Favourite wedding and why?

Best wedding I ever went to was where they had organised activities for the children. The couple getting married didn’t have children of their own and wouldn’t have thought of it, but if was offered by their venue so they signed up for it due to the number of children attending. We all attended the service, then when we were enjoying drinks and canapés this lovely lady came round like the pied piper luring all the children away with promises of fun. She delivered them back to us at the beginning of the sit down meal, by which time they were wearing personalised jewellery they’d just made, then she collected them again before the speeches, and brought them back for the disco at the end. Honestly it was just amazing. We all had a wonderful time.

Free bar

Lots of nice food at a reasonable times. I hate weddings where I need to leave home at 9.00am then have to wait until 3.00pm to be fed because i cant eat at lunchtime as that's when the ceremony is on (especially annoying for parents with young kids). Then served a tiny portion of crap food. If you are expecting people to stay in the evening then evening food should be provided.

Lots of waiting around - if I'm waiting 2 hours so you can have 600 photos taken you can feed and water me in the interim.

Food & alcohol 😁

For me, best weddings I've been to have been down to great guest attending and vibe

Cant buy that..

My favourite would be the most relaxed - not in a church, no official photographer, no sit-down meal, no dress code... Nip off to the register office, back to the pub, a few drinks and snacks, then everybody go home. I hate all the unnecessary fuss, planning and expense.

My favourite wedding was the wedding where it all went wrong. So many things happened to go wrong - and it was still a brilliant day!

Just realisedI said no bridesmaids-I meant no bridesmaid DRESSES! The cheaper one had bridesmaids but they all wore what they wanted. At the posh do they attended mainly to the bride and staff did other things. At the cheaper one they did all the clearing up, replenishing of the buffet, glass collecting etc. The only staff were bar staff.

My two most enjoyable weddings were worlds apart.

One was a lavish no expense spared stately home sort of do, sit down meal, canapes, bridesmaids and all the touches.

One was a budget quick cermony then local hall ceilidh 'knees up', no bridesmaids, no canapes or favours etc.

Both were lovely because they considered their guests.

Sit down meal at the 'naice' do was great and enough. Buffet at the evening. Bar wasn't extortionate. It wasn't miles away from everyone. Photos only took an hour or so and drinks and canapes flowing freely.

Cheaper do they put on transport for people at the end of the night. They left the buffet out until people had stopped going up to it and kept replenishing everything-nothing ran out, everyone got fed. I didn't know anyone other than the B&G and a couple of friends so I took a friend as a plus one who was made very welcome. Bridesmaids did a great job. Bride made her own cake.

Everyone happy at both, nobody too drunk, hungry or bored.

I may have enjoyed the cheaper one slightly more but only because there were several bottles of champagne on the table and nobody else liked it (hic).

Venue included 2 nights accommodation in a mixture of tepees and shepherds huts, night before the wedding we all joined in BBQ and karaoke/dancing
Big camp style breakfast next morning - wild swimming in lake, ceremony was late afternoon so plenty of time to get ready
Low key informal ceremony - children welcome - followed by afternoon tea
In the evening live music and pizza wagon
There was loads of outdoor space and the free bar went down well

My favourite weddings have had little to do with the food, drink, music or venue. They have been ones where I have known lots of people.

I have been to some lovely weddings where I only knew a few people. For example at one I only knew the bride, at another I only knew the bride and groom, and at a third I only knew the groom and his parents. I think at all those I was offered a plus one, but I didn’t have anyone obvious to take, so didn’t.

I enjoyed all three, but the ones I have enjoyed most are family weddings or weddings I have gone to with a group of friends.

My own, because I married the love of my life! But also because it was small, very relaxed, plenty of food, separate play area for the children if they wanted to use it, quiet seating areas as well, no music or dancing because we're not into that - only about 4 hours long, perfect!

I should add.... I'm autistic, it wasn't a first wedding for either of us and we just wanted a celebration with our nearest and dearest, not a showy party.

Short ceremony, no speeches, no seating plan so you could sit next to friends, good music and free bar. Basically a party 🤣

@Pasde

I love really good speech’s not just the best man. We paid for a master of ceremonies who came prior to the wedding day to go though the speeches with all of us so they were unique but covered everything.

I have recently really enjoyed a brides speech and a maid of honour’s speech. If we were getting married now I would love my wife to have done one.

It’s the emotion and love I remember and money can’t buy that enjoy your day xxx

I've loved all the weddings I've been at apart maybe from the one where the bride was so stressed about everything going to plan that it was impossible for anyone to relax.

But I have a particular soft spot for the ones I've been to where there was a 'bring your own cake' competition with prizes and a raffle during the speeches (with everyone getting a strip of tickets at their place setting).

Personally I hate lavish, formal dos and I would think anyone who banned social media photos has an over-inflated sense of self-importance.

I often suspect that the length of a marriage is inversely proportional to the amount spent...

My favourite ones have been where there's plenty of food (fancy and basic), people not being uptight about kids noises, them being on their phones, where it's not too formal. And I hate long speeches.

My favourite wedding ever was held in a field in a marquee with lots of fairy lights and wild flowers

My favourite wedding was my own because everything there was what I wanted (music, theme, food, vibe, everything!) and so my advice would be to forget everyone else's options and to make sure your day is perfect for you and your partner. It's meant to be the best day of YOUR lives, not anyone else's and so try not to stress too much at the comparison (although completely appreciate your concerns and feelings at the situation).

The main things that make a wedding are venue, good timings, food and music.

Hopefully your venue is easily accessible/good accommodation. Make sure there’s enough seating for everyone and access to a bar.
If there’s any gaps in your timings try to make sure your guests are entertained, for example while we had our photos done we had a family member (who’s a singer) do an acoustic set. After the meal we hired casino equipment so people could play cards, roulette etc. Lots of food so if you are getting married 1pm or earlier you need canapés, main meal and evening buffet.

My favourite wedding other than my own was an abroad wedding. 5* hotel, about 30 of us for three nights it was brilliant.

My wedding was my favourite one because it had everyone I loved and we prioritized the things that were important to us (the food was our favourite things, the live band played our favourite music, their was a free bar serving cocktails that we’d chosen etc).

I’ve been to loads of weddings that I loved. As a guest all I really care about is being comfortable, everything else is just about the bride/groom’s taste (I can appreciate the dresses or flowers look lovely but they don’t really affect my enjoyment).
The best weddings were all really different but the common themes were:

• Plenty of good food, served at sensible times.
• Knowing lots of people (which you can’t do much about, but at least let guests bring a plus one if they don’t know many other people)
• It being fairly relaxed and the bride/groom actually enjoying it (you can tell when they’re super stressed compared to when they just laugh off little mishaps).
• Enough seating during the reception and it being a comfortable temperature (shade if it’s hot, heaters if it’s cold).
• Someone who organizes people to make sure that they’re in the right place at the right time (they don’t need to be militant but if dinner is a 5pm you don’t want half your guests sat there waiting for ages whilst other people are still wandering in at 5.30ish).

I prefer laid back town hall weddings to posh overdone boring stiff white church weddings.
I went to a town hall wedding 15 years ago and a male guest turned up emulating Michael Jackson's smooth criminal outfit he even had the black arm band I had the giggles all day and quite a few other guests did too.

Friends and family are much more likely to spend time exclaiming [at your cousins wedding] that they never catch up and suddenly it's twice in two weeks.

How lovely. You won't have time to spend much time with any of them on your own wedding day but will see many of them again a short time later. Don't stress about the similarities. Weddings are in the most part, all the same.

What breaks a wedding? Bad food or not enough of it. It's literally the only thing [barring freak weather] that people talk about and remember afterwards.

The good ones have made sure there was always somewhere to sit, free cuppas, enough food, short or no speeches, and everyone knowing at least some of the people they were sitting with.

The worst? My brother’s. We were clearly not wanted (complex relationship), the bride was furious that we’d just had a baby and had to bring it - worse, it was cute! And I had to get a boob out to feed it, which she was disgusted and angry about. I was relegated to a side room for almost the whole thing and barred from the ceremony in case anyone looked at the baby instead of her (this was stated to her friends). The food took ages and was plated meals, but there weren’t enough. The speeches were endless, full of in jokes and innuendos. And I think there was a postbox for money gifts, where everyone could see.

Whilst I also absolutely loved a friend’s wedding with a perfect location, very swish food and a Shakespeare play for the entertainment I do appreciate that’s not to all tastes. My own wedding was at a zoo purely so people would have something to do and talk about if they got bored.

My favourite was a rustic sort of affair where the bride wore a hired dress and flowers in her hair. She looked so pretty and natural. She had 2 little bridesmaids (her nieces) who wore different coloured dresses and the tables were simply set (no grand centrepieces or favours, just jam jars with wild flowers in). Photos were kept to a minimum and the reception was a free bar and a hog roast with simple but imaginative side dishes. It was also at an easy to get to venue, so not in the middle of nowhere costing a fortune in hotel rooms or taxi fares. It was really lovely, chilled and memorable.

One of the best weddings was one with a very low budget and very few bells and whistles. Guests brought a dish instead of a wedding gift and so the food was an amazing buffet of awesome food. The bridesmaids all wore clothes they were comfortable in rather than one style, one colour, one dress having to work for all.

Another wedding I enjoyed, the best man did a PowerPoint presentation for the speech which was absolutely hilarious.

Another chose to have poems the bride/groom had written instead of religious/spiritual readings.

Another didnt have any readings at all and the ceremony was done in about 10 minutes flat!

Another wedding I enjoyed, the couple hired a double decker bus to get everyone from the venue to the reception so everyone had a sing song on the way so the party continued rather than it feeling like a big chunk out of the middle as everyone migrated from one place to the next.

Another had karaoke. Another had a cèilidh band. Another had fireworks. Another was on the beach. Another was in a barn conversion.

All of these have been amazing. There's no right or wrong way to do it, just do what works for you, for your guests and for your budget.

2 of my DSC and one friend, had summer weddings with short church service, sit down lunch in a marquee in a private field. Live music, dancing, choice of chilli or curry at 10pm and camping. But....what made them special was that children and dogs were very much welcomed.