Memory area/table

I was originally going to do one of these tables but I really got bad reactions from friends and family. It seems that most don't want a reminder of anything sad at a wedding. Instead I'm having little frames with pictures hanging from my bouquet and I'll be wearing my Nana's ring as well as FH Grandmas ring during the wedding. I'll be honoring them without being obvious.

I also thought about this to but it seemed like my mom wasn't to sure about it since my step father passed less than a year ago and her brother was only a couple years ago. So I opted for charms hanging off my bouquet so they where close to me during the ceremony.

We are doing a table with lantern and photos

Earlier in our wedding g planning, DH and I would have had a large number of grandparents between us that had passed away throughout our lifetimes. I felt like having (at the time) 8 pictures and memorials of dead grandparents would be too overwhelming and make things feel like a funeral, so I didn't bring it up as an option. I didn't think it was appropriate because it would be too much.

Then my grandmother passed away the week of our wedding. I was asked by several family members if I wanted to have a memorial table for her. Here's the thing: I felt the same way as Bemyguest does. If you're going to do this, you need to be careful to do it in circles. If you're going to honor one grandparent who has passed with a memorial table, it is cruel not to honor the other grandparents who have passed away. We were looking at needing to set up 9 memorials. And no, it wouldn't have been understandable to have just done one for my grandmother who had passed away just days before the wedding because it was so much more recent. DH had a grandmother and I had a grandfather who had also passed away withing the last calendar year. And at that point, it would seem so arbitrary and insensitive to only include just 3 of the 9. We would need to include the others. And if I even did want to do this (which I still felt it was too sad) how was I supposed to get DH to drum up the pictures of 4 grandparents before he flew across the country for the wedding? How was I supposed to put this together for 5 grandparents amid all my other wedding preparations? On top of the fact that I didn't even think a memorial table (that would have had to have been huge because there were 9 grandparents to remember) was the best choice for us?

I decided to stick with my original plan and honored grandmother with a song dedication during the reception. I had the DJ play a song she used to sing and hum all the time around us and invited everyone to get up and dance. And she loved to dance. It was something that I didn't feel we needed to do for every other grandparent who had also passed away.