The other option of course is to have the ceremony and reception at the same place. This would mean not having a church wedding. And it would mean that the place would have virtually no meaning to us. But it would mean people didn't have to drive from one to the other. And it might cut down on costs, since we would only have to pay for one venue and probably less decorations and things.
Another issue I'm trying to figure out is how to manage the time between the ceremony and reception. I can remember weddings I have attended in which we waited what seemed like an eternity for the bride and groom to show up at the reception. I don't want to make my guests wait. But, I want beautiful pictures. And I really don't want Daniel to see me before the ceremony. I think there's something so magical about that moment that the groom sees the bride at the end of the aisle. So, do we take pictures before the reception and make our guests wait, or do we take pictures before the ceremony and Daniel sees me ahead of time? If we serve hors d'oeuvres (I had to look up the spelling of that one!) then making the guests wait wouldn't be too bad, right? I mean, 30 minutes would be enough time to take pictures and wouldn't be too long to make the guests wait, especially if there's food out. But if I tell the photographer 30 minutes, chances are it will be twice that long. Then again, if we have the ceremony and reception at the same place, is it rude to take pictures right outside the room that all my guests are waiting in? Would we have any chance to breathe, or would we be rushing from the ceremony to the reception?
Any suggestions? A compromise, solution, anything I haven't thought of? HELP!!
3 comments:
As someone that is married, I think I can assure you that nothing will take away from what Daniel is going to feel when he sees you take your place at the end of the aisle - I can't recommend doing the pictures beforehand highly enough.
As a parent, I can say that if you had your wedding in Phoenix and the reception down in Chandler I probably couldn't go to both. There just isn't anyway I can imagine taking my kids to a wedding and then driving 45 minutes somewhere and then having to drive that far to get back home; just too stressful overall. Beth's wedding almost killed us and, as you mentioned, the wedding and reception were at the same place. But, I know you have lots of friends and family that don't have small children so don't let that be your only concern.
Finally, I don't know if you considered this, but a church wedding probably means that you can't have someone officiate the wedding that isn't an ordained minister (cough, cough). Not that I expect you'll have that problem (cough, cough). I was lucky enough to be able to do it once as a lay minister but that was only because the wedding was in the church I grew up in and Aimee and I were bff with the pastor and his wife. Not that I have any reason to believe this is an issue for you (cough, cough)
Daniel and I were talking about that last night. What are the rules about who can officiate? Do you have to be ordained to officiate our wedding? I wonder if Pastor Mel would let you do it since you are in seminary right now. I mean, what if you did the whole ceremony, like all the speaking and everything, but there was an ordained pastor there to like "supervise" or something? I have no idea what the laws are about that.
Call me sometime if you want to talk about it. I'll share what I know with you.
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