@MotherOfDragons, were you a fitting model? Not sure if that is the right term…
@Consolation I was an editorial model in the US, Europe, and Japan. Did a LOT of bridal magazines since I had that innocent, fresh look (lol!). And word got around that I was patient and could hold still for the elaborate staging, lighting and rigging required to shoot some of those butt-ugly dresses and make them look good :).
I wasn’t trying to disagree with you @MotherOfDragons , but that’s actually rather interesting. Why would you want to be uncomfortable on your wedding day? But this is somewhat who wore her last pair of high heels in 1984.
Thank you for explaining, MoD. I was kind of wondering how many times you had been married 
ETA - the rest of my post, about wedding dress sleeves, disappeared when I hit post. What did I do wrong?
@mathmom I have a high tolerance for physical discomfort, so clothing that isn’t comfortable doesn’t bother me. To be fair, I’m not walking around the house vacuuming in a corset-I’m usually in very comfy yoga pants or shorts and a t shirt. But I also like how stilettos look, and there are no stilettos on earth that are comfortable :). So if I’m going to a fancy wedding (to keep this on topic), I’ll put on a pair of stilettos, dance all night, and grouse the next day about how much my feet hurt (but thinking all the while it was worth it!).
I have a kid that I had to cut the tags out of shirts when she was little because she was super sensitive-so I totally get that there is a huge range of tolerance for what clothing feels like.
@MotherOfDragons – What did you wear to your own wedding? I’ve always wondered if wedding dress models were completely over the whole concept of a wedding dress by the time their own weddings rolled around. Or, on the flip side, did you know exactly what you wanted by the time you got married? Were you able to finagle your dream dress from the designer, or did you have to pay retail like everyone else? 
“But I also like how stilettos look, and there are no stilettos on earth that are comfortable.”
Lol. You have to have size 43 feet so 4 inch heels would feel like 2 inch ones.
If you must wear heels… I highly recommend Tributes. Not cheap! But there are plenty discounted ones on RealReal, and Vince Camuto makes a shoe that looks soooo similar for a sliver of the price (niece the shoe hoarder had to have them).
I bought a pair of sparkly Jimmy Choo flats and gave them to the big kiddo before her wedding. When the post-reception fun began, I noticed that she had them on her feet.
I’m early for just about everything. But an hour before the service?? Why was your friend there THAT early? I wouldn’t exoect anyone to be there that long before the designated time!
“Update from my wedding coordinator friend on the large wedding with 28 bridesmaids.”
Thumper, I was wondering about the same thing and then saw this. Apparently, she was there to coordinate.
I have a kid who didn’t like tags. They probably got it from me. 
Tags? Is this the right thread?
Thumper1 - it’s referring to MODragon’s post 1064, in which she is talking about having one kid who needed tags cut out of clothing. Mathmom post 1069 is responding to that.
Every bride should choose the dress she loves. I agree that not every bride (me!) would look good in a strapless gown. D looked beautiful and her dress must have had the structure needed because she didn’t tug ever. D is small and was lost in many of the dresses she tried on.
Question: Is it tacky to invite people to the reception if they have not been invited to the wedding? There is room for 100 (including the wedding party) at the wedding venue and space for 200 at the reception. I’m not sure what I think yet. My girlfriend is not happy - this is for her son’s wedding.
A friend was a model in her teens, and did a lot of wedding dress shows. Her mother said what they learned was that a $300 dress could look just as good as a $3000 one. She’d always planned to redesign her own dress for her daughter (she was a fantastic seamstress) but ended up buying one for the bride and reworking her wedding dress for the younger daughter, a flower girl.
My dress was a discontinued sample and cost about $300 and it was absolutely perfect. Anyway, my s-i-l’s first wedding was Romanian Orthodox and was “open reception,” which struck me as strange. Around here, “open church” weddings, where all acquaintances of the bride and groom are welcome, are common but how does one manage an open reception?
I was married before the internet and theknot, so I read bridal magazines. I ripped out the pictures I liked and then contacted the listed manufacturers. Many were in the Garment District in Manhattan and some had showrooms. One Saturday, I put my then 2 year old in the stroller and took the railroad into the city and went to the manufacturer which made the dress I liked best. It looked hideous on me in white but in the offwhite color it was a winner. I paid $280 plus 50 for alterations. The local wedding shop wanted 900. I loved my dress.
We had the wedding and reception in one place so everyone was invited for both.
Not tacky but sad…I attended an outdoor wedding in a nice arboretum. At one point during the ceremony, the couple were to release love birds. Unfortunately, the wedding day had blistering hot sun – and the cage with the birds only had a light colored cloth over them. When it came time to open the cage to let the birds free, only 2 or 3 were able to stumble out. 2 or 3 others never made it out. And for those that did – they didn’t have the energy to fly away freely either. One simply made it to a nearby branch and wailed and flapped its wings for the remainder of the ceremony. Another exhausted one flopped around on the ground near the cage. Later, it tried to fly away and bee-lined it straight into the bride’s rear end, bounced off and remained more or less docile (or in shock) for the remainder of the ceremony. I’m not making this up.
Awful, awkward and funny all at the same time. Everyone was mortified. The couple is lovely and we felt so badly for them.
^^^Which is why you can’t rely on “cute” with babies and animals.
Could the love birds survive in the wild in the first place? I have the impression that they are very delicate.
I think anything like that involving animals is likely to be cruel, ultimately.
Having your dog as an attendant is an exception.
@hrh19 That’s an unfortunate situation. It is definitely tacky to invite people to the ceremony but not to the reception, but the other way round?
What they really ought to do is find another venue for the ceremony, if they want to invite 200 people. If the B&G can fit everyone they want into the venue, and the parents want to invite their own friends, then the parents are going to have to find some way to invite the latter without making it seem as if they failed to make the cut for the top 100. Maybe the parents could invite some close friends to whom they could explain the situation personally. But 100 more people? Unlikely.
The wise ones have a back up friend to manage the dog. Can’t imagine many dogs “get” a wedding.
I have zero issue with an invite to the reception, not the ceremony, when the place the service is held has limited space or is difficult to get to, etc. Eg, would you really forego that small chapel you grew up in because someone else’s thinks it’s too small?
And it’s an older custom to invite some to the ceremony only.