To worry that my wedding might end up being one big cliche?

[sharkirasharkira]

So, dp and I are getting married spring/early summer, right in wedding season - mainly because it happens to be a very significant date for us!

I have my eye on a very pretty garden venue and I would really like the decorations/invitations etc to reflect that, flowers, butterflies, etc.

I'm really into all the pastel colours, I think they are most fitting for the venue/season/people who will be wearing them.

But I just can't help feeling like it's a little bit 'wedding by numbers' and will be virtually identical to every other spring wedding. I don't care about being unique and different to everyone else and 'standing out' but I just don't want the guests to find it all vomit inducing and boring.

AIbu to worry that everything I like/want for the wedding is very 'overdone' and repetitive. Or should I not care and just go for it anyway?

Definitely agree that the personal touches that make the difference, and also the speeches. The last wedding I went to was fabulous, they had a low key venue and quirky favours but the thing that stood out for me was how happy they were to be together and how much they'd enjoyed organising the wedding, it was obvious they had picked every single thing and picked it for themselves not for others, and that made it very personal, it was lovely.

i havent been to many but the memorable bits are a happy couple, enough food and not hanging around for ages while endless samey photos of the couple are taken.

favours are litter.

I have attended over thirty weddings from ridiculously expensive country manor affairs to registry office and pub after.

The memorable ones are ones that had warmth and were not over fussy.

When it comes to being a bit different my nephews wedding had continual free ice cream as it was held in a cafe and free crazy golf all day. Lovely cafe with large gardens by the sea.

I have also been to a few bilingual weddings so the vows take a while.

My wedding had a couple of memorable things, DH and I researched both our family trees for a year and joined our family trees together and got everyone to sign their names on the huge scroll that filled a couple of trestle tables. I got back to the seventeen hundreds on one side.

We also had a little girl gatecrash our wedding, it was in a village hall and she was the only child in the bar next door. So she stayed and played with the other dc at our wedding.

I left the reception with a large rucksack, my favourite picture is of me smiling in my silk dress wearing an antique tiara with this huge rucksack on my back, that picture sums up everything about me.

They will just think wow this is beautiful!,enjoy your day

Guests won't care about your decorations or unique eye for favours/ invitations.

They'll only be bored if you leave them standing about unfed for hours while you disappear for photos.

Guests get fed up with going hungry, ridiculous travel expectations, and waiting around for eons.

Your plan to provide plenty of food and drink and keep everything in one place sounds perfect :)

Food, drink, good music, no hanging around for ages and it's sorted. Weddings tend to be similar for two reasons 1) they are weddings 2) there are certain things that successful events have in common.
Personally I think some people try too hard to do something that's different and says something about them. Just arrange a day that you and the guests will enjoy.

Having food, drink and shade when waiting around - chairs for elderly/infirmed and everyone if you can. Not too loud music everywhere so people can talk.
Wedding favours - a waste imho - but stuff for kids to do/maybe work as an ice breaker for strangers. Chance for people to mingle/chat to long lost relatives/friends.
Most memorable is you being happy.
The best wedding I went to had a bring and share reception - it just seemed a genuinely happy occasion.
Most memorable thing about my Wedding was probably some of the guests helping to dig the car out of the snow - not a problem you will have.

Please don't worry about your wedding not being youneek enough, OP.

I get to a lot of weddings in a professional capacity. The really 'try-hard' ones nearly always go wrong, and often alienate your guests.... eg amputee guests expected to wade through mud for a woodland blessing; elderly relatives struggling to get up from exotic low cushions in a desert-themed pavilion; children crying at the sight of the whole piglet on the hog roast. You get the picture?

Your ideal spring wedding sounds delightful. Keeping things traditional is a bold choice in itself. Hope you and your guests have a wonderful day

I loved my wedding - ex hates attention and the idea of a big day with a sit down meal etc was his idea of hell

we went to Vegas and got married - then hired a local hall at home and threw a huge party - dj, band, free bar, buffet - had a blast with all our family and friends - no formality or fuss.

I remember one wedding where we waited for 2 hours in a hallway to be moved into the sit down reception - no drink not snacks, and it was a dry wedding - awful!

do it your way - the things I like at weddings - seeing people I care about happy and in love, seeing my friends/family, having fun.

Who cares?? I had a typical summer wedding- garden setting, pimms, afternoon tea cakes, and everything was white.

People won't think "oh it's a typical spring wedding" they will just think "wow what a beautiful wedding"

I don't remember the flowers or colors of any of the weddings that I've been to except the one where the bride had a meltdown because the churchflowers weren't the exact shade as her dress. I don't remember the exact shade of the color. I don't remember the food except the one wedding where we had a relaxed barbeque. Actually I still don't remember the food, just liked the fact that it was a normal barbeque and I could eat what I liked. I don't remember the music or the favours. I don't remember the invitations. I don't remember the first dance. One of my friends apparantly bought special coasters for the party, don't remember them.

I do remember what the bride and groom wore. I do remember if they looked happy or stressed. I do remember if they showed childhood photo's of the bride and groom. I do remember if I had fun or if I was bored waiting somewhere for two hours while photo's were being staged. One of the best weddings was in a zoo, we had something to do there in between things. I do remember if there were flower girls. I do remember the parents of the couple. I do remember the speeches.

There have only been 2 weddings within my group of friends but the thing I remember most about them was how they treated the guests. Everything else is just blurry details that no one cares about. The first one had a HUGE amount of money lavished on it and was very stiff and traditional. The bride had spent thousands and thousands on her dress, but only provided 1 bottle of wine per table of about 8. The bar was horrendously expensive and the only place to stay was on site at the reception which was also insanely expensive. The second wedding was done on a really tight budget, dress from ASOS, reception in her aunts (stunning) garden, they went to big lengths to make it really child friendly, and the only thing they really splashed out on was an all night open bar serving the most amazing local artisan gins. I think both brides enjoyed the day just the same, but the second one is definitely the one people still talk about. If it ever comes up in conversation it's always "God, do you remember how stingy X was with wine? Oh, but do you remember that grapefruit gin from Ys wedding?". People are naturally self absorbed so the thing that will make your wedding most memorable to people is the degree to which they feel you made it about them haha.

It's your day so it should be what you want. As someone who is married, you won't please everyone, which really shouldn't matter because the only 2 people you need to please are the 2 of you:

Have exactly what you want. These things are tried and tested for a reason. I went to a wedding recently which was so try hard unconventional it set your teeth on edge, all the guests were whispering "What WERE they thinking?". Yours sounds much nicer.

When I was getting married a few years ago I abandoned the Bridal magazines which only seemed to feature variations on the same sort of “ white” wedding and instead looked at a website Offbeat Bride. I hope it’s still around because it featured a lot of home spun and DIY weddings which were a great source inspiration for me. Of course plenty of them weren’t to my taste but I got good ideas about the feel of the wedding I wanted and style of photography etc. By abandoning the elements that didn’t suit us like table plans and favours I was able to concentrate on the things that we were into. I would also recommend Pinterest and Etsy for small artisans for items you might want to be handmade or vintage.