Weddingbee boards

We invited 30 but had 15 at the ceremony and 17 at the reception due to bad weather.  I loved how small it was--I felt like we really got to interact with our guests, relax, and enjoy ourselves. We had our reception at a little Italian restaurant that's been in business for about 65 years. No pics of us plus guests yet (soon, hopefully!).

Vows at the courthouse:

DH eating frosting at the restaurant. :)

@ItalianLady: Wherever you are for dinner looks quite lovely!  How nice!

@ItalianLady: That is a gorgeous room. :)

We had a dozen guests at our ceremony--and that included the rabbi and the members of the wedding party.  I loved the fact that we had only immediate family and close friends there, so if screw-ups happened, everyone pitched in to help instead of snarking about it.  And the reception was a nice intimate luncheon (in the private dining room of a nearby Legal Sea Foods) with all of us at one big table, so there was no need to spend two minutes at each table just to make sure we said something to each of our guests.

The part I did not love was that we could share our special day with only a few people.  However, we dealt with that issue by having a larger at-home reception (with live music, dancing, and a DIY fauxtobooth).

My favorite moment was the one in which we were declared married.  After being together for nine years, and not being able to be legally married for most of that time, that was a big deal for us.

My least favorite moment was the one when we discovered that we'd mislaid the archival pen we intended to use for the ketubah (formal Jewish wedding contract) signing.  Fortunately, a friend who works with archival documents was able to supply a substitute.

We eloped December 1st, just the two of us, no guests, but we didn't keep it a secret.

What did I love about it: It was very romantic and intimate. There was no pressure or drama at the wedding, no arguing BMs, guests or family. We were able to focus just on each other. We were just so happy. We had never been to Savannah, and everything was so beautiful. I mean everything just oosed southern hospitality. It was perfect.

What I did NOT love:  My mom's reaction before the wedding. She pulled every manipulative trick she could to try to get us to change our minds and have the wedding in Michigan. She even turned down our offer to pay for her and dad to attend using the excuse that she and dad wouldn't go if their grandkids couldn't be there. Almost worked, but we would have regretted it if we had caved.

Favorite Moment:  I can't name just one.  The whole day was sooooo perfect. I loved the way he looked at me all day long. I couldn't stop smiling and neither could he. There was a moment during the ceremony when I was trying to place his ring on his finger and I couldn't get it on. I pushed and pushed, and finally looked up and him and said, "help me."  And there was some symbolism in that, because since we met each other he's always been there to help me.

Least Favorite Moment: A couple... The tuxedo place ordered the wrong sized tux, and could not get the correct size before our ceremony. The help there was horrible. We told them the wedding was at noon the next day. They had more than 24 hours to get it, and they called two hours after our ceremony to tell us the tux was there. We talked to the manager, and he refunded the entire price, so at least they made that right.  I was also disappointed about my bouquet. I had paid extra to upgrade my bouquet from the standard bouquet that came with our elopement package, and we had dropped off a vintage brooch the day before to be attached. Well, the bouquet didn't look like it cost $42 more. It looked the same size, and they forgot to put on the brooch. But it was not the end of the world.

Special things:  I made the flowers for my hair, my pink petticoat, and the lace wrap I wore. I wore vintage jewelry and carried a vintage clutch.  I also had beautiful pink shoes with 5" heels. I found a vintage pair of cufflinks for Jim to wear. I carried one of my great-grandmother's hankies, another great-grandmother's ivory nail file, and a hankie that was blessed by the Pope. For my something blue, I wore the sky blue topaz bracelet Jim got me for my birthday last year.

We had an intimate wedding in the parlor of a bed and breakfast in Savannah, GA. We originally were going to get married in their garden, but a cold front came through the night before with a big rain storm. We knew it was coming, so we changed to indoors the day before. The ceremony itself was very intense. We never took our eyes off each other, while saying our vows.

All I can say is it was sooooo perfect. The most perfect day of my entire life.

Caption: Asking for help.

Caption: Laughing because I had to ask for help.

Caption: Special things.

Caption:  My shoes!

@Mrs Grape:  How sweet!  I love the picture of your DH eating frosting! 

@katieebee:  The shoes are pretty great, huh?  I'm a northern girl whose always loved southern charm.

So what plans have you made so far for you small wedding?

I had the best wedding day ever! It was perfect. 22 people total (hope it counts). The best part, besides getting married, was everyone's reaction to our day.  We both come from large Hispanic families, so naturally nobody in our families had ever been to an "intimate" wedding, and didn't really understand how it would work out.  But it was traditional, had mostly everything that large weddings do - just felt a lot more special. We got compliments from our family and friends...the best was hearing it from my mom. She told me it was beautiful and very special, and that she now could see why I wanted it to be this way!

We had a Catholic ceremony:

Here's my mommy and daddy...elated at witnessing our marriage!

After the hubs and I took photos on our own, we had cocktail hour, followed by a dinner in a gorgeous restaurant...the feeling of the night was causal, but very elegant!

We had really awesome toasts that just kept coming and coming...some were really funny, and others were touching. This photos is of us listening to my sister/MOH's toast:

And we had the best and yummiest food, wine, and cake!

And best of all, family and close friends were there with us... the night was filled with so much laughter

I wouldn't change a thing about it!

(All photos by Alica Renee Photography)

@katieebee: Aww, thanks! I was bummed that some of our guests couldn't make it, but in the end, it was an amazingly intimate ceremony (and reception)--just a beautiful weekend all around. Cozying up to my new hubby in our hotel room while there was basically a blizzard outside was so romantic.

We had 2 very small ceremonies.  The first was a civil ceremony on April 16th, 2010 for immigration purposes at which we had my mom, dad, brother, SIL, niece and nephew:

Our 2nd ceremony on October 15th, 2010 that was for all of our family and a few very very close family friends had a total of 37 people including us and our pastor:

Here's a bit of the ceremony:

Our reception for the 2nd ceremony was the next day and was much larger.  We wanted the ceremony to be very intimate but the reception a party for all of our friends!  :)

What I loved:

For the civil ceremony, it was much more then I'd been expecting.  TBH the picture in my mind on how a civil ceremony would work was something along the lines of signing a paper and done deal with no pomp and circumstance ya know?  The courthouse that is local to me though was amazing!  They did a wonderful ceremony in which we exchanged vows and rings and the guy even put on a robe!   It was a very short ceremony at just 6 minutes long, but it was perfect in it's own way AND the best part is that I was finally married to my man!  :)  

I have 2 regrets for the civil ceremony:  First off the most important one (and the reason we had 2 ceremonies) is that my hubby's family was not able to afford to come to California for it (they live in the Netherlands).  The vows and rings exchanges made it feel real, but it still didn't feel complete without both of our families there.  My 2nd (and VERY minor) regret for the civil ceremony is that I didn't have even a cheap bouquet.  If I'd thought about it, I could have picked some flowers from our backyard or gotten something cheap from a grocery store.  In the grand scheme of things, the bouquet isn't a big deal at all, but it is something that I wish I'd thought of.

For the later ceremony, I have no regrets, nothing I didn't like.  :)  Everything was perfect and it just brought it all together and made everything feel.... *right*!  The best part was having it be so small and intimate that we could take a group shot with EVERYONE that attended (that's the first pic I posted from the October 15th wedding).

@soon2beMrsGP:  Gorgeous pictures!  I love your bouquet. I wanted a large bouquet and upgraded the bouquet from our package, but it didn't turn out the way I had hoped. Oh, well, my day was perfect too!

I have never seen a picture of the handprints in the sand with the rings. That is so cool!

Your dress was gorgeous, and how fun that you weren't afraid to get it wet!!!

This is such a great thread!!!  I am sorry I missed it before. =)

We had 21 people at our destination wedding and it was AMAZING! I was worried that I would regret not having all our family and friends there (well over 200 people) but if I had to do it all over again I would still have a small, destination wedding.

So for things I loved:

• We were able to have a meal with each of our guests before the wedding and in general just spend some time relaxing with them.  
• Being able to actually stop and talk to each person on the wedding day for more than 2 minutes each. Everything was very relaxed because I wasn't worried about making sure I said "Hi" to 200 people.
• The dancing! Because it was such a small group even the non-dancers who swore they were not going to dance were out there, including us! One of my favorite memories was all of us out there singing and sawying to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen together.

Sorry on the total fail with picture but they won't be here until February.