It is a relief to see that so many other people are opting out of traditional things too! I knew that my FH and I were planning on skipping a lot of things and sometimes it was hard for me to come to terms with it. We started out wanting something simple, it snowballed into a much larger, fancier wedding than either of us wanted. We had even booked the location - but we canceled! This is what we have ended up with:
Ceremony on the beach, renting a house with a semi-private section of the beach. This will also serve as a mini-honeymoon for the week as well. We plan to take a trip a year or so later when we can afford it. As for music, we were going to have a quartet, but are skipping that. When we were having it, we were planning non-traditional music as well. I was going to walk down the aisle to 'Yellow' by Coldplay. For those of you looking for non-traditional music, check out vitaminrecords.com. They have string music versions of modern rock songs (and more).
No Save The Date cards, we chose a very simple invitation at myjeanm.com. We aren't even doing response cards, we put a line on the invite with an email and phone number people can use to RSVP.
The ceremony will be very non-traditional. A friend will be the officiant. We each only have 3 attendees. Only our parents, siblings and attendees at the ceremony. Since the group will be so small, no sides. No unity candle, we are writing our own vows. The BM will be wearing a very simple dress from JCrew, something they can wear again. The GM will be in suits. I will have a small bouquet of mini callas and the girls will have about 3 mini callas to carry. I do not plan to wear a veil.
The reception is going to be at a fine art photo gallery in the downtown area. We decided to skip the dinner and opted for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. This helped with our budget and fits our personality more. No DJ, no dancing, no flower/garter toss. This all works for us b/c we did not want it anyway. We will be doing our own music with our iTunes - plugged into the sound system there. We also are not doing the traditional cake cutting, since we are having hors d'oeuvres, we might do mini cakes or cupcakes. We still want to do a toast, but hopefully it will be with our signature drink! We will not have personalized glasses or anything like that.
For favors, to save money and have something that reflects us, we are creating a CD of songs that we love, and designing the cover as well.
In the end, we want our closest family and friends to share in our special day and didn't need all the frills. We are very happy and WAY less stressed with how things are turning out.
(sorry about the novel - it was easier to say what we are doing rather than what we are not doing).
Message was edited by: golightly Message was edited by: golightly
