May 2012 Weddings

second thoughts about ceremony location (long)

**warning- a lot of this is just me "thinking out loud" so if seems like rambling..sorry!**

As of right now, our ceremony is going to be at a church about 15 minutes from our reception location. We had gone to this church a couple of times before we got engaged so we decided to have our ceremony there.

Well.....I was never too keen on the look of the church (it has purple carpeting and the cross is shaped like a T....not a traditional cross). I know these are small things which is why I had a "it is what it is" attitude toward the look of the church. Lately though the "ugliness" of the church has been bothering me. I know what the location looks like isn't the important part of the ceremony...it's the ceremony itself but it still bothers me.

Also, since 95% of our guests are from out of town (at least 3 hours away, so will need to stay in hotel)..it will be much easier for the ceremony to be at our reception venue (which we love).

It is too late to change locations??

We want to ask the pastor if he does wedding ceremonies outside of the church (I know some won't) before we make and decisions.

If we do decide to keep at it the church, I will probably get an aisle runner to break up the look of the purple carpet a little bit.

The two options we have for a ceremony at our reception location are:
- upstairs from the reception location in a room that overlooks the river (only for 150 guests or less so this may not be an option depending on the amount of RSVPs)

- on the dance floor (which is elevated a few steps from the tables) with guests watching from their tables. I have never heard of this before and am not sure how I feel about it though. Anyone ever been to a wedding that was like that?


thanks for listening Laughing

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Re: second thoughts about ceremony location (long)

  • I guess I'd either keep it as it is if your officiant won't perform ceremonies in another venue, or try for the room that overlooks the river.  I was at a wedding once where everyone sat at their reception tables to watch the ceremony, and it was really odd.  The worst part was, we had to leave the room where the reception was going to be for 45 minutes while they got ready for it in between the ceremony and the reception start.  Everyone just stood outside.  Like I said...it just felt odd, half the people had their backs to the ceremony because of the round tables, etc.  I wouldn't recommend it.

    Either way, everything will work out!  I'm sure no one would think twice about the decor of the church.
    photo trex2_zps7ab4e9b0.jpg
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  • i really don't think your guests will be as critical of the church as you may think.  you've had all this time since you started planning to think about every.little.detail and you've been able to nit-pick every little thing, so you see more than your typical guest will.

    i think an aisle runner would really help break the look up a bit and if you have decorations on the pews, along the aisle and/or up at the alter i'm sure it would look really nice. and people understand that you can't control the architecture of the church so they won't judge you for the cross being a 'T' instead of a traditional cross. (which, btw, i've never seen before and it does sound a little weird, but shouldn't be a deal breaker)

    i've been to a wedding that was rained out and had to be moved into the reception area, and like pp said, it was odd.  i mean, the couple got married, and the ceremony was sweet and we all had a good time, but there is that weird transition period where the staff has to finish setting up the reception and you just kind of stand around.

    i think if you're going to change the location it definitely needs to be decided before invites go out, you don't want to wait until you're receiving RSVPs to decide to switch it up, that could get confusing in a hurry and you'll get a lot of last minute 'emergency' phone calls from guests on the day of that you won't want to deal with.

    if you decide to stick with the church, maybe you could get your photographer to only take a couple pictures there after the ceremony and do the bulk of your post-ceremony pictures outside or somewhere you like better than the church.  maybe you could get some shots by that river you mentioned?  that sounds really pretty!

    sorry this was super long... good luck deciding!  :)
  • DianaL616DianaL616 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_may-2012-weddings_second-thoughts-ceremony-location-long?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:f0ca0bc1-9255-4120-8042-b40e7f3e99c5Discussion:6712f971-3f5b-4e13-befb-3702d6ca709dPost:aabf35ad-eeac-45c7-9f05-80b3fa23aae8">Re: second thoughts about ceremony location (long)</a>:
    [QUOTE]<strong>if you decide to stick with the church, maybe you could get your photographer to only take a couple pictures there after the ceremony and do the bulk of your post-ceremony pictures outside or somewhere you like better than the church.  maybe you could get some shots by that river you mentioned?  that sounds really pretty!</strong> sorry this was super long... good luck deciding!  :)
    Posted by comeongetdown[/QUOTE]<div>
    </div><div>
    </div><div>That's a great idea!

    </div>
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