How do you celebrate a wedding?

QUINNSCOMMENTARY · Post by **QUINNSCOMMENTARY** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 8:43 am

Here is an interesting topic of no special value.

I live in the New York metro area and when I attended a wedding in another state I learned that the view of a wedding reception seems to be very different in different places.

Let me summarize the typical wedding I have attended in my area over the years.

Usually there are at least 100 or more people and the reception is held in a catering hall or hotel, frequently a country club.

There is a cocktail hour with an open bar and an array of food ranging from passed finger foods, to carving stations with turkey and roast beef, a raw bar with clams and oysters and shrimp, pasta stations, cold cuts, cheeses and more. Not unlike a full buffet at times.

Then there is dinner with an appetizer, salad and full meal (usually two or three choices).

There is an open bar throughout the night.

Then in many cases there is a Venetian table which consists of cakes and pastry of all kinds, perhaps make your own ice cream sundae and fruits, etc.

Needless to say in some cases people eat so much at the cocktail hour they can’t eat the meal, what a waste of money.

Today many weddings have just a DJ, but a four to six person band is not uncommon, plus a singer.

The cost, well that varies widely, but I have been to weddings where the cost is anywhere from $100 to $180 per person (plus the band) and that was more than two years ago.

So, what is a typical wedding like where you live? Is the money spent, well spent? :-2

qsducks · Post by **qsducks** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 8:51 am

No it's not well spent. That's what I like about a buffet style wedding you eat what you can and not have to worry about "you didn't eat it" routine from my hubby and I'm like "I ate all those appetizers and drank beer, etc. and I'm stuffed. The last wedding we went to was for my neice and it was unbelievable.

And I'm talking about the food before dinner was served. Tons of it. All sorts of cheezes and crackers, seafood, finger foods galore. I was really stuffed by then.

For my wedding, it was me and my husband's immediate family and we all went out to a really nice restaurant. I believe the whole thing cost around $1,000.00, althought I lost out on the bridal registry:-5

Victoria · Post by **Victoria** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 11:15 am

My son married his Dutch girlfriend in Scotland and asked me for a typical family style wedding reception so thats what they got.. my family are Irish/East end !

So the house was decorated bunting hung from the fence and from the upstairs windows white balloons hung in great bunches and everyone had party poppers. The furniture was stuffed into the garage everyone pitched in with my mum and best friend flying in the day before to help with all the sausage rolls and sandwiches, my best friend also bought a sh1t load of mini pork pies and I bet if she had been able to there would have been jellied eels!

Loads to eat loads to drink and a fantastic 3 tiered cake,it was great.

We turned the music up and had a right old knees up, everyone family friends and nieghbours joined in.:wah:

I have no idea what we spent it wasn't much but thats not the point my son and daughter in law said it was the best day of their lives .

Helen · Post by **Helen** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 11:49 am

when my youngest daughter got married, we did nearly everything ourselves, except for making wedding, bridesmaid dresses. !!

the bouquets were artificial flowers and bought from the local market. i did all the cooking, the M I L made the cake, my late partner took photos and videos.

we hired the local village hall and decorated it ourselves.

by coincidence there was a fun fair in the car park at the back of the hall and they gave us all free rides on things !!

even then, the whole thing cost nearly £2000.

they had been living together for some time before hand so had their house and furnishings but for kids getting married and setting up their own homes these days its a very exspensive start to their lives.

ps,

the funny story attached to the wedding, well it wasnt funny at the time cos it made me really angry........ her mother in law made up doggy bags of food for her family who couldnt attend and that was BEFORE the rest of the guests sat down to eat !! so consiquently we never got to have some of the stuff on offer !!! and i'd been up since 5am cooking it !!

pps,

my daughters best mate and i hid a cheese cake behind a curtain so we could have it later, she even found that and cut it up and shared it out between the doggy bags !!!

QUINNSCOMMENTARY · Post by **QUINNSCOMMENTARY** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 12:47 pm

Victoria;934595 wrote: My son married his Dutch girlfriend in Scotland and asked me for a typical family style wedding reception so thats what they got.. my family are Irish/East end !

So the house was decorated bunting hung from the fence and from the upstairs windows white balloons hung in great bunches and everyone had party poppers. The furniture was stuffed into the garage everyone pitched in with my mum and best friend flying in the day before to help with all the sausage rolls and sandwiches, my best friend also bought a sh1t load of mini pork pies and I bet if she had been able to there would have been jellied eels!

Loads to eat loads to drink and a fantastic 3 tiered cake,it was great.

We turned the music up and had a right old knees up, everyone family friends and nieghbours joined in.:wah:

I have no idea what we spent it wasn't much but thats not the point my son and daughter in law said it was the best day of their lives .

That sounds like my kind of wedding. I didn't include it in my original post, but I went to a wedding once that cost $2 million and the couple were divorced within two years.

theia · Post by **theia** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:04 pm

There were just six of us at my daughter's wedding. The ceremony was conducted in a Register Office, we took a few photographs outside on the pavement with the traffic of a large city centre speeding by. We then had lunch at a hotel and a walk around the park. It was February and the weather was beautiful. The whole day was beautiful.

My daughter and my son-in-law celebrated their twentieth wedding anniversary this year.

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:09 pm

You party on! Not at such a cost as your example.

My daughter's wedding last summer-we carried in half the food ourselves, I was the limo driver.....

You wait and see the party I'll throw when I find out one day I will be a granny, I have been waiting a long time already........

hoppy · Post by **hoppy** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 3:49 pm

Sometimes, after seeing the bride, I just laugh at the groom. Or, vice-versa.:p:wah:

Helen · Post by **Helen** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 3:56 pm

hoppy;934877 wrote: Sometimes, after seeing the bride, I just laugh at the groom. Or, vice-versa.:p:wah:

i live in a town where stag and hen parties happen most weekends.......... what ive seen handcuffed to lamp posts or railings, stark naked, makes you wonder what their future wives saw in them in the first place :wah::-2

buttercup · Post by **buttercup** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:47 pm

How do you celebrate a wedding?

Lots of in family fighting & bitching during the preparations leading to vast amounts of alcohol being consumed before the ceremony/reception, leading to no-one actually remembering much of anything.

A good night was had, welcome to Scotland

qsducks · Post by **qsducks** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 9:57 am

Hubby & I were thinking of doing it again, but on the beach with immediate family and this time I won't be preggars:wah: