Wedding Takeaways

This is all great advice! My experiences were mostly similar to yours, except I didn't get to eat much on my wedding day (dinner got interrupted to cut the cake, and when I got back to our table, our plates had been cleared). I SO wish I had thought to bring Tupperware containers!! The venue would not give us to-go boxes, so a few meals that we paid for went to waste (we had three people not show up). It sounds like your wedding went very well! Awesome that everyone enjoyed everything. What did you do for favors?

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We cut the cake during dinner too, but the staff were really good about asking before clearing anyone's drinks and food. I'm sorry they took yours. Our wedding went perfectly! We're so excited! The favors were bottles of wine that my brother in law, a brewer, made. They're really good, but no one knew that before taking them home.

View Quoted Comment Ooh I can see why your guests all took their favors home! Those are an excellent idea. Even cooler that they were made by one of your family members.

Thank you for sharing your experiences! I completely agree about people repeating certain things over and over again as if their opinions or personal experiences means that’s what is common or absolute. I had heard the same things you quoted here also, and our experiences were very similar to yours. We didn’t have a signature drink, but we did have a top shelf open bar all evening. Most of our family and friends are definitely down to have a lot of drinks and party it up. But everyone was on their best behavior, and most people drank less than they usually would on a typical night out. No one got drunk, loud, etc. Most, if not all, of our guests checked out our website. Favors were taken, cake was eaten, and we were never interrupted from our meals. I think a lot of it has to do with knowing your crowd. It sounds like you obviously knew yours and planned an event everyone enjoyed it! So glad everything worked out perfectly!

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I definitely think knowing your crowd is important. Our guests are generally very respectful. A few got drunk (but not belligerent), but most people, including myself, only had a few drinks the entire night. I was just so into the party that I forgot to drink. It was a little frustrating for me when planning that some of the advice I listed was touted as rules.

I completely agree with you. I see it happen on this forum all the time, and it’s so frustrating! It’s one thing to (politely) point out a breach of etiquette; but it’s quite another to discourage people from having their unique vision of a wedding just because that’s not the way you or your family does things. I’m so glad you stuck to your vision despite the frustrating comments!

The bar ran out of our signature drink !! LOLOLOL All the "advice" you pointed out pretty much never happened at our wedding either. We gave out magnetic photo strip frames for the photo booth pictures and the extras were also gone. People were bartering with each other for the various components of our table centerpieces to take. (the signs I bought at the Dollar Tree were the hot ticket items ) We ate our delicious meal without interruption because everyone else was too busy enjoying their meal to do otherwise. And dessert? We had no cake left - it was a small 'cutting cake' plus another grooms cake - and items on the dessert bar. We did provide "to go" boxes (Amazon.com) so that might be the reason there. Even the flip flops we provided (beach wedding) were gone. So yeah, it may be a "know your crowd" kind of deal, or just providing a very guest friendly event along with your vision.

Fabulous list. I also found these true, though no comment on cake as we didn't serve any. Who are these novice drinkers anyway-- open bar is risky, wine and beer are safer? Silly. I love thoughtful favors and so did my guests.

Glad to hear your creative formal was a fun success. When you get a chance, would love to hear more of your orchestra and music selections.

Many congratulations to you, Newlyweds!

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Thanks! We processed to the trumpet voluntary by Jeramiah Clarke. We had a live band perform rock music for the reception and they were awesome!