While planning my own wedding I would often come back to A Practical Wedding, not so much for design tips or diys or visual inspiration, but for inspiration of a kind that is found it what it MEANS to get married, and be married. Especially since me and the hubs were together for eight lovely years, pre-engagement, I often felt silly and wasteful to be planning this "party" all about us... seriously, how conceited are weddings? But over and over I found the writers there found, through their own voices, those of other writers, or from bits and pieces of their faiths, way to inspire me to find in myself and my husband the truly special, wonderful, and significant reasons to go through with this time-honoured ritual... And the wedding here is no different. From the AWESOME idea of the buttons as favors (rock 'n roll, cute and kitschy all at once!), to the "buttoned" cake, to what I think are some of my fave pieces of wedding advice... well, see for yourselves! Images from here.
"We ordered buttons as wedding favors and I made sure to create special buttons for volunteers and guests of honor. I spent quite a bit of time “pinning” people during the reception, which was a wonderful and whimsical way to literally touch my loved ones, look them in the eye, smile and thank them."
"I think passing heavy appetizers also saved us some money. There’s the obvious difference in price compared to a seated meal or a buffet, but then there’s table, linen and dish rentals, centerpieces and escort cards that we just didn’t have to worry about – or make or buy." This is a GREAT idea/point. In our small wedding (and I'm assuming a lot like it) one of the biggest expenses was the linen, centrepieces, etc. Though I'm wondering what the cost, staff-wise would be? Or maybe you just set them out on pretty cocktail stations here and there? Or buffet-style?
And ok, this might seem cheezy, but this was probably my favorite piece of advice, if only because it's SO true. Definitely falls into the category of you won't understand until you're in the thick of it (and by that, I don't mean the making of a wedding, but rather the GETTING MARRIED part). "My biggest piece of advice about weddings is just to have one. So many people, especially gay people, are so deeply ambivalent about throwing a wedding and for a lot of good reasons. But, really, it’s hard to understand the power and the purpose of a wedding until you are planning your own."
"We ordered buttons as wedding favors and I made sure to create special buttons for volunteers and guests of honor. I spent quite a bit of time “pinning” people during the reception, which was a wonderful and whimsical way to literally touch my loved ones, look them in the eye, smile and thank them.""I think passing heavy appetizers also saved us some money. There’s the obvious difference in price compared to a seated meal or a buffet, but then there’s table, linen and dish rentals, centerpieces and escort cards that we just didn’t have to worry about – or make or buy." This is a GREAT idea/point. In our small wedding (and I'm assuming a lot like it) one of the biggest expenses was the linen, centrepieces, etc. Though I'm wondering what the cost, staff-wise would be? Or maybe you just set them out on pretty cocktail stations here and there? Or buffet-style?And ok, this might seem cheezy, but this was probably my favorite piece of advice, if only because it's SO true. Definitely falls into the category of you won't understand until you're in the thick of it (and by that, I don't mean the making of a wedding, but rather the GETTING MARRIED part). "My biggest piece of advice about weddings is just to have one. So many people, especially gay people, are so deeply ambivalent about throwing a wedding and for a lot of good reasons. But, really, it’s hard to understand the power and the purpose of a wedding until you are planning your own."
