Details that made a wedding

A couple weddings I went to include 11pm snacks for those who will still going, I really enjoyed it and it soaked up some of the alcohol.

My worst wedding was 12 hours long, started at 12 and ended at 12, bus back to hotel so impossible to leave early because the area was rural and we couldn't get a cab. They had a band instead of a DJ, the music only suited a handful of people, the rest sat around bored out of their minds waiting for it to finish.

Totally agree with this - I got married at 4pm for precisely this reason and because I bloody hate getting up early in the morning, even for wedding! and lots of people said how good it was that there was no waiting around. We also got married in one place and had the reception 500 yards away so there was no extra travelling and made sure that bubbly was available directly after the ceremony while we took photos (and I limited that to 15 minutes).

From the point of a non-alcohol drinker - plenty of drinks that aren't alcohol but also aren't J2O or coke. Or, even worse, sparkling bloody water.

We might not drink alcohol but we like to have something that we wouldn't otherwise have, some nice mocktails or interesting flavours of tonic water or something. I've lost track of the events that I've been to where everyone else is getting blasted on free wine and we non-drinkers are sitting in a corner with some squash from the kids' table because we're so sick of sparkling water!

Not a nightmare to travel to
Not ages hanging around starving while photos are going on
Babysitter/something to keep kids entertained. Kid specific wedding favours
Not millions of speaches from everyone 2 is enough

Late ceremony, all in the same place, no wedding favours, no giant flowers on the table so you can’t see anyone, good band, quick food, wide selection of drinks, easy to get a cab home from.

Edit - short speeches!!

Personally I am a fan of a child free wedding, but each to their own!

You’re not going to please everyone, so make it about the pair of you, it’s your day.

I agree with PP that no "details" make a wedding.

Yes, providing amusements for children will go down well (with both the DC and the parents who will be glad to see them amused). Games that adults can play too can go down well (I was once at one where there was a croquet lawn, and there was a totally vicious series of Pimms-fuelled games at sundown)

But the real things that make a good wedding are the basics - enough food at a normal mealtime, enough to drink (with normal bar prices if it's a cash bar), enough places to sit and chat and hear what the other person is saying, no long hanging around, and good speeches that everyone can easily hear and don't go on for too long.

Early ceremonies can make for a very long day. I recall a family wedding we went to that had the very short ceremony at 12 noon, then (I kid you not) an hour and a half of photograph’s, then everyone sat around in a lovely but rather isolated place just talking, maybe the odd drink until around 6pm where we were finally fed. Except………they had forgotten about people that don’t eat meat😱 We had a tiny bit of salmon, some salad and a bread roll. And a McDonalds on the drive home🤣 We love the family members dearly, and it was nice to see their happy day, but they got some very important things wrong.

Last two family weddings have been great, but our personal trick is to take our motorhome. We can take the dog, have a rest, get away from things for a bit, go for a walk, change clothes, even feed ourselves.

Bride and Groom will probably decide what is important for them the most. But for most guests it’s going to be the food, the chance to get together with other friends and family, not having hours of doing nothing, possibly a quiet area.

Friends had a photo booth and a box of silly hats, feather boas, comedy specs etc. Was fun, ours are still on the fridge.

A crisp wall 😂

A good schedule and free drinks.

Best wedding I went to was a church wedding and a walk back to the parents house where there was welcome drink and photos, followed by a marquee in the field, posh toilets, and catered food and stacks of free booze and soft drinks.

Tables were thoughtfully grouped and no table faff. Extra wine pulled out regularly so noone was forced to drink the red wine that is inevitably left on the table. Bottles of prosecco everywhere. A band after the meal. Everyone was invited to everything.

Genuinely, no details make a wedding. You just remember the bits that struck you as a child. The wedding industry gets peiole to part with great wads of cash under the delusion that favours or seat covers or photo booths or hog roasts will make or break a wedding, but they really won’t. Think the day though from the POV of the guests, and think about longeurs, times when they might be hungry or bored, and eliminate them.

One wedding I went to had disposable cameras on the tables for guests to take informal shots, another had little wind up toys on the tables to play with.

A wedding,especially if the ceremony is in a separate venue to the reception, that runs without massive gaps.
I've been to weddings where the couple got married at about 11am (usually church ones), then on to a hotel for the meal with an hours gap and sometimes onto a 3rd venue (usually cheaper than having the hotel all day) with another hours gap.

For this reason we had a 2pm wedding and had a cheaper reception venue so that we could afford to have the meal and the evening do in one place and not have any time when guests were just hanging around.

Something to do is appreciated. Because yes there's having a drink, and a chat, and the meal and speeches and the like. But particularly if you don't know that many people present, or you're just a little bit awkward and sparking up conversations again and again can feel a bit intimidating, then having some activities you can do gives you something to do and something to talk to people about. Like some giant garden games - jenga, horseshoes, cornhole, etc, like the treasure hunt activity, putting instant cameras or poloroids out, maybe origami instructions and paper on the tables, that kind of thing.

No hanging around and waiting for photos (we just had our friend’s dad take candid shots)

Save on stuff like favours etc and instead focus on… really good food, open bar or at least a free on the bride and groom, and a good DJ.

We had 48

oh and not in the arse end of no where. We had central london so people got public transport in and those who weren’t londoners (most were) stayed in hotel (and we paid for 50%)