside of the church, becuase we didnt want people assuming that becuase she was doing the wedding everyone who was a member would be invited.  So we chose our favorite place, Acadia National Park, to get married.  It was a beautiful 75 degree day, we had a 330 ceremony, with a 6pm dinner.  Cocktails were between, and we took pictures in the azalea garden.  It was all done at the Asticou Inn in Northeast Harbor ME. https://www.asticou.com/  The whole weekend was full of fun surprises, bachelorette mani-pedi lunch and fun photos (my sister was my MOH and only 17 at the time). Our rehearsal dinner was at a lobster pound and then we all went mini golfing together. DHs acapella group sang at our reception.  It was absolutely perfect.  I cant imagine it any better.  

Photos in spoiler

First kiss

My sister made these shoes for us!  I still have mine! 

These were our flowers!  I have never seen Yellow Calla Lillies this yellow!  Mine were the whole boquet of yellow callas.
 

SouthernMama15

We eloped in June 2013. My twin sister and her husband + DHs cousin and his wife met us there. We told everyone we were going to elope, just not when.  Nobody believed us.  My bouquet was made of Gone With the Wind pages and I had my Granny's broach on the handle. I gave it to her and she told my family to make sure I got it back when she passed so it was very special to me. We had a reception in August. A friend made my dress and my mom made my headband. We had a picnic theme with red checkered table cloths and sunflowers

jadkins2

We got married on April 10, 2010 after dating for five years! It was a beautiful day, sunny and low 70's and we had around 175 guests total. I wouldn't change anything. My flowers and location were my favorite part! Just a bunch of beautiful weeds and we got married at the orphanage where I grew up and coincidentally his mother grew up there also. That's how he knew I was the one, he says!

bumpybump

We had a very large wedding (400+) back in my hometown area at the church I grew up in. This was Nov 2011. The reception was at the same location where my parents and both sisters had their receptions. I did a lot of DIY including my veil and bolero for when we were outside. It was a laid back wedding. Even our photographers mentioned how calm I was and how it seemed like just another day.

These pictures are ones that friends took of the day that show my dress. I don't have access to the professional ones on my phone. And yes, I cropped my head out. 

SpotConlon

We got married on 8/30/2014 about 2 years after meeting. Our wedding was small (probably less than 50 people at the wedding and dinner, even less stayed for the karaoke) and DIY. We had it a learning center that happened to have a multi purpose room with lots of windows and a covered outdoor area. We used the covered outdoor area for the ceremony (a must for western Washington--even in August!). It rained a little throughout the day, but was sunny for pictures and the ceremony. We used the basic wedding ceremony wording, with some fun twists (I promised to watch wrestling, which is a vow I'm very good at keeping). Mostly they were written so we would only have to say "I do." Neither of us is particularly gushy in public. My husband's friends provided the music and conducting the ceremony which was super duper short.

Our dinner consisted of a Thai food buffet and drinks in giant buckets. We hired some great karaoke DJ's who helped herd people in the right direction until we were ready for singing. My husband and I had our first date at karaoke, and a lot of our friends happened to like singing as well, so this was a better choice than a dance party where no one would dance. Our first song was "I Do (Cherish You)", the Mark Wills version because we actually saw him perform it live and it was a great inside joke. Lots of fun, and my family stayed behind to help clean stuff up. Overall, things went great and just as expected! It was just our style. 

Here's our first song (photo credit to Mariah Gentry):

erindippity

We got engaged in August and were married in novemeber in 2014. I thought Pinterest made wedding planning seem fun, and it was, but it was also just making me an anxious mess and I knew that trying to "plan" for a year was going to make us all miserable. So we did everything in 3 months and still had a wedding that I loved. 

I bought a lot of decor on clearance or BOGO because it was after Halloween and Christmas stuff was starting to be the stuff that was pushed. I made all the bouquets. The girls we told to get a gold dress in any style they liked and the guys we told to get jeans, a white shirt and any brown leather shoes of their choice. We bought their bow ties and suspenders for them.

My mother in law made our cake and my Aunt made our cupcakes. We had a ton of finger foods, sweets, a popcorn bar, and a coffee bar using Keurigs. The only alcohol we had was champagne for the toast.  Our ceremony and reception were in the same room, which happened to be the same place my Aunt and Uncle were married in and we were married under the same gazebo my mom and step dad were.

The place that we rented backed up to a golf course that was going to be beautiful for pictures, but it rained and we just went with it. I loved how involved all our loved ones were in our DIY wedding. 

and_peggy

We got married on 11.1.14. We had probably 250 people there. We got double booked at our first venue. My dad works at a Hotel and that's where we were having it. We booked it in March and some other high-society folks decided they wanted it for their anniversary party. Nobody checked all the books. REALLY long story short, we found out about being double booked 10 days before our wedding day. It got very political and we were forced to find a new place. But in a miracle of all miracles, we had our dream wedding at a venue we could never have afforded, the same day. Their bride had cancelled at the last minute. So we got lots of discounts. Oh also, the power was out for 4 hours the day of the wedding, at the venue. It was super eventful but I can't imagine it any other way.

imwithbaby

@aehogan90 holy crap I would've had a heart attack!!! So glad it all worked out in the end!

and_peggy

@mrsmatt1212 when my dad told me, he started pouring the wine...and he hands me the glass and says, "So we have a little problem." I thought that he was going to be the one to have a heart attack. I was definitely upset and stressed but I felt so blessed that nobody didn't show up to the wedding just because of the travel difference. It was about an hour away. And we got it all done. Very thankful for the all the things everyone did to ensure it worked out.

DeansGirl14

Yay, weddings!

We got engaged after a little over a year of dating. DH had been married once before in the Catholic Church and though he'd gotten it annulled, I was a little uncomfortable doing another traditional church wedding (Catholic ceremonies are fairly identical and the vows wouldn't feel authentic to me, since he said them to someone else already). So, we found a Reverend to have a ceremony with Christian prayers. We got married and had our reception at the Signature Room in Chicago, which is a restaurant on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building. The views are incredible. I didn't have to decorate at all because the views spoke for themselves. We focused on great food and top shelf booze. 

We took our wedding party portraits at the Museum of Contemporary Art because we met via Match but the museum is where we had our first date. Attached is my favorite portrait. And oh yeah we got married in 2014; our 3 year anniversary will be shortly after this baby is born. 

Edited to better show portrait. 

Nxy

We got married at a lake side park with less than 100 guests. It was hotter than hell and everyone was miserable. But no one got arrested and both families left intact so it was a mostly good day. 

OTmom3

Today is actually my 7 year wedding anniversary! We had a big wedding with about 150 guest, 7 bridesmaids/groomsmen, two flower girls, and a ring bearer. We got married at a non denominational chapel on a local college campus and then had our wedding reception at a hotel.

PinkPrincessPiper

Nxy said:

We got married at a lake side park with less than 100 guests. It was hotter than hell and everyone was miserable. But no one got arrested and both families left intact so it was a mostly good day. 

  edit - Bump ate my post. Original:
@nxy
   That was my concern if we had not eloped! 

PinkPrincessPiper

@OTmom3 Happy Anniversary! 

BlackNYellow

@deansgirl14 That staircase photo is amazing! I hope you have that framed at your house!

DH and I married at the chapel on his grad school's campus In Pittsburgh and had the reception in their ballroom. DH is not religious at all (quite the opposite really) but getting married in the Catholic church was important to me. Our priest could not have been any more perfect. He was the wittiest Irish guy I have ever met and had the entire church of 160+ guests roaring every time he joked. Our reception was one five hour long dance party and my favorite part had to be DH's speech. I wish I had that on tape! Our last song was to "I've Had the Time of My Life" and the majority of our guests stayed for that final dance. Then we did the chicken dance (his fraternity tradition) and had a post wedding party at our hotel bar. 

lwhrmomma

We had a pretty big wedding (165 people). Our venue is known for their crazy amounts of food...people still talk about our cocktail hour and dessert hour.  I'm praying that if/when my SIL's get married, they pick the same venue so that we can go as guests and actually eat and enjoy all of the food.  I loved the venue, but it was the same place my in-laws got married at 35 years earlier, so MIL turned it into her opportunity to have a second wedding for herself.  She wore a white dress and had a singing performance lol.  Looking back, we spent way more than we should have on the wedding, and I kind of wish we had done something more small-scale, and saved the money, but oh well.  

OTmom3

Thanks @PinkPrincessPiper. We celebrated by eating at IHop with the kids because I ate so well all day for my glucose test that I was dying for pancakes. I'm pretty sure we've turned into my mom and stepdad. But we are going to celebrate for real this weekend by getting dinner somewhere actually nice while the kids go to "Date Night" at the gym.

AbbeyH

Loved reading about all your weddings!  

We we got married in 6/12/10 and like @nxy it was hotter than hell. Georgia in June with 100% humidity. (No wind- just a photographers assistant that was taken out thanks to the magic of photo shop.)

We we had about 200 guests. Ceremony was at the church I grew up in- and didn't start until 7:00pm thanks to a Saturday mass which limits time options. reception was in an old antebellum home and could not have been more beautiful. 
Edited because I missed a very important word that made me sound like a brat!  Whoops

smallbutmighty77

Our wedding was bigger than wanted bc i have a large family. But we loved our venue, food, one of our goid friends married us, my niece was an adorable flower girl,  we felt the day reflected us well... 
Took me forever to find a dress since I wanted nothing to do with traditional, but I loved the dress I found and our wedding was awesome. 

Im taking a blog cue from others: https://chicagostyleweddings.blogspot.com/2016/10/real-wedding-nikki-dan.html?m=1 

tova24

Ladies your special day(s) sound magical! Everyone looked fabulous. 

@smallbutmighty77 your dress is AMAZING. 
@BlackNYellow love the football field. 
@DeansGirl14 that staircase!
@AbbeyH your veil looks so cool how it's blowing!

i would keep going, but man typing on mobile is hard right now! 

MetsGirl18

We got married almost 12 years ago on a beautiful 70 degree day.  I was so glad that the weather was good because we were able to get married outside at the venue on the beach overlooking the water.  The cocktail hour was outside too and we were able to get some nice pictures before the ceremony on the beach.  We had a big wedding mostly because of my side.  Everything turned out beautifully.  

One of the things I liked best was that the people working at the place made sure we had some time to ourselves during the cocktail hour to decompress and to eat.  They were really good about giving us a similar experience as our guests with the food and drinks as well as time to sit down and enjoy the day.  

belmont1785

I love wedding stories. These are so fun!

We kept our wedding as small as we could which was hard because we have a large family. There were about 120 people there. It was April 16th and it snowed in the morning and then was nice the rest of the day. We were wed in my home church which is a beautiful little church about 25 miles from any town... It was perfect. 
We had a reception with exceptional food at a local hotel/event center. We opted not to have a dance (neither one of us is much for dancing). But some of our family was pretty upset we didn't have one, and to this day they remind us that we "missed the best part because there was no dancing" but I don't regret it.

One of my favorite parts was my dad's speech. He is INCREDIBLY shy and I didn't expect him to talk at all! But he just had put the most beautiful speech together and it meant the world to me.

I'll try to post a pic later. I don't have any on me.

DeansGirl14

@smallbutmighty77
I adore the non-traditional dress! I might've gone with color myself but DH wanted white, so I found this off-the-rack at Nordstroms-


@kristenk727 that venue is amazing! Regardless of the spot-light stealing I hope it was still special to share a memorable place with family. 
@Blackandyellow I'm such a sucker for first look photos. Yours is so cute! 

smallbutmighty77

@DeansGirl14 @tova24 thanks! Everyone had such unique places/ dresses/ special touches it is cool to see. 
My ring has black diamonds in it so when I found that dress it was game over...I am not traditional at all and took forever to find. The looks I got walking into bridal stores and saying 'not poufy, not lacey, and if it could not be all white!' I thought some places were going to kick me out.

Feliciosity

I did all of the planning myself since we could not afford a wedding planner and I didn't know anyone that would have been comfortable planning a big event. A lot went wrong... despite my careful planning. Set-up team didn't follow my directions at all and a few key parts of the decorations were not put up because they were "lost". If they had simply opened the numbered boxes I gave them in order instead of all at once... (sigh). Despite all that, everyone told me how great the wedding was. Glad to know no one else saw the flaws.

Anyway, due to the stress, I think I went into auto-pilot during the actual event. I remember very little of the wedding, it just flew by. The only thing I think I was fully conscious for was our first dance. I remember DH (knowing me so well) holding my face to get my attention and telling me "I got you. Just look at me." Swoon. He is still a master at pulling me out when I stress. I love him so.

PinkPrincessPiper

@smallbutmighty77 Your dress was stunning! 

LSP87

We got married on 3/16/13 after being engaged for nearly 4 years. After dealing with a bunch of disgusting family drama earlier on in the planning stages, I decided to take it easy and not care anymore about everyone else's opinions. We chose a small plantation house in an old part of Conroe, TX that had a really simple and cute chapel on site. I found out I was pregnant a few weeks before the wedding so I was more focused on that than the wedding itself which I'm thankful for (luckily I already had an extra, larger dress that I bought from eBay earlier on in my planning). I feel like it helped me enjoy the moment rather than worry about the small stuff which I tend to focus on. It was a pretty laid-back event with about 75 people or so in attendance which was perfect for us. We walked down the aisle as man and wife to "Never gonna give you up" by Rick Astley. My goal was to Rick Roll everyone and I was happy to accomplish that. Our first dance song was something by Robin Thicke which I cant remember and the father-daughter dance song was "Let it be me" by Ray LaMontagne. The food was the most important to me..I was especially excited about the cheese display and the macaroni and cheese station..I love cheese!! The DJ was fun and people seemed to enjoy the photo booth we had set up. I tried to dance but was having morning sickness the majority of the evening. My maid of honor and best friend for 13 years passed away very unexpectedly the night after I asked her to stand for me, so the day was very emotional. I was glad her family came to support me and I had a beautiful photo of her at my cake table. We ended the night with a horse drawn carriage ride through the street.

imwithbaby

On the topic of weddings and drama, there's this gem:

Buzzfeed: This Couple Got Upstaged At Their Wedding And People Have Their Back

https://bzfd.it/2rTi4lR

JWatt5

We got married back in my home town - on an extremely windy day!! It was supposed to be outside on the edge of the bay but those winds wouldn't give up haha. Great day still! I had my university roommates as my bridesmaids, my aunt married us (between her cancer treatments - she's a rockstar), our rings came in from the crowd on the football, formal looking, but casual atmosphere  and it was everything I wanted. I loved my wedding dress but Kleinfelds (Canada/Toronto) made the alterations experience terrible - 8 fittings later I got the $1200 it cost to do the alterations back. 
A few fav photos - loved looking at everyone's photos!!

DeansGirl14

@jwatt5 did you attach photos? You said "a few fav photos" but I don't see any in your post. 

JWatt5

They didn't!! Thanks! Haha @DeansGirl14

dma0389

gahhhh I miss and love our wedding day!! Loved every part of it!

We got married Saturday, October 19, 2013 in Ponte Vedra, FL at TPC Sawgrass for the reception (where they hold the annual Players Championship golf games) and it was a Travel Themed wedding since he was from San Diego and I from FL. The ceremony was at the church I grew up and attended. We had 88 people attend so it was a small and intimate wedding (88 is small for FILIPINOS lol, they usually roll 200+ deep at weddings, not us!).  We went all out from the decor, the florals, rolls royce for me & hubby, string quartet during cocktail hour, open bar, dancing, cookie dessert bar at the end, I even sang a song for my hubby, my Dad sang a song for me + my brother played the guitar, we had a couples game. Hubby and I also did a special "In FLight safety video" for our guests that we worked on with our cinematographers and had special guests (our parents). 

I still hear my cousins and homegirls say that our wedding was epic. Everyone enjoyed it and we partied till 11pm. I wanted to go out with our entourage later that night but we were dead beat! Plus we went to our hotel resort to watch the FSU SEMINOLES BEAT the Clemson Tigers that year! BEST DAY EVER!!

It's true - your wedding day and babies delivery day(s) are the FASTEST days in your life. Wouldn't trade it for anything. Oh the FEELS!!

JCPSand2B

We got married 1/10/09. We were young, 22 years old and on a limited budget with a pretty hefty guest list (over 200 hundred invited around 165 showed up)I did a lot of DIY and we had a lunch time wedding. Honestly the whole day is a bit of a blur. 

We had the wedding and reception at a local hotel that looks like a large log cabin/lodge. The food was amazing (catered by the onsite restaurant which has amazing food using a lot of local ingredients). The hotel/event staff went above and beyond and every thing went seamlessly (or if there were any hiccups I didn't notice them).  

The only downfall was my husband's best friend/best man/practically his brother couldn't make it last minute. His girlfriend ended up pregnant, due on our wedding date and unfortunately did not have him early. BMs tux and plane ticket were paid for just in case, but sadly it didn't work out. He was greatly missed but DHs brother filled in as best man and gave an amazing speech last minute.  The week before the main hwy between here and Seattle flooded and closed down. My photographer, bridesmaid and dj (as well as many guests) were all coming from up north but thankfully everything worked out. 

Overall it was a wonderful day to start off our life together. 

Mango517

I love reading everyone's wedding stories! It gives me the happy feels to hear how so many of you loved your weddings.

We got married down the Jersey shore, our ceremony was right on the beach inside a 6 story 100+ year old elephant with the reception at a nearby yacht club that had an amazing view of the bay. It was an overall lovely day but I so wished that we either hired someone to handle the details and logistics or had just pared down our plan to something that was much cheaper since we paid for almost everything ourselves.

bumpybump

@Mango517 I'm assuming "elephant" is a typo???