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).

Free bar (but didn’t tell the guests or let them know it was running all night so people actually drank the drinks they ordered!).

Didn't invite anyone else. Just pianist and wedding planner as witness (Vegas, babeeeeee!)

Decided not to throw my bouquet but delivered a soppy speech on the mic and handed it personally to my lovely best friend.

Had my reception at The Ritz. This was years ago when it was still sort of special.

Did our own flowers.

My grandma and I went to the flower market a few days before and my aunts and cousins and I made arrangements under her instruction.

It saved us a fortune and was a really nice bonding experience a few days before the wedding, plus was something to talk about when people complimented the flowers.

We also made our own invitations, place cards and seating plan which, again, saved lots if money and looked lovely.

We had a magician while guests were mingling before the meal and then a caricaturist in the evening. I love when we visit a friend's house and their caricature is framed on the wall.

It didn’t cost anything but the best thing we not mix the seating for dinner. Sat groups of friends together, relatives with folk they knew etc. Lots of people commented on how much fun they had at their tables. Nothing worse than being stuck with people you don’t know.

We walked from the registry office to the reception - about 200m in a touristy market town on a bank hol weekend. Everyone stopped and cheered, cards stopped and beeped their horns, and we walked on the road, the wrong way round the one way system!!

Couldn’t plan it, couldn’t pay for it, but it made our day.

More than 20 years later DSis still talks about the day I stopped traffic.

Martini's on the lawn after the church service.

A basket of flip flops to the ladies before the disco, would have bought more if I'd have known how much of a godsend they would be to people. Only cheap from Primark but saved a lot of feet.

@EmoIsntDead

It didn’t cost anything but the best thing we not mix the seating for dinner. Sat groups of friends together, relatives with folk they knew etc. Lots of people commented on how much fun they had at their tables. Nothing worse than being stuck with people you don’t know.

Isn't that pretty standard? Why would you sit people with strangers if they had people they knew attending?

Married the right man. Everything else is just small stuff.
Saying that, we had good music (DH is a musician so that mattered to him). Also an afternoon ceremony so avoided the bit where everyone starves which worked well for the hangry amongst us.

Got married. Everything else was irrelevant.
We chose a good photographer.
No alcohol and no evening do. We focused on getting married and that was it.

Best things - marrying DH

One regret - taking general MN lore that a restaurant would charge a surcharge if we said it was a wedding as true and just booking a table for 12 at the restaurant without telling them why. They were really flustered and apologetic when we turned up as they thought they'd missed the info that it was our wedding and had messed up. Even when I explained, they continued to be apologetic as we weren't at the nicest table and there wasn't space to move us there, they hadn't decorated our area etc. I ended up feeling bad as they managed to produce a card and a cake but had obviously had to do it in a rush on top of normal service etc whereas, if I'd just told them, they would have been able to do it at a more convenient time for them. And we would have had a table with an amazing view!

Ceilidh rock band. So much fun

Isn't that pretty standard? Why would you sit people with strangers if they had people they knew attending?

They do! Various people have admitted it on MN threads. Because they want people to ‘talk’. I’d rather talk to my friends who I don’t necessarily see that often, instead.

We didn’t want people to get bored in the middle of the day waiting for food/evening reception to start, we’ve been to a few weddings where there is a lull in the middle of the day and it’s hard to get back into the swing of things in the evening. So we had plenty of canapés, reception drinks, put lots of garden games out, and had a steel drum band entertaining everyone. There was also a park on site with a zip wire for the kids/drunk adults.

After the meal before the band we consummated the marriage....
From a hosting perspective we did crisp sandwiches with the goujons/cocktail sausages/wedding cake served after the band.
People still talk about that.
We did other stuff but that's what gets talked about 😂

Our videographer captured some messages for us from our guests (they went table to table to film them). Some brilliant footage, we especially cherish the messages of those no longer with us.

I snuck off with DH to make out round the back of one of the barns for 10 minutes. It was really fun and nice to get some time with him- felt like I didn’t actually see that much of him at the reception!

Just got back from a wedding where instead of name cards for seating plan. Each person had a description about them. Was lovely and so personalised and you had to "find" where you were sitting based on the description!

Had 30 minutes us time after the ceremony before the venue just to be with each other to revel in the moment (even got rid of the photographer) before we were swept off chatting to everyone etc etc people didn’t miss us as there was ice cream and pimms for everyone when they got the venue.

A divorce shortly after!

@BikeRunSki

We walked from the registry office to the reception - about 200m in a touristy market town on a bank hol weekend. Everyone stopped and cheered, cards stopped and beeped their horns, and we walked on the road, the wrong way round the one way system!!

Couldn’t plan it, couldn’t pay for it, but it made our day.

More than 20 years later DSis still talks about the day I stopped traffic.

Ditto! Ditched the fancy car and walked round the block from church to hotel. All our guests wandered along behind us in a long procession. It was lovely and relaxed and we turned a few heads.

We let DH's aged grandmother use the silver Rolls Royce we had on standby in case of rain. She was about four foot nothing and the vision of her arriving at the hotel, having the door opened for her by the doorman and toddling up the red carpet looking as pleased as Punch will stay with me forever.

Very cheap but lots of people commented, we made sure we had a photograph printed of every guest and they were strewn around as bunting in the windows. Everything is generally about the bride and groom so it was nice to see people see themselves up there as well as their reaction to seeing theirselves

Reportage style photos , evening hot food platters (think garlic mushrooms, chicken wings, garlic bread - not fancy food but exactly what people want after a few drinks), pub quiz in the evening, great weather (recognise you can't control this!)