Wedding extras

DigForVictory

I was lucky to get the legal stuff done in a a registry office then go to a very old & beautiful chapel for a blessing. Which was in glorious grounds, so we made sure our guests had a map of the garden & knew the bells ringing meant "come back the food's ready".
We have lots of photos of family taken by each other with a glorious garden backdrop & small coz figured his own photo booth chatting up stray relatives & getting his photo taken in their hat... A simpler, very sociable, very memorable way of keeping people entertained!

Have a wonderful day, whatever you do, & remember it is only one day - the really important bit is the marriage!

theoretica

Perhaps don't think of it as a wedding with extras but go right back to the beginning and think how you want your celebration to be. No reason you can't remove bits, just as well as add them.

pickledonionspaceraider

OP if you think your wedding needs to be more better/more interesting or more fun - IMO it sounds as if you need to rethink why you are getting married and who you are trying to impress

it sounds as if you are organising a one day circus, not starting a marriage and a basic wedding is not enough for you for some reason

Pollycat

Andrew_Ryan_89 wrote: »

Wish I could afford extras. In fact, it is looking more and more likely I will have to take out a loan to complete the wedding. We were planning to have a popcorn machine, caricature artist, candy floss and fireworks.

Why?
Why do you need all this stuff?

If you haven't already booked the above, I'd forget all about it.

You posted in another thread that you didn't want kids at your wedding and were limiting the numbers invited so I would seriously consider if a popcorn machine and candy floss are an essential part of your plans.
Important enough for you to put yourself in debt for.

clairec79

my FIL got married recently and also had a playstation set up with a few games for the preteens to play on in one corner

theoretica

pickledonionspaceraider wrote: »

OP if you think your wedding needs to be more better/more interesting or more fun - IMO it sounds as if you need to rethink why you are getting married and who you are trying to impress

it sounds as if you are organising a one day circus, not starting a marriage and a basic wedding is not enough for you for some reason

I don't agree - I doubt I am alone in having been to at least one wedding which was actually a bit boring at times. Trying to organise a fun party seems a perfectly reasonable aim to me, though I probably wouldn't try to do this by starting with a conventional wedding and then adding bits.

arbrighton

Andrew_Ryan_89 wrote: »

Wish I could afford extras. In fact, it is looking more and more likely I will have to take out a loan to complete the wedding. We were planning to have a popcorn machine, caricature artist, candy floss and fireworks.

That's just insane.
Wedding is a day (to show off by the sounds of it), not a marriage. That is work and just the two of you.

Saying the words to each other is the important bit then getting down to keeping the promises you've made.

arbrighton

pickledonionspaceraider wrote: »

OP if you think your wedding needs to be more better/more interesting or more fun - IMO it sounds as if you need to rethink why you are getting married and who you are trying to impress

it sounds as if you are organising a one day circus, not starting a marriage and a basic wedding is not enough for you for some reason

Exactly this!

Make sure your guests are comfortable e.g. chairs, tea, coffee, feed them. Make that promise to each other and be grateful they're spending the day with you to celebrate. That was the principle for ours. Booze for those that wanted, non- alcoholic for those that didn't, made sure those with mobility issues could get to places, invited the people we wanted to share our day with.

mildredalien

We thought about adding 'stuff' to the wedding to make it more fun/interesting/entertaining but ultimately we didn't do anything extra. It was ceremony, canapes/drinks and chatting, dinner, then a band and dancing. Luckily our venue was beautiful and the weather was lovely so everyone was just enjoying catching up and socialising and having a few drinks. We didn't have the ceremony until 4pm so there wasn't a lot of waiting around for anyone.

If you are having large gaps between 'events' then perhaps something for guests to do could be good but I wouldn't worry too much. If there is outdoor space and good weather, maybe giant outdoor/lawn games, and photobooths aren't unusual now but they always go down well.

pollypenny

Andrew_Ryan_89 wrote: »

Wish I could afford extras. In fact, it is looking more and more likely I will have to take out a loan to complete the wedding. We were planning to have a popcorn machine, caricature artist, candy floss and fireworks.

Why on Earth would you waste money you have on such things, let alone get into debt for them?

Are you a hedge fund manager with money to burn?

Someone mentioned running a book on how long speeches would last. I'd run one on how long some of these marriages, where 'The Day' has become more important than the marriage.