So - no wedding updates yet - we're still in planning date/venue mode, but do you have advice?
What's the best wedding you went to and why?
What did someone do that you hated?
What have you seen that worked well?
What was a brilliant idea and if you were planning a wedding it would be a 'must-have' [friends with kids...we're already thinking about an onsite nanny!]
What was so lame you wanted to vomit?
Any other thoughts? Recommendations?
Lame: Personalised Vows.
Posted by: ian | October 17, 2006 at 01:11 PM
works well: kids meals and kids favors with quiet toys like crayons and paper to make Bride & Groom a card.
recommendation: take formal photographs before the ceremony - you'll ruin the "surprise" but get to participate in cocktail hour.
LAME: singers backing up the organist during the ceremony.
Posted by: Paige | October 17, 2006 at 08:29 PM
Lucky Emma! I woke up this morning and the first thought that popped into my mind was... www.herecomestheguide.com. If you have any venue worries, this should help you sort it out.
Posted by: Paige | October 18, 2006 at 10:04 AM
Poddy - I laughed out loud when I read your post...
I too thought that persalized vows were lame, until I went to my friend Dave & Jill's wedding. Often it's hard to not reach for the chuck-bucket, but these were great, totally believable, appropriate, funny, sweet, realistic and totally personal to them.
They made me think...
But yes it's so hard to get them right I think we might go for normal, boring ones.
Posted by: Emma Wischhusen | October 18, 2006 at 10:55 AM
- Best Weddings: those that were a real reflection of what the bride and groom wanted to do.
- Disposable cameras for every person attending are the best idea I've seen.
- Keeping things as simple as possible but spending good money on the best photographer and videographer you can afford.
- Hiring someone to organize your Wedding so you can attend as a guest and be truly present in the day rather than worrying about the little things.
Posted by: Dushka | October 18, 2006 at 02:35 PM
Worst: Wedding on the Isle of Wight when the bride 'surprised' the vicar by walking down the aisle seven months pregnant.
Best: Same wedding, watching the hysterical reaction on the faces of the choirboys as they saw the bride approaching.
Best 'first dance' memory: Ant and Gabby moshed to Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'.
Posted by: David | October 18, 2006 at 09:50 PM
So I shouldn't 'mosh' down the isle 7 months pregnant then?
Posted by: Emma Wischhusen | October 18, 2006 at 09:59 PM
Dave: Is now really the time to be revealing the gruesome details of your first wedding on the Isle of Wight?
Posted by: Ian | October 19, 2006 at 02:02 AM
Kind of like Dushka's idea. One wedding I went to had a laptop set up somewhere so guests could upload their digital pictures instantly before they left, that way the bride and groom got to see what was going on from the guest perspective and didn't have to wait for the official version.
Posted by: E. | October 19, 2006 at 08:56 PM
What we did that worked: Simple ceremony (except it was in Italian and the translator was a joke) Great photographer. Great Car.
What we should not have done: gift baskets for everyone - and dropping them off at assorted B&Bs ourselves
What we wish we'd done: Gotten to the reception earlier (although the pics we had were worth it). Stayed in the same hotel with our friends on the night of and gone off the day after
What I've seen that was great: Male voice quartet singing Wonderful World a cappella - Welsh tenors no less Random speeches in addition to formal ones
Posted by: Anu | October 22, 2006 at 09:24 PM
Oh - Eileen and Dan I think have a cool engagement picture on their wall framed with a huge matt that was used as their guest register
Posted by: Anu | October 22, 2006 at 09:27 PM
What worked for us:
Free booze for all the guests all night (well, wine and champagne - we misjudged how much we'd need for the meal and there were several dozen bottles still left for the reception)
Table football. We decided that we just wanted a big party and I know that my mates like table football...it went down very well.
We didn't have a first dance, but we did have our favourite club DJ who played 50s / 60s experimenta and big band classics all night - we loved it.
Backed up the DJ with a 70s band that were so popular that they took 5 more bookings from guests of ours who went on to get married themselves
Hired a string quartet to play whilst pictures were taken and champagne drunk immediately after the ceremony, so no one got bored
Basically did everything that we wanted (well, we did pay for it)!
(Oh, I banned ties on the male guests, as I hate wearing them myself).
Whatever you do I can promise you you'll have a great time.
One last tip - we didn't go away on honeymoon for a couple of days afterwards, so that we could relax / take it all in / extend the celebration a bit further / have a hangover without fear of how we were going to get to the airport.
Posted by: Matt | October 23, 2006 at 10:59 AM
Did you have an unlimited budget Matt?
Posted by: Emma Wischhusen | October 23, 2006 at 12:40 PM
Jumped over from ian's blog.. got married in May, Honeymooned in Yellowstone...
Take pictures before. Your makeup is still fresh! First sight down the aisle is still good, just take a moment with just the two of you before the pics to gush about how great you both look.
For my guest book, we took polaroids of people as they came through, taped it to a scrapbook page and then had the guests sign around their picutre. silver ink on black pages, looks really nice.
Don't do your nails the day of, you might wrap your toes around the hair dressers chair after sitting for half an hour too long and mess them up then have to get it fixed! (ps schedule plenty of time, 90 minutes means 2 hours!)
Make a time schedule and give it to people. Especially the wedding party...
Buy stuff on Ebay. Bubbles, aisle runners, favor bags, saved a ton of money.
Posted by: M | October 24, 2006 at 09:39 AM