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This thread:
has many of the trends we're all succumbing to, but some of the replies also talk about unique aspects of some weddings.
I'm excited to hear about people's unique ideas.
ringpillow.jpg (26.2 KB, 40 downloads) 2 years old 
We're thinking about doing it 'family style' - i.e. having a potluck/bbq type of thing at our reception. The man has lots of relatives, all of whom have outdoor cooking equipment (grills, deep fryers, etc)... and while I was originally thinking that I didn't want to 'make' relatives 'miss out' on the reception because they're manning the food... Seriously, what do a bunch of uncles do at a reception? They probably stand around and wish they had something useful to do (like grill something!). LOL. (
Of course, we'll ask them their thoughts before any plans are made!)
I think a Monte Carlo themed reception would be SO much fun! Can we come?! LOL! You could spice it up by having it in the evening with heavy snacks and niblets-butler passed drinks would keep your alcohol budget down. If your friends and family are the dressing up type, you could do spread the word that it was dressy-alot of people like an excuse to get really dressed up and hardly ever do it. Another idea that we talked about before deciding on our final reception was family style-similar to what marquismiss is saying-but here down in the deep South in Southern Georgia, that would mean long tables of red and white gingham with platters of fried chicken and bowls to be passed of potato salad, biscuits, etc.-this would be alot of fun if there are children around and the families don't know each other very well. It would be more like a family Sunday dinner and I think very warm and friendly. You could do Mason jar glasses of lemonade and iced tea. We were looking at a tea house for "high tea" for our reception (think shabby chic) and ended up deciding on a brunch reception to follow our 10 am wedding. Lots of little kids required us to consider nap times and people traveling. We've gotten good feedback on the brunch idea, and let me tell you...breakfast and brunch foods are ALOT less expensive than other meals-ham, a potato dish, a baked pineapple dish, fresh fruit salad, mixed muffins and croissants, juices, coffees, wedding cake-easy AND yummy!
Also, meant to tell you that we went to a wedding not too long ago for the daughter of an older friend of ours and they didn't do the traditional ballad. The bride and groom love country music, so they did a choreographed dance to (darn, can't think of the title) but it goes "my love is deeper than the holler', wider than the ocean..." by George Straight I think. Anyway, looking around when they were dancing and the guests were enjoying it-much more interesting than the regular slow dance AND....this was a very formal wedding with a VERY expensive reception at the country club-this was a great surprise for the guests! :)
One of my best friends is getting married two months after I am so its hard not duplicating things. For our reception: we are doing an E true hollywood story of the two of us (one of our super creative groomsmen is handling that), I am surprising my fiancee and everyone else by singing to him, our theme is eat drink and be married so we are doing an all white candy bar, signature drink and for the bridal party a little extra something.. "breakfast in bed" box with goodies, and because its an Indian wedding we will have a dhol player (translation: drummer) get the dancing started for the evening.
For the cocktail hour we want it to be very different from our reception which will be an all white lounge feel so we are doing bright colors and we are projecting a montage of our favorite love scenes (which will include scenes from lion king and aladin as well as old classics).
Things that will be featured at her wedding include a cupcake wedding cake, photo booth, mojito bar and a gelato bar.
@mogillp I love the E True Hollywood idea! That is so fun!! I think we may use a projector to show photos of us and our friends, maybe I'll try to throw a little of this feel into it. Thanks!!
@marquisemiss and liztwinz My FI's step mom and sister do catering on the side so they are covering the food. But the idea of a family style dinner would have been tops otherwise! It's a great idea.
What does everyone think about the blackjack table? Has anyone seen this done?? I was really trying to go with a natural theme so how do I incorporate this? And do you guys know of any other fun entertainment ideas?
The FI wants the reception to be very interactive. We do a lot of entertaining (game nights, whiffle ball tournaments, washers.. etc) and he wants to make sure that people are just as entertained at our wedding as they are at our home. He even suggested one of those arcade style basketball games.. I vetoed that one though. I want him to be involved completely in the planning too, but I don't want to have a carnival.
We had a four foot tall nacho cheese fountain that was a huge hit!
I love the blackjack table and really wanted to include it at our reception. We have a two-story ballroom (octagon shape with the center open on the second floor so you can see down to the 1st floor). Hard to explain but beautiful. Any way, we were trying to do the poker on the 2nd floor for guests to have additional things to do, but it's going run about $1000. Yikes! That's a lot of dough, and we're running on a tight budget, so it looks like we're going to nix that. But I think it's a great idea. However, if you're doing a natural theme wedding, that doesn't seem to fit. Maybe you can have a water paint artist do sketches of the people and scenery? That seems more "Natural." And it could be good favors for your guests. I think those run about $200 per hour or so.
rnc620 - I love your thoughts about having the wedding being very interactive. That is our goal - to tantilize our guests' sense. However, I'm quickly learning how things add up so quickly! Any way, my suggestion would be to keep it simple and meaningful. Don't overwhelm the wedding with lots of things, but rather a few things that will stand out. And dont forget how fast it will go by -- cocktail hour is 1 hour, so do something simple there, like the photobooth. Dinner is probably 1 to 1.5 hours...you don't need to do much, but tantilize your guests' senses by giving them a great dinner...not the ordinary. Have a good flow at the dinner -- cake cutting, 1st dance, the toasts, etc., and by that time, you have 1 to 1.5 hours of dancing left.
Make the dancing a center point...maybe throw in an activity on the side for the non-dancers, i.e., the dessert buffet, a dessert showcase like Bananas Foster, or perhaps this is where you can roll-in poker tables or a charicture artist, magician, strolling palm reader...those are some unique ideas, but too much going on will cause guests to roam and not dance...and I think if people aren't dancing, it's not a good party. Just my two cents!
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My FI and I have been talking about what we want our reception to be like. We want to do some fun and different things. My sister and brother both got married last year so it will be nice to have some variation to set myself apart.
One thing that we plan on doing is making a photo booth and handing out a card with a website where we will post the pictures. My FI does amateur photog so we have most of the stuff we'll need on hand. And then we'll probably have some fun props there for people to dress up in while they take the pics.
My FI wants to do a black jack or Poker table too. I've never seen anyone do this but I think a lot of our guy friends and family members would love this. Plus we want to have it set up so we are house so if we win... well there's some more honey moon money.
We also think we might do a coreographed dance for our first dance instead of the traditional slow dance.
What do you guys think? Are you guys doing anything out of the ordinary?