Newlyweds: Top 10 Things You Loved About Your Wedding!

[QueenofCA]

I really loved this thread at the other place, so I thought I'd start it over here!

I'll go first:

10. We got to see extended family members from all over the world in one place, at one time.

9. The flowers were amazing...everything I hoped for. I felt like I was in an enchanted garden during the reception.

8. I made a phrase out of Swarovski rhinestones to go on my shoes:

http://images.snapfish.com/3453765523232%7Ffp64%3Dot%3E232%3C%3D935%3D%3A4%3A %3DXROQDF%3E232378%3A3965%3C2ot1lsi

7. I saved tons of money by getting things on Ebay, and the stuff I got was awesome. Everyone thought I spent a lot more than I did.

6. I'm happy that I put my foot down and nixed bridesmaid dresses with a lot of beading. I love the simplicity of them and the way it all came together.

5. I love that DH's aunt offered her home for the morning of the wedding, since I don't have any family members who live in CA. She did so much work and preparation, and was the hostess for the first part of the Armenian wedding events. She didn't have to do it, (normally someone from the bride's family has to do it) but she is a wonderful, gracious lady who has shown me nothing but love and acceptance from the very beginning.

4. We got the rockin' vintage Rolls Royce for us to ride in!
http://images.snapfish.com/3453765523232%7Ffp64%3Dot%3E2323%3D%3B%3B4%3D5%3A6 %3D3232%3B%3B44%3B5447nu0mrj

3. My MIL was so awesome and helped with everything. Ditto for all of DH's aunts.

2. I danced with my step-dad to "You Raise Me Up" by Josh Groban to thank him for raising me in the right way, even though he wasn't my biological dad. He actually cried--the first time I've ever seen that in my life!!

http://images.snapfish.com/3453765523232%7Ffp58%3Dot%3E2323%3D%3A%3A%3B%3D738 %3D3232%3A%3A%3B647868nu0mrj

1. DH and fulfilled the promise we made to each other on the day we met--we got married as partners and true best friends. :)

[wander_woman]

I just got married last weekend so it's pretty fresh on my mind. Besides the fact that I got to marry my best friend in the whole world, here are the things I loved most about the wedding:

1. Being surrounded by so many loved ones. Friends and relatives came from all over the world to be with us. It was incredible. It was fantastic to see friends from different times in our lives get along so well. Both families also made a great effort to get to know one another. Everyone was just so friendly and joyful all night (the open bar and passed vodka shots probably didn't hurt :) ). What I remember most about the night is that there really seemed to be a magical vibe in the air. I have never felt so loved.

2. I loved our ceremony. We spent a lot of time working on it. We included a very special reading in memory of my mother. We wrote our own vows to one another. The rabbi knew us quite well and gave a very personal sermon. The whole thing was very special and personal to us. Not cookie cutter at all. Our guests seemed to really appreciate it. I also loved holding DH's hand through the entire ceremony.

3. Loved our chuppah. We made it ourselves and had many people tell us it was the most beautiful chuppah they had ever seen.

4. We did an "open mic" toast night during the reception. We had about 45 minutes of toasts when anybody could get up to talk. My dad gave the most incredibly touching toast. He was so nervous (English isn't his first language) but he did a wonderful job. The other toasts were hilarious! I was almost crying I was laughing so much. And some people I never expected to talk (like my very shy BM) got up and gave wonderful heartfelt toasts.

5. Dancing! I danced so much that night. I was definitely not ready to leave at the end of the night. The DJ was great and the dance floor was packed all night. I loved dancing with my DH, with my family, with his family, and with all my girlfriends. DH and I took dance lessons ahead of time and had a lot of fun doing our first dance. The hora was unbelievable! One of my best experiences ever. It was also really fun to see everyone else dance. Even the grandparents got into it!

6. Bonding with the girlfiends and MIL beforehand. We spent all day together getting ready. What could be better than spending the day doing girlie things with my closest friends in the world? I was so glad my MIL joined us. My mom passed away and my MIL has really taken me in as a daughter. I was glad she could share the experience with us.

7. The rehearsal dinner and day-after brunch. I had a blast at our RD. It was nice to spend time with a smaller group of people. As DH's grandfather said that night - "everyone I love is in this room." He summarized it perfectly. The day-after brunch was the perfect way to end the weekend.

8. The table name cards. We named our tables after places we've traveled to. We spent a lot of time on the cards. Each card had a picture of us and a story/anecdote on the back. We took turns writing the anecdotes and had a lot of fun with it. It was a lot of work but really fun to put together. And our guests absolutely loved it!

9. Everything was more beautiful than I imagined. We didn't spend a lot on flowers and decorations but our florist really went above and beyond. The place looked spectacular! I was truly blown away.

10. Feeling like a rock star. I do not generally like being the center of attention. I thought I would be very uncomfortable with getting so much attention all day. But I surprised myself by really liking it! Maybe there's something about putting on that dress and getting your hair & makeup done that makes you feel invincible. But I really relished it that day. I enjoyed being in the center of the dance floor, I loved giving a toast to our families, I got a kick out of all the pictures. I was not the slightest bit nervous and just had a blast the entire time.

[maplekitty]

OOOhh...good topic! Let's see!

(in no particular order)

10. We gt married in Point Roberts, Wa. even though we live in Vanocuver Canada. Curt's family has a cabin there, his grandfather built 60 yrs ago. It has so many wonderful childhood memeories for him, and we laso had our first kiss on the beach there!

9. We had a morning wedding! I LOVE breakfast, it's my favourite meal of the day! I love all things breakfast, and making breakfast! So I planned my whole weddin around the scrumptious breakfast buffet we had! It was yummy!!!

8. Because we had a morning wedding, everything was over and we were outta there by 5pm. We rented a B&B suite nearby, and went out for dinner that night to a local restaurant. We wore our wedding clothes (paired down a bit) and our "bride" and "groom" hats! We were so happy and giddy all through the meal, everyone kept coming over and congratulating us.

7. We had our dessert to go, and took our cheesecakes and bottle of champagne down to the beach later that night and cuddled under the stars, dreaming about our next day in Mexico! We stuck our toes in the Pacific, and the very next day ran straight to the beach and stuck our toes in the Mayan Riviera!

6. Curt's cousin is a fantastic acapello singer in a band. But he learned to play the guitar to sing us a song during our ceremony. It was very touching, he was a little nervous, but it was so sweet!

5. Curt and I had our pictures taken before the ceremony, which was soooo nice because it really relaxed us both! After we were done, the photographer ran back to the site to take some more shots before the ceremony began, and Curt and I were left to walk back by ourselves. We walked *very slowly* and really took in the moment...in mere minutes we would be geting mArRiEd!!!

4. I really wanted the ceremony to be the focus of the day, I didnt' want to rush through it, or asked the minister to make it breif. I wanted to really spend the needed time to devote my life to my man. The ceremony ran about an hour, and we had a lot of guest participation. Afterwards, I had a lot of people come up to me and say it was the best wedding ceremony they'd been to. How it was very touching and meaningful and they felt a lot of love emulating from everyone. *That* made my entire day! That made all the planning, and precision details I put into the ceremony worthwhile, because people weren't bored or were looking at their watches.

3. Our wedding cake was made by a friend of ours, who used to be a caterer. I went over to her house one day with a whole bunch of pictures saying I liked this from this one, and that from that one..and then just let her do herr thing! It turned out beautifully! I had people sking which bakery I got it from! She really does make the best chocolate cake in the entire world!! :)

2. Curt's parents worked SO HARD before, during and after..I truly fell blessed to have such amazing in-laws! Curt's mom got all her Pnt Bob friends to lend us picnic tables, and chairs. Curt's dad worked really hard on cleaning up the yard and had it all manucured perfectly. Lots of love, lots of love!

1. How could I not mention my amazing, beautiful, compassionate, loyal, faithful new HUSBAND! He put up with my Bridezilla moments with such ease and humour. I love him to bits and that's why I married him :) (Cheese!!!)

[sublime311]

10. Our Italian-Bistro themed rehearsal dinner was a blast! I LOVED our speeches and giving welcome bags to our out-of-town guests and thank you gifts to our mothers and wedding party. SOOO much fun! We even had a pinata for the kids (not really "Italian", but we couldn't help ourselves when we saw the wedding cake pinata)!

9. Our colors were black, red, and silver with sort of a rose theme... I think it was a GREAT combination. The bridesmaids looked super elegant in their black dresses and red rose bouquets. I was especially happy with our colors after I had such a hard time deciding on a "theme" and color scheme.

8. My flower girl wasn't walking in time for the wedding, so we decorated a Radio Flyer Wagon with tulle and a rose garland and she sat in it like a perfect little angel while her big brother pulled her down the aisle. NO problems!

7. My day-of coordinator was a God-send. Everything went off without a hitch, thanks to her.

6. I saved a LOAD of money by designing our invitations to look like a MUCH more expensive version I loved.

5. Our family and friends came from all over the country to celebrate with us.

4. Our music selections were perfect! We chose American Standards as the main musical setting. Who doesn't love Sinatra!? We were given LOADS of compliments on the music by our guests!

3. I looked like the princess I never knew I wanted to look like!

2. I was married on a beautiful October night, at dusk (my favorite time of day), under the stars.

1. I married my best friend.

[Sare79]

Top 10 things I loved about our wedding(apart from marrying my best friend, the most special man I have ever met):

10.The wedding cakes! We had individual two-tiered wedding cakes for everyone made by a top pastry chef. They were cute, sweet and the most delicious thing ever! We had so many compliments on them.

9. My sleepover with my girls the night before. They calmed me down, we had a blast, and drank some champagne. It was the perfect way to spend the night before the weddding.

8. The weather! When I went to sleep the night before, it was pouring rain. When I woke up, it was cloudy and spitting. While we were getting our hair done, it totally brightened up and made a perfect day for pictures.

7. The decor. I had a couple of girlfriends whose taste I totally respect and trust,andthey far exceeded my expectations. The room was beautiful and full of candlelight and lights overhead,and little touches of pink everywhere. It felt like all my planning paid off.

6. The ceremony was great. We worked really hard to make it about us, and to reflect our feelings. We included poems, readings and changed some wording to personalize it. We had a lot of people complimenting us on it.

5. The wedding night hotel room had the biggest, best jacuzzi for two, and after not being able to sit (or breathe) in my dress, the tub was a welcome haven! We emptied a half bottle of bubbles into it and soaked.

4. Seeing our families have so much fun! Joel’s family worked so hard to prepare for the day and clean up at the end. During thereception, they had smiles plastered on their faces and my normally shy MIL was chatting up people she’d never met. My mom got to hold her granddson, and my brother and his wife got to dance. It was so nice.

3. Our first dance! We were completely in our own world. We danced to an accoustic version of Everlong by the Foo Fighters. The song was so special to us- one of the first songs we danced to in my living room, the best song performed at theconcert, and then our wedding song!

2. The way Iooked. I had one of my closest friends do my makeup, and I felt so beautiful! My dress, my hair, my makeup was all perfect.

1. My friends. I knew that I had good friends but so many of them helped out to make the day perfect. Our best man hates speaking in public , and yet he emceed, I had friends do readings, I had friends who decorated, friends who were amazing guests by entertaining and engaging our families in conversations. I really have some beautiful, wonderful people in my life.

[lisainpink]

10. My flowers. I splurged on flowers and they were gorgeous.
9. Our Communion Hymn. We chose "You Are Mine." Now, whenever we sing it during Mass- I get all misty.
8. Our Band. They were a jazzy/ Frank Sinatra cover band- complete with piano, drums, stand up bass,etc. They were fantastic and even the old folks danced.
7. My shoes. They were so fun!
6. My bridesmaid brunch. We did it at a paint your own pottery studio. It was so nice to just relax and do something with my hands the day of the wedding!
5. Our ceremony. We chose to have a full Mass and it was the best decision ever!
4. Having a surprise garter for DH. He is a HUGE Yankee fan (he's from New York.) In Alabama, you just don't see much Yankee gear. I had a Yankee garter made- which he saw for the first time taking it off my leg. His face in that photo is worth every second I spent planning the whole day!
3. My family was at the reception. This is a long story, but in short- my Mom has been very ill and my sister and nephew were in a car accident on the way to the wedding. When they got to the reception and I stopped and noticed that my husband and I were surrounded by our entire family (finally!) I was elated.
2. My Dress. I never really thought about what I would wear on my wedding day. Once I found my dress, it was as if I had dreamed it a thousand times. I wore a Reem Acra gown with pink inserts on the bodice. I would wear it daily if I could.
1. I married the most kind-hearted, funny, easy-going, and GORGEOUS man in the world. He is the first person I want to talk to about everything... and I get to be with him forever and ever. That's just good stuff.

[Sposa06]

I'm not married yet (six more months!), but I wanted to thank you ladies all so much for writing in this thread! These are the sweetest posts I've ever read - you're all making my eyes tear up and giving me goosebumps! Thank you again so much and congratulations to all of you on marrying the loves of your lives on beautiful days!

[tgray99]

10. Seeing all of my friends and DH's friend all in one place.

9. My grandparents dancing (even if it was for a short time).

8. Our cool old car that took us from the church to the reception and back to the church. Lots of compliments on that.

7. Spending the time and the effort on so many details. Lots of people told me, "Who's gonna notice? Why do it?" but I used genuine wheat in my decor, spent hours designing my programs, hand made my invitations, made my FG's pommander, etc. People noticed the details and still compliment me on them. My favorite detail was my "Word" confetti. I so wanted people to notice that the confetti said things like love, bliss, happy, committment, etc. Someone did and said she wished it all to us 100-fold. I was thrilled.

6. The laidback party atmosphere of the reception. People still comment on how much fun our reception was.

5. Going to the extra expense (thanks Mom!) of hiring my stylist for the entire day. He did my hair and make up, my mom's hair, my BMs' hair and gave help with their makeup. He was fabulous (and gay so we could dress without problems of him being there!) :)

4. The wedding night hotel room had a tub for two, and after not being able to sit (or breathe) in my dress, the tub was a welcome haven!

3. The honeymoon!! I loved our cruise and SO want to go back on another one!

2. The music I selected for everything. I spent a lot of time selecting each song to make sure each song matched the moment. My mentor/music lesson teacher of nearly 15 years noticed my hand in the music selections and commented. That meant a lot.

1. Marrying my sweet Ryan. That was the best part of the day.

[LeslieandPaul]

10. Having my aunt coordinate the day of stuff-made my day so much easier

9. Getting married in the town where Paul grew up and have the reception where I grew up

8. The limo bus-made things so easy!!!

7. Doing so much work myself (saved a lot of money and made it much more personal)

6. The open-mic speeches. Paul's cousin told a great story about him that is classic with our group of friends, and his other cousin made me cry and one of our firends made a wonderful speech about how we've set the bar for everyone else that also made me cry!

5. Going away for two nights after and just relaxing by ourselves.

4. Having the most important ppl in our lives standing up at the altar with us (including Paul's best friend who lives in Japan!)

3. Getting to have a big, fun party with all our friends-with fabulous pictures to show for it

2. Getting to meet most of Paul's family from Montreal and spending time with all of his family from up north

1. Marrying the love of my life!!! (and being "Pope-approved" as he puts it! :p)

[SweetRed]

In somewhat random order:

The word most often used by our guests to describe our wedding is "FUN!" Everyone there had an absolute, no-holds-barred blast. It was exactly what we wanted.

Both DH and I were completely calm, cool, and collected about our wedding, and everyone knew it. Everything about the day was just so "natural".

Seeing our family and friends from all over the country come together in one room. It was like worlds colliding... but in a very good way :)

My DH serenaded me (a surprise!) during our ceremony!

Our wedding cake was just beautiful AND delicious.

During the reception, my Dad dedicated a very special song to my Mom, and as they had the dance floor to themselves, everyone picked up the votive candles from the tables and formed a huge circle around them. You could just feel the love for this amazing couple.

Shocking all of our guests when we told them we were honeymooning in Iceland... and then actually going to Iceland on our Honeymoon!!!

The surpise on everyone's face as I walked down the aisle in a green wedding gown. This was a last-minute, unexpected change from the original ivory one everyone thought I was wearing, and no one knew about it.

The Polish "Unveiling Ceremony" done at the reception. It was such an important tradition for me to have and DH went along with it so well. Easily the happiest moment of the day for me.

Knowing that marrying my DH was just icing on the cake. Our commitment to one another started long before our wedding day, and this was just the way to make it all legal in the eyes of the state and the higher being :)

~ Kay

[Kristy]

(In random order)

1. My bouquet. I couldn't put it down, I just loved it. I made crystal stems to put in it, and it just sparkled.

2. Soon To Be Mrs. hoodie. It was fun to wear to the salon and out running errands. Definitely made me feel very bridal.

3. Photographer. She was a WC/CC friend and I'm so very glad she was able to do my pictures. She knew exactly what I wanted, and every single picture is wonderful.

4. Cake topper. DH and I love The Simpsons, so I made a Homer and Marge topper for the cake. Very cute and fun, and the guests loved it.

5. The DJ. He was absolutely incredible. Really made the party. My aunt and uncle have a DJ business with him, and he was our 'gift' from them. This guy really knew his stuff and knew just what to do to get the party going.

6. My dress. It was big and poofy and princess-y.

7. Our first dance. I got to twirl around in previously mentioned poofy dress.

8. Table names. DH and I met at college, so for our table names we used places and events on campus. Each table had a framed picture of the place/event with a little explanation about it. It was fun for the alums and the people who had never been there.

9. The cake. Another gift from a family friend who is a baker. So very yummy and we were able to have every layer a different flavor so everyone could get what they wanted.

10. DH!

[jesseybell]

In random babbling order - our whole wedding was highly personalized

* Seeing all my family and friends in one place

* That we actually got to have the ceremony outside

* That we were actually able to pull off our "surprise" first dance - no one knew we had taken dance lessons

* Finally, finally seeing all my hard work pay off - hours of picking out the favors, putting together the programs

* Having people compliment me on my DIY invitations - a family friend of DH is a stationer and having him compliment me was the best!

* Finally seeing my cake ideas come to fruition

* Twirling around on hilltop singing 'The Sound of Music' - the pictures are priceless

* Being an ex-tomboy, seeing myself with an updo was pretty neat!

* Walking into the reception to the theme from 'Star Wars' and having the words 'May the Force be With You' as part of our ceremony

* Wishing I could keep my bouquet forever

* My dad asking me if it was okay to cry as he walked me down the aisle

* Spending 11 amazing days in Hawaii

[Tonysweetie]

1. Being the bride ;)

2. My dress

3. Kissing my new husband

4. Being pronounced "Husband and Wife"

5. Being the center of attention

6. People calling me "wifey, Mrs. Jones, New Wife" etc.

7. Our DJ WAS the BOMB! lol

8. The food!

9. Leaving the reception with my new hubby and everyone cheering us on

10. Spending 6 wonderful days alone with my new husband ;)

[nawsgirl]

1. Seeing a great majority of my family and friends- my cousin flew in from England to be there and we got to spend some time together the next day, which was great.

2. Having everything go really smoothly- everyone showed up on time, no drama, pretty much everything went as planned. Even though the weather report had said it was going to rain, the day ended up being sunny and hot.

3. I had 5 great friends to stand up with me, including my MOH who I have been friends with since 6th grade.

4. The flowers were perfect, exactly what I'd wanted.

5. I really clicked (ha ha, no pun intended) with our photographers- they are such sweet people who did an amazing job. They even set up a computer at the reception to do a slideshow of shots they had taken earlier that day, which everyone loved.

6. Our 'guest book' was a picture mat which everyone signed and wrote notes on. We now have it framed in our house so I can look at it every day.

7. The reception ended at 5 so we could go back to my mom's house and hang out with friends.

8. The food and cake were delicious!

9. I got to marry my DH and then spend 10 days on Maui- bliss!

10. Quite a few people saw a yellow butterfly flutter around me and DH during the ceremony and we all think it was my dad's spirit- the only time I cried during the whole day was when our family friends told me about that.

[J&T2005]

1. Not seeing T before the ceremony. It really meant a lot to see him first as we were walking down the aisle.

2. Compliments on our DIY stuff - invites, programs, table decs, flowers.

3. The early morning massage - it mellowed me out for the rest of the day and I have never, ever (okay other than a few other times...) felt so relaxed after NOT sleeping :p

4. My 50 black magic roses. That bouqet was FREAKIN heavy, but so beautiful!

5. My avatar - we have about 40 pictures of us in front of a covered bridge. So gorgeous.

6. My rose petal toss pictures. They're more beautiful than the pics I've seen in magazines - literally the sun shone that day just for that moment :D

7. The surpise "gettaway" car that T got... I didn't think we should splurge on a limo, but Tom really wanted to surprise me and got us a big ole town car.

8. The reception band was so fabulous! They were definitely worth every single penny.

9. The memory of my dad trying to articulate how beautiful he thought everything was... he's a man of generally few words, but this time, he couldn't even begin!

10. Our dances... everyone thought we'd taken lessons - little did they know that not only did that not happen, we'd actually never danced together successfully (T's more than accurate with dance steps, and I.can't.dance). We danced together to swing and big band and slow jazz as if we had been made to do so. It was awesome.

[armadillo]

In no particular order...

My dresses! I made two of them myself and had the third custom made to my measurements. I'm Chinese, so I wore three dresses throughout the day.

Having all my friends and family together in one place.

Seeing DH try to hold back the tears when he first saw me walking down the aisle (and, in the video, you can see him still trying to blink them away during the rest of the ceremony).

My MOH kicked butt. She served as our coordinator and made sure everything was perfect for us so we could relax and enjoy our day.

My uncle was our photographer and he took awesome pictures, both film and digital.

I'm glad we hired the videographer. It was definitely not a waste of money!

My flowers turned out great. I gave the florist free reign because I didn't really care what I had and they were beautiful.

Chocolate raspberry mousse cake...

At the end of the evening, our immediate families and my MOH were still there, so they went up to our suite and tossed rose petals at us as DH carried me in.

Hmm...really, there is nothing about our wedding that I didn't like, so the day was perfect. Does that count as a thing?

[sea74]

What a perfect time to reminisce, my one-year anniversary is this month!

1. The feelings I experienced all day, from the time I got up, to getting ready, to standing outside the sanctuary with my dad, to seeing the huge grin on DH's face. If only I could bottle all those once-in-a-lifetime feelings! The feeling of taking vows before God and the man I love. I just felt such fullness all day.

2. My wedding dress! I was a two-dress bride. After buying the first dress, I realized it wasn't my dream dress so I sold it and purchased my dream dress!

3. Our chocolate-frosted wedding cake.

4. Our ceremony was so wonderfully personal. Our pastor knew us and did such an amazing job. So many people commented that they had never been to such a beautiful ceremony before.

5. This may be strange, but our unity candle WOULD. NOT. LIGHT. DH and I stood up there for 3-4 minutes trying to get it to light and it just wouldn't. At one point DH looked out at the crowd and held up his finger as if to say, “just one moment please” and everyone started to laugh. We kept trying to light it with our tapers and then would pull them away to see if it lit and everyone would laugh again, including us. Finally I just held my hand up in the air and said, “okay, we're unified.” and again everyone chuckled and we went back and stood in front of the pastor. I guess you had to be there, but it was so funny and everyone still talks about it to this day. I love watching it on our video.

6. I loved having all of our family and friends from all over the country be there to share our day with us. And it warmed my heart that my little sister cried all day. From the time she woke me up to the time we left the reception. That may sound strange, but I just felt a lot of love from her.

7. The food was PERFECT and so yummy! We also had a late-night pizza bar, which everyone appreciated.

8. I loved that I was able to spend much of the night on the dance floor with my family and friends. The DJs were great and the floor was crowded the whole night. Even my 86-year-old grandmas shook it all night :)

9. The best man toast was AMAZING. Simply amazing!

10. That I was able to take 5 weeks off from work to really enjoy the time leading up to the wedding, take a long honeymoon and then still be able to come home and have a couple of days left before returning to work. It really gave me the time to take it all in and savor it.

[paulisgirl]

Wow - I don't think I've ever done a "top ten" of our wedding. It was almost two years ago in Mexio. So in no particular order.

- Having our wedding be a vacation. Our families met and bonded in a totally relaxed environment and continue to thank us for it.

- That my BIL could make the trip. He battled cancer for 5 years and had reoccurance just before the wedding. He passed away less than a month later.

- Having my dad perform the ceremony. It really made it totally personal. He included great personal stories and great wedding theology that he knew would be meaningful to Paul and me.

- The beach, the warm wind, the sunset. The sand in my toes.

- photos were taken by my sister's husband. He is one of those "you don't know he's there types". And everything turned out gorgeous.

- Leaving the wedding in a marvelously decorated golf cart complete with palm leaves on the top and coconuts tied to the back.

- A reception that out did any of my expectations. I had to plan the details over e-mail without seeing the space. It was more gorgeous than I ever imagined.

- Live music. Our friend Derrick wrote us a song for the ceremony and then due to a malfunction with the sound system at the reception location the owner called in live music for us for free.

- The honeymoon suite. We did not reserve a special room since we were staying all week. The hotel gave us a suite for our wedding night and we found it decorated with candels, flower petals, and champange thanks to our friends who couldn't come due to the birth of thier child. A truly amazing surprise.

- Dancing with my husband. He is not much of a dancer but we relished each other's company on the dance floor even though no one else was dancing. Really marrying my best friend and my constant source of support and entertainment was perfect!

[Janey]

I'm not sure I can find 10 things that sit above the rest. There is one thing that I'm most glad we did though -- I'm glad we took 3 months of dance lessons. :) When I think back on that day, that is the one thing that I keep thinking about: We Really Danced. We didn't sway side-to-side slowly; we Fox Trotted to Harry Connick Jr's version of "It Had To Be You." Our friends & family totally cheered when we were done, and it was fantastic. I can't wait to see the video. :D

[kcjules]

In no particular order . . .

1 ~ We had an outdoor ceremony and it didn't rain :)
2 ~ Sharing in the day with the friends and family that care about us most.
3 ~ Seeing all our friends again. We live 2 hours away, so we don't get to see them too often.
4 ~ We had a lot of non-traditional music at our ceremony. Being ultra-traditional about the music just didn't seem to suit us.
5 ~ We got married at the place I had fallen in love with. Everytime I visited the site, I could picture our wedding.
6 ~ My mother did all the flowers and they turned out great!
7 ~ Our pictures and video are outstanding :) Well worth the money!
8 ~ The food was great.
9 ~ Our DJ was so great. He didn't rush us into any important dances, bouquet toss, etc. until we were ready. He made sure that we got to spend the time with our guests.
10 ~ Sort of related ~ I got over my fear of flying. I flew for the first time when we left for our HM.

[LadyD088]

Oh such a great topic. In no particular order:

10. The cake - it was AMAZING!! Not a crumb left that night. And it was more beautiful than I ever had imagined. I didn't want to cut it.

9. Nothing that day went wrong. I had everything planned to a tee and it flowed smoothly, without a coordinator and anyone else to help direct.

8. The ceremony was so endearing as we had hoped. It was short and sweet but full of meaning. At one point, there was not a dry eye in the church (except ours) it was priceless...I will forever remember the sniffs.

7. Table Names. They were Qualities every marriage should have. Everyone loved this idea and thought it was so unique. I sat certain people at tables because THEY had those characteristics that we cherished also.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4d828b3127cce9ee9d448009800000015108Cct2jRuzZi

6. We danced ALL night. Our DJ was THE best!!! DH and I practically danced every minute (except dinner and cutting the cake). It was what we wanted...and it got everyone out on the floor also and dancing. We just wanted ONE big party.

5. Putting myself into the planning of every part and detail of the wedding and DIY. Our guests could tell there was a lot of thought and hard work put into the details. It was even regarded as professional help...until I corrected them. Such a compliment!!

4. Having the love of our family and friends be there for the ceremony and reception. May times we have attended wedding ceremonies and NO ONE shows up - they only arrive for the reception, rude in my opinion. I was very happy to see that they supported our marriage completely.

3. Looking and FEELING as beautiful as I did. I NEVER thought that would ever happen. I owe that to the wonderful seamstress I had, my great hair stylist, and the last minute make up artist. My makeup artist went into the hospital the morning of my wedding. I FREAKED but figured, there was nothing I could do about it. As long as they had a back up, I would be ok. She was even BETTER than the one I had booked with. See, things happen for a reason...no need to stress!

2. Our amazing photographer for capturing the day the way I truly remember it. She is completely talented and has given us BEAUTIFUL captures of a day we will remember forever.

1. Of course, marrying my best friend of (at the time) 11 years. It was a dream come true. The vows we made that day I know will live on forever through us and our family. And of course the support I received from him during the planning. He worked 2 jobs and could not PLAN with me as much as I would have wanted him too (I really don't think he minded at all) but when I needed him, he was there. I also flip flopped on decisions so much but he was great!! Wonder why I married him? Love him!!

Deb

[nicole]

Of course, I must say, that I married my hubs, my best friend!
My dress was totally me! It was a mermaid silhouette, something I think fit me perfectly.
The food was amazing (and actually affordable!) We got lots of compliments on it. I also loved that it was a restaurant, so we were able to go there on our 6-month anniversary and order almost the same meal!
Our choreographed first dance complete with a move our instructor called "the twinkle" - or "the Rambo" if the guy wanted to macho it up a bit
Having our ceremony wording exactly how we wanted it (after an exhaustive number of rewrites!)
The cake. OMG the cake! Getting rear-ended on the way home from the tasting was almost worth it.
We played my S & BIL's first dance song so they could dance to it in front of most of their immediate family because my BIL broke his leg right before their wedding and was in a wheel chair, so they weren't really able to dance to it at their wedding.
That my mom, dad and brother flew out to Missouri from Washington to be there, even if no else one in my family did.
Our photog was so cool and calm. People actually complimented us on him, saying he was taking lots of good pics, but remaining unobtrusive.
The fact that it was planned to the hilt (thank you obsessive journaling!) and nearly nothing went wrong.

[ceaserbride]

10. Our rehearsal dinner. Dh pulled me into the barn before it started for some *alone* time and told me how excited he was about the next day and how much he loved me. Was so sweet!

9. Our 10 day coastal honeymoon. So good to spend some relaxing time together after.

8. Our photographer. We love all of our pictures and he stayed till the *very* end for us. I don't think he left till about 4 am...and started at 1 in the afternoon! We have pictures of everything!

7. OH the FOOD!! It was amazing!! Once in a while I think "I wish we could have our wedding dinner agian...that was *so* good!"

6. How smoothly everything went and how much fun everyone had! I still get guests telling me it was the most gorgeous and fun wedding they have ever been to! That makes me so happy:)

5. Attire and Flowers. So glad I went with my gut. I almost cried when I saw the gorgeous flowers and the bm dresses look so good in all the pics. Not too formal for an outdoor wedding and classic, even though I know they may have chosen differently.

4. Oh the weather! We had an outdoor ceremony and reception and couldn't have asked for nicer weather.

3. Having the ceremony and reception at my parents farm. So sentimental to me and relaxing at the same time. The girls and I got ready in my old bedroom and the whole day it just felt like I was at home. So great.

2. We got to stay up and party *all* night. Some of our guests didn't leave till 5am! And dh and I stayed up till 7:30am and watched the sun come up:)

1. I married the greatest man in the world for me:) We had the time or our lives together celebrating our love for one and other.

[kk junebug]

in no particular order:

1. after 10 straight days of record-breaking TORRENTIAL rain, the skies finally parted two hours before our ceremony. we were able to have pics taken outdoors thankfully-cuz we had no back up plan!

2. the day was flawless! after months of planning it all paid off. and we got so many compliments on the entire day. it made it all worth it.

3. flowers. we kept it simple, but they were stunning! i carried black magic roses and i wish i could have kept it forever!

4. DJ. he ROCKED! kept the dance floor packed all night. and played a great variety of music to please all ages. still to this day, hubby and i have never danced more in our entire lives.

5. the entire planning process. there were only a few annoying chores to do thru-out the 13 months. the rest was SO fun. thanks to my mom for being so organized, it was really a great bonding experience to plan it with her.

6. my dress. im a tomboy at heart but i LOVED being so dressed up for the day. i really felt like a celeb on the red carpet at times...

7. my shoes. i wore white Reef flip flops under my gown. my feet were SO comfy ALL DAY. i got a lot of shite for that decision from the "elders"...but i could have cared less about what they thought. my feet felt like they were on pillows!

8. having all of our friends and family together in one room. it was impressive to see that all those people came out just to celebrate with US.

9. marrying my hubby of course! but we also made a point to really enjoy the day and be together to take it all in. so many times bride/groom's spend half of their time talking to family, etc. and we made sure we spent the day the way WE wanted to, after we said our hello's.

10. 10 fabulous days in Cabo San Lucas. the best vaca EVER! :D

[Myra]

1. the location--it was a club (http://www.franklinsquareclub.com/)located inside an office building. sounds weird, but it was quite pretty, and what could be a more appropriate setting than the office when the lawyer and consultant marry in workaholic DC?

2. Family from all over were there.

3. Taking pictures at the National Building Museum (http://www.nbm.org/).

4. After the ceremony, we went downstairs to do family pictures. There was a piano there, and my BIL played "As Time Goes By."

5. The anniversary dance and giving my bouquet to the couple married longest--my much loved aunt and uncle.

6. My bouquet and my sister's. Centerpieces were beautiful too, but I should have gotten bigger centerpieces.

7. I know you're not supposed to say this, but the buttloads of cash we received. oh, and the fact that the parents paid for most of the wedding.

8. My friends reporting that, yes, my family members were just as fun and crazy and I had said they were, that they had no idea till then that a wedding could be a fun party, and that they couldn't believe they stayed till the end.

9. oh yeah, marrying B.

10. My gay former Roman Catholic, now American Catholic priest, who introduced us as "Mr. and Mrs. Myfirstname Mylastname." Sooo funny.

[akacharlotte]

10. Our location. It was so incredibly quiet. The only sounds were the horses, the bees, the birds, my shoes crunching on the gravel, and the music piping through the speakers. We were in the middle of farm country.

9. The simplicity and intimacy of our ceremony. Our only guests at our wedding ceremony were my MIL & FIL.

8. The night before our wedding we spent it in our bed in our home.

7. Driving my DH's classic convertible to the reception. I was not too worried about ruining my hair and it was our dream to use the car for our wedding.

6. My dress. I did not want a long, white, ballgown type of wedding gown and I was frantically searching for something. I was so happy when I found a tea length gown at David's that I loved!

5. Once the location was finalized we had no wedding stress

4. Our reception. Orignally we were not going to have one but then MIL offered to throw us a party. It was totally laid back and casual. Some of our guests showed up in shorts and I thought it was great. She also added so many little touches I was not expecting at all and I'm grateful she thought to do so.

3. MIL's toast to us. She made me cry and I felt so much love from her.

2. Our officiant. He spoke to us instead of just reciting words. He gave DH some wonderful advice, i.e. always leave the seat down LOL and he made our ceremony light-hearted and heartfelt

1. Marrying my husband. I could not have asked for a better match nor could I be happier!

[Katyanne]

In no particular order.
1. Marrying my hubby
2. Having my whole family there, many of them came from all over the US and I now have some wonderful memories with them.
3. Our Theme, For our reception we decided on a Red Wings themed reception (Detroit, MI Hockey) The ceremony was wonderfully traditional and the reception was just a blast. We did all sorts of original things like hockey puck favors with our name and date, Table numbers that were different hockey players on the team. Place cards were small jerseys with the guests name and table number.
4. Our food was awesome! We are both big foodies so with us food was a big deal. Including the sliders (small hamburgers) we brought out at 10pm, that was a big kick with our guests.
5. Our Cake, it was so good and we had a cute groomscake with The Red Wings emblem on it that hubby loved. Also our cake topper was very much us.
6. Our first dance Marc Cohn - True Companion It was wonderful. So sentimental.
7. My Flowers, I always wanted to carry Red roses (colors were and white) and the flowers just blew my mind. They were amazing
8. Our honeymoon suite, There was a bubble tub in the room and we filled that sucker with cool water and just soaked in it and talked about the day. It was so refreshing after such a long and tiring day.
9. Our videoagrapher, he was a friend of a friend starting a business. He was awesome, our pictures didn't turn out as well as we liked but our video is awesome! Almost 3 years later I'm still blown away with what he did and how unobtrusive he was with different moments but he managed to get wonderful footage.
10. Later on that night in the suite I sat in the middle of the bed eating a piece of cake while hubby sat in a big reclining chair drinking a coke and eating the leftover sliders and we talked more about our wonderful day. LOL As exhausted as we were we were both starved LOL

[catch]

1. Marry my husband :)
2. Having DH pretend to cry as I walked down the aisle, it made me laugh.
3. The food! It was soooo good.
4. My veil, I kept it on during most of the reception - didn't want to take it off.
5. Having all of my loved ones there and watching them have fun.
6. Dancing with my husband - I don't dance usually because I'm too shy, but for my wedding, I put that aside and danced like no one was watching. So much fun!
7. My bouquet - it was perfect!
8. My BMs wearing different shades of pink. They all looked happy and beautiful.
9. My dress! It was very comfortable. I didn't even have it bustled! I had a train and carried it around a bit and let it drag a bit too. I just didn't care, I was having too much fun.
10. Going to Rye Playland after the reception. We went with one of my bms and her husband and had so much fun! From bumper cars to funnel cakes, it was a perfect wedding day!

[MichelleRenee]

Oooh, fun!

1. My dress!!!! I bought a differentone initially and when we went to pick out BM dresses the girls made me try this one on and I immediately became a "2 dress bride."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/AngelyWangely/Prof%20Pics/019_19.jpg

2. The cake. I couldn't stop looking at it and was sad when we had to cut it. It was so perfect!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/AngelyWangely/mmwedding022.jpg

3. The way the younger flower girl said "uh oh" when she saw the older one throwing her flower petals.

4. The fact that my dad sucked it up and wore a tux.

5. My veil. My mom made it for me. It was the same length as my train, layer and bordered with crystals 1" apart. It took her a lot of time but it turned out amazing!

6. My family on the dance floor. They starting requesting songs which turned out great because everyone had a blast dancing to their favorite music. At 1 point they all ended up dancing in a giant circle around me and it was just awesome.

7. Our wedding date. It was the Sunday of Memorial Day so we got a ton of "Sunday wedding discounts" but no one had to work the next day.

8. The food. It was just awesome.

9. The flowers. I spent a few weeks making the bouquets myself out of silk flowers and they were perfect!

10. The favors. Our names are Mike and Michelle so we gave out m&m's (in our wedding colors) and our last name is a popular candy brand so we gave out those candies too.

[citylove]

Ooh, fun, I get to contribute!!

In no particular order:

1. Getting ready at home with just my best friend. Then the photographer (a friend) came by, then just my dad and step-mom. It was nice.

2. Not worrying about anything. Seriously. It was great.

3. Having a party at the house the night before for out-of-towners; it was great to catch up with them since I didn't have time really on teh day of. I guess for normal people this would be the rehersal dinner, but we didn't do that sort of thing.

4. My dress - well, I'm not modest about it. I looked hot! Some friends of mine hilariously confided that they called me a bitch, I looked so good :D LOL

5. I ran into one of my students while walking to the reception. He was awed :)

6. Looking around at my friends and family during the ceremony and thinking, "oh my god, they're getting wet! Crap!" Not considering that I, too, was getting rained on. [n.b. - uh, reserve a tent. Just in case. It *is* possible for it to rain on your wedding day.]

7. Walking around town (to/from reception/ceremony, etc) in our get up and getting lots of cat calls and attention.

8. Closing down the restaurant.

9. Our music playlist on the iPod. 2 months later we still listen to it on longer car trips. It will be a great piece of nostalgia and memory.

10. The act of marrying my favorite person. The ceremony was so perfect, and I tried to savor every moment. Luckily we have tons of pictures from the ceremony, we could probably recreate it if we wanted to!

[KrissyCat7]

10. We had an amazing long honeymoon at a beautiful resort in Mexico.

9. We picked out all of our wedding details two days before the wedding with our wedding coordinator.

8. Drinking champagne out of Dixie cups for breakfast with one of my best friends the morning of the wedding.

7. Lying by the pool with family and friends during the days leading up to the wedding.

6. Having both my mom and dad "try" to lace up my corset and then having my friend have to take over.

5. Our personalized vows

4. Riding in a horsedrawn carriage with my dad and having him joke about me smelling like horse poop.

3. Walking back to our room after the reception along the ocean dragging my dress in the sand.

2. Going out to the nightclub that night with the bridal party to dance it up.

1. Picking the perfect person for me to marry!

[AmandaLeigh]

10 things I loved about my wedding are:

Marrying the man I plan on spending the rest of my life with
Seeing DH smiling uncontrollably as I walked down the aisle
Our ceremony - the location was amazing and had just been restored to its original look and the priest really focused on our readings during the homily
We went to a park that has gorgeous grounds to take pictures and a wedding was being held there. We pulled in as the other wedding was letting out and the other guests took pictures of our awesome Rolls Royce limo. It was hilarious to see everyone deleting the pictures once they realized that we weren't "their" wedding
The strolling violinist DJ - he was just amazing. Played the violin during cocktails and dinner than played the best 70's and 80's music the rest of the night
Having my best friend as a bridesmaid even though she was 8 months pregnant and it was dificult for her to stand during the ceremony
My dress - I loved it. It was so simple snd elegant. I really did feel beautiful wearing it.
The amazing pink flowers. It was one of the two things thatI wanted (the first being a pretty white dress)
The cookie table - this is a tradition where I grew up and my mom and aunt spent about a month baking cookies every evening so that I would have an amazing cookie table. I"t meant alot that they were willing to give up so much time
Going on a cruise for our honeymoon. It was the best vacation ever.

[Sashi]

10 things I loved about my wedding (in no particular order):

1. My dress was the PERFECT dress for me.
2. My DH's reaction to my surprise place cards for us (CPA desk name plates since we waited to get married until we both got our CPA's)
3. That I planned to spend a particular $ amount and did not go over! (we paid for it ourselves)
4. Our honeymoon in Italy for 2.5 weeks.
5. Planning every detail with just my DH, I loved being in control of everything by myself!
6. The fact that it was January 6 and it was 75 degrees outside and sunny in Philadelphia!
7. My candy buffet which was a huge hit.
8. My wedding bands because they are gorgeous and I still can't stop looking at them.
9. The culmination of our 6 year relationship and finally being able to call him my husband!
10. Being able to say I had the perfect wedding for me.

[Elmophant]

Well...I'm actually divorced now, but I still look to my wedding fondly. I'm getting married again, so I can't wait to have new memories. I got my DD from my first husband and for that I will always be fond of him. He's a good man, just not for me. So....here are my favorites...(not necessarily in order)

10. Stopping at the liquor store to get champaign with the girls in the limo on the way to the church.

9. Getting pissed about my U-G-L-Y wedding cake that was done entirely wrong. I was so upset at the time but when I look back on it I think it's hilarious that I was so grumpy about a stupid cake.

8. Carrying around a beer stien full of champaign because I got tired of going back to the bar and getting my custom champaign flute refilled! :p

7. Seeing the blow up doll and 4 foot penis balloon that the best man put in the hotel van that picked us up from the reception. :eek:

6. Seeing one of my bridesmaids in her dress with combat boots at the reception and her dress tied up.

5. Being with my friends and family.

4. Having a blast in DisneyWorld on our honeymoon and having the park members cut us to the head of the line b/c we were on our honeymoon!

3. Wearing ballet shoes for the wedding...the best decision I made.

2. My nephews face when he carried a pillow with a "glass" slipper on it (I had a Cinderella themed wedding). He was SO proud!

1. Having my HUGE wedding party in the party bus, running out of the ridiculous amount of alcohol we had, stopping at the liquor store and buying more with me in my wedding gown and everyone else in the wedding clothes. It was HILARIOUS!

Sorry, my memories aren't sentimental but they are still something I love about that day...divorce or not!