My wedding to my late wife was reasonably traditional in many ways, and yet not at all traditional at all in others. The whole thing was arranged in 6 weeks. Honestly, I'm not sure why we were in such a rush. I suppose we were both fairly impulsive people, and when we decided to do something, we wanted to do it immediately! LOL.
Our wedding was fairly small - About 40 or 50 people - I can't remember exactly. We each had one attendant - my brother was my best man, and her best friend was her bridesmaid.
The all-in-one wedding venue was a fairly new trend here in those days, and we managed to get one on a cancellation. They had a little chapel and a hall for the reception, and also provided the catering, decorations and even the flowers. In short - they pretty much did everything, and we just rocked up and got married. To this day I suspect that we got the flowers ordered by the couple who canceled. LOL. Oh well - if that was the case, they had good taste!
I never knew how she conjured up a dress on such short notice, but she looked stunning
Even though I wasn't very religious at all - my religious views could (and sometimes still can) most accurately be summed up as "confused"
- the ceremony was performed by the minister from the Methodist church my in-laws had been members of for many years. It was fairly traditional, with him reading a passage from the Bible, followed by a short sermon, followed by the formalities of exchanging vows and rings, etc. We had rose-petals for confetti - something that is very common here.
The reception was less traditional.
We more-or-less followed the traditional pattern, with a few significant changes. It started with a starter (appetizer) being served, followed by the two of us standing up together and thanking and toasting those we care about for what they've meant to us through our lives, rather than the never-ending series of toasts and speeches. The "main course" was served buffet-style, after which we had the tradition first dance, and the dance floor was opened. Desert and cake-cutting etc came later. I believe she threw her flowers at one stage, but I can't quite remember. We didn't have a bridal table (mostly due to the difficulty of determining who would sit there), but opted for two long tables instead, with us seated in the middle of one of the tables among the guests. We had a photographer, but we didn't do the traditional family photos, opting instead for separate photos of each couple, and a single group shot of all the guests.
It was a great party, though. Most of her family left straight after desert, and the rest of us danced and generally had a great time until the venue had to throw us out due to municipal regulations about noise, at which point we moved a smaller part of the the party to one of our friend's house, and continue until the early morning hours.
In short, we placed much less emphasis on family than is traditional, but pretty much stuck to the script for most other things.
