No pictures of the ceremony because you weren’t supposed to have your phone out but it didn’t keep me from voice recording the ceremony! I had my phone in my open purse and turned on voice record. Nice because they didn’t have video.
In church yesterday, I was speaking to a woman who shared a photo her daughter had created: it was a photo of the woman and her daughters all in their wedding dresses, standing together. It was really well done and she was quite taken with it.
I thought this was a lovely thing her daughter (who had recently been married, the last of the sisters) shared.
To clarify: the photo was generated from each of the women’s wedding photos - they weren’t all wearing their wedding dresses at the same time for a photo
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My son was the last of the cousins to get married, and at the day after brunch, we gathered all of them and their spouses and took a photo of all their hands with their wedding rings.
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My niece is getting married this summer, and I think I’ll wear the same dress I wore to her brother’s wedding 2 summers ago. I mentioned this to my sister and she said “I don’t even remember what you were wearing.” Of course not. And there are NO pictures of me at the wedding (millions of the bride’s family, none of the grooms) so no one else knows either.
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I have never been to a wedding with a buffet for the meal. It’s just not a “thing” among the people I know. My daughter had been to many weddings here and was shocked when she was invited to a wedding in another area and she learned that these are common in some places.
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For S’s wedding the venue said plated meals weren’t an option due to shortage of waitstaff. His buffet was lovely! I’ve been to many buffets and also many plated meals.
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I’ve been to so many with buffets that it feels “super fancy” to go to a wedding with a plated meal! 
I have been to many weddings through the years, and only a few had plated meals. I’m not sure if it is mostly a Midwestern thing, or if most people I know are just throwing lower budget weddings. (Lots of church hall, community room, or other “basic” rental room type of receptions in our family and social circles!)
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Buffet meals were very common at wedding where I grew up. They always seemed to move pretty quickly and never an issue that I encountered.
D’s wedding was not inexpensive but we had a buffet as that’s what she wanted. All went well and we heard no negative comments.
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I LOVE buffets. They just aren’t done here for the meal in my Midwest big city among the people we know. There are often buffets for the cocktail hour portion though and I am so excited when there is one. My daughter’s wedding had 4 different buffet stations for the cocktail hour.
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I’m not a fan of buffets myself but we’ve been to affairs where they have been done well. We’ve also been to affairs with plated dinners that have been done poorly (uneven service, cold food). So best to try to plan a meal that can be well executed and well served.
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I’ve been to buffet wedding reception meals. Sometimes there are lines that back up, no issue - more time to chat with different people. I have also been to a buffet dessert wedding reception (with band / dancing under the stars - fun!), same location as wedding. Couple paid for it, but groom’s parents chipped in an open bar setup.
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D1 also wanted a buffet for her wedding. The coordinator did a great job getting people through the lines and all we heard from everyone was how wonderful the food was.
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Some venues can do plated receptions well, and they attempt to serve each table fully. Really high end will have the staff all around the table and put everyone’s plate down at the same time.
DD1’s wedding was buffet with about half the number of people that were at DH and my wedding (but still sizable, about 170 people) - constraint was the size of the room. They had a live jazz band, and had people go to the buffet in a well-arranged order. No problem and no complaints. DD1 and her husband actually ate in a separate room as they wanted a private meal as a couple and then joined the party.
We were at another wedding where it was plated, and the bride and groom ate at their own table about in the middle of the room. The bride changed into a red traditional cultural dress after they ate, and they went around the room to the guests - she had a small bag that some of their guests from their culture gave envelopes of money. It was a high-end wedding in Boston on a Sunday - they got a better rate on overall accommodations/costs to have it Sunday instead of Saturday. Later, the wait staff actually came around with servings of hot little sandwiches.
At DH and my wedding, the wedding party was the entire restaurant, and it was buffet. Wedding party in a long table, and the buffet queue did go in front of it (no numbered tables so many people chose to queue up) - so we would see some of the guests in the queue. Everyone got plenty of hot food - they used the staff to help with the serving line and bring food from the kitchen to the serving line. Later, the Swiss-trained chef actually cut the wedding cake and got it on plates quickly, so it could get distributed quickly - the two gals appointed actually just got the plates on the table and assisted in the plates going to the people - people came in droves as soon as the cake was available. The best wedding cake I have ever had - white cake with raspberry layer/filling, butter cream frosting made by the Swiss bakery across the street from the restaurant. The top of the cake was in my mom’s freezer (DH and I live away in a distant state) so she used it at a dinner party my parents hosted - it didn’t make it to the next time we were home. That was fine, as it was delicious cake and best used when the freshest.
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This was my friend’s wedding too. Her culture was ‘New Jersey Italian’
My daughter also had a separate table. I hated it (her MIL insisted) and I don’t think D liked it much either. They ate very quickly and then went back to mingling with the guests.
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My S & DIL had their own “Sweetheart Table,“ but did a lot of mingling. It worked fine!
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S2/DiL had their own table, per their request. It can solve the awkward “who gets to sits w the bride and groom” question that can come up. It was also nice for the introverted groom, lol.
Our niece had a sweetheart table in the middle of the dance floor! Everytime the groom got up to go say hi or whatever, someone would dash out and have a private convo w the bride, it became a sort of game, it was fun and fun to watch.
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Sweetheart tables were very popular even in my day but we opted to sit with our wedding party, which included the siblings and close friends. Honestly we wouldn’t have had a big enough table if we sat with both sets of parents and the grand parents, and the sibs so would have had to have chosen and there was zero chance we were going to wade into those waters ; )
I prefer plated dinners as we’ve been to some buffet weddings that ran out of food for the last tables called up, or there was a mad rush when there was a general “the buffet is open” announcement. That said, I’ve been to some very nice ones as well and some hybrids - salads and cold appetizer served at the table, and only the main course is buffet style, but is served to you vs getting your own.
D2 is going to a lot of weddings this year. She said, “don’t have a black tie and serve buffet.”
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Buffets CAN BE a budget decision. I should respect that. I also respect how a couple or whoever is funding the wedding wants to spend their $$. Just because someone can afford more (which is also a judgment I shouldn’t make) doesn’t mean more food expenses is how they want to spend their $$.
Food can he delicious or terrible whether it’s in a buffet or plated.
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I actually never heard of a sweetheart table until son/DIL had it at their reception. In that case I think it was an easy way to fit all the tables in the outdoor tent and also enable wedding party to sit with their own friends/dates/family.