HELP!!

jlaursen

Mind you I have searched ALL OVER the net, and there's NO ADVICE out there...

We are having a NYE Wedding, however, my soon to be Brother-in-law bit our style and eloped last NYE, so we want to make sure that the ceremony isn't "officiated" until after midnight, mostly because we want our anniversary to be 1/1/11. 

So, here's the dilemma... We are having our ceremony and reception in the same room. I have been racking my brain trying to come up with ideas how to have a portion of the ceremony at the beginning of the night and then have the "kiss the bride" at midnight... As we already have children, and they will be in our wedding party, I want them to be included, at least in their respective positions. I just don't think it's wise to serve our wedding cake or do any of the other traditional things until we have at least mainly completed our ceremony, so, waiting for the entire ceremony to start @ 11:40 or so would not work for me... at that, how the heck would we enter the room? Do I really want to eat dinner before my ceremony and RISK IT!??! lol

I'm sure I'm going to get mixed responses, and that's okay... This is just something we want and need to figure out the logistics of how it's going to go down!

Thanks in advance for your input!!

BecW2be

That's a lot to have to figure out just so your anniversary is some cool date. I love NYE, and I'd be awake and alert for your "I do", but how many people will be exhausted, ready to go home, and having to wait for this ceremony to take place after the reception? Especially the kids.

trix1223

If you're really committed to your 1/1/11 date, I think I'd go for a daytime New Year's Day wedding instead.  Particularly if you have kids.  You still get your date, but you don't have hungry, tired guests who leave very shortly after your kiss, and you don't have cranky little children who are whining and crying during the ceremony because they've had it.

AmoroAgain

Yeah, that sounds like you're making it much harder on yourself than it needs to be.

megk8oz

Why don't you just have the wedding on New Year's Day? That's totally what I did. Your date would still be 1/1/11, and you could actually be "awake" for it (I know if we had it on NYE, I would have been yawning through a midnite ceremony ... not the best look for a bride).

We just made sure to start at 5:30 pm, so our guests had time to "sleep off" the night before. I know it's a Sunday next year, but you could still start at like 3pm so your guests can not only sleep in, but not have to worry about being "out too late" for your reception.

aerinpegadrak

I totally vote for New Year's Day.  Much less complicated.

MyNameIsNot

Just a thought.  If you do the ceremony and the reception on NYE, but sign the license at midnight, would that work?  

Otherwise, I'd either deal with the 12/31/10 anniversary or move the wedding to NY day.

tendonhead

If you have the wedding later on New Year's Day then you could do a cool NYE rehearsal dinner or something to still incorporate the fun of NYE

Sue-n-Kevin

Actually, New Year's Day (1/1/11) is a Saturday. Friday is NYE. You may run into problems scheduling this, because everyone else is thinking like you are: it's a cool day to get married.

I agree with the prior poster, you could have a great NYE rehearsal dinner and have the wedding on New Year's Day. However, keep in mind as others have said, schedule the wedding for later in the day allowing people to "sleep it off". You will also run into the fact that New Year's Day is the biggest bowl game day of the year (Rose Bowl, others), so you may want to have a tv onsite at the venue or bar.

It would be way too difficult to schedule the timing of the marriage ceremony at midnight, and you'd have to talk to a lawyer to find out exactly what constitutes the wedding .......... is it the ceremony, or when you sign the marriage license?

Good luck with your plans.

megk8oz

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_ceremony-ideas_help-1?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:10Discussion:8e1b0ffc-e40a-449e-b4c9-188d8eaeb2c5Post:9a987277-287e-469d-8a3b-906c12fda9e4">Re: HELP!!</a>:
[QUOTE]Actually, New Year's Day (1/1/11) is a Saturday. Friday is NYE. You may run into problems scheduling this, because everyone else is thinking like you are: it's a cool day to get married.
Posted by Sue-n-Kevin[/QUOTE]

Oh, you're right, I'm wrong, it <strong>is</strong> a Saturday (I'm really not sure why I thought it was a Sunday. Especially since I got married on NYD this year, and my wedding was definitely on a Friday, lol.

Yeah, it might be hard to schedule, because I know January 2nd was a <strong>huge</strong> date this year. But I still would just schedule the wedding for NYD instead of going through the rigormorale of "starting" on NYE and not actually <strong> doing </strong>any of the "wedding" stuff until after midnight.

JFH2010

The other thing to consider is that YOU can decide if you and FI want to celebrate your anniversary on the night you got married, or the next day.  We're getting married on Labor Day, and I just plan to forever celebrate our anniversary as Labor Day Weekend, regardless of the specific date.  Twenty years from now it might not matter to you what exact time you signed your marriage certificate, but trying to juggle all these details now will be a serious hassle!

jlaursen

Thank you all for your input. I guess I'm not over the top worried about it - we have decided that we are going to start our ceremony at 8:30pm and just not kiss until midnight - that's how we are going to do it... we're a super fun group of people and we're not having a "traditional" wedding, so, I'm pretty happy that we've found a way to make it work... as far as having a JP be there all night, we've decided to have someone very close to us marry us (you can do that in Massachusetts) so, we're all set!

Thanks again!