What's more important to you? Reception or Ceremony?

@Miss Tattoo: We too wrote our ceremony from scratch, it took about 20 minutes and we were done. I've spent at least 2-3 hours agonizing over the liquor I'm going to purchase for the wedding and ensuring that I have enough liquor as well as the right mix of what my guests will drink.

IMHO the ceremony is important for the legal aspect of getting married, but our friends and family are giving up their Saturday so I am WAY more concerned that they enjoy their time than anything else.

For planning purposes, the reception has been higher on the priority list, simply because it involves a lot more elements. I want to be sure our guests have a good time, and are comfortable and happy. The ceremony is a lot less involved, so I probably only spent about 15% of my planning energy on it. However, the ceremony is the more "important" part of the day, as that is what will make us "husband and wife"

@jamie-That's how I feel. I really don't have a tight grip on the reception like I do the ceremony.

I'm planning the ceremony from the start to finish. I care how the chairs are set up, how the arbor will be decorated, who is reading what, what songs are going to be playing, how we all enter the area, the guest involvement, etc.

The reception? All I need to tell the country club is a count, plated or buffet, and where the DJ needs to set up. I couldn't care less if they serve garden or caesar salad. As long as the DJ keeps people on the floor (and the older people in my family would be happy hearing the effing Electric Slide all night) and the alcohol doesn't run out, I'm okay. If the wrong song gets played during the ceremony, I'm going to be annoyed. lol

RECEPTION! haha I am alot like KK I would say 70/30 30 being the ceremonie.... I can't wait to have everyone there, and have a great time! definatly going to be the highlight!

Glenn....LMAO...Thanks for the best wedding gift so far. That is some funny stuff. Eight minutes? lolol

You know this is a difficult to answer. It is a DW and a wedding weekend, so the events are important. However, we only wanted to be surrounded with people we love in a place that we love. We also wrote our ceremony and incorporated our adult kids as musicians. However, like Glenn, we spent hours deciding on the bar and the DJ's play list. To us, the food can suck and people may remember(unless they are Italian American and then tongues will be wagging). But if the bar sucks AND your DJ sucks, you are talked about for years. So, I think we put more time into the events of the weekend: Welcome Dinner and Karoke Krazy Friday with campfire; self-navigated rides throughout picturesque Vermont for Saturday; a sentimental yet wildly funny ceremony, and a drop dead who passed out first reception.

Most of my time and money is going to the reception but that doesn't mean i don't care about my ceramony. they are equally important but one is just less time consuming

Equal amount of time on both.

Both.

The ceremony, I think is super important to me and FH. It's the reason FOR the reception, it's the moment when we become husband and wife.

But I am super excited about the reception as well, and hope it's a fun time for us and our guests.

I cant pick. The ceremony is so important to me because its about us. I want it to be special and reflect us. Then with the reception I want everyone, even us to have a great time. I want it to be a celebration of us making our commitment to one another.

Reception is more important in terms of planning and money. I want my guests to have a blast!

However, which is more 'special' to me? Ceremony

But I'm going to party my ass off at the reception!!

It's really all one event to me, but we probably spent more time on the ceremony than the reception, just because there's more details involved with the ceremony to decide on. The things we've spent the most time on is probably stationary, you know, invites and stuff. That just takes forever by quantity!

I think both are equally important for me. FH would disagree, he wants the reception more than the ceremony lol.

Hmmm.... well the ceremony is VERY important to me and FH. We have put a lot of time into it from the actual ceremony to the decor of ceremony space. But it's most important to him and I. For our guests we are more concered with the reception because that is our celebration and also our thanks to them for coming to celebrate with us! Food, music and decor were all very important to us. Food at the top of the list then alcohol and music. We just want it to go down as a great day in history not only for us but for everyone who is there to share and remember the day with us.

I'm torn. Both to me are really important.

The ceremony I want to be magical and wonderful. The reception I want people to feel comfortable and entertained. Recently I have been spending more time on ceremony readings, trying to pick out the perfect ones is really hard.

Good topic!

Neither really, I just want a happy God filled marriage.

The ceremony is just a formality to us. We already consider ourselves married.

Our ceremony is going to be beautiful and just what we want but we are looking forward to a big party and celebrating with family and friends.

Reception i cant wait to relax and enjoy the fact we just got married

Mouche....Amen!

Stacy G....Well said! I have been married mentally for 9 years now.

I'd like to think I'm putting more effort into the marriage. Our ceremony is going to be private and last 5 minutes. It is the most important part of the wedding planning process to me, however, there just isn't much to plan. It's all done already. The reception is going to take more time to plan, and cost more, but I'm not going crazy about it. I'll make sure there's enough booze and food to keep people happy, but as far as small details I'm not picky.

I didn't really plan them separately - I planned the day so I guess both were equally important to me... It was important that I have all of the things that were meaningful to us for the ceremony and it was important to me that we all had a great time and enjoyed the food and music.