I got married on June 9th to an amazing man, we went on our honeymoon and had a fantastic time (even got a few hotel upgrades, nice!) and now we're back home putting our new apartment together.
Recap: The wedding ceremony was absolutely incredible. No major issues, we almost started on time (but I was totally ready on time, so it wasn't my fault, lol). My dad walked me down the aisle and our pastor opened the ceremony, then my dad took over and officiated the wedding (he's a pastor), but my brother (who is also a pastor), did the closing prayer. So blessed to have three awesome ministers participate in our ceremony!
My brother closed with an illustration of three chords (christ, groom, and bride). We are Christians, so everything about our ceremony was Christ-centered, but we didn't know my brother was going to end with this illustration. He even had three chords that he tied together. My groom and I were both bawling during this emotional part, as well as all my BM's and several guests. We got a LOT of compliments on our ceremony and I know we will always remember this special time.
The negative part of the evening was the reception. I am still so bummed and a bit irritated b/c we had so many no-shows, including some co-workers, some church friends, and some family, who all rsvp'd that they would be there and told us they were really excited to come. We did not invited children because we were going to have such a packed reception, but in the end, we had about 40 out of 110 not show up! I almost cried when I saw all the empty chairs at the reception.
My only guess is that we didn't have a "cool" enough party or that it was too late for some of the older folks. We started the ceremony at 6pm b/c the best man couldn't make it into town until 1pm and we wanted him to have time to get ready and not be rushed. Unfortunately, this meant that dinner wasn't served until almost 8pm. I thought this would be NBD for most people, but apparently I was wrong!
Also, the reception was at our church, so we couldn't serve alcohol and we opted not to have a DJ b/c we couldn't afford it. Instead, we hired a soundman from our church and arranged for an MC, but the soundman wasn't doing his job - he was sitting at a table with his parents, who were invited as guests, instead of at the soundbooth! I understand wanting to socialize, but he knew when he agreed to this what the job required. Since he is getting paid through our payment to the church, there's nothing we can do. Our wedding coordinator's assistant had to step in and run the sound system - I was so embarassed!
And then after dinner, about 90% of the people who actually showed up decided to leave! What the heck! My MOH and the best man did their speeches while people were still eating, so guests wouldn't get bored and leave and as soon as they were done, we got up to do the spotlight dances, dollar dance (which is very common in this area), a couple other dances, garter toss, cake cutting, etc. We didn't have any "down-time" but kept things flowing so people wouldn't get bored and leave, but apparently that wasn't good enough! By 9:15, almost everyone was gone, except my OOT family, the BM's, GM's, and H's mom.
So we decided to call it a night, cut out half the dancing songs, changed clothes, and did the final send off around 10pm.
There were other minor things that didn't go quite right, but that's to be expected. All in all, it was an incredible ceremony and half-great reception and at the end of the day, I was married to my best friend, an incredible man! And my BM's were extremely supportive and kept me full of joy, despite everyone leaving so early. So, I feel very blessed and just have to accept the fact that things don't always work out the way we want them to.
My advice - if you're doing a church reception, either hire a professional DJ to keep the party exciting, or otherwise, don't plan to have dancing at all. And expect some people not to show up. I felt kinda stupid b/c we had assigned seating and did not invite children b/c we were expecting a packed house, but ended up with about 40 empty seats. So in this situation, open seating would have been way better and we chould have invited children afterall.
Oh well, things happen I guess. I'm happily married and the people who mattered the most stayed until the end!
