Call me crazy... Resurrected for a question relevant to our decision

hellosweetie1015

doeydo said:

I had to Google tailgating.  So you basically eat in/around your car in a parking lot outside of a stadium?  And you are talking football, right?

Hahahahaha yeah I'm talking football, but I am NOT talking parking-lot tailgating. I'm talking green-space, with grass and chairs and no cars particularly nearby. There are a couple of pictures in the thread of a couple of my options. If it were parking-lot tailgating, this wouldn't be an issue - I wouldn't be doing that. 

theartistformerlyknownas

I think to keep it out of tiered reception territory you have to keep it TOTALLY separate from the wedding. Don't do any wedding related things there, don't send the invitations together, etc. They're just two events that happen to take place on the same day. Make sure you fulfill your hosting obligation to your wedding guests earlier in the day. I'd probably treat the tailgate like an after party.

hellosweetie1015

lolo883 said:

I think to keep it out of tiered reception territory you have to keep it TOTALLY separate from the wedding. Don't do any wedding related things there, don't send the invitations together, etc. They're just two events that happen to take place on the same day. Make sure you fulfill your hosting obligation to your wedding guests earlier in the day. I'd probably treat the tailgate like an after party.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. The tailgate would be a general "Hey y'all come hang out and drink cheap beer and Angry Orchard and watch whatever game is on the tv screen" thing on our Facebooks, where the wedding/reception thing would be an invited event, even though like 75% of guests are immediate family, and we live with a good number of them haha.

luckya23

Hey did you see this in the news today??

http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/outkick-the-coverage/tennessee-fans-wed-at-tailgate-wedding-090114

hellosweetie1015

No...

Not how I see mine going down though... I mean, I'm still wearing a white dress, for sure. Not a wedding dress, but probably a tea-length fit and flair from ModCloth or something, and there's no way in hell FI would be wearing an oversized Auburn shirt. He said he'd like a navy blazer with an orange button down. 

...besides, those coveralls were fugly.

lurkergirl

alucky23 said:

Hey did you see this in the news today??

http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/outkick-the-coverage/tennessee-fans-wed-at-tailgate-wedding-090114

Hahahaha!!  Because of course the Tennessee fans would get married in a t-shirt and checkered (maternity?) overalls.  Keep it classy, Vols!

We are an anti-Tennessee house, so FI got a laugh from that this morning too.  Thanks for sharing

ETA: @CaiTDid23 I actually think your idea sounds cute.  I just can't resist an opportunity to snark on some vols!

Wegl13

Two things: I've seen a tailgating wedding at Auburn before actually, it was up by the water features that are now basically algae ponds at Foy. So it has been done. Second thing is, you might want to check carefully about your grandma being able to get parking- I'm assuming the ideal place for her would be the handicap parking in the deck? Because from what I heard (no first hand definitive knowledge here) you still have to pay a pretty pretty penny for those. If you can get one though I would use your largest vehicle to get everyone there. You will probably be fine on time as conference games are almost always after 2pm but unless you plan on this wedding being before 6am, I would realize that there are going to be a lot of random people around when you get married. This may not matter to you but it would to me. Just remember the student section OPENS 3 hours before kickoff which means students line up 5 hours before. It's not bama but it is still conference, so they will be there. Drunk. Honestly I know using the tailgating guys would make your life more convenient in that way but if you could hire them to set up further away from the stadium (near Foy, the arboretum, or what about even over by the new Shelby center?) you might find that you get the tailgating experience without having as many random people trying to figure out what is going on with this wedding business. Personal thoughts on personal preferences here. On the tiered reception thing: I am honestly torn on this. I think it could be fine but I'm just picturing myself as a friend of yours and if you were getting married in the middle of Auburn's green space on game day and only invited me to tailgate and hang out later.... I guess I would feel a bit hurt because I would think "well gee i wanted to see you get married, everyone else that was just randomly on campus at that time got to see you get married" and I wouldn't feel like I could understand it being a cost thing because if you are going to share your beer with me at 3pm why cant I being standing there with you when you get married at 9am? You could probably solve this problem by having your wedding at some ungodly early hour of the morning though because they might not show up even if you invited them..... ^_-

hellosweetie1015

Wegl13 said:

Two things: I've seen a tailgating wedding at Auburn before actually, it was up by the water features that are now basically algae ponds at Foy. So it has been done. Second thing is, you might want to check carefully about your grandma being able to get parking- I'm assuming the ideal place for her would be the handicap parking in the deck? Because from what I heard (no first hand definitive knowledge here) you still have to pay a pretty pretty penny for those. If you can get one though I would use your largest vehicle to get everyone there.

You will probably be fine on time as conference games are almost always after 2pm but unless you plan on this wedding being before 6am, I would realize that there are going to be a lot of random people around when you get married. This may not matter to you but it would to me. Just remember the student section OPENS 3 hours before kickoff which means students line up 5 hours before. It's not bama but it is still conference, so they will be there. Drunk.

Honestly I know using the tailgating guys would make your life more convenient in that way but if you could hire them to set up further away from the stadium (near Foy, the arboretum, or what about even over by the new Shelby center?) you might find that you get the tailgating experience without having as many random people trying to figure out what is going on with this wedding business. Personal thoughts on personal preferences here.

On the tiered reception thing: I am honestly torn on this. I think it could be fine but I'm just picturing myself as a friend of yours and if you were getting married in the middle of Auburn's green space on game day and only invited me to tailgate and hang out later.... I guess I would feel a bit hurt because I would think "well gee i wanted to see you get married, everyone else that was just randomly on campus at that time got to see you get married" and I wouldn't feel like I could understand it being a cost thing because if you are going to share your beer with me at 3pm why cant I being standing there with you when you get married at 9am? You could probably solve this problem by having your wedding at some ungodly early hour of the morning though because they might not show up even if you invited them..... ^_-

We had thought perhaps a good second option was over by the library in the greenspace at Thach and College, since the AUHCC is right across the street. Or perhaps near the amphitheater between Parker and Telfair Peet; there's handicapped parking literally right there (or there used to be). The only issue there is proximity to available restrooms - the greenspace would be in close proximity to the new Student Center, which I know is (was?) open for restroom use (hell, I've watched games in there). The library - if I recall - typically closes, and going back across the street would be difficult, I think. Restrooms do get set up near the amphitheater, I think, although they're pretty much glorified port-a-potties. So the greenspace would be the best bet, restroom/logistics wise. And actually the handicapped parking is free, so long as you've got the decal/tag. We would have to take her car though, which is not a particularly large vehicle, so that's a semi-minor issue.

I had not thought about the issue of a tiered reception vibe until a few days ago. We were thinking about a 15-25 minute ceremony at 10 AM, which would be at the early end of that 4 hours before a 2 PM kickoff. 10 AM on a Saturday IS ungodly in my brain, so I reasoned that tailgaters really wouldn't be out yet or either would be busy setting up. But the Student Center greenspace is probably a little different than a college-student tailgate, haha. I am afraid of our friends being hurt, though, which is why I came back to this thread. I don't want that. But we also want a small ceremony. So we're going to have to give that some thought.

We don't much care about strangers because this is the first thing we've thought of that we both were genuinely excited about (and we've gone through location after location after location, Mount Cheaha, Panama City Beach, Destin, Orlando, my hometown, his hometown, Chattanooga, Birmingham, Eufaula, Huntsville, Rome, Helen, Savannah, Columbus, Atlanta, Montgomery, Gatlinburg, Vegas, even traditional venues in Auburn...seriously every one of those places has been raised as an option by one of us, and shot down by the other) so it's kind of become important to us, but we definitely don't want to hurt our friends. We may have to rethink the ceremony part to avoid that. 

The "it's been done" thing, too, frankly does not even phase me. Not even a little bit. Everything's been done. I'm not after originality. I'm after some level of a meaningful location for FI and I, and Auburn is one of the only places that we consistently come back to as a place that holds meaning for both of us (aside from Universal Studios, which is ridiculously expensive)(yes I checked).

Also - it was up by those gross things in that little square behind Samford Hall???? EWWWWW. Those things are disgusting. Things that will be done if I ever by some stroke of luck get on the Board: knock Haley Center down, and fill those nasty things up.

hellosweetie1015

lurkergirl said:

alucky23 said:

Hey did you see this in the news today??

http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/outkick-the-coverage/tennessee-fans-wed-at-tailgate-wedding-090114

Hahahaha!!  Because of course the Tennessee fans would get married in a t-shirt and checkered (maternity?) overalls.  Keep it classy, Vols!

We are an anti-Tennessee house, so FI got a laugh from that this morning too.  Thanks for sharing

ETA: @CaiTDid23 I actually think your idea sounds cute.  I just can't resist an opportunity to snark on some vols!

Yeah no that idea was not at all cute. No offense to any Vols fans out there, but that is pretty much my exact idea of "NOHELLFUCKINNO." Those overalls are disgusting, and the t-shirt looked like it's his lucky t-shirt that only gets washed when they lose. I can't with that whole thing. I mean, maybe that's how Tennessee fans tailgate (which is not how Auburn fans tailgate, as a general rule), but if it were me and my wedding, I'd want to class it up a bit. (Or a lot. If, you know, that's Volunteer standard.) UGH.

Wegl13

Haha no the "it's been done thing" was more regarding your statement that you don't know of any rules against it at this point! Since it's happened before without incident I think you'll be good. I think for tiered reception you basically have to think about the number of people. If it's very close family ONLY (less than 20 or so) then people will probably be more understanding than if it's 30+. I would still expect hurt feelings... But I think this is one of those "what ya gonna do, someone's going to get upset." Tailgaters be tailgating at 10am. I would probably "be understanding" because that's the nice thing to do, but I really do feel like my feelings would be a little wounded (whether that's legit or not) if you got married in a public space with a bunch of strangers witnessing it and you didn't at least go "hey look, we are getting married here at this time. We are only making plans and getting chairs and stuff for our really close family, but you know it's going to be on the green and if you wanted to drop by for the actual ceremony, that would be lovely. Don't feel obligated.. But we are going to be just hanging out and tailgating later so if you just want to come for that, we will have a tv and burgers and beer (or whatever)." Probably not wedding invite kosher (no real invitation, but you are inviting them and now not providing their butt with a chair?), but if I were your friend, I would appreciate it.

hellosweetie1015

Wegl13 said:

Haha no the "it's been done thing" was more regarding your statement that you don't know of any rules against it at this point! Since it's happened before without incident I think you'll be good. I think for tiered reception you basically have to think about the number of people. If it's very close family ONLY (less than 20 or so) then people will probably be more understanding than if it's 30+. I would still expect hurt feelings... But I think this is one of those "what ya gonna do, someone's going to get upset." Tailgaters be tailgating at 10am. I would probably "be understanding" because that's the nice thing to do, but I really do feel like my feelings would be a little wounded (whether that's legit or not) if you got married in a public space with a bunch of strangers witnessing it and you didn't at least go "hey look, we are getting married here at this time. We are only making plans and getting chairs and stuff for our really close family, but you know it's going to be on the green and if you wanted to drop by for the actual ceremony, that would be lovely. Don't feel obligated.. But we are going to be just hanging out and tailgating later so if you just want to come for that, we will have a tv and burgers and beer (or whatever)." Probably not wedding invite kosher (no real invitation, but you are inviting them and now not providing their butt with a chair?), but if I were your friend, I would appreciate it.

To the bolded: AHHHHH yes, that is very true, haha. AU seems pretty cool with it so far, anyway. 

See, I do just REALLY want a tiny ceremony. I am talking 12/13 on either side, total, including any SOs/plus-ones. I don't care who's there outside of that circle, but any paper invites outside of that circle would cause me MAJOR hell with my family politics, and I just don't feel like dealing with that shit. So maybe it'd be better to do a small ceremony Friday night, have cake and punch and cocktails afterward, and then have the tailgate that Saturday.

That idea makes me less happy though.

And here I thought the tailgating logistics were gonna be a bitch...