Hi guys! I'm getting married next year in May, and I need ideas. What did you guys do at your weddings that was cool? What have you seen at other weddings that worked well? Do you have any wedding invitation ideas?

Heeeeeeeeeeeelp!

BBQ food.. rofl. :razz:

A friend of mine had a wedding by a lake. I couldn't make it, but I heard it was one of the best weddings that people had gone to. I love the outdoor sort of weddings, especially if the weather is super great :D

Just don't be keeping a horse nearby.. I don't think Mr. Vik would be too happy if you suddenly went horseriding instead.. :razz: 'Runaway Bride'. Love that film :P

Have you got any ideas yet? Anything you'd like in particular? :)

(I wanna get married..)

I need to start thinking about invitations, and just any tips that people have would be most welcome.

Two of my sisters designed (ish..) their wedding invitations themselves (not by scratch though). It was pretty cool. I'm pretty dorky.. when and if I'd ever get married, I'd definitely want to design my own one. As in, on the computer. Photoshop eat your heart out. That would be awesome :D

Ooooo I have lots of ideas from mine! We did everything ourselves (including stationary and catering) and it worked out really well in the end. Oo and I made veryone cry when they read our invitations because of the wording XD

Oh and before you knock a BBQ, there's a very posh place just north of Peterborough that do very posh wedding BBQ's :P

'Posh' and 'north of Peterborough' ?? IS there anything north of Peterborough?! Just kidding peeps :P

Facey, tell me everything! I need ideas, especially for invite designs - I want to do my own but I don't really know where to start.

Aww, Facey! That's cute :D
Oh and before you knock a BBQ, there's a very posh place just north of Peterborough that do very posh wedding BBQ's :P

I wouldn't knock that idea, that's why it was the first thing that came to my head, :embarrassed:. BBQ food works great at weddings. I've had it at a few that I went to :) /flirt outdoor weddings.

A few sites that you can look at for design ideas, etc..
http://www.cardlab.co.uk/
http://www.specialdaydirect.co.uk/catalog/weddingstationery.html
http://www.paperpassiondesign.co.uk/wedding_invitations.php
http://www.inkidesign.com/weddingstationery.html

Not that it's going to help much, heh. But sometimes when I find that I'm stuck on a design and don't know where to start, looking at examples does help and gets the brain ticking :) (without even needing to 'copy' things).

LOL second attempt at this post, I pressed backspace by accident!

Starting with the stationary, look at everything possible. It'll give you an idea of what you like and don't like. Once you're done, you should have some good ideas of what you want to put into yours. It might not all go together but it's trial and error. Pick colours, fonts etc. It really isn't that difficult once you've got some inspiration. Ours were closed by ribbon and in our favourite font and colours to match the scheme. We also had a special stamp made with both of our initials which we used on everything including the envelopes.

There are also tons of verses online to go into invitations etc. but I would suggest doing the same with those as with the rest of the design. Look around alot and draw from that but yo're good with words anyway!

Here's what we had on ours:

Love lasts a lifetime and a lifetime begins this hour
When the two of us
MrFacey
and
MissFacey-to-be
Begin a new life together
On.....
at.....
Address

Please join us on this special occasion

errrmmmm, I'm gonna stop there because I could go on forever and it's only the invitations!!

EDIT: I lie, I'm going to go on.

An idea we had for during the ceremony was to light a main candle from two smaller candlesticks. Joining the two flames into one. We still have the main church candle now and we light it once a year for our anniversary. We'll also light it when children are born too. We found it so nice to be able to do this during the service.

My son just got married this past Saturday. He is an artist and font designer so he designed their invitations, etc. First deciding on the theme then colors, he designed everything accordingly. Since the wedding took place at my house out in the garden, they decided they liked the idea of using ivy vines in the design as there is a lot of ivy on our property. They chose a beautiful shade of sage green and he drew an awesome design of ivy vines using that color and included the initials of the bride and groom within the vine design using one of the fonts he designed. The initials were barely visible as they flowed into the design and the subtlety of that was very nice. Different elements of that design were used on the inside of the invitations, return cards, and any other printed material needed carrying the theme in a subtle manner. They chose to make bookmarks as favors and he used the same style to do a few new designs with the ivy vines and put their names and the date of the wedding on one side and some nice, and some humorous quotes on the other side. They strung them with fine jute and added beads and/or charms at the ends of the jute. The guests loved the favors.

Congrats on your upcoming wedding Vik!

Awww, cute! That sounds beautiful, and the invitations clearly thought out. Being that it was at your house, the theme/design to the invitations sounded perfect XD

And congrats, Sierra! :)

Thank you to everyone who replied to far, there are so wonderful ideas! I am loving the green ivy thing, Sierra! We're getting married outside, and green is Mr. Vik's fave colour, so it would really fit.

I love the idea of donating some food to charity too - especially as we pretty much already have everything we need.

We'll definately be writing our own vows as we are not marrying in a church, so the service is pretty much up to us.

Facey, thank you for the candle idea, that's really beautiful.

And thanks for the links, Nerd!


I really am a noob when it comes to design... does anyone know of any free software I could use to design something nice? In the way of invitations and other stationary, I mean. I have Paint, but I have a feeling it's not going to be quiiiiiiiiite good enough :P

lol!.. "Paint!" hahahaaa!! :razz:

I'd say the adoble suit is great.. Photshop, illustrator, and especially InDesign. I use those three for all my design work. I'd have no idea when it comes to the other softwares though. The free stuffs :S Oh, and you can get trial versions of those Applications, if you want to try it out.

I'm still laughing at 'Paint'. I've got a few funny visuals in my head.. XD

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j156/vikstar80/invite-1.jpg

^^^^^^^^ This is why I need heeeeelp!

Now I'd send that out :razz:

I found Publisher invaluable.

I am an avid collector of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Rennie_Mackintosh) - so it seemed appropriate that the theme was based around his works (and with Hubby being Scottish too). All the invites were CRM (but subtly - not screaming in your face). The invitations were Charles Rennie Mackinstosh design and it was subtly themed throughout.

We like to do things different - so, we gave out little minatures of Vodka and Whiskey for the men (individually printed with our names and date of wedding - again CRM) - and favours for the ladies.

I managed to find a 'Favour Cake' in Menorca - we took all the ribbon out of it (as it was a ghastly orange) and I found tartan to match my hubby's kilt and painstakingly put them back - I have pic's somewhere and will show you the end result :biggrin:

Hahahahahaa!!!
I nearly fell off my chair! AJ's wondering if you used her crayons to do that, rofl. Vik, dude. That is tooo funny XD

instead of the usual sugared almonds favors, i'm planning on doing a CD with our favorite songs for the guests(as me and tim love our music). when my cousins got married 1 did a lottery ticket for everyone and another one had specially made ale with them on the lable(my uncle works for a beer company)
putting you own twist on something traditional is nice.
also choreographing you first dance is quite nice. you can tailor it to yours and mr Viks personallities. i'm doing one for a couple at the moment.

We had chocolate bars as favours and little bags for the kids with drawing pads, crayons etc too. It's nice because everyone's kept the wrappers. Mind you, I heard from someone last week who's allerigic and the whole bar's still sat in the fridge! LOL

A friend of mine had favour bags jam packed full of sweeties from their childhoods. That was cool.

I have been mucking about with a design like this for my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary...
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb232/Bad_MaNneRs/iSketch%20Forumites/posting%20stuff/MC50.jpg

Not sure about the design yet - may go with splitting it vertically into thirds.

Just an idea.

My wedding day was a blur - at the reception the Bar Manager was a close friend of Mrs BM's mum and he followed Mrs BM and I around all night. We were never without a drink in our hands. That's a good tip.

We did some sort of untying a white ribbony thing as we entered. Had "Love Is All Around" by Wet, Wet, Wet as the Bridal Waltz.

Her grandma baked the bases of the wedding cake. I did the marzipanning and royal icing. And my mum decorated it.

One tip, and this was a huge deal for me, i'm still mad about it.

Allow your future husband to make a few decisions, just so he feels useful and in control of something. You don't have to give him big decisions, give him something like picking, dunno, the tablecloth shape or something, something you don't care about in any way it comes out :razz:. This is opposite to not allowing him to make any decisions and doing it all your way, or to ask him what he'd like and go your way anyway and stuff. My wife is a control freak you see, she was just like that, she even dared to pick a suit for me and told me, not asked me, to wear it. Of course when i picked the suit i picked something very different, and of course she went ballistic. I'm a little bitter about that lol. We like to feel important too!

EDIT:Not calling you a control freak or anything, not even hinting at it, it's just in case it comes to that scenario, wouldn't want either of you to stay mad at each other for the same reason i did.

That's a good one 2. I must admit, I went like a railroad until MrFacey, quite rightly, kicked up a stink. I think it's all too easy to forget that the man might have wants for the wedding too.

Ohand Vik, if you're booking a the wedding night in a hotel or something. Don't book it in your maiden name, you'll only turn up and they won't be able to find the booking...not that I know anyone stupid enough to do that :embarrassed:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j156/vikstar80/invite-1.jpg

^^^^^^^^ This is why I need heeeeelp!


Actually, Vik, to be quite honest... I'd love to receive something like that. It's extraordinarily personal to you, it would make me smile a lot... and I'd remain in a good mood until ... well, until I got to the point of paying for the wedding present! It might even get me past that moment too. :smile:

Actually, Vik, to be quite honest... I'd love to receive something like that. It's extraordinarily personal to you, it would make me smile a lot...

I have to agree with that. It was absolutely hilarious, but it would be great to receive an invitation like that. :razz:

One of my friends (a few years back) did something similar, where she designed her own little collage invitation. But she made it a bit of a jokey one. We loved it, it gave us huuuge smiles :) The small, personal touches to things can make them very special (and amusing :P)

Aw all these lovely plans!
/me waits for the group invite for forum to wedding in Germany

I went to my best friend's wedding a couple of years ago, and every single bit of it was gorgeous. Married in this tiny quaint church, only family and close friends there, then back to the bride's parents house for food and party under a giant marquee.

Everything was plain and simple. I think once you go into grand designs, everything gets stressful. Bride made her own bouquet, bridesmaids did their own too. Their gift to all that attended the wedding, was a tree for everyone. You just went along and chose a tree. My brother and I planted our trees in my uncle's garden, as we had the house up for sale at the time. So now, everytime I visit my uncle, I have a permanent reminder of my friend's gorgeous wedding day.

i went to a very cool wedding recently where there was a game of golf for couples. the holes would get harder as you progressed, and if you made the shot within the par, you'd get to kiss! so if you made the easiest hole, you'd get to peck each otheron the cheeks. if you made the second hole, it'd be a peck on the lips. third hole would be a longer kiss, etc etc... all the way to the most difficult hole, where the man would dip the woman and they would french kiss. it was actually very amusing.

there was another wedding i went to, where the bride and groom chose a very silly friend of theirs to be the emcee. he wrote some songs about them and just some random nursery rhymes, they had a slideshow of both of them growing up... it was very sweet. :)

........, where the man would dip the woman and they would french kiss. it was actually very amusing.




LMAO :biggrin: I am sure it was :razz:

hehe... that has tickled me.... "man would dip the woman" conjures up images of sheep washing in NZ. If Mr TF dipped me I dunno whether I would kiss him after....:razz:

Edit: And slap your dirty minds!!!!!

You mean.. that wasn't supposed to be dirty? How else was I supposed to take that? :razz:

there was another wedding i went to, where the bride and groom chose a very silly friend of theirs to be the emcee. he wrote some songs about them and just some random nursery rhymes, they had a slideshow of both of them growing up... it was very sweet. :)

Aww, that's a very cute idea :) A friend of mine sang nursery rhymes that she changed the wordings to slightly, to show her sister how much she appreciated her. When she got to the 5th rhyme, she started crying, and triggered everyone else off with tears. And then laughter, lol.

I need to get hitched.. all this wedding talk is making me crazy.. :razz:

/me whips out a golf-ball sized diamond on a platinum band, gets down on her knees...

Nerdy, i've loved you ever since i laid eyes on your iSketch profile. will you marry me, and make me the happiest person on the Earth?

Congratulation to Vik and her husband-to-be!!!


Ohand Vik, if you're booking a the wedding night in a hotel or something. Don't book it in your maiden name, you'll only turn up and they won't be able to find the booking...

When I booked mine, the fellow on the phone was surprised I didnt want the big room with the panoramic view.......until I politely reminded him that it was my wedding night...I wouldn't necessarily be looking at the view.....:eek:

Vik, all I can recommend is this: it is a special day because of the meaning of it, not because of how lavish it is - people will remember what you say and how you look at each other, not the font on the table placment cards.... I'm not saying that that sort of stuff isnt worth thinking about, however your wedding day is one day that should celebrate who you are as a couple, so the important thing is finding the things that personalise it and have meaning for you.

Allow your future husband to make a few decisions,

There are two people getting married that day...
/me hugs 2.0

Congratulations again...and happy planning
Love Saff
xx

* gracie;91812 whips out a golf-ball sized diamond on a platinum band, gets down on her knees...

Oh, you shouldn't have gone through such efforts. All I needed was a bowl of pasta. Honest.

Nerdy, i've loved you ever since i laid eyes on your iSketch profile. will you marry me, and make me the happiest person on the Earth?

LOL!! Ya dork. XD
How many times do I have to tell you people, I don't swing that way! :razz:

Sorry for spamming your thread, Vik. Please don't tell the greenie mod off. :twisted:

If you use this, it will be awesome!!!

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j156/vikstar80/invite-1.jpg

^^^^^^^^ This is why I need heeeeelp!

I agree with Nuffey, the simplest the better. Ours was very simple and there are times I look at other people's weddings and feel a bit of green eye but when I actually think about it. We chose ours to be the way it was and it was great. All this wedding talk made me get the wedding box out and being reminded of how much of a fabulous day we had was just fantastic.

No kidding, our wedding cost £10k less than friends of ours wedding did and ours was just so much more relaxed for it.

i went to a very cool wedding recently where there was a game of golf for couples. the holes would get harder as you progressed, and if you made the shot within the par, you'd get to kiss! so if you made the easiest hole, you'd get to peck each otheron the cheeks. if you made the second hole, it'd be a peck on the lips. third hole would be a longer kiss, etc etc... all the way to the most difficult hole, where the man would dip the woman and they would french kiss. it was actually very amusing.


WOW 1 wedding, and how many divorces were filed that day ?

A SONG FOR MR & MRS VIK, click here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm18VUFGBU8&mode=related&search=)

This was mine and mr jewels wedding song click here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s5T9v8CWC4)


edit: If you need advice on hen nights, then I'm your girl:razz:

Oooo Jewels, I didn't have a hen night :sad:

/me calls for Jewels to organise a late one!

WOW 1 wedding, and how many divorces were filed that day ?

A SONG FOR MR & MRS VIK, click here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm18VUFGBU8&mode=related&search=)

This was mine and mr jewels wedding song click here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s5T9v8CWC4)


edit: If you need adviced on hen nights, then I'm your girl:razz:

OMG JEWELS!!!

They oughtta be taken out and shot. To put them out of my misery. Please tell me they ain't related to you......

My problem is that I don't really like lovesongs. I just kinda tune them out when they come onto the radio! I prefer quirky little songs. I think about the most romantic one I can think of for the first dance is '9 million Bicycles in Bejing' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGdvIc9DP9A) by Katie Melua. And as Mr. Vik's fave music is death metal, he wont be much help in this subject either :P

2.0 don't worry, Mr. Vik has already been involved in all the decisions, such as location etc. He has already said he wants to wear sneakers to the ceremony - fine by me! lol

I'm a big fan of imperfection and oddness, so our wedding will not be a particularly grand or well run affair. It's gonna be great! I'll make sure and show you the invites when I have done designing them.

One idea I had was to have packs of cards on the tables for the people who hate dancing (like meeee). I'd love to spend the party listening to some music and playing games! lol - We could even have a poker tourney! So long as everyone lets me win. I know it's an odd idea, but we are both gamers - we met through a game, we both play online games, and I think we're both at our happiest when we are being competitive :P

I also want to put disposable cameras on the tables and tell people to take as many pics of the other guests as possible, so we have photos of everyone.

We went to a wedding on saturday and they had disposable cameras on the table, I took a few pics then my 5 year old spent the rest of the day using it. He chased the bridesmaids round until he managed to get their pic, took a pic of his toy car, lol and probably a few of the floor. But as my friend said she can't wait to see the photos as she probably missed out on alot of what went on they will be an unique view of her wedding.

Oh! And another thing - anyone got any honeymoon tips? (I mean locations, not tips on what to do.. lol!)

Oh! And another thing - anyone got any honeymoon tips? (I mean locations, not tips on what to do.. lol!)

HUNTER VALLEY - NEW SOUTH WALES (http://www.winecountry.com.au/)
AUSTRALIA (http://www.winecountry.com.au/)

Oh! And another thing - anyone got any honeymoon tips? (I mean locations, not tips on what to do.. lol!)

MARITIUS!!!!! lol

when its my time to get married thats where i wanna get hitched on a nice white sandy beach. HEAVEN!!:smile:

I love that song Vik ,never heard it before but will listen to it again .its simple yet lovely :razz:

Can I have a honeymoon without the wedding and the commitment?

Sure Brighter, in the Uk we call them dirty weekends :razz:

Wow some lovely ideas.
Nice invite nerdy lol, vik i know how much you love charlie, so why not have him featured on your wedding invites, eg charlie wearing a veil with a speech bubble saying, mum and dad are getting married ect.
Also the little details are often the most loved, like dissposable cameras on tables, and small gifts left on tables ect.
If your outside like you say, and kids are going to be around organise a small treasure hunt in the garden for them, they love finding things and keps them occupied.
If your going to spalsh out on anything, make it a profesional wedding video, priceless viewing for the rest of your life, there is nothing worse than trusting someone at the wedding to do one only to find its all wrong, like peoples feet in the shot and random camera spinning where you see nothing lol.
I still watch my video 12 years on, it was done with background music of my choice, and made in to a book, so the opening scene was a book opening ect, and each clip a new page turning very lovely.
Only cost 250 for a 3 hour film as well, and the company i used works all over europe as well.
Another thing i found was, not everyone likes rich fruit wedding cake, so do a tier or two in sponge, really worth it.
Maybe hire your wedding gown and groom outfit rather than buy, ok its nice to hand the dress down if you have a daughter, buy hey many kids want there own anyway on there big day.
I payed £90 for a 2 day hire on my dress, and it was an italian silk dress really lovely, hubbys morning suit was also italian designer at a cost of £100 for two days, the money saved was awesome.
I f i think of anything else ill stop by again lol.:razz:

good idea on the hiring of the dress WC my friends planning on doing that.

i'm wondering if Viks first dance will be anything like this:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYhlm9GTAQ0

i can teach you,lol

Cherry, do you want to be my wedding planner? lol! Some lovely ideas there, thanks :)

lol Lotts, if Mr. Vik tried lifting my above his head, we'd be spending our honeymoon in the emergency room :P

About the dress... I am actually going to buy one. I don't know if you guys have ever heard of it, but Oxfam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxfam) do a bridal shop. It's dresses and other things that are worn at wedding shows and then can't be sold on. I think very few are actually second hand dresses in the true sense of it, but that wouldn't bother me either. The reason I am doing this is because the dresses are a lot cheaper (more money to spend on the honeymoon) and also because all the profits go to Africa and other needy places to help the people there. The idea that a dress I love will help people in need just would make it all the more special for me. There are a few of these shops around the country and I'm going to have a look when I go home next :)

If I really can't find anything there I'll rent. There's no way I'm spending a fortune on a dress that will be worn once. If I do find one I will probably donate it to charity once I am through looking at it (probably about 2 weeks after the wedding, lol).

Lotts, our wedding dance will probably look more like this.. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OPmYbP0F4Zw . i.e. something from a horror show..
If I were in the country, I would take you up on your offer! We need help, lol.

I had a very simple wedding on a tight budget, but everyone had huge smiles on their faces all day, the two most different things we did for ours was that we had a huge canvas and got every one to put there hand print and a small message by it, it is now hanging on our wall and looks fab as well as being a great reminder, we also had a masked ball type after party which made for amazing photos.
Best of luck i know it's stressful. x

The oxfam bridal dress idea is really lovely, what a terrific idea.
The best of both worlds, cheap togs and helping other people, vik your a diamond darling you really are.:razz: