| Getting Started with the Planning Just got engaged and don't know where to start? Get some help here... |
10-31-2007, 09:00 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Claysville, PA
Wedding Date: June 28, 2008
Posts: 1,874
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What did you do "best"?
I've caught myself on more than one occassion comparing my wedding plans to other peoples weddings. In particular, this happened last Sunday at Grandma's house, as she went on and on about how "classy" Rick's cousins wedding was on Saturday (apparently our invitation got lost in the mail...  )
I don't think this is necesarily a "bad" thing and it definitely isn't unnatural... EVERY bride thinks her wedding was "the best" (as she should!).
So I was wondering, what about your wedding was "better" than any other wedding (besides marrying your husband, or having your family there, or any of that sentimental bs)? Was there anything particularly unique or eyecatching?
Or, on the flip side, did you have any "big ideas" that turned into flops?
For those of you not married yet, what do you hope will stand out as being unique?
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10-31-2007, 11:49 PM
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Moderator
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Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: New York
Wedding Date: April 17, 2004
Posts: 14,018
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A big hit at ours was instead of using numbered tables, we named the tables for locations that meant something to us. I had the table name in big letters across the top, and underneath typed out a short story explaining why and placed them in black frames on the table. People were going from table to table reading them all - good conversation starter!
I guess the thing that I feel set our wedding apart is the fact that we planned an event that we would want to attend. We didn't have a cake, we didn't do the garter or bouquet toss, and we kept our guests at the forefront of our planning. It was our event, but we were insistent that our guests came first.
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A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
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10-31-2007, 11:50 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Highland, California
Posts: 1,368
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I got one!
My invitations 
They were satin ribbon, I never saw anything like them. Apparently neither did anyone else, it's what I got the most compliments on for it's uniqueness and elegance! I was like SCORE! 
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07/07/07
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11-01-2007, 12:54 AM
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Advanced Member
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Tacoma, WA
Wedding Date: October 9, 2004
Posts: 5,506
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I have been to weddings with bag pipers before but never one where the piper led the bride in and the whole party out..... It went off beautifully, though everyone I told was unsure about it working... 
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11-01-2007, 12:55 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Ontario, Canada
Wedding Date: June 9, 2007
Posts: 1,300
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We had pictures of us as Table number so for my side table one was me at one table two was me at two. Then we did the same for His side of the family.
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11-01-2007, 02:06 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Wedding Date: August 25, 2006
Posts: 2,220
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I hired a barbershop quartet to surprise & to sing Happy Birthday to Hugh (his birthday was the next day). They were a big hit!
They were only supposed to sing 3-4 songs but they wanted to hear the acoustics inside the sanctuary and they sang another 3-4 songs there ... and then my mother stopped them on the way out and asked them if they knew of such a such a song and so they serenaded her!
Unplanned .... Hugh's son sat down at a piano and sang a song for us. That went over well with the guests too.
Everyone complimented us on our the clerical stoles, butterfly banners, & the spiral decoration we made for the sanctuary.
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11-01-2007, 03:52 AM
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: VA
Wedding Date: Nov. 26, 2005
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Everything about our wedding made it perfect for us and our friends/family, which I think is the most important thing for any wedding--but will be different for each one.
One thing that got a ton of response that we didn't really have anything to do with was the homily at our ceremony. We'd asked one of the "elders" of my church, where we were married, to speak--I've known him my whole life, and he's an extremely thoughtful, literate, well-spoken man. He's given many of the sermons at church. Anyway, his homily was amazing. I had about 10 people ask me for copies, so he sent me the document so I could send it around to folks. He met with us about a month before the wedding (he didn't really know DH, or "our" story--he just knew me, mostly), and incorporated some great things about us and some wonderful advice. It really was the best wedding homily I'd ever heard, and other people said so too. It was really wonderful--and especially to have something like that when we didn't know what he'd say, had nothing to do with planning it except asking him to speak.
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11-01-2007, 03:52 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 12
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There were several things that went well. We had a friend that plays the bagpipe, play two of our clan songs. My husband is from the Mcpherson clan and I have clan Campbell.
The wedding pictures were aweful and because of the photograhper we did not get any of the reception food.
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11-01-2007, 12:53 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Montello, WI
Wedding Date: June 30th, 2007
Posts: 2,143
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I'm not sure this is anything we necessarily did well...however, we were very relaxed. Everyone kept telling us things flowed so well. Our wedding was simple, but perfect.
I wasn't a crying nervous bridzilla! It was great 
This weekend Mark's brother gets married, I'll have to report back.
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11-01-2007, 01:42 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Fayetteville, Arkansas
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Our invitations were a huge hit. I had originally looked at brand invites, but got a recommendation on a fabulous woman who did handmade invitations. Ours were the nutmeg brown of my BM dresses with an ivory ribbon tying them. Our response cards generally had some comment about the invitations on them-no wonder she's doing my Christmas cards!
The arch of swords was a huge hit. I could hear some of the gasps when our boys snapped up so crisply. It really was spectacular especially since they were all so recently home from Iraq.
Then OF COURSE Cliff's serenading me at the reception with "Send My Love," the song he wrote for me in Iraq (and soon to be released on To the Fallen Records Country Compilation CD!). Lots of tears for that one and lots of BMs turning to their husbands saying, "honey, when are you writing me a song??"
My favorite was the sparklers instead of rice/petals on our way out of the reception, our escape in the horsedrawn carriage, and the tumble into a big ol' suite at the Peabody after that! 
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11-01-2007, 01:48 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Ohio
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The message/homily at ours was nice, too! Very personal and touching. The decorations at the reception turned out better than I had anticipated, and the DJ and his wife also sang, and they were fabulous! Everyone at the reception commented about how beautiful their voices were.
On the down side, it was SO cold (February in Ohio), that the MOH was standing in the front shivering and the best man was standing over a heater vent sweating.
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11-01-2007, 02:15 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Florida
Posts: 1,861
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The thing that Rob and I got the most comments on was how well our wedding and reception reflected us. Every part of the day was truly, genuinely us.
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**Jill**
Happy Trails since JULY 29, 2007
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11-01-2007, 03:57 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Wedding Date: April, 22, 2006
Posts: 2,828
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My comments were about the flowers, mostly.....I think because they were so fresh and you generally don't see tulilps alone for weddings....and then when people found out how we got them it was even more buzz.....the other thing was our placecard frames...instead of having names in them we put a quote about love or friendship...250 different ones!!! I noticed that people were walking around reading all the different ones!! The other thing was the cookies. We gave cookies as favors, wrapped in a glassine envelope...but they were cut outs in our initials....most people thought that was clever and had never seen it before.....and the wine bottle labels...
to be honest I think most of these comments came because we did a lot of things different than the average...when you live in a small town weddings tend to look like the wedding from the weekend before and we did things that most people had never seen before or spent the money on...but it made all the difference....we've been to five weddings since then and all of them had something that was copied from our wedding....the entire table scape was copied for one wedding (except the colors were changed)....I guess you could call it the evolution of a wedding  .....
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11-01-2007, 04:50 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 5,987
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by ladedah
My comments were about the flowers, mostly.....I think because they were so fresh and you generally don't see tulilps alone for weddings....and then when people found out how we got them it was even more buzz.....the other thing was our placecard frames...instead of having names in them we put a quote about love or friendship...250 different ones!!! I noticed that people were walking around reading all the different ones!! The other thing was the cookies. We gave cookies as favors, wrapped in a glassine envelope...but they were cut outs in our initials....most people thought that was clever and had never seen it before.....and the wine bottle labels...
to be honest I think most of these comments came because we did a lot of things different than the average...when you live in a small town weddings tend to look like the wedding from the weekend before and we did things that most people had never seen before or spent the money on...but it made all the difference....we've been to five weddings since then and all of them had something that was copied from our wedding....the entire table scape was copied for one wedding (except the colors were changed)....I guess you could call it the evolution of a wedding ..... |
You trend setter you!
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11-01-2007, 06:42 PM
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Advanced Member
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Wedding Date: April, 22, 2006
Posts: 2,828
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*taking bow*
Why thank you...
ahem snot ahem
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11-01-2007, 06:46 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 5,987
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by ladedah
*taking bow*
Why thank you...
ahem snot ahem
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11-01-2007, 07:42 PM
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Moderator
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Wedding Date: August 25, 2006
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by ladedah
ahem snot ahem |
I do hope that was a sniff inwards and not an outgoing booger!
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11-01-2007, 08:24 PM
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Advanced Member
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Wedding Date: April, 22, 2006
Posts: 2,828
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actually it was me calling Mary a snot during my ahemming....guess I should have made it clearer...
oops...
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11-01-2007, 09:44 PM
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Advanced Member
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 5,987
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by SerendipityCrafts
I do hope that was a sniff inwards and not an outgoing booger! |
oh gross.....
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11-01-2007, 09:45 PM
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Advanced Member
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 5,987
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by ladedah
actually it was me calling Mary a snot during my ahemming....guess I should have made it clearer...
oops... |
You love me and you know it...
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11-01-2007, 11:43 PM
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Advanced Member
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Indiana
Wedding Date: June 17, 2006
Posts: 4,129
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Erm....you know, this is a tougher question than I orginally thought. I guess one thing we got a lot of compliments on was the food...but then again our families are used to cookies and punch receptions.
The photo mat in place of a guest book was a big hit. Wow...everything I can think of is more unique to our families than weddings in general, lol. I'll come back if something jogs my memory.
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11-01-2007, 11:50 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: The Panhandle of Oklahoma
Posts: 1,790
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The one thing that really made our reception a little more special for us and our family was it was in a barn and most of our family lives on farms. It just seemed like everyone was really relaxed and laid back.
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11-03-2007, 04:32 PM
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Junior Member
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Central California!
Posts: 192
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Not married yet, but we went to a girlfriend's wedding last week and I felt bad because I was sitting there with FI saying, "Oh we have to do this different. And remember not to do this." And on and on...
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11-03-2007, 05:18 PM
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Super Moderator
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Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Northern California
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I was told over and over again by family members that our wedding reception was the most "fun" reception they'd ever attended. I give the credit to our DJ, who played a wonderful mix of music. People were on the dance floor for hours. Then again, that could also be because I waas on the dance floor for most of the evening, and guests tend to flock to where the bride and groom are.
People also liked the fact that I had "snack" trays out on the food table a couple of hours after dinner was over. I didn't want anyone to leave because they were hungry.
One thing I did that isn't revolutionary but was well-received was having assigned seating (table assignments - not specific chair assignments). Of all of my cousins to get married over the past 10 years, I was the only one to have assigned tables. It was a big hit because people didn't have to wonder around, trying to find a table with enough seats left for their group. We used famous couples as our table names; of course the head table was "Rhett and Scarlett" because I'm a huge GWTW fan.
Flop? I'd have to say the "flop" of our wedding was the idea of hiring a babysitter to watch over the children's table. I had a children's table set up in the back that had stuff for kids to do (coloring, stickers, etc.). The babysitter I hired came highly recommended by one of my guests (who used her for their kids). She charged me $3.50 per hour - PER CHILD - and she only watched the two kids that she normally babysits (the family who recommended her). A couple of my guests had to help out with the remaining kids, and I had to change my daughter's diaper during the reception because the babysitter was nowhere to be found. In hindsight, I would have hired an adult.
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Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.
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01-23-2008, 04:27 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Westerville, Oh/Piqua, Oh
Posts: 688
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Thanks for some of the ideas ladies!!! It's nice to know what went well and what I need to watch out for!
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