What do you value more?

The actually wedding even if it is 20 mins that is what I value the most rings will be lost dresses might or might not be worn again. But after that 20 minutes my life will be changed forever.

FH, family, and ceremony of course....but:

Venue

Music

Food

Coordinator

Video

I value guest experience. If our guests don't have a good time I won't lol my parents think I'm crazy

I was another person who really wanted my guests to have a blast. Sure, you can't please every negative nancy, but I spent a lot of time pouring over logistics that would improve guest experience. Our budget priorities were:

- a fun venue: we wound up with a museum that had a carousel that was open all night that was enjoyed by kids in the evening and less than sober adults as it got later. It also allowed for lots of wandering around and looking at things during cocktail hour if you weren't into chit chatting.

- good and plentiful food and drink.

It ended up paying off because we got a serious number of e-mails, as did our parents that our wedding was the best people had ever attended in terms of food, logistics, and making things easy on out of town guests (all venues the entire weekend were walkable from he room block hotel).

@MrsPettit, museum and carousel sounds incredible!!!

@OP, everyone brings up great points. For me, other than "married in the eyes of God," the venue and guest experience, and my rings.

Having my family and closest friends there, a meaningful ceremony and good food and drinks. Oh, and dancing.

Giant hugs to everyone who realizes that the ceremony isn't some chunk of boredom to 'get through'.

Guest experience. I know I will have a good time regardless.

Guest experience and food. We spent a long time working out menus for our rehearsal dinner and reception, and we excluded several venues that didn't have to space to do the reception the way we want. We've spent a ton of time making sure that everyone will have a great night.

I just want to spend time with our friends and family. I want everyone to have a good time and enjoy was good food and company.

The ceremony, having a blast with everyone I love, and getting some awesome pictures that I can look back at for years to come.

I am putting most emphasis on my reception. I want it to be beautiful and romantic while enjoyable. You can't please everyone but I think it will be loved by all. So my venue is top, my FHs feelings second. Most men aren't too involved so he is leaving it up to me.

From my experience it was having everyone there & BM dresses. We wanted both our huge families there and we didn't want to exclude any family so fancy venue wasn't that important & a pp rate was out. BM dresses was also very important bc l feel they set the tone for the formality & color scheme. I have a love, not much love relationship with my body so my dress isn't as important it literally depends on how I feel that day. I hate my arms esp in pictures, I prefer to wear a regular bra, and my tummy area is also worrisome. Yet I'm wearing a sleeveless, strapless, fitted dress. My ring really doesn't matter the right photography can make most rings look big & beautiful and those can always be upgraded.

#1- a meaningful ceremony

#2- good photos! I splurged more on the photog than anything else. I can't wait to have some nice family photos for our walls!!

Ceremony, my wedding band, and photography. And if you look at my budget and where the largest chunks of money were spent (relative to other expenses), you can tell those areas are most important to me.

I think because the ceremony is THE reason for everything. I want it to reflect us and our values. I want those 20 mins to feel like something worthy of the fact that it will be changing our lives.

My band because theoretically, I'll wear it forever (of course shit happens, it's a material thing at the end of the day, but I do value it for it's symbolism).

Photos because those are where our memories will be captured. It's always nice to look back and remember or to see moments captured that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. The photos are forever.

The ceremony and guest having a great time.

My ceremony and vows were the most important thing for our wedding. After that the music that was played before, during, and after the ceremony. Everything else just came together after that. I wanted to make sure my guests had fun, but the whole point of them enjoying themselves was to watch me and DH get married.

The most important things to me were the rings because we'll wear them forever and having all of the people we love there with us. My dress was more important to me than I expected, because my mom didn't have a traditional wedding dress or a veil or anything, and I want to have one that has the potential to function as a family heirloom in the future.

The most important tangible thing to me is our venue. We're getting married at the Bronx Zoo, and that's been a dream of ours for years, ever since we found out they do weddings. And I'm willing to buy a less expensive dress or spend less on centerpieces so we can have the venue we want.

But I think for me, that ties into guest experience. How cool is it to have cocktails by the sea lions?? (The answer is super cool.)

The actual ceremony especially the vows. Second to that is a fun and festive reception as we celebrate with our close family and friends. Third is the photographer.

We don't consider the rings as part of the wedding since their significance goes beyond the single day. We both splurged on our rings and don't plan to "upgrade" them ever.

The rest, like the dress, I don't really care about. Consider it a small piece of the overall puzzle.