WR: Favorite detail

squirrly

What's your favorite wedding detail ever?  Things you did at yours, you saw/experienced at other weddings, things you've heard knotties talk about? 

And, I really mean things done for guests moreso than parts of the ceremony, but I'll give bonus points for ceremony suggestions. 

(Explanation:  FI's brothers are less than enthusiastic about coming to our wedding in Kentucky.  They are convinced it will be redneck and awful, and I'm determined to make it the coolest wedding ever.)

Brie2010

ricksang

My candy buffet. It was the hit of the party.

sucrets4

I loved our escort cards/table numbers, but that was just because I made them.

I also loved the kid pails, but that won't seem to get your FI's brothers excited. 

Open bar?

aMrsin09

I hate to say it, but the lamest wedding I ever went to was my Uncles..in Kentucky.  BUT, it was in Paducah (sp?), so 'nuff said there.

Usually my favorite wedding detail is plated dinners.  I hate buffets with a passion.

squirrly

I have a meeting next Saturday to nail down food, and I'm hoping we can work out a late night snack. 

We're having awesome OOT bags, and a hospitality suite at the hotel.

My parents are hosting a cookout the night before the wedding.

We're taking everyone who wants to go to Churchill Downs the day before.  Hello sunscreen!

FI's brother's wedding would have been a field day for the P&E crew. 

Ultimately, I've not been to many weddings that did anything other than a nice, but basic, reception.  So, I am trying to borrow as many awesome ideas from here as possible. 

So far, I've not planned a candy buffet - I was leaning toward a gourmet popcorn buffet.  Thoughts?

And, I have no idea what we're going to do for table numbers.

squirrly

aMrs, what in particular was lame?  Paducah can go either way.  (I went to college about 40 minutes from there.)

ggmae

Good food/desserts and drinks were the best things that we gave our guests. We also had a picnic the day after and about 40 people came.

aMrsin09

1) at the time Paducah was dry.
2) it was in a Baptist church
3) no music, no dancing
4) it was dry
5) 99% sure it was either a potluck or catered by the church ladies.
6) oh yes, it was dry.

The best thing to come from that weekend was I discoverd the goodness of sausage gravy and biscuits.

edit to add:  I was 20 at the time and this was back in the mid 80s.  There was NOTHING to do in or around the town at that time.  And not saying that church weddings are lame, it was just far different than any of the Catholic weddings I had been to up to that point.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

I really want to get a taco truck (or "gourmet" food truck - all the rage in LA now) to do an after party/late night snack at the hotel after the reception.

I honestly don't think the table numbers or flower choice will impress him. Really fun stuff will, though.

Brie2010

Favorite detail at someone else's wedding has to be booze during the ceremony.  They had a table full of beer and wine as you walked in.  It was nice.

ggmae

Make sure that your guests can hear you during the ceremony, especially if it's outside. Apparently 1/2 of our guests had trouble hearing us during our outdoor ceremony - stupid DJ forgot to bring the mic!

RachNRich

So far?

• our cake toppers
• our invitations
• my dress
• our rings (although Rich may have changed his mind already)

squirrly

Yeah, we have an open bar.  Premium open bar, actually.  (And for those who saw it, I found a different bus company yesterday that gave me a sweet deal, so we're good there too.)

We're hoping to have the servers roving with beer and wine during cocktail hour, so only people who want mixed drinks need to go to the bar.  Keep the line short.

I would sort of like to be able to do a cocktail or beer pre-ceremony, which some people have talked about on here, but logistically I think that would be challenging.  We'll have water and lemonade.

ggmae, the mic is on my list.    Our ceremony is outside (barring bad weather). 

lauralaur

Our photobooth. We didn't rent one, just a photographer and two chairs and some really funny pictures... Our guests really liked it because we got some good shots of them out of it, most really wanted to see our wedding photos because they wanted to see their pictures from the photobooth.

I loved my dress.

I generally hate buffets, but the last wedding I went to that had one had a salad bar and a mashed potato bar. I'm a picky eater so I loved that I didn't have to have tomatos, onions, and dressing on my salad. It was worth waiting in line.

I love a band! I always think bands are better than DJs and I was bummed that we couldn't afford one.

I really wanted to do a late night snack, but it wasn't in the budget.

Our cake was amazing! I'm always disappointed when the cake sucks at a wedding.

Let's see what else I can come up with...

squirrly

Brie, if I had adult beverages for the ceremony and had to limit it to, say, 2 selections, what would you suggest?  My thoughts are bud light and sangria, knowing our crowd.  I think mimosas would be cool, but I'm not sure we can afford/coordinate that. 

crfische

2 words. Booze. Cruise.

Brie2010

I'd be very, very happy if you had beer and sangria at the ceremony.

I wish we could have some for ours.  Stupid church.

[Deleted User]

i don't have any pictures handy of the whole band together (at our wedding, anyway), but our wedding had the awesomest music a wedding has ever seen. this particular fella is the sickest guitarist i've ever had the pleasure of witnessing:




as far as girly crap is concerned, i loved all our wedding girly crap. if i had to pick one thing, i'd say these things, purchased from an antique shop and scattered about the lawn, were a nice touch:

squirrly

Ditch the church.  Golf course is where it's at!   

Fishy, I don't think this is big enough to cruise across:


That's the view to the guests' right.  Your booze cruise sounded pretty awesome, though!

janedoe1113a

The DJ is always what I remember most about a wedding.  If you have a good DJ, they can get people dancing and you'll have a good time.

I think late night snacks are such a cool idea.  I also love your idea of a gourmet popcorn bar.

I would probably give people a side-eye if they had alcohol during the ceremony.  The ceremony is supposed to be a serious thing and alcohol just doesn't seem to fit in.

ggmae

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_wr-favorite-detail?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:343bd071-75b6-4837-acff-f8f3bed606bbPost:3deaebcd-d3c9-4ef6-89b2-bd25108371ad">Re: WR: Favorite detail</a>:
[QUOTE]...I would probably give people a side-eye if they had alcohol during the ceremony.  The ceremony is supposed to be a serious thing and alcohol just doesn't seem to fit in.
Posted by navybaby1113[/QUOTE]

We had our cocktail hour before the ceremony, so I'm pretty sure a few of our guests were tipsy or drunk during the ceremony. That was one thing we considered when making the decision to do the cocktail hour before the ceremony, but the pros outweighed the cons.

Oh, and our DJ pretty much sucked..for several reasons (forgot the mic, didn't have our first dance song, was kinda cheesy, etc.) Our dancefloor was near-dead for the whole 45 minutes we had to dance, but those of us who did dance had a good time (I think.)

squirrly

I'm unsure about our DJ.  He's being supplied by the venue.  My sister has heard him (NYE), and said he did a good job with music selection, but he didn't really talk at all.  We only need him to do intros and announce the very basic things, though, so I hope it's ok.  That's on my list to ask the venue next weekend too.

julezlee

I think your wedding sounds like a good time already!

I loved our OOT bags and I'm really mad at myself for not taking photos of them.

I loved the photobooth at one wedding we went to.  It was fun and we got some great pictures. 

I'm with pps: buffet = bad; late night snacks or sweets to take home = good.

pooh8402

favorite detail from weddings that I've been to in the past? open bar and band. wish I could afford both. or either.

now that I've read the rest of the thread, I was reminded of one of my favorite weddings. it was an older couple, but first weddings for both. they had it in their backyard. dress code: dressy jeans. we had a cocktail hour before the ceremony in their house, then we just walked outside, still holding our drinks, for their ceremony.  the bride initially wasn't going to wear a dress, so she surprised the groom by walking out in this very pretty, simple, yet elegant gown. it was so great.

favorite detail from my as of yet half unplanned wedding? my guestbook. instead of a book or picture mat or plate, our guests will be signed fabric squares for a signature quilt. FI's mom is a quilter, so she and I picked out a pattern and fabric. that lady works fast, she's already put the squares together. now people get to sign them, and she and I will sew the whole thing together after the wedding! I'm so excited!

NuggetBrain

From other people's wedding, I really liked the simplicity of Noodle's sister's wedding ceremony.  It was on a beach in Clearwater, Florida, at sunset.  Absolutely beautiful.

For mine, I'm pumped about the photobooth (which is going to double as our guest book and one of our favors) and the late night mini cheese burgers and "fries" (zucchini fries with sweet relish sauce).  I think people will really like them and they're the perfect size for snacking.

Also, I'm excited for the cupcakes.  They are SO freaking good, and none of the weddings we've been to have had cupcakes before.  We're getting little boxes so if people can't finish their cupcake (or are just too full for one) they can take it home with them.

I was going to do charger plates but I think it will be a waste of money (because I have a wierd issue with "empty" table settings), so I'm just going to put a little bag of popcorn at each table setting with a "thank you" tag.

brandyleighxx

The silver jewelry boxes our ring-bearers carried our rings in that served as their gift. We had an 'M' inscribed on each and our wedding date. The M stands for our last name, 1 of the ring-bearers was DH's sister and she has the same last name, and the other ring bearer is my cousin whose name starts with an M. Worked out well for everyone!

I loved our programs, they were hand made.

Our swarovski crystal cake topper that was the letter 'M'

My San Deigo Chargers garter

I loved everything!

squirrly

Apps will be passed/buffet during cocktail hour, but dinner will be plated. 

What popcorn flavors would you like?
http://www.thepopcornstation.com/select_popcorn.php

I was thinking Butter, Kettlecorn, Caramel, Cheddar Japapeno, and they have a chocolate covered one that's not on the online menu.

lyndausvi

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_wr-favorite-detail?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:343bd071-75b6-4837-acff-f8f3bed606bbPost:3deaebcd-d3c9-4ef6-89b2-bd25108371ad">Re: WR: Favorite detail</a>:
[QUOTE]. I would probably give people a side-eye if they had alcohol during the ceremony.  The ceremony is supposed to be a serious thing and alcohol just doesn't seem to fit in.
Posted by navybaby1113[/QUOTE]


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Notice the guy on the left hand side. We have a copy in a frame on our shelf.  I laugh every time I see this picture.

Food, booze and awesome music makes a wedding for me.   In addition our candy buffet was a huge hit.