Untraditional weddings

We had a brunch wedding with a 10:00 am start time and had a guest list of approximatley 200 people over labor day weekend. We served breakfast items including an egg puff, bacon, pancakes, fruit skewers on the plate as well as a fruit and yogurt parfait bar, assorted muffins (blueberry, raspberry white chocolate, lemon poppy seed, butter rum and banana chocolate chip) and mini cheesecakes, we had coffee, tea, and sparkling orange juice. We had the ceremony and reception in the same place and skipped a lot of the traditional stuff (cake cutting, garter toss, bouquet toss etc) I had a group of friends take over planning (they wanted too and I was happy to let them) my husband and I had no idea what the reception would look like until we were announced and we walked it. It was so beautiful and so fun to be surprised! I know that type of wedding won't work for a lot of Brides, but I have a really kicked back personality and I loved that it was stress free for us!

We had a beautiful wedding for less than 50 guests and spend about $5,000. We hired an amazing caterer, rented a gorgeous beach house on the water, and took advantage of every kind offer of help. There were things that went wrong, some things I just didn't have time to double check so while it worked out for us without one, I do see why people recommend a DOC so vehemently. Our families and even my wife (oh how I love saying that) kept raving about how well put together everything was, even with the mishaps. Nothing will be perfect but planning and having an option B, C, and maybe even D really help make it look pulled together. I'm the type to overplan just so I can relax when the time comes. If you tend toward that, I think you'll be able to pull off a beautiful event, or there's always that DOC option. lol

We are having a very casual affair. The goal is fun. We are inviting 75 people to a hunting lodge/camp for a pig roast, bonfire and yard games. I had the big expensive elaborate wedding 22 years ago. This time I’m having the wedding I really want(and DH too).

View Quoted Comment This sounds amazing! I would love a backyard bbq kind of vibe without actually having it in my backyard. Problem is I don't know where to have something like that. I also would prefer something other than a pig roast (only because I actually don't like it haha) maybe like tacos and nacho bars!

Some of the interesting wedding spots around here are a botanical garden, several museums, libraries and the zoo. Your location may offer something similar. You just gotta think outside the box.

My wedding location isn't anything special, but we're making it unique by doing a celtic hand-fastening. The term "tying the knot" came from traditional hand-fastenings. My fiance and I are kinda nerdy, so we wanted to do something that suited us. We're also having decorations influenced by games and books. All of my flowers will be roses made from book pages. We're using dice and books as table decor. We want our wedding to be semi-casual and fun.

We're doing our wedding for under $5000 with 140 guests. We're getting married in my favorite park and renting a rustic barn type of building from the local fairgrounds for the reception. The venues are super affordable (the park is $50 including mowing/cleaning and a liquor license and the fairgrounds is $400 for THREE days! No rush job in setting up and tearing down!) We're also doing lawn games, popcorn bar, self catering, DIYing nearly everything (I LOVE crafting). Our initial plan was to have a small backyard bbq reception but our families are too large to get away with the 50 people we originally wanted. So we were ok letting the guest list grow some when our venues were so greatly priced! Our wedding my be budget friendly, but its not shabby by any means. Non-traditional weddings can be just as nice as the glitzy formal events. I personally just can't justify spending the equivalent of a down payment on a house on a few hour party. Budget friendly, unique, non traditional weddings are easily doable...you just have to be prepared to do some work on your own and research the crap out of everything.

View Quoted Comment I love this idea! I have to know, what are your plans if it rains? And what exactly are fairgrounds? I only know of yearly fair in our region and it's a good few hours away. I wonder if there is something else local that would be similar for me.

View Quoted Comment The fairgrounds in my area are pretty local to me (about 30 minutes away). The building I'm renting is fully enclosed so i won't have too many issues there...if it's raining at my ceremony we'll have umbrellas because it's been my dream for as long as i can remember to get married in the park. I'm not doing much for decorations at the park, the trees and the view will be decoration enough so i won't need to worry about that in the rain.


If you don't have fairgrounds or something like that you can always try community centers, VFW halls, park pavilion or things like that. They are often much more reasonably priced compared to "traditional" venues. That leaves more room in your budget for other expenses.

A smaller wedding doesn't need to be "thrown together".

We ended up with a little over 80 people, and we chose a venue on the river, and then made sure the entire day reflected us - from the themes and the colors to the ceremony and the swordfight to open the reception.
The key to making your wedding "untraditional" is to make it very uniquely yours.

I'm getting married at a country club outside in a garden but the reception ballroom room has a very large covered enclosed patio connected that we will have a BBQ BUFFET set up outside. Inside will be our desserts bar and candy bar. So ppl will and can move indoor and outdoor for some air, secret smokes etc. Outdoor bbq buffet at a country club I think is pretty unexpected. My guests probably think they'll get 1 meat 2 starches as usual. But no I'm trying to be different.

We’re hoping to have about 80 people (rsvp’s are coming in now) at a Lighthouse. I say, if possible, have your wedding in a place that’s very special to the two of you. Our wedding is a bit out of the way (about an hour north of us) but most people are making it work. Those who can’t come, we totally understand. We wanted to have a smaller more intimate wedding and put our money towards the experience and great food.