Receptions - Love 'Em and Hate 'Em
As part of the "Your Temple Wedding" give-away, I asked you to leave comments about what you loved and hated about wedding receptions. While you gave me lots of reasons you hate receptions, there was one common theme of why you love weddings . . .
You all said you love to seeing and visiting with friends and family. I totally agree. It's so much fun to be surrounded in one room by tons of people you haven't seen in a while. It's so much fun to bop from table to table visiting with friends and family, laughing and enjoying the reception. I love it when friends are so excited to see me, they grab me (interrupting whatever conversation I was in) and start a hug fest!
Some of my favorite parts of the reception is seeing the wedding cake and pictures of the bride and groom. I just love all the different wedding cakes and think it's so much fun to see what the couple picks out. I also appreciate it when the bride and groom put up pictures and other fun things for the people in the waiting line to enjoy while they . . . yes, wait.
Now let's delve into the things you didn't like about receptions.
Standing in line for hours as a bridesmaid.
I have to say I totally agree. I never understood why, at LDS receptions, they make the attendants stand in line with the bride and groom. I mean really, the reason everyone is there is to see the bride and groom. It's rather uncomfortable for both the attendants and the guests to have to make small talk with a bunch of people they may or may not know. I recommend just having the bride, groom, and the parents in the line. Let the attendants enjoy the reception or help with the food. This is the other thing I don't understand about LDS weddings - why do you need bridesmaids and groomsmen? It's not like they are walking down an aisle or participating in the wedding ceremony. Yes, I can totally understand wanting everyone to dress up or have co-ordinating suits and dresses. But if you're being married in the temple and not having a ring ceremony that you walk down an aisle, you really don't need to assign "bridesmaids".
Money dances.
As a guest, you may not like them - but the bride and groom sure appreciate the cash for their honeymoon! Seriously though, this can be just as uncomfortable for the wedding couple. My experience with the money dance as a bride wasn't too much fun. You'd think everyone would want to dance with the bride, right? Nope. Our big reception was at my hubby's family ward in Kansas. I only knew one person there - my sister. And let me tell you, my hubby had a HUGE line of women waiting to dance with him. And I had . . . no line at all. How totally embarrassing. So my sister came up with a big bill and we danced together for a couple songs. So, even though as a guest you may not like the money dance, don't think you're the only one. And please, if you ever see a bride or groom with no line - go dance with them!!! Even if you don't add a dollar to the money pile!
The Work.
Oh. Yeah. I hear ya, sister. Receptions aren't the easiest things to throw together. Of course, that all depends on the bride and groom. Our wedding day reception was in Utah with all our college friends. We had a cake, punch, a DJ, and hired some BYU swing team dancers to come teach swing dancing. It was easy to set up and we were done before the reception started. I remember sitting around with some of my college roomies chatting while we waited for guests to arrive. Our Kansas reception was another story though. We told my hubby's parents we wanted a DJ for a dance and left everything else up to them. Holy smokes! We had a huge wedding cake, a groom's cake, a whole catered buffet, and the rest of the works. I was amazed at the amount of work everyone put into celebrating our marriage! I'll put together another post with tips about organizine your reception and how to make the day less stressful.
The wonderful feeling of being in the temple gets lost as you go into stress mode, pulling all the reception details together, ending the day completely exhausted.
So we go from this spiritual high from being in the temple and - if you aren't the bride and groom - you go from this calm, wonderful environment and jump right into the fire! Set up the cake, set up the tables, what happened to the center-pieces??? I will post more about how to keep that feeling with you as you pull all the reception details together.
Thank you, everyone for responding and entering the contest! Speaking of the contest, I bet you'd like to know the winner! (Drum roll please . . . ) And the winner is . . .
Amy!
Come back next week for a new contest (hint: think bling!) Amy, send me an email with your address and I'll get your book in the mail for you.
You all said you love to seeing and visiting with friends and family. I totally agree. It's so much fun to be surrounded in one room by tons of people you haven't seen in a while. It's so much fun to bop from table to table visiting with friends and family, laughing and enjoying the reception. I love it when friends are so excited to see me, they grab me (interrupting whatever conversation I was in) and start a hug fest!
Some of my favorite parts of the reception is seeing the wedding cake and pictures of the bride and groom. I just love all the different wedding cakes and think it's so much fun to see what the couple picks out. I also appreciate it when the bride and groom put up pictures and other fun things for the people in the waiting line to enjoy while they . . . yes, wait.
Now let's delve into the things you didn't like about receptions.
Standing in line for hours as a bridesmaid.
I have to say I totally agree. I never understood why, at LDS receptions, they make the attendants stand in line with the bride and groom. I mean really, the reason everyone is there is to see the bride and groom. It's rather uncomfortable for both the attendants and the guests to have to make small talk with a bunch of people they may or may not know. I recommend just having the bride, groom, and the parents in the line. Let the attendants enjoy the reception or help with the food. This is the other thing I don't understand about LDS weddings - why do you need bridesmaids and groomsmen? It's not like they are walking down an aisle or participating in the wedding ceremony. Yes, I can totally understand wanting everyone to dress up or have co-ordinating suits and dresses. But if you're being married in the temple and not having a ring ceremony that you walk down an aisle, you really don't need to assign "bridesmaids".
Money dances.
As a guest, you may not like them - but the bride and groom sure appreciate the cash for their honeymoon! Seriously though, this can be just as uncomfortable for the wedding couple. My experience with the money dance as a bride wasn't too much fun. You'd think everyone would want to dance with the bride, right? Nope. Our big reception was at my hubby's family ward in Kansas. I only knew one person there - my sister. And let me tell you, my hubby had a HUGE line of women waiting to dance with him. And I had . . . no line at all. How totally embarrassing. So my sister came up with a big bill and we danced together for a couple songs. So, even though as a guest you may not like the money dance, don't think you're the only one. And please, if you ever see a bride or groom with no line - go dance with them!!! Even if you don't add a dollar to the money pile!
The Work.
Oh. Yeah. I hear ya, sister. Receptions aren't the easiest things to throw together. Of course, that all depends on the bride and groom. Our wedding day reception was in Utah with all our college friends. We had a cake, punch, a DJ, and hired some BYU swing team dancers to come teach swing dancing. It was easy to set up and we were done before the reception started. I remember sitting around with some of my college roomies chatting while we waited for guests to arrive. Our Kansas reception was another story though. We told my hubby's parents we wanted a DJ for a dance and left everything else up to them. Holy smokes! We had a huge wedding cake, a groom's cake, a whole catered buffet, and the rest of the works. I was amazed at the amount of work everyone put into celebrating our marriage! I'll put together another post with tips about organizine your reception and how to make the day less stressful.
The wonderful feeling of being in the temple gets lost as you go into stress mode, pulling all the reception details together, ending the day completely exhausted.
So we go from this spiritual high from being in the temple and - if you aren't the bride and groom - you go from this calm, wonderful environment and jump right into the fire! Set up the cake, set up the tables, what happened to the center-pieces??? I will post more about how to keep that feeling with you as you pull all the reception details together.
Thank you, everyone for responding and entering the contest! Speaking of the contest, I bet you'd like to know the winner! (Drum roll please . . . ) And the winner is . . .
Amy!
Come back next week for a new contest (hint: think bling!) Amy, send me an email with your address and I'll get your book in the mail for you.
Happy Wedding Preparations!
Danyelle
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