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Fortytwo is getting married [weddings n' such]
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My wife and I decided to finally tie the knot after being together for about 8 years. We started to plan out the wedding, but she was getting frustrated by the whole process. One day she decided she didn't want to deal with all the stress and we agreed to get married in secret.
So we called a friend who was a minister (and also a photographer), bought rings, filled out our paperwork, then went to the Columbus Zoo during Wildlights and married on the anniversary of our first date with just us and our friend officiating the marriage. I think some Buffalo were the only things near us.
Somehow the Zoo figured out what happened (I'm still not sure how) and contacted us at home because they wanted to run the story for their newsletter. My wife doesn't like to freely give out stuff like that, so she said we'd only talk if they gave us season passes (I don't care either way). They declined and then ran the story about us in their newsletter without using our names, heh.
CONGRATS!
Hire a good photographer
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We got married here:
We got mainly money as gifts (that's pretty normal here) and due to two excessive amounts we got out of the whole thing with a slight plus.
/edit: I found hiring a photographer easy compared to a DJ. At least you can look at their portfolio and find someone that does the style you want.
Yeah, seriously. A good photographer can help corral people around and get the shots you really want if you go through it with them beforehand.
Also write down a list of group photographs that absolutely have to be taken and give it to someone with a loud voice to officiate. We ended up running a little late for dinner because of people milling around during photos and because it was cold outside (March) we ended up losing a few people and missing out on some pictures that we really wanted.
And finally try and work out a deal where you get to keep all digital copies of photos taken. Our photographer tried to get out of it by saying that there was 9gb of photos and it'd be a billable extra for him to put them onto two DVDs for us. Luckily I had a 16gb SD card in my laptop that I could put into his and get copies that way. Now I've got all the pictures on my NAS, a copy offsite as well as a physical backup just in case.
Oh God yes this. Our DJ's dad died the night before our wedding and had to send his son to fill in. We went from having the perfect cheesey DJ that my wife had dreamed of (and had seen play a number of family parties with music that she approved of) to a complete unknown that didn't have half the songs we'd requested.
Also we got a great deal (I think it was ~400€ for 3hours of photography + we got all the photos on DVD).
This is so true. Our guy did an ok job at the ceremony, an ok job in the pictures we took at a nearby park afterwards, and then made a hash of the reception. He got to the reception venue a little bit ahead of us and by the time we saw him he already had a drink in his hands. He didn't take the pictures we asked him to, made passes at our bridesmaids, and stayed way way too long. It was bad.
It's crazy, and so very awesome, marriage is easily the best thing I've done with my life thus far, I wish you nothing but the best, have an awesome wedding!
Blackhawk's right, my memories of my wedding are very fuzzy.
Ours was really cheap. Like, under $2,000 cheap, which, considering we had about 60 guests, wasn't bad! We did a lot ourselves, and, although I didn't ask them to help, my family pitched in a lot, too. We had plenty of food and alcohol and flowers.
Probably the only thing I regret is the dress, it was sooo cheap and horrid. My mother wanted me to have a proper 'wedding' dress (I'd have much rather married in some black thing) and so she bought the dress for me in a sale (albeit with my money). I wore it because in the end I ran out of other options (and money) and it was really hideous, didn't suit or flatter me at all. Then, to top it all off, as I was taking it off in the evening I stepped on it with my heel and ripped a huge tear in it, so I couldn't even give it away or sell it!
Luckily we didn't have a photographer, so I don't have any real photos to remind me of that dress.
Make sure to go around during the reception and thank everyone for coming!
Also, I am not a fan of stating ANYTHING about presents on the invitation, whether it's saying 'this is our registry' or 'no presents please'. Since not everyone can afford to give gifts at a wedding, it's better to wait until asked if there's a registry or charity before saying anything.
I love my brother and his wife, but the wedding was a bit disorganised to say the least!
1. Most of my family are in Sussex, England, and most of my brother's wife's family are in Essex, England. So, to compromise between the two, my brother and his wife decided to hold the wedding in London, halfway between the two counties. So everyone had to travel in to the city.
This in itself wasn't a problem (it nearly was, because my brother didn't originally arrange transport for anyone, and getting into London can be a bitch, but my dad talked to him and eventually a couple of buses were arranged to transport guests). The problem was that the wedding started at 2 pm, so most people had to leave at 10.30 - 11.00 am. This meant that no one had any lunch. After the wedding ceremony, we all went to the reception venue, and, not having much to do for a few hours, people began to drink. Food was not served until 8 pm! Result? A lot of very, very drunk guests, and more than a few threw up.
Oh, and, although my brother had purchased 2,000 pounds worth of beer and wine for the reception, he forgot to tell people that the beer and wine was free, and also where most of it was located. So people were paying for drinks behind the bar when they didn't have to. It also meant there was a lot of alcohol left over!
2. My brother wanted all of his family to stay overnight in London, so we could have breakfast together the next day. Cute idea. Trouble was, he booked the hotel and then forgot to tell all of us that we were paying for the hotel ourselves. Not that I necessarily minded paying, but I'd have liked to know! Plus, as nice as the room was, it was $240 a night. And there was NOTHING extra included in that cost. We did not even have a coffee maker in our room! It was the bed, a TV and the bathroom, that was it. My dad and I resented my brother a little for not a) telling us we were paying and b) how much it would be!
And the kicker? All that alcohol that was left over - the half-empty bottles of wine - my brother hadn't wanted to go to waste. So he drank it all. He spent his entire wedding night throwing up, and was too sick to have breakfast with us the next morning!
We could've stayed at the motel down the street for $50.
3. My parents had my brother and his wife living with them rent-free for an entire year before the wedding, so they could save up for the wedding and the honeymoon. They were not thanked in either my brother's speech or my brother's wife's speech. The mother and sister of the bride, however, were thanked profusely by both. I felt really bad for my parents. My brother's wife also did not say hello to ANY of my brother's family. Please, don't do this! It made us all feel pretty terrible.
4. In the UK the happy couple pays for the bridesmaids' attire. I know that's not usual in the US, but it's what's expected in the UK. Well, my sister was a bridesmaid, alongside the bride's sister and a few of the bride's friends. The bride paid for her own sister's dress and accommodation, but my sister was left to pay for everything herself. She also spent a lot of money on gas (and her time) transporting my brother around before the wedding. Now, my sister earns approximately 1/5th of what my brother and his wife do. She has barely enough to pay for food and rent each month. Her dress was pretty hideous. She also had to wear blue shoes, which she couldn't find anywhere. In the end, she bought some blue car paint and spray-painted an old pair of heels. Oh my, it worked really well! She received a lot of compliments on those shoes.
So, essentially, make sure that if there's free alcohol, people know where it is, thank everybody - or at least thank BOTH sides of the family, and, if you expect your guests to pay for the expensive hotel, please warn them before booking!
We had a pretty cheap wedding in a park at Niagara Falls, followed up by just a dinner at a local Service Club hall. My best man taught himself how to sculpt with Fondant and made our wedding cake for us, three layers tall with columns and everything.
Oh - one other thing. It was a Catholic wedding, and the ceremony itself was quite nice - lovely little church, etc. But, the priest made mention, in his speech, of how that day was the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombings. He had some point to make, but I forget what it was, now! All I (and I expect the other guests, too) remember is that part.
Yeah, write that shit down. Then read over it. Then read over it again. Then read it to someone else so that it makes sense. Then read over it again.
Thank everyone. The bride for being tricked into marrying you. Her parents for spawning her. Your parents for making you what you are. Your family. Your friends. Her friends. Her family.
Think of an actual reason to thank people though, don't just read off a list of names, say "I'm out" and drop the mic. That's not classy at all.
Well, both of our families are Lutheran, so we're doing that. We like traditional weddings, anyhow.
How about you?
smaller by saluksic, on Flickr
Getting married was a little bit of a headache, for part of it.
We got it all done very cheap. The venue was on campus at UW, and only a few hundred bucks. We had friends who were photographers and DJs and musicians, so that was all free. Our pastor did a good speech, and so did my twin (best man). The honeymoon (most important part; spend all your money here) was great. (First time I had sex, actually).
There were some snags. My friend got fitted for a tux out of town, and had the measurements sent over to the place we were picking them up at. When we arrived the day before the wedding to get our duds, the store didn't have my friend's tux. They apparently had thrown out the measurements they received because they concluded that they couldn't be from a real person. This guy is built a little weird, and they thought they had received the numbers backwards or something. That led to a little panic finding everyone new matching suits that would fit.
On the big day, we couldn't find the paper work. We had picked it up from the court house days earlier, but lost it somewhere. This caused a delay in getting started while someone was sent to the apartment to look for it. I had been stationed on the wings, waiting to commence, and had no idea why things were taking so long to start. I figured time was seeming to stretch out on account of nerves, but it turns out 15 minutes actually did pass while I stewed back there.
Weeks later, when we finally tracked down all the forms and got the pastor and us to sign them, we realized they had actually expired. We had missed the window to be legally married without doing the paperwork all over and having an official wedding date a month or two after we actually got hitched. We solved this by the expedience of changing all the dates on the form and hoping no one noticed. It turns out a marriage based on lies can turn out all right.
Also, it rained, which was not (as I had been lead to believe) ironic.
DSC_1662 by saluksic, on Flickr
Do you need references for some great wedding photographers? I can likely talk to the handful I'm friends with here in Lancaster.
booooring
(sorry friends who got married)
Seriously, you get in, spend two hours tops for photos, the ceremony, and food, and then everyone goes home.
Anyway congratulations FortyTwo (also Kal and Krunk and Veldrin)! Look at you! All getting married! That's awesome!
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
If you want to come back to Baltimore for a weekend :winky:
Fortytwo's blog about fatherhood, life, and everything.
We have an idea of who we want to use. We won a free engagement shoot from this one company, but when we looked at their site we weren't that impressed with what was up there. Still, we have a lot of friends and family that will be bringing cameras by default.
PM me some names, we still want a nice photog.
Fortytwo's blog about fatherhood, life, and everything.
Stale is probably the only one who can get away with saying this and it being true.
Also congrats Fortytwo!
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aaaaand sent.
Thank you very much my friend.
Fortytwo's blog about fatherhood, life, and everything.
This is the room we will be married in
Fortytwo's blog about fatherhood, life, and everything.
I got a sega
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