Best wedding you've been to?

[sarsums]

I am starting to plan my (sorry, our!) wedding which is next June in Ireland. I would be very interested to hear people's opinions on the best or worst weddings they have been to. We want everyone to have as brilliant a time as possible, so here are my prioities:

• plenty of free/cheap booze
• good music........tradional irish dancing music, then a dj
• lots of non-faffy food (buffet, then wedding cake for pudding)
• not too far for people to travel between church, reception and home/hotels

The worst wedding I have been to had a very expensive bar and was about 20 minles away from anywhere.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!

Traditional dancing is great. I recently went to a wedding that had Scottish dancing and everyone gets up to give it a go. I'm not a wedding fan on the whole, but this was great.

Speeches were VERY short. Bride 2 minutes, groom about 5 minutes and Best man about 10minutes.

Another party I went to had a bride and groom quiz that got everyone talking and mingling.

Good luck with the planning and I hope it all goes just as you want it to.

for our wedding we concentrated on really good food, free bar, no speeches, good music.

things we didn't have were
table favours
wedding cake
band
video of wedding

weddings are such a personal thing though so make sure you have what you want and enjoy it!

Oh mine definitely.

Had a hogroast (and apple pie and custard!) and ceilidh in a converted Victorian barn, told everybody to dress casually and come for a party and free booze. Was brilliant. No faff.

All drinks should definitely be free.
I've never been to a wedding where I've been expected to pay and don't think that would really be in the spirit of things.

Traditional dancing is always a good idea. It's amazing how people get into the spirit.

Mung: Bride's speech???
That's not traditional, is it.
Usually Father of the Bride, Groom, Best Man.
Maybe I'm just old fashioned.

I recently went to a wedding that had 5 nannies on duty!
It was absolutely brilliant.
There were loads of toys laid on and all the young children could play happily and eat their dinner separately leaving their parents to enjoy the reception in peace.

At our wedding we had the cake cutting and speeches before the dinner.
That worked really well because it got them out of the way before people got too drunk.
After the dinner people could just relax and enjoy the dancing.

One other tip is to make sure that the guests aren't standing around while you have your photos taken.
You should give them something to do/eat/drink at that time. Photos can take hours and it can be a really tedious and hungry time for the guests.

I hope it turns out to be your dream wedding.
Have fun!!
(And don't worry, we all know that it's the Bride's day really!! )

I agree; it's horrible when there's a pay bar at a wedding; it feels really tight.

The best weddings I've been to didn't cost that much (despite free bar) and concentrated on everyone having a good time, rather than trying to impress people with show-off displays.

hog roast yum...making me hungry.

should have said we had an adult only wedding (obviously it was pre ds!). The few friends that had children were all happy to leave them behind for the weekend!

best was a recent wedding party (they got married the week before we very close family only).

It was at a wake boarding centre (big lake, big field for camping in), the bride and groom turned up on a speed boat with james bond music playing, we then drank lots of wine and had a BBQ and all fell into our tents about midnight!

my own wedding was pretty fab too! hog roast at a local pub - no seating plans, we laid on a fair bit of booze, but guests did have to pay once it ran out, pub prices, and no one complained - still get compliments about it now.....

Ours was free booze (and lots of fizzy for me, beer for dh), good food, fairly small and cheesy music. Was ace. And chocolate wedding cake - had 5 slices. For a while it was blokes in the bar smoking cigars and ladies round the table scoffing chocloate!
At my oldest brother's weddings we had free run of the hotel and ended up in the spa pool late afternoon with our drinks bobbing about in the bubbles (was a good do - even if there were plenty of sore heads). Was ace though looking back the staff must have been horrified.
Another got married abroad so we spent the morning in a water park, but the wedding could have been anywhere.
The last had a do in the garden with a hog roast. Was quite a random affair and ended up very cliquey when it could have been really cool.
Made me realise how well-run an affair our wedding had been (venue staff kept an eye on the clock and were very good at moving us from drinks to dining room to speeches to cutting cake to tossing posy etc. etc..... Meant we did all the traditional "wedding" things without thinking "right this is what we have to do.." and getting stressed about it.

yours sounds along the lines of the best one i went to (oh i dont really like weddings..

simple beautiful service, civil
lots of dancing traditional (scottish) but big welsh contingent
everyone happy singing dancing feasting
break in middle, service then break meet up for celebration

it was really fun, great day to to remember
hope yours is too!

if you're going to have free booze, please make sure you have plenty of food!!
We went to a wedding once where the meal was really quite small (hog roast but we are veggie and that option was tiny!) and the pudding was wedding cake - everyone got completely plastered - except me who was pregnant and starving!

As long as it isn't like a wedding when DH was best man. No booze provided at all - not even a glass of wine, no pudding ( the mother of the groom actually asked the waiter if he could cut open the pineapple used as a decoration so she could have some for pud!) plus a whole mishmash of odd food!! It was such a shame. They obviously couldn't afford the venue, but instead of choosing somewhere less flashy and having a good time they scrimped to the point of creating a very odd day. I think it was when guy serving the hot buffet asked me if I would like spaghetti with my roast beef I began to think that something was a little odd ..

For our wedding we had a really traditional ceremony and then just had a party.

Did a few things like the first dance, cutting of hte cake, expected about one speach (got six, but then that was just because people were having fun, so they were very funny). But basically it was just a party, we thought about it like that and organised it like that. Meant everyone relaxed and had a good time.

Also, make sure you have lots of cheesy music and a place people can get away from the music and relax (absolutly vital)

Our bar was expsensive (as in London) so we paid for the booze all evening, it was really worth it and think it would have been a much worse evening if we hadn't as lots of people wouldn't have paid those prices

Warthog's was fab. Lasting memories are great music and great 'brother of the bride' speech, both very personal things.

Would suggest not having huge glut of time where your guests are fannying around while you have your photo taken.

Hi Sarsums! I love wedding threads. I loved my wedding. We had exactly the same priorities as you, and I think thats what made it so much fun. Lots of food and drink. We had a free bar for wine and beer, but not spirits. Good food and a buffet later on. The ceremony was a civil one and was in the same hotel as the reception. I was desparate to start dancing as soon as the DJ started to play and I honestly (egotistically) wonder if thats why everyone took so unashamedly to the dance floor relativley early on- well they could hardly let me boogie on my own? I loved it when 2 girlfriends did their demented airguitar routine for ages with balloons tied to their backs.

The best weddings I have been to other than my own...one where two girls had a 'dance-off'- some kind of hilarious break dancing contest whle everyone stood round in a huge circle cheering them on. No self consciousness at all! Its sounds awful to say the worst ones...because its always a privilege to be asked to someones wedding.....but I was riled at having to drive for 2 hours across remote countryside to get from one wedding church to their reception...any wedding where you have to wear black tie pisses my husband off, and having driven across 2 towns in rush hour bank holiday traffic last summer to pick up his suit form the hire shop I now know why......

A friend got married and had just a few friends and family to the wedding, and the rest of us to the reception. I thought that was fair enough, we booked into a b+b, picked up the suit (as above...), drove for 5 hours to get there after turning down lucrative bank holiday work. When we arrived we saw thats lots of other friends had been offered rooms in the wedding hotel. OK, so not on the B-list either- which meant that when all of us hoi-pollloi were booted out at half twelve the chosen ones stayed to carry on partying, sneering down at us C-listers...Oh, and the head table was made up of various friends who have speeches etc, creating a sort of B+list, while the poor parents sat at the back surrounded by people 30 years younger than them, they didnt seem to have been allowed to bring any of their own friends. That one left a very nasty taste in my mouth, and we wished we hadnt gone. It was hurtful, we had been very close friends years ago and I thought we still were!

So that was my worst one.......!

Much liked my own really- we didnt have a free abr but I've never ben to a wedding with one so nobody expected it!. The reception and do were in the same hotel here which ahd nice agrdens etc and as soon as people had their pic done they could go inside to the bar with a nice fire lit etc.

Best wedding I was ever a guest at was in a Church at 6pm on Tewlth Night, candle lit and service taken by their friend (religious family). As it was cold, pics were taken inside whilst we were alls erved tea, coffee and home amde heart shaped biccys. Then the reception was in the village hall and catered entirely by the family- who had their own cheese farm and goat herd. So lots f fab cheeses, breads, home amde butters,cakes etc- very foody (as I was 36 weeks pg was a bit I couldnt sample lots of it but Dh reviewed the cheeses as 'bloosy amazing').

very friendly, low key but really ahd the true feeling of friendship and family- made you feel priveledged to ahev recieved an invite. friend was an old school mate who had moved to Scotland with her family (venue was midway between home- the grooms family were from Devon- and Scotland) and just seemed very magical.

Worst one- long drive with no maps from church to obscure in middle of nowhere venue; when we got there someone ahd forgotten the flowers from church which were to double as table centres- best amn went off to get them, taking over an hour- mid august we weren't allowed inside the Marquee until he returned! One bench for about 80 of us, old aldies fainting in the heat, nowhere to buy a drink at all (we BEGGED them to open a bar as people were on the brink of apssing out), hotel had nasty dog that was nipping people, when we got in the Marquee the meat was hugely over cooked, and mum ahd amde the cake and dropped palstic wrapping in which ahd melted into it....

and people (even the best man) were taking bets as to how long the marriage would last

(they're still amrried a decade on BUT haven't been a couple for at least 8 years, she's just too scared of the violent Ae to divorce him).

There was one tiny building siteb style portallo for evceryone, even the wheelchair bound Aunt; a friend let us sue the loo in her room and was told off by management.

Then it ended with a prat knoocking out his pregnant wife after she dared dance with the groom!

The venbue is considered very posh- I wouldn't recommend to ANYONE!

Worst one was at a converted farm house in the middle of mountain range in Wales, v. beautiful but not very convenient for public transport. I was single at the time and apparently the only single person there and instead of being given a room which all the couples got, I was given a tent to sleep in in adjoining field. Ceremony wasn't even a proper ceremony, just hippy bride and groom declaring their love for each other underneath pretty tree, we were too far away to hear words, probably a load of rubbish. Proper ceremony had happened week before in local registry office. Food was cooked ourselves, sort of communal thing where we were all allocated jobs and food and alcohol seriously rationed. It was without doubt the worst weekend of my life. Haven't spoken to couple since.

Sorry you asked about best wedding. That was my own. Ceremony and reception at one central venue, easy for guests to get to. Free food and alcohol after ceremony. Whole thing was over in 3 hours, v. cheap and everyone had a good time. We did have 18 month old dd at the time so wasn't very traditional and we paid for it ourselves so it was very cheap. But a great day.
Hope yours is brilliant, love the sound of traditional dancing.

Oh at mine I did a speech- my day, my way- and so did MY best woman!

most bizarre- 3 weeks before my own, 'friend' took my menu, (couldnt get the venue but tried) etc and tried to run off a carbon copy- it didnt work. hah bloody ha.

The best wedding I have been at (and at the risk of sounding smug) was my own.

The highlights:

Piper to lead us out of the church playing Highland Cathedral
Champagne reception afterwards in church hall so we could speak to those who just came along for a nosy. We left the guest a bit longer there while we went to have photos taken. They were transported to hotel. Most of them stayed overnight in hotel.
Speeches short and amusing not long and rambling (v. important for us as we had to translate them for our German relatives)
We had free wine/beer during meal then reasonably priced bar, the manager of the hotel advised against a free bar as when they have done that in the past people just get completely pissed and run up a huge bill for the bride and groom.
Fab DJ who had everyone up dancing from the first dance.

We were at a wedding recently, the bride did wee surprise shoeboxes for each child with little inexpensive gifts, to keep the dcs amused during speeches/meal

They also had 2 babysitters who took the kids to the playarea across the road.

Have a great day!

Btw, I have never been to a wedding in UK with a free bar. Is that a regional thing?

Worst wedding:
Everything looked beautiful, everything perfect, food fantastic, free bar However, the whole thing was so well choreographed it felt like a sham. Also the best mans speech was worse than the worst one you;ve ever heard, there were constant references to money; one family had lots, the other not. Basically it lacked soul and warmth.

Best weddings; Am amalgamating a couple here;
Free bar
Good Food for wedding 'breakfast' (never understood that) which could be a buffet
and bacon sandwiches/curry for night time
Transport back to accomodation organised or easy to organise
good music, but be very sure what you're getting before hand, I knwo someone who booked a disco and the dj agreed to all the requests which had been made, then went on to play exactly what he wanted all night

For beenleigh:

Where Did The Term "Wedding Breakfast" Originate?

If you were wondering why couples have a ?wedding breakfast' in the afternoon, it is believed to derive from the tradition that a bride and groom would not eat on their wedding day until after the reception following the service. Hence the couple would ?break' their ?fast' with their guests.

Could've been a bit mroe exciting couldn't it!