Big weekend!
@rebeccar , @tx5athome and @Massmomm -Enjoy your wedding weekends!!
Woohoo! Will report back in a few days! Will no longer be rebeccaR!
Good luck! I can’t wait to hear the updates on this weekend’s weddings
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May the Weather be with you.
We had a spectacular day!! My sister was the officiant. It was her first time and she was fabulous. She is a writer so the sermon was like a story. The weather was gorgeous, the food was great, the photo booth was fun and there was A LOT of dancing. Zipping up my daughters bridesmaid dress was a little touch and go. My sons best man speech was funny. And my dog and great nephew were adorable ring-bearers. I took your advice and took time to enjoy the moments.
So happy for all, @tx5athome! Sounds like a great time. Thanks for updating us.
I love reading the happy after-reports. Thanks @tx5athome .
@tx5athome - so happy to hear that it was a wonderful day!
Great to hear it was an awesome day @tx5athome.
I’ll be attending a wedding where the suggestion is long gowns for the ladies. Hopefully, I don’t get kicked out , since I will be wearing an elegant Midi length dress (close enough to long gown) . This is in an area where average temp has been 87.
Great news, @tx5athome ! Waiting for a check-in from @rebeccar too!
As an aside, DS#2 just referred to himself today as “that boring old married guy”. See what married life does to them in 5 weeks (
Next think you know he’ll be checking in on CC, thinking about the best college savings options for his future kids. 
My D posted a picture of her & new H holding their friends’ 2 year old and newborn baby. It looked pretty “right” … but I would never say that to her. 
I have a question. D1 is getting married Oct 2019. The venue is about 5 hrs away from D and her F and about 3 hours from ours and FIL’s respective cities. D threw me a bit of a curveball today when she said her F and his parents want to have an appetizer and dessert only wedding reception. Heavy on the appetizers. She wants the wedding to be around 3 or 4 pm which puts the reception right at dinner time. I feel most, if not all, guest will be expecting a dinner. She says they (F and his parents) want the guests to mingle and that a sit down dinner is too “constraining”. Literally every guest will be coming from out of town, most of them driving that day. I think at least a buffet dinner is warranted. As a side note D said F and his parents “fast” quite a bit and are not really cognizant of other people’s dietary needs when they are fasting so she says for them not to have a real meal all day won’t bother them. I just see a lot of “hangry” guest! Any thoughts or has anyone been to this type of reception?
If you are having a reception around dinner time then dinner is expected. If they don’t want a sit down then a buffet can be more casual.
D1 had a sit down (seat assigned) dinner, and for a 5 hr reception guests were only sitting down for 1 hour (I know because we had to move some tables for dancing). People mingled during the cocktail hour and after dinner there was 3+ hrs of dancing/mingling. We had 3 speeches during dinner, but each speech was less than 5 min, so people had plenty of time to eat.
@chumom - I would be one of those “hangry” guests. I find it hard to hold my purse, drink, plate and trying to eat, so I usually end up not eating much when it is stand up eating. No dinner and a lot of drinks also do not mix well. I wouldn’t be surprised if your guests may skip lunch or eat very lightly if they were traveling and thinking there would be full meal at the reception. If you end up serving appetizers I would put it clearly on your invitation so people could be prepared. (eat beforehand).
FYI - D1’s wedding location was 5 hours away. We had to go up there a few times to meet with various vendors, and had to be up there few days before the wedding to finalize stuff. This was with a very good planner.
Agree that a meal is appropriate for that wedding time, even if it will be on the early side. A 3 pm ceremony might not beg for a full meal if the event ends at 7 and if you have heavy hours d’oevres, but if it goes past that, yes feed your guests more than appetizers. Who is paying for the wedding? If you are, then you , IMO, are in a position to politely thank them for their idea, but you prefer to offer a meal.
DS told us that the trend these days is more towards buffet than seated because it supposedly gets people up and moving more. I think either is fine, but buffet is more cost effective than a seated/plated meal. At another wedding, friends had not enough tables seating for everyone, and told us this was a trend now too. There were no assigned seats, and some had to stand at tall tables. (Not my cuppa tea). She warned us ahead of time and told us to grab a seat (we were asked to sit with the rabbi who had travelled from out of town to perform the ceremony) and she wanted to be sure we all had seats! I do not recommend that. Some people were not happy that thy had to stand at tables.
I was at a wedding a few years ago where they only served small plates (appetizers) and there was no assigned seating or even enough seating for all guests. We had seats, but made the mistake of getting up to dance & lost them. We had driven 2.5 hours to the wedding and were returning after & didn’t find the menu satisfying. One of the other guests joked that maybe we should make a run to McD’s. Maybe this type of wedding reception appeals to the couple and their firiends, but it didn’t appeal to us and our contemporaries.
There was a wedding like this on 4 Weddings, or whatever that TV show is called. The other 3brides ordered a,pizza. Ya, as MOB, it’s for you to,say we still need a buffet dinner.
If it is my family member’s wedding, I would travel any where for their wedding, but if it is friends’ kids or removed cousins, I would be hard pressed to drive/fly 5 hours, pay for a hotel room for a cocktail reception.
When we did heavy hors d’oeuvre for D1’s engagement party it wasn’t less expensive than a buffet. We got a discount because we had it from 2-5 rather than meal time. I asked the venue why appetizers were just as expensive. They said it was very time consuming to make those small plates, plus additional servers to pass food around. Buffet can be more efficient for them because they could make them in bulk, and it is self service.