General Chat

It was lovely to watch the ceremony from thousands of miles away, although the sound of the wind on the beach made it hard to hear the happy couples vows. My son who was doing the filming also turned his phone around so it showed me watching and I had a few cheery waves from friends and family there :-D
The majority of the guests live in my family's area but a much loved friend of my granddaughter flew from Australia to Jamaica to be there as one of her bridesmaids. <3
The whole occasion has been captured by a professional on video, so very much looking forward to seeing that :-)

Isn't technology wonderful? :-D
You may not have been there in person, but at least you were able to see it 'live'. Enjoy the UK reception when the time comes.

Enjoy the big day tomorrow GlasgowLass. After all the preparation, it will go in a flash.

As people are so mobile, it's not surprising guests have to travel distances more than in the past. Our son met his wife at Uni. They married in Northumberland near the brides home. We & Our rellies live in the SE. One Uni friend flew in from San Francisco, another from Dubai!

Our youngest was invited to a Polish Colleagues wedding....in Poland. She decided to turn it down on the basis of cost. Such a shame. She's been invited to Chistenings in the US but had to decline for the same reason. in that instance it was too late to get cheap air tickets. The father is an American air serviceman based in Suffolk. The mother is S African. They met in London. :-D

All best wishes to your daughter on her special day G.L and I hope that you all have a wonderful time. Your venue and arrangements sound ideal to me...... :-)

No fancy dress for my granddaughter'a wedding Ladyscozz it was all formal wear, the men all in suits with waistcoats and cravats which matched the colour of the bridesmaids dresses. :-)

SilviainCanada ..... the whole cost of this wedding was paid by my son-in-law ..... obviously the guests paid for own stay at the hotel, which was all inclusive, but the when it came to the meal for the reception it was not. There was a charge for the waiters, the marquee, decorations, microphones, music and even extra chairs for the ceremony on the beach... the list is endless. This hotel has 'wedding packages' so couples choosing the basic option probably only have the use of the private beach for their ceremony anything more is all regarded as an additional cost.
Thanks for your replies :-)

Our family are spread around England, none live near us so all weddings of our children (daughter's second marriage, first was near us,) and grandchildren have entailed an overnight stay. Son paid for us to stay in a hotel, together with his bride's parents and my parents and the bride's great aunt. Others paid for themselves, it was not a big wedding. Daughter and partner paid towards our stay for her second wedding. Two grandsons we have so far been able to stay with their parents. It is a sign of the times that families are spread around I think, but luckily none of ours have been able to afford a wedding abroad.

Joeva I am sure that you will have a lovely time at the blessing for your granddaughter and how wonderful that technology allowed you to watch the actual wedding.

Glasgow Lass, I hope all goes well tomorrow. :-)

Joeva ...... I'm sorry that you had to miss your granddaughter's wedding. Enjoy the Blessing and the Reception xx


GL ............. I hope you had a wonderful time at the wedding xx


we had a reverse situation. It was the other side that had the travelling to do

Our daughter got married in the local church, the one she had attended since she was a child.

She was very thoughtful about our finances ............ church is small, so number of guests was limited to about 120. She wanted a morning wedding, a lunch with some music, and then back to our house by about 4 pm with about half of the guests. They then went to an old but good hotel downtown for the night, and took themselves to an excellent restaurant for dinner. She arranged the music .......... went to the Music School at the university and found some students who were offering their services for such events, and we had a lovely duo. She even arranged to have the wedding cake (a traditional fruit cake, not that common over here) made by students in the catering programme at the local trades college. They loved doing it as part of their training :-)

She also contributed about 40% of the cost.

BUT .............. his family is all on the other side of Canada. Only his immediate family of parents, sister, niece and grandmother could afford to come. His father was one of 9 children and his mother has 2 siblings, so you can imagine the size og the group left behind.

HIS parents arranged a reception for September after my daughter and her husband had settled in over there. We managed to get over ................ over 90 people for a dinner dance. It was nearly a catastrophe though ........ we arrived about 3 days before the reception, just as the in-laws found out that the hotel where they'd booked the dinner had closed down :-0

Some frantic running around, and they eventually managed to find a reception room AND a place that would provide the dinner!

rofl GlasgowLass

What transport is your sister using to get to your daughter's wedding?

stop screaming!!!!!!!!! rofl


Have a lovely day on Saturday....... keep calm...... I'm sure you'll be a beautiful MotherOfTheBride!

<3

My sister has been married twice.
Wedding No2 was on her 45th birthday.

Her wedding dress was a brightly coloured Indian Sari and she had ugly jewels on her forehead.
It is so unlike her.
I thought she looked daft , especially next to her OH in his full highland dress including one of those awful plaids and a mahoosive broach holding it all together.
They looked liked a pair from the old British Empire in India

A few weeks later, I got a call from my friend. She lives in ....Norway.!
She asked me about my sisters wedding, the photos and what was.... the elephant all about ?
Elephant? What Elephant?

OMG
Her OH has no shame
After the wedding, HE rang one of the" tacky" newspapers.
He said that my sister had "always" wanted an Indian themed wedding and had her heart set on arriving at her wedding on the back of an ELEPHANT but he hadn't been able to find for on the day, and could they help?

I've never heard my sister mention an elephant before. Not ever!
It was a Registry Office affair

About a week later, the paper invited them to the zoo.
They got all togged up in their weird wedding outfits again and had "retrospective wedding photos " taken, courtesy of the worst newspaper in the world.
The story and photos were published.

It was such a cringe.
I hid for about a month whilst my friends thought it was hysterical.
She chose the Sari. He hadn't seen before the big day.

HE decided that she would have looked good riding on elephant, called the paper and arranged it.

We know a couple who were married in Fiji.

Nice.

But........... the invitations stated "Fancy Dress".

Okaaaaay.......

The bride & groom were dressed as Fred & Wilma Flintstone!!! No idea what the bridesmaids or guests wore, but they said everyone had great fun.

I wonder if they have a big framed wedding photograph on their living room wall.

and....... no, we weren't at the wedding.

Many Congratulations to your Granddaughter Joeva.
I do feel for you not being able to attend and it must be hard for you but, at least you will have the England Reception to look forward to.

After 8 months of preparations, my daughter finally gets married on Saturday.
She and her partner did discuss having her wedding abroad but, she knew that some of her closest family and friends would never be able to meet the costs involved.

Her chosen venue isn't exactly local, although it's about 30 miles from our home.
As we are providing all the decorations,for both the ceremony and the reception we have to make a trip to the hotel tomorrow morning to drop it all off.
(OH is carting dozens of boxes downstairs as I type)

We drive back home in time for lunch, pack 2 cars again with all the family, their outfits, kilts, the wedding dress overnight bags and ...drive back down again.
Everything else is being delivered to the hotel by local suppliers.
A big family meal is booked for tomorrow night at one of the local restaurants.

The wedding party will be staying for 2 nights.
Most of our 100 guests are also staying for at least one night at this hotel or others nearby.
Most are happy to meet the extra expense and are treating it as a special weekend away.
Sunday morning breakfast should be fun!
We had intended to hire a bus to transport our guests home but as there are only two couples who require return transport, we have provided taxis for them.
Two other families are travelling together and have their own mini bus!

I'm really glad that she chose to marry in Scotland.

Xxx

All my family weddings have been local Maggie ..... I did go to a couple that were further afield many years ago but I was working and much younger then !

My son-in-law has spent a small fortune on this wedding......... I can only hope his other two daughters ( both in relationships) decide on something nearer to home ! :-D

I was lucky. Daughter #1 had her wedding in a local hotel, so I got a taxi home.
Daughter #2 had hers in Sussex (where she lives), but had the reception in a village hall with a campsite behind it :-D

All guests were told to bring tents. My sister, our mum and I arranged a holiday in a camper van at this time, so had a short stagger to our 'mobile home'.

Grand daughter is only 14 this year - but she is well aware of the shortness of her relations pockets!!!!

Very poignant day for me..... just watched the ceremony via Skype of her wedding in Jamaica. I would have loved to have been there but after a lot of heart-searching chose not to attend The happy couple had many of their friends with them for their special day and also a few younger members of their families. Sadly, none of their grandparents went for many understandable reasons. :-(

'Destination weddings' are very popular now I know but it is a very 'big ask' as they said on their 'save the date' card for many people to afford to stay at a 5* hotel even just for a week, also for those that have health problems to have to make the journey.

On the bright side there is going to be an England Reception next month which we all be able to attend and also have their marriage blessed, where my granddaughter will be wearing her wedding dress along with all her bridesmaids etc. Very much looking forward to being there.

Just wondering if any others have had the same dilemma as me regarding a wedding invitation.