Wedding extras

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.

TBH, if I was a guest at a wedding like this, I'd roll my eyes and think '!!!!!! is all that about?'

As an earlier poster asked 'who are you trying to impress?:

psychopathbabble

We had a sweepstake on how long the best man speech lasted and the monies raised went to charity, with the winner getting a bottle of alcohol as a prize.

DH wanted singing waiters (I'm not here to start a debate about whether they are good or tacky or whatever) so I found some as a surprise for him.

I made my own photo booth as we had hundreds of props and I just popped a camera on a tripod. We didn't get as many photos as I had hoped but couldn't afford to hire one so this was fine!

We also had our videoographer put together a marryoke video (again no debates please) which was quite fun and looking back at the unedited footage was pretty funny.

You don't need to do any extras if you can't afford to or don't want to... at the end of the day the wedding is about you two and the marriage certificate. Make the day what you want

Had we got married in the summer, I did think about lawn games for the guests while we were having our photos taken... but as we got married in January in Scotland, they were happy to stay in the warm and drink instead

sillyvixen

Our wedding was very laid back and informal as we did not want a fuss. As we are members of the church we married in and lots of people would want to be there to support us (and it would have been impossible to invite them all to the reception) we had tea and cakes in the church hall following the service. A group of ladies volunteered to do teas and coffees and we had loads of offers of homemade cake as well as the ones I made myself. This gave refreshment to our guests while we had some photo's taken and also gave us some time to talk to those who had come to support us at the service. At the reception we had a simple selection of hot meals to choose and a selection of puddings. We had music on a iPod instead of a disco and I arranged a craft table to am use the younger guests. With cheese, biscuits, nachos and dips in the evening. and we used the function room in the nearest pub.

All very simple, but people seemed to enjoy the informality.

Happytravelling

Instead of a cake, we had 4 tiers of cheese (an actual cheese cake). Probably got to be a cheese lover to go for it, which I am. Cheese freezes well too, so you won't have to buy any for a bit afterwards. Also, and this is a big plus, it just cost us the weight of the cheese that you'd pay if you just bought a chunk, rather than the price being inflated for a wedding. Our guests loved it- some even skipped their desert so they could have more cheese

I also stuck to a list of 10 family photos by our photographer, then told him just to take the rest whilst people were mingling. He seemed happy with that, I think modern photographers find the family portraits a little dull, and it keeps the boring bit to a minimum for guests. Plus, there are some fab ones of people laughing in conversations, etc, where they didn't know he was there

arbrighton

Happytravelling wrote: »

I also stuck to a list of 10 family photos by our photographer, then told him just to take the rest whilst people were mingling. He seemed happy with that, I think modern photographers find the family portraits a little dull, and it keeps the boring bit to a minimum for guests. Plus, there are some fab ones of people laughing in conversations, etc, where they didn't know he was there

We both hate being photographed but did want photos of the day so chose a 'photojournalist' type photographer who got shots of things happening rather than stilted family photos while everyone is standing around bored. We had one or two with our parents, one with his grandmother and cousins and one with bridesmaid/ best man. We also had a quick detour between ceremony and reception while our guests were on the bus and a short walk round the gardens at the reception away from people. Photographer left as we went in to eat- no first dance and well a cake is a cake, we nearly forgot to cut it anyway!

Verix

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

Sorry, this really made me chuckle. I'm surprised that you genuinely can't see value in trying to make a day more enjoyable for my friends and family. I have a large family and people are travelling a long way to come celebrate with us for the day. The last thing I would want is for people to come and feel like they were bored or something was missing.

I went to a wedding two weeks ago that was very low key, all outdoors and the bride and groom just had loads of games set up like giant jenga, croquet, coconut shy etc. I certainly didn't think it was 'showy' or trying to impress, they had taken the time to make sure their guests would be entertained. What's more the whole thing only cost them about £3,500 which in wedding terms is nothing really.

Verix

Oh, and I should probably say what little extras we have gone for with just 6 weeks before the big day, just in case anyone is interested.


- String quartet (this was really just for me as the missus wasn't bothered, just thought it was a nice touch).
- Not having any traditional wedding cake as we don't know anyone who likes fruit cake, cookies & cream and carrot cake instead.
- We've gone for a sort of sharing platter for starters as some family members are quite picky and this allows them just choose what they take without feeling like they're being difficult
- Little fans as wedding favours as getting married in August it 'could' be scorching.
- Got a small room set aside with teas and coffees for some of the older family members who might be wanting to take it a bit easy.
- Booked a few minibuses to ferry people back home in case anyone finds they've had a bit too much to drink.

So there you go, nothing too extravagant, just a few bits and bobs to hopefully make the day run a bit smoother.

lisa110rry

Our son and daughter in law both truly love travelling (which is a good thing as my daughter in law comes from Melbourne and they live in the Middle East!). At their wedding in 2012, each guest (there were only 50) was given a lovely brass compass with their name and a compass long/lat reference penned on it. The compass point indicated which table they were on. That was lovely. Our compass point related to their city in the Middle East where they had met - top table obviously.

They also had a bird cage into which cards and messages were slotted from the guests.

As they were/are world travellers, there was a sort of clothes line through the foliage (beachside wedding) on which were pegged pictures of the couple in different places, some serious, some funny.