First Thing's First

Just know, I come from a family with 50 people on just ONE side... and I'm the youngest, so all my cousins' weddings... I was there- watching, learning, judging. Now on my father's side I'm the (2nd) oldest- the first to get married. I like to think I set the bar pretty high for my still unmarried cousins ;-)

Aside from family I've been to a lot of weddings for friends and friends of family... I've seen the best and I've seen the worst.

My goal is to provide you with the advice you need to have a stellar wedding on any budget. Because I honestly and fervently believe you can have a beautiful wedding even if your budget is minuscule.

Let me tell you about my wedding. Jordan and I met in the first week of our senior year of college through a mutual friend, we ended up being in a class together that required us to work in groups throughout the entire class. So through that group we started spending time together and one night we went out after class and the rest is history. He proposed 3 months later, and we were married 9 months after that in Sacramento, CA.

We got married on September 6, 2009
5 o'clock in the evening
Le Rivage Hotel
River's Edge
(which means we had our ceremony and reception outdoors at their river-side location)

We then moved our guests up to the lobby where we had a cocktail hour set up with both displayed and passed hors d'ouvres and a "signature cocktail" that was really just Champagne with Chamborde in it.

We hired a pianist/singer to play and entertain guests while My Husband and I snuck off to take a few offsite pictures with our photographer.

It was important to us to have this cocktail hour for our guests because it tends to break the wedding mood when there's a long, empty delay between the ceremony and the reception. Guests get bored, hungry, and ultimately a little annoyed waiting for the wedding party to take all their millions of pictures before they can eat! And we all know people come huuungryyy to weddings in the hopes that it supplies good food and drinks!

Don't even ask me about the mural on the side of the tent-
apparently the restaurant patrons complained that the tent
blocked their view of the river and harbour. So they painted
the view on the tent.



Our reception was tented- back down by the ceremony site on the river. We had assigned seating and salads ready. Each table was equipped with 2 bottles of wine. After the wedding party's grand entrance/introduction, I welcomed everyone, and Jordan prayed over the meal. Now I don't think that every couple needs to do that, but I felt that because I am such an outspoken, extroverted person, I felt it would be strange and unlike myself to not say anything at my own wedding.

The dinner: salad, bread, Skirt Steak, accompanied by potatoes and some sort of veggie. I wanted to make sure the food was bomb because a lot of people were driving a long way to be at our wedding- I didn't want to disappoint them with some flavorless, dry, cheap chicken. And Everyone has told me it was the best food they've ever had at a wedding- some said the best they've ever had period. And I'd have to agree. Scott's Seafood, the restaurant at the hotel that provides the catering, had some delicious options to choose from! Also, it was plated... no buffet : )

While everyone was finishing their dinner, we had the speeches- all on a 1 minute time limit. From the fathers, the maid of honour and best man, and because they were our siblings, we each had our best friend do a speech as well. Kind of a lot looking back on it now, but oh well. We then went into the First Dance, followed by The Father-Daughter and Mother-Son dances. We shortened long songs so not to bore our guest with repetitive and limited dance moves. We did the cake cutting, but it wasn't any big deal where everyone watched or anything... and then it was party time. We made it a priority to keep all the traditions short and sweet because no one really cares, nor do they want to sit through an hour of all that crap.

After that we made our priority PARTY! We made sure that when it was dancin' time it was dancin' time. No more interruptions for boring stuff... just fun. The only thing we did during this time was the bouquet and garter toss and also a honeymoon dance. The bouquet toss was different as well- we chose not to go with the cliche "single ladies" instead all women were invited to join and the one who catches the bouquet received Good Luck as opposed to matrimonial promises. The same went for the men in the garter toss.

If you're confused by the term "Honeymoon Dance" you may know it as the "Money Dance"... now, I always felt that this was such a gauche tradition and was determined not to have it at my wedding, but when my husband asked for it repeatedly and our DJ recommended calling it a honeymoon dance instead, I caved. It was embarassing and awkward but boy am I glad we did it! It paid for all of our honeymoon excursions, shopping, and even a fancy, obscenely expensive lunch at the One & Only Ocean Club.

There was more dancing... and even more dancing to the amazing music hubby picked out and our first class DJ put together, and then it was time to head out!

So that's my wedding... it was wonderful and beautiful and fun. I've gotten so many remarks about what an amazing wedding we had and it always makes me feel so good! I wanted to be sure my guests had the best time!

I'll post again soon with the details and photos of our wedding for more in depth info!