What was the best wedding and reception you have ever been to?

I went to a lot of weddings when I was in my twenties and early thirties; it was my main choice for vacations. One of the best was at a winery in Napa Valley. just a perfect day, great cohesion amongst the guests and the wedding party. And I was with a woman I really loved spending time with and dancing with.

The best weddings have little to do with the food and the particulars of the reception as much as it has to do with the guests enjoying themselves and being with people they have a good time with.

One of my favorites was a girlfriend of mine who got married in a Catholic church and the Priest kept messing up their names. It was so funny. The whole ceremony felt very warm and sweet, and as long as Catholic weddings last, this one did not feel like it was dragging on. As we all drove down the highway to the reception we saw a big billboard wishing the couple congratulations. The reception was at her parent’s farm. We were told to bring casual clothes to change into. I brought shorts, many people changed into jeans. The driveway was the dance floor and they had a huge tent in the yard with tables. BBQ chicken, sides and desserts were on the menu. The best part was how enamoured the groom was with the bride. He seemed overjoyed and it was really sweet.

Another incredible wedding was at a synagogue and the flowers for the ceremony were not to be believed. The chupah was made from flowers suspended from the ceiling! It was incredible. The moment the bride entered the room to walk down the aisle we looked at the groom awaiting her and he had tears in his eyes. We heard gasps from those around us, and I gasped to and grabbed my husband hand. She was breathtaking and his emotion could be felt. It was a perfect moment. Their cocktail hour had 3 food stations. One Asian, one Mediteranean, one a carving station with also some roles and veggies and fruit, and in the fourth corner of the room a bar. After the cocktail hour we went to the main reception, I think it was a three course meal served at the table? Third course being dessert. It was very fairytalesque. The reception everyone danced, it was very fun.

My own wedding was pretty good too. My band was awesome. Everyone danced. I wish I had not done a cocktail hour in a separate room from the reception. It was very nice, overlooking the ocean and we had a live piano player, but I didn’t participate in it and I wish I had. Also, several of my friends I think had never been to a wedding with a cocktail hour and I think they thought the appetizers were the main meal. I realize that now that I have been to more weddings and see that many weddings just have heavy appetizers.

I would say both of mine were a total riot but if I had to pick one outside of it, it would be my frat brothers wedding where for their wedding dance song they chose to sing Meat Loaf – Paradise By The Dashboard Light and they nailed it and brought the house down with their performance.

Mine.

i got lucky afterwards

Honestly, I’ve never been to a wedding reception that I enjoyed (including my wife and I’s reception). I’ve been to about 10. They are just a pain no matter how good the food is. I just feel trapped and all I can think about is getting it over so I can get out of there, One particular painful reception was on a cruse boat at night in the San Francisco Bay. I think that I was the first one off the boat when it docked. Another time the wife’s family talked me into helping to clean up after the reception. What a sucker I was. I didn’t get out of there until about 2 a.m. Yea I had such a fun time.

@gondwanalon Do you dislike social events and parties in general? Do the weddings you go to usually involve guests helping out? I would assume the floating wedding there was a full staff to take care of things, but you mentioned helping clean up at another.

@gondwanalon Considering most couples normally stress out about the guest list and costs, maybe you should consider attending the wedding and skipping the reception. Seems like a win for everyone that way. You attend the event, skip the party you don’t like anyway, and save the new couple a little cash.

@GloPro It’s an interesting suggestion. I would not think to attend one and not the other. I just wouldn’t go to either probably if I did not want to go. Your suggestion does make sense though. When I think of weddings, the first thing that comes to my mind is the reception, the ceremony is just something to get through. Even though both weddings I spoke of as my favorites I talked about how nice the ceremonies were, mostly for my own enjoyment the after party is where my mind immediately goes to when I get a wedding invitation. Not to mention when I planned my own wedding the stress and planning really goes into the reception, not the wedding. At least for my that was the case.

I wonder what a bride and groom or even parents would think if someone RSVP’ed that they were coming to the wedding, but not the party. True, saves money for the people paying for the shindig, but I wonder if some people would feel offended?

Why would it be offensive if the wedding is the reason for the invite?

I know several couples that have sent invites to only one or the other. No kids at the ceremony is one example. Family only at the ceremony is another. It is not uncommon to invite more people to the reception if you have a destination wedding or multiple receptions in different states or something. I doubt the bride and groom would be offended. They have enough to think about already and would most likely not question the reasons behind the wedding only RSVP.

I can honestly say that I have never been to a wedding that I would call enjoyable. I find them boring generally.

@GloPro I would never think they would ask why someone is only attending one or the other. I guess some people might, but I don’t think it is very nice to ask someone why they turn down an invite to anything. At my SIL’s wedding and reception her father’s side did not go to the wedding, only the reception and it is still looked at by my husband’s immediate family as rude. I’m not sure why they didn’t attend the wedding. Might have been because they won’t enter a different house of worship than their own. It’s the only thing that would make sense to me. They partied all night though.

I can’t imagine inviting an adult to the wedding and not the reception if the reception is happening immediately after. Most destination weddings I know of the couple sometimes does a second reception, a more casual party usually, back home for friends and family who were not invited to or who did not attend the destination. That to me is completely different.

Yeah, I’ve definitely seen the church ladies get invited to the wedding and not the reception. A couple times. The bride chose to host a separate, smaller reception tea time, basically, for people that might be offended or exhausted by the reception. They never mentioned the actual reception to the excluded ones at all. I don’t think anyone was offended, and I think the little old ladies had a better time that way anyway.

Side note: my dad and sister got into a heated argument at the rehearsal dinner. His whole side left that night and didn’t show for the wedding the next day. I remember my sister peeking through the blinds to the parking lot right up until she walked the aisle… With my mother at her side. I don’t even remember if she had a reception. I guess I blocked those memories out, even though I was 22 years old. I decided that when my time comes I won’t give anyone the opportunity to ruin my day and will be eloping.

@GloPro Anyone who doesn’t go to a wedding because of a fight one night is ridiculous in my book. I feel badly for your sister, but those family members are awful. My husband’s brother did a horrible horrible thing right before our wedding. Really bad. It hurt the whole family. I’m not going to go into the detail, but I can tell you everyone here would agree it is cut off forever worthy. He was supposed to be the best man. He wasn’t going to come to the wedding once everyone discovered the horrible thing he had done. My husband didn’t care if he didn’t come, he was pissed enough to not want him there, but also forgiving enough to allow him to come. I thought he should come, because I couldn’t imagine the family would not talk to him for the rest of his life, and your brother only gets married once (or so the saying goes). He did decide to come at the last minute.

I think since I don’t attend any type of regular religious services my experience is different. I don’t have “church” ladies to invite. I can see how that would make sense in some situations.

Late to reading this thread, late to responding. I gave it some thought and the nicest wedding I have ever been to was for a coworker who had some kind of family dispute and her family decided not to attend her wedding. She and I were really not even that friendly but she paid for these plates at the reception and now she had a lot of people not planning to show. To rectify that problem, she invited a bunch of us from work. Beautiful reception, beautiful cocktail hour on Long Island Sound (local catering facility that is in a park), lots of unique touches instead of the usual “wedding” stuff. I can’t stand typical wedding songs and routines. Great band played that had both a lady and a man singer (usually, I hate wedding bands). For the final touch, they had an ice bar with ice slides, and you could order shots of Kahlua or other liqueur that they poured down the slide, so by the time it got to the bottom, it was icy cold. Beautifully lit, unfortunately, after all the food and cake, I had eaten so much I couldn’t eat any more.

I went to another reception that was not so memorable as far as the food or drink, but the people were dancing on each other’s backs (like surfing). They were firemen and they were wild. It was fun to watch.