What's the best thing you did at your wedding

[Horriblewoman]

Something you're glad you spent money on? Or didn't think would matter but definitely did?

A month to go and planning is under control so I'm looking for anything we might have missed to make the day even more special (around 90 guests, non-church, in the countryside).

We had very few formal photos but asked the photographer to take photos as people arrived and after the ceremony, mingle while people were chatting etc We ended up with a lovely record of the day and people commented how nice it was that the family didn't disappear for hours to have the formal pictures taken.

Silent disco went down a treat at ours. Was only £200 to hire the headphones and you pop the playlists on yourself on phones/ laptops. Totally recommend over a DJ.

An ice cream trolley for the afternoon, it was a warm sunny day and everyone loved it. People still talk about it over 10 years later.

We had informal photographs - they are lovely to look at . I agree with @DuckyMcDuck

I eloped and didn't invite anyone. Had a security guard and a passerby as the witnesses. Saved a shed load of money, which came in handy for the divorce....

A band. And a casino.

I ate meat at the time and we had a hog roast at the evening do- it was fab as lasted a lot of the night, people who hadn't been to the meal had some food, and as the alcohol kicked in it was appreciated towards the end of the night! Had some buffet stuff as well, and a table of sweets, but it was worth every penny. Also had a photo booth and it printed 2 of everyone's photos, one for them and one for our guestbook; I absolutely love looking back on the photos and the messages from guests.

We had a bottle of champagne in our room at the end of the night, and it was really the only opportunity we had to sit and have a proper chat the whole day, it's a really fond memory of the day for me. Got back to the room, got my dress off and had some champagne, was a lovely way to end the day!

Plenty of food including cakes during photos.

A magician!

Shagged the best man on the bogs

We didn't spend much money, which I think made the whole thing a much more relaxed.

I decided I did want a great photographer, and we got lovely pictures, but actually I've not looked at my album in years and some of the pictures guests took are my favourites.

It was having friends and family together that made it special really.

I wish we had planned how we would get home

Chose a free bar over an expensive venue.

Magician!!!

Say "I do"

Bacon & sausage sandwiches instead of an evening buffet, went down so well with drinking guests!

Also only 30 mins of photos and speeches before dinner.

No one was starving and we could relax as soon as speeches were all done.

We did small activity kits (colouring, fuzzy felt type stuff) for any children attending - wrapped them up as gifts and left them to find at their place setting for the meal. Went down a treat and kept the children entertained!

Fed and watered people all day.
Had v few formal pics and mostly informal ones.

Also free bar.

@Kintsugi16

A magician!

Me too!

A Baileys Fountain as well :)

Our food was amazing - as it should have been, the hotel it was at had a Michelin starred restaurant - and the DJ was fab, got everyone up dancing.

Actually the venue was just gorgeous generally, and the staff were so incredibly welcoming and hospitable. My 84 year old grandma got treated like a VIP from the moment she arrived, which delighted her. And the photographers did a brilliant job of getting lots of wonderful photos unobtrusively, without loads of standing around.

So, in order, the things I think it was worth spending money on were:

• venue and food
• DJ
• photographer

Everything else - the clothes, the transport, the favours - was just gravy, and we'd have had an equally brilliant day without them. Though I did love swishing around in my huge golden dress 😍

Agree with reportage style photography

We had live music for the afternoon and early evening and a DJ for later (but my mates are DJs so only had to pay for live music). Also with the live music, we booked a group of session musicians - they could turn their hand to everything from Classical to House to Spanish Flamenco - they were amazing.

Free bar. It cost us a fair bit but was so lovely to be able to do it. We had 140 guests and limited spirits to Whiskey/Gin/Vodka with mixers, loads of beers, decent quality white and red wine and a bazillion bottles of Prosecco that we had circulating in glasses all night.

A few silly wedding things on the table including ice breakers and disposable cameras. There is something so old fashioned and lovely about getting them developed after the honeymoon.

But the moments I am happiest about where when DH and I took ten minutes to go and stand on this grassy hill overlooking the wedding and just marvel at how much fun people were having and spend a minute being amazed that we were married and another similar moment I had with my dad where we found a quite bench under a Pergola and just sat and told each other how much we loved each other and how happy we made each other. Sounds a bit weird writing that down but it was really special.

I deffo recommend taking a moment in the day with the people that matter most.

Free bar was the one non negotiable for us so I'm glad we've ticked that off!