@Mom22039, that sounds like a perfect weekend! Love the image of you bringing ice cream to Dry Bar and the generational “divide!” Best wishes to your D and her H for many years of love and happiness.
Addendum… they had a small (20 person) Catholic wedding on Friday afternoon and then the larger festivities on Saturday. Some say it’s European to have two ceremonies/events. We had some logistics — wanted a Catholic wedding but didn’t want guests traipsing 20+ miles to the preferred venue—as we may well have had a snowstorm just like the storm on the same weekend a year earlier. And, although the RC church as a history of accepting bribes, I couldn’t make inroads at the church we desired.
Our forecast has been updated! Mid-60s this afternoon, no rain! Outdoor ceremony will proceed as planned.
Have an amazing day @dentmom4!
This thread is so cheerful. I love reading the updates.
Question - have you all had programs at your weddings? MOB did them for my S1’s wedding and it seemed like a nice touch to provide an overview of the ceremony and identify the wedding party. Did you order them, make them yourself, skip it altogether? Thanks!
I love programs. Tells me the order of the ceremony and who’s who among parents and attendants.
DIL ordered, as did D1. I made the program for sister’s niece, will also make niece #2. Easier to order.
Our kids’ ceremony was all of 15 minutes long. There were no readings. Music was done by my son, and SILs father, but I think everyone at the wedding knew who they were.
We had no programs…but we didn’t really need them.
We also didn’t have menu cards listing the food offerings on the tables.
I think both are family decisions…and it’s ok to have them…or not.
One thing I saw at a great vineyard wedding…the wedding couple had a large and very pretty framed mirror. They used a metallic marker and listed all of the members of the wedding party on that. It was placed outside of the seating area. I loved it…and the brides mother felt badly she had left it at the venue…or she would have let me use it.
Our invitations were made by my son in law’s mom. I think if we had wanted programs, she would have done those as well.
Lots of couples have wedding websites that tell about the bridal party. I would imagine many guests are like me and check that out.
We had programs - I created them using a template for Microsoft Word, then emailed it to the bride for review (we hadn’t yet traveled to the state where the wedding was), and then she put her brother in charge of printing them. They were placed on the seats for the ceremony.
One side had the ceremony (prayers, readings, special music, etc.) and the other side listed the names of the bridesmaids, groomsmen, flower girls, parents, etc.
Their website had more info on the bridal party, but the program just listed names.
We had programs and menus printed by Minted for DD’s wedding. I agree both are optional. As it was a bi-cultural wedding, with many guests unfamilar with the format of the ceremony or the dinner, we thought it might be helpful. The names of the wedding party, as well as the B/G’s parents and grandparents were on the back of the program.
We did programs for both ceremonies (church and hotel). We did not do menus because those were set by the choices they made on their RSVPs.
BTW, my initial goal number for the reception was 145. We invited 168 in the first round and gradually added more from the “B List”. We ended up at 135. Now that I’m going over the bills, I think it was the perfect number.
Thank you, everyone. My S and FDIL will be here on Monday to meet with the florist (for those following, they changed the appointment to Monday (MLK Day) so that FDIL could come) so we’ll discuss whether they want a program then. We’ll do an itinerary for the welcome bags (which I am creating), so I’ll try to coordinate them. The venue will produce menus because there are three entrée choices and guests will choose that evening.
D1 is now nagging me to look at MOB dresses. Sweet. Her dress should be delivered this Thurs, to my house. Nov wedding. She had gone ahead and ordered the veil it shows with, through some sale deal. Maybe 50% off. Very pretty, embellished with hand done lace flowers along the edges. Some in a very pale pink. Just the right contrast with the very simple Markle-ish dress.
Her friend sent a pic of hers. Think JLo, where the lowest part of the open back reaches the tail bone. Shows that no matter our thoughts on the style, how it looks on the bride is what matters. This gal isnt a stylish sort, but I gasped at how gorgeous she looks in it. A showstopper, indeed.
Well, we just sent the last of the family off on their airport shuttles. We leave the DR tomorrow. sorry for the long but I am going to do little venting 
The wedding was full of glitches but in the end was beautiful. It turns out that the wedding planner they hired based on stellar recommendations become pregnant after they signed with her. She is due next month. Her new assistant was running the show and all of the glitches we have had can be chalked up to the assistant being so new and they did not have any project control in place to to transfer information from one to the other. The rehearsal had to take place in our hotel suite while DD was getting ready since they had not arranged it in time with the officiant. Day of wedding, bus to take everyone to the wedding venue was late and the driver didn’t speak English or seem confident where he was going. They had not arranged transportation for the bride to the wedding venue so I had to do it. Fortunately I had built a great relationship with Ken who runs Santo Domingo Taxi and he came through. When we got there they had put my table in the back of the room. I made them change it. The schedule was all off and dinner was very late. The cake was not served until everyone was leaving.
Despite that. The venue was beautiful. It was an old courtyard of a Masonic Temple in the Colonial Zone. We arranged a clear tent covering the entire courtyard and the lights reflecting off it were magical. The flowers and table settings, which none of us seen in advance, were perfect and matched her esthetic. The translations between Spanish and English went off great and each said their vows to the other in the other’s language, then translated. Everyone gasped when DD did hers in Spanish since she had not spoken much Spanish before. Their love for each other shown through in everything they did. The food was delicious and the cake exceptional.
The best part was the combining of the traditions. The ceremony had a Celtic hand fasting with his mother and me tying the knot. Then at the end was the hora locco from his tradition. And that was so much fun! It was a carneval theme. There were costumed professional dancers to lead everyone in Latin dancing. Hats, masks, noise makers, and beads were handed out. Everyone packed the dance floor. We had had dance lessons the night before at the welcome party so all her friends could feel comfortable participating. It was a successful blend. Everyone had a great time and we all left exhausted. Now DH and I get have a day to ourselves before we head home.
Best wishes to the next wedding person here. I hope yours goes smoother, but know even if it doesn’t it will still be beautiful.
@Singersmom07
Love it, love it, love it!!
Congrats.
A quick suggestion. Make sure the wedding website has complete information for the guests…like where, and when all events are happening. If your ceremony is in the afternoon, and reception in the evening, in my opinion, that should be included in the invitation as well as accurately on the website.
We are invited to a family wedding this summer. The invitations were done online via paperlesspost, which is fine. The invitation says the wedding starts at 2…so we figured it was an afternoon and early evening event. Nope. The dinner won’t be served until 6 or so. Apparently the ceremony is atop some mountain…no indication where or how we get to that.
Oh…and their website says the wedding starts at 3. No events are listed. No times or locations.
So please…make as much complete and accurate info available to your guests as possible. It will help them plan.
S and DIL had ceremony programs created by someone on Etsy as a .pdf, and we ran them off at our church. Listed the wedding party, ceremony order, and musical pieces, with a thank you note on the back and a reminder of the reception time/address. We did not have menus, and seating was by table so the entryway of the venue had the lists hung with lights, it was pretty.
Yes, make sure everyone knows about times/places. We ran off directions to the reception to have hard copies at the church – not everyone consulted the website, and once on the route we knew most would lose cell service.
The fun extra at the reception was an infographic the couple created of trivia about themselves, guests, and family. It was simple but very personal and a big hit. It was a nice way to acknowledge some people (their best friend made the cake, for example) and a nice conversation piece. There were a few copies on each table.
Things are moving along for DDs March 28th wedding. I sent the “don’t forget to RSVP” reminder with a link to the website last week to my relatives. The majority of the RSVPs have been received and DD is working on the table assignments. She got an email today that her dress is being shipped. The dress is made-to-order for her size and height, so supposedly alterations will not be necessary. We will see!
Aargh, the table-number-holders/centerpieces arrived for the reception we’re hosting. They are the wrong color. I kind of want to just ignore that fact. (The things that came are a kind of bluish/clear crystal instead of lavender. I think it will be OK??) I’m not a MOG-zilla (I think), or at least I have zero interest in aesthetics of this type. Can I just use them and not make a thing about this?