Older Brides

You are not alone, third marriage for me will be 41 on wedding day, his first he'll be 30, definitely going to skip the garter toss, not sure on bouquet toss at this time, my relationship with my father is not as strong as it once was so him walking me down isle as well as father-daughter dance is still in question. My four children are my attendants 2 girls-twins will be 17 & 2 boys 16,22 at that time. Perhaps I could have my oldest son walk with me even if hes already in the party ? FH has no kids yet will probably have to do IVF as I'm willing to try to have baby together.

Late to the party for this discussion but I just recently joined Wedding Wire so it's new to me. I'm older too. I'm 53 and my fiancé is 55. We've been together for 18 years and just decided a few months back to make it legal... mostly because he had a health scare and it got us thinking. We started off planning something really small. Just immediate family and then dinner out. Then, as we thought about it, we decided why not celebrate our love in a grander way. We've both been married before so although we are planning all of this in 3 months, I'm not really stressed because I did this once before in my 20s and now I know that the actual marriage and relationship is the most important thing and the actual wedding, which is a 1 day event. Older and wiser we plan on having a rustic barn wedding with a buffet. We will be doing a first dance, cutting the cake, and some other traditional stuff but we aren't going overboard. We will have a DJ as we want our guests to have fun. I'm wearing a long dress and it's ivory, but no veil. I'm actually enjoying the planning this time around because of the 30 years of life experience and wisdom I'm taking with me since I first got married in my 20's back in 1987. I think it's more stressful now for the younger generation today. We didn't have to compete in the same way with Instagram, Pintrist, social media, etc. I think there's more pressure today. Thank goodness I'm not getting caught up in it.

I guess I'm kind of in the middle here, I'll be almost 34 at wedding and FH 44. It is first marriage for both of us so we wanted to make sort of a big deal out of it and include some traditions. I actually didn't think I wanted a big wedding at a venue, but fiance did and I'm finding it kind of fun! I have two bridesmaids and he has two groomsmen. My baby brother (19) will be officiating. We'll do a first dance. And I want to have a mother-daughter dance with my mom. We used to dance in the living room together when I was little to REM, U2, Talking Heads, etc. It was just the two of us until I was 7. We'll dance to Shiny Happy People by REM and most likely be joined on the dance floor half way through by my ex-step-dad, baby brother, ex-step-dad's long term girlfriend, her son, mom's fiance and his daughters. No garter toss, no bouquet toss. Ex-step-dad is playing his acoustic guitar for me as I walk down the aisle by myself.

I think you make your wedding whatever you want it to be and it can include your own definition of family and ritual. No offense to younger couples, but maybe they just follow a formula because they're lives and family cirles aren't as developed, complex or as rich yet. Make your day a celebration of your love and your family! ♥️

I'm 43 and he's 50. You are still youthful at 37! Go with what your heart tells you in terms of the choices in your planning. It's your wedding and it should bring you happiness so do what makes you happy. xoxo

I am late joining this party as this was last year! I'm not the only one getting married over 40, I'm 48 and he's 51 and this will be our second marriage. My second wedding and I'm doing a lot of the planning and keeping it low key and small but I will still have it at a venue on a budget. My last wedding was a hard day but this one will be special.

Wow, I'm so glad to know that I'm not alone on this. I'm 38 and my fiance is 33 and this is our first marriage for the both of us. We didn't want a "real" wedding, but we had to compromise on having a small intimate wedding with only 50-60 guests due to some cultural differences. My parents want the big blowout wedding and invite the whole crew while we would like a courthouse wedding and invite only each other's families for a simple wedding dinner.

In a perfect world, if we were to have it totally our way without hurting our families, we would elope at a destination wedding; just the two of us. But I know that it would take away my mother's bragging rights as the mother-of-the-bride because I'm the first-born daughter and the first in the family to get married.

Now that I am "forced" to have a somewhat "traditional" wedding, I would like to keep the wedding as simple as possible and leaning toward a daytime wedding. No bridesmaids and groomsmen, no speeches at weddings, toasts to be limited to 3 and keep them short, no dancing (can't have my conservative relatives watching guests getting down and twerking), and no open bar (both of our families don't drink, but may look into providing beer and wine).