Most memorable parts of a wedding?

1. Positive things: a friends wedding: welcome champagne as we boarded the yacht, so I had welcome champagne at my wedding, too. Funny officiant, who also made us cry. My brothers wedding-so much fun, love, and tons of dancing. My BILs wedding-the father/daughter dance, so touching.

2. My MILs cousins wedding:Not enough food, tables, chairs; so awkward as we select few for seats and food. Also had the dollar dance.
At another wedding on a hot August day-started 45 minutes late, and hour and a half ceremony in a church with no a/c, no fans. Reception location an hour away in Los Angeles, very expensive parking, and had to walk to the reception location located in the train station. Then it was a 2.5 hour reception, with no a/c, so many of us guests had to go to the bathroom to get wet paper towels to try to cool off. blasting music from a Banda that we couldn't speak to each other. Bad cheap wine. They also had a money dance and a snake dance. And also the dj announced to take our wallets out to pay for their honeymoon on top of paying to dance.
At my BILs wedding-a photographer friendor, not a professional, and her battery died with no back up. So many things were not captured. she didn't understand lighting, so many of the photos have shadows over faces, squinting into bright light.

3. The same as one, the welcome champagne was a nice touch.

2.5 hour coxktail hour *

View Quoted Comment Oh my goodness that wedding sounds awful! I’ll admit, we are doing the dollar dance, it’s because all our family will be super pissed if we DONT so it’s actually for them. But it makes me super uncomfortable asking them to give me even MORE money.

All those positives were awesome! Love the welcome champagne idea!

We are definitely doing welcome drinks, seems to be the in thing these days.

fun food is cool. I had a friend did chick fila like chicken for the chicken dish and beef kebabs for the beef, stuff like that. Plenty of booze and good food that's not a single chicken breast always goes well. I love late night snacks and dessert bars as well.

It's in my H's culture to do money dances, too, and he doesn't like them. I was on the fence until those two family weddings 😂 The cousin came to my wedding and was disappointed we didn't have the dance.

View Quoted Comment Lol! Now what is the snake dance? That sounds intricate and embarrassing 😂

View Quoted Comment That’s awesome!
I’m so excited for our food! It’s pretty basic “Christmas dinner” food but the caterer is amazing. She’s also making this dessert type dish that is pretty local to the area (some people know what it is but might have different names for it) and is one of my favorites.

View Quoted Comment The snake dance: the bride stands on a chair. Then they lift and wave her veil up and down and the groomsmen and some of the male guests (usually quite buzzed at this time) make a line like a snake-hands to shoulders, and run full speed around the room and run under the veil trying not to get stuck under the brides veil. At this wedding it lasted 20 minutes.

View Quoted Comment I would rather die 😂

1. at a friends: they had someone take a group photo from a balcony with all the guests and I thought it was so cute! They had really good send-off with sparklers, they also worked very hard to stop and see everyone!

2. Family wedding: they started really late and then it was a long ceremony, OUTSIDE it was bright, hot, and not fun! They had it set up so that we couldn't go to our seats at all until they were seated and ready for dinner service, there was only one bench for people to sit on and the cocktail hour lasted longer than it should have. We NEVER even got to say hello, they didn't have that many guests, but they did have priorities... The first dance (& the dance floor didn't open) and cake didn't start until 9/9:30 but the ceremony started at 2... we also never got a thank you card for the gift we brought so I'm a little salty lol. DEFINITELY take the time to have a day of schedule and someone to help you adhere to it!

3.The mini Polaroid cameras for a photo booth/ guest book! We got an adorable pic to take as a favor and I keep it on me . Live music... we decided to do a playlist for ours, but the live band at a friends wedding was awesome!

View Quoted Comment The reception schedule is definitely super important to me! And not having a super long cocktail hour. I went to a wedding that probably had a 2 hour cocktail hour. It was a cash bar, and the only appetizers were some sort of cheese/chicken/crab ball and crackers on each table. FH couldn’t touch it because he’s allergic to shellfish and didn’t know what it actually was.

Definitely gotta get those thank you cards out, too! We’re getting married and immediately going on our honeymoon - then it’s Christmas! I’m hoping to send out thank you cards to everyone in addition to a Christmas card with a photo from our cruise.

1. At one wedding I attended, the bride and groom took about 30 minutes between the ceremony and the reception to take a breather and change into complimenting outfits. They looked really relaxed when they came into the reception.
2. The reception featured pineapple stuffed ham. I happen be allergic to pineapple. I heard about it before and informed the bride of my food allergy. She said that there would be a safe option for me. There wasn't and other guests who had eaten it kept trying to hug me and kiss my cheek.
3. One bride and groom put up family photos of prior weddings. One of the photos was 85 years old.

I'm personally a firm believer that guests remember general details. For instance I was extremely uncomfortable at my cousins wedding because it was freezing and outside and these was no escape. Besides the extremes people will overall remember general info like if they had fun, liked the food, liked the music, etc. we are doing the small details for us : )

some things we are using: choosing specific songs we want, putting rosemary or greens in with every napkin, votives and lanterns, sweeting up sweetheart table, etc

View Quoted Comment #3 is such a cool idea! There’s a wedding photo of my great grandparents that I adore.

I’m so sorry about your allergy and what happened! FH is allergic to shellfish and avoids almost all fish since they sometimes eat shellfish and it can be a pain, especially growing up in an eastern shore “crab feast every month” type of family. I don’t like seafood so it works out for us!

1. I don't have a ton that come to mind but I just enjoy weddings were the vibe is relaxed, the couple is in love, and people are talking and having a good time. Dancing is a plus. Lots of food is plus. I hate long cocktail hours.

2. I always remember being hungry. dinner after 8 pm is a big no for me.

3. We had lots of food and no cocktail hour!

Oh and details of charms on bouquet of loved ones/blue shoes/Grandparent handkerchief and little details like that

Best: Good food, being thanked by the bride and groom at our table not just a receiving line. Short and sweet ceremony.

Worst: Too many tributes to the dead: dove release, memorial poems, toasts to the dead father of the bride, oy. Same wedding had a slideshow of bride and groom that went on FOREVER before it broke. Too many "inside joke" songs at the reception between family members. Like I am glad five of you are out there laughing while dancing to Ice Ice Baby and other obscure songs but we are all sitting here, waiting to dance to real music.

Sweet touches: Short, heartfelt toasts that reflect ONLY on the couple. By sober people.

View Quoted Comment Love the “by sober people!” I definitely need to make sure we get the toasts done before everyone has one too many drinks!
I’ll definitely take note of #1! One of my fears is that the day will just fly by and I won’t get to have any conversations with people and thank them for traveling and attending the wedding.

View Quoted Comment These inspo photos are beautiful!