What is the most over-the-top wedding you have attended???

[greatauntoftriplets]

This is inspired by my friend prolesunited's wedding thread referenced below. I know that she will have a great day later this month.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x4254032#4254442

My over-the-top wedding was a year ago last month when friend's daughter got married. There were 13 bridesmaids, a maid of honor and a matron of honor. Fortunately, they walked up the aisle fast or else we would have been there even longer than we were...given that it was a Catholic ceremony. There were approximately 370 people at the reception.

A week from Sunday, I will attend a baby shower for the same person. There are 90 people invited!!! :wow: I expect it to take forever.

[SeattleGirl]

1. Two friends of mine were married by Father Guido Sarducci

No kidding. It was 11 years ago at our annual Labor Day Weekend "Bumbershoot" Festival here in Seattle. Bumbershoot is a big deal, with music, arts, food, etc., at Seattle Center. 11 years ago, they decided to start doing weddings there. My friends had lived together for years, and "A" said she would marry "D" if she could do it at Bumbershoot. They applied and were chosen. "Father" Guido got a license to legally perform marriages in the State of Washington. Both "A" and "D" are musicians, and their procession consisted of a lot of their musician friends holding African masks on sticks ("A" is African-American), with drummers drumming along. Instead of ushers, Bumbershoot had "Hushers", and there was a woman in the audience who as a designated disrupter. "A" and "D"s parents were part of the ceremony, which took place on a stage in front of a "house" that looked like a huge pink-and-white wedding cake. It was such an anti-traditional wedding, and was the most fun I'd ever had at one! The sweetest part was when "A" and "D" sang "Lean on Me" to each other during the ceremony. They got married 3 weeks after my husband and I did, and I have the pictures I took of their wedding included in my wedding book.

[REP]

2. I Avoid Weddings!

I've only been to three: my brother's, my Loved One's best friend's wedding (LO was the best man) and LO's childfree co-worker's. None of them were over-the-top or excessive, but my brother's was the most fun.

[obxhead]

3. A great friend had 2 beach house in the...

OBX (outer banks of NC) for a week. He gave me a room to crash in for free. I remember drinks, bridesmaids, and sand. Best beach trip I've ever had.

[mongo]

4. My 2nd wedding

at my ex's uncle's house on the Hudson. 100X50 ft tent - 200 guests, open bar, live band.

We got $500.00 checks from mobsters though. I had no idea. My ex was in denial -- "honey who is (insert Italian name here)" - "oh that's a business associate of my dad and uncle _____ - I think they lost a bunch of money in some deal with him".

Her family was in the construction business in NJ.

[grannylib]

5. My hubby's niece - and the ceremony itself was not TOO over the top

aalthough the priest droned on and on and on and on....
But the reception...wow. It was nice, but WAY too fancy for my taste. Groom's family has megabucks, so it was really overdone IMHO...but the one truly thoughtful thing they did was provide little gift bags for all the kids, personalized, and they had put a LOT of thought into them; family owns a toy company, and each bag had MANY goodies in it, personally selected for the age and gender and interests of the child...kept them very amused and happy at what could have been a grim occasion for the little ones.

[Sgent]

6. Hmm... easy answer here

Friend of my families who is a 5 star chef who owns his own catering company.

In NOLA...

The ceremony was held in St. Louis Cathedral, which was full.

The reception was at the old World Trade Center reception hall (marble, gold, etc). The food was unreal -- buster and soft shell crabs on huge trays, lobster, steak, beluga caviar, etc. The entire buffett was just unreal. Open bar with only top shelf liquor...

Most/much of the food was donated by his suppliers, as was the liquor, and some of the other items. According to him, for him to put on the wedding w/o the donations and owning the company, would have been over $300/person -- and this was 10 years ago.

[Missy Vixen]

8. This sounds amazing!

I had no idea that one could get married at St. Louis Cathedral.

You all must have had a tremendous time!

Julie

[Arugula Latte]

21. Yum!!

:P

[Susang]

7. A wedding I attended at the Drake Hotel

A co-worker from Heaven on Seven, also a relative of the owner. She was marrying a guy with lots of $$$. They had somewhere between 400-500 guests, had the wedding in the main ballroom, then shuttled us all out to the lobby of the Drake for cocktails and an enormous appetizer spread with various stations set up around the lobby, complete with attendants.

Appetizers and cocktails (full superpremium bar, btw) lasted an hour and a half, while the staff of the Drake reset the ballroom for the reception. When the room was ready, we were ushered back to our tables and then received a four course dinner, complete with champagne and full bar.

After dinner, there was a band for dancing and a dj, who spun during the band's breaks. The reception lasted from 6:00PM to 1:00AM, the bridal party had 14 bridesmaids/groomsmen as well as 6 flower girls and 3 ring bearers.

[Missy Vixen]

9. This was almost 20 years ago

One of my guy friends asked if I would attend his boss' daughter's wedding with him. I still remember arriving at the church, seeing seven limos idling at the curb and whispering to him, "Brian, I think I'm underdressed." For those who have ever lived in Seattle, the wedding was at First Presbyterian, the reception was at the Rainier Club. (Rainier Club = old, old money.)

To this day, I have never seen anything like this wedding. The bride had the flowers flown in from Hawaii. A string quartet played at the wedding and two different bands played at the reception. There were multiple rooms full of amazing food and drink, and the servers were pouring Perrier Jouet like it was going out of style.

It was fun.

Julie

[graywarrior]

10. Hell's Angel wedding.

[hunter]

22. That's the first sort of wedding I thought of too...

It seems there is something wrong with our definition of "over-the-top."

[Horse with no Name]

11. Hugssss GAWT

Went to this fancy schmanzy wedding where they flew orchids in from Hawaii...flew lobster in from Maine for the reception...and those were probably the least overdone things of the entire affair.
Girl I went to HS with...was very chubby her entire HS, never had a boyfriend, lost a bunch of weight in college, got a boyfriend...got married...etc.
Her dad was a local businessman. He wasn't kidding when he said that price was no object on the wedding because he said as fat as _____ was, he never expected to give her one.:(
Guy was a pig.

I went to another wedding of a colleagues daughter, and sorry, the betrothed were two of the most unfortunate looking souls I have ever seen. You couldn't say the bride was beautiful with a straight face. The fact that she was a mean and horrid human certainly didn't help with the beauty is skin deep thing. Her ugly went all the way to the bone.
We are all sitting there trying to mind our manners, when this goddawful voice starts coming behind us singing...I mean, think of a cat getting caught in a toaster or E.T. having an orgasm...it was the most horrible singing I have ever heard. The ENTIRE church congregation did a collective gasp. You could see everyone pinching themselves or biting their lips to keep from laughing out loud.
It was the groom singing a song he wrote to his beloved.

After that wedding, I only go when there is no way out. It is so much easier to send a gift and best wishes and not have to be tortured by bad taste.

[Lavender Brown]

12. The worst was a reception that had about 10 different themed rooms

with enough food to feed a small country, and music so loud my ears hurt for days afterwards.

[Generic Other]

13. I didn't actually go , but a friend's sister's wedding was ruined

when the ex-girlfriend of the groom ran over the bride's foot in the parking lot after a screaming match. I am pretty sure it was the bride's fault; however, it must be noted her foot never healed (she was diabetic) and she ended up having her leg amputated.

Moral: Don't go to weddings.

[trof]

14. In a "castle" outside of Boston.

Can't remember the name of the place.
I think it was a former monastery or nunnery.

It was like something out of a Robin Hood movie.
Had a great time.

[jmm]

15. Was it the castle museum in Gloucester?

I attended a $100,000 wedding there about five years ago. The marriage lasted 8 months.

[Lumily]

16. About 15 years ago,...

...I attended the wedding of a college friend of mine in Baltimore. She and her fiance (I hated him), were real simple people. They wanted to get married barefoot on the beach, but her parents wouldn't hear of that. Her parents had eloped, and her mother regretted not having a big wedding, so they gave my friend the wedding they didn't have.

Over 600 people attended. My friend claims to have known only about 70 of the attendees. The rest were friends and associates of her parents. There were 8 bridesmaids and they wore orange. That was my friend's revenge against her mother. Her mother picked the dress design and Mary picked the color, bright, crayola orange. Three of her bridesmaids were flaming redheads. Oh and her mom picked up the tab for the dresses so the bridesmaids weren't out any money.

The reception was a huge event. There were three menus you could choose from: Chinese, Italian, or Western (This pretty much meant steaks). I've never seen so much food and drink. There was a live band, and the cake was 8 feet tall. I can't even imagine what the cost of an open bar for 600 of your closest friends would be, let alone everything else. They were rich as hell though.

When they got back from their honeymoon, the bride called me, and told me that they got absolutely every single thing they registered for, plus $33,000. Unbelievable.

Oh, and they are divorced now.

[Ikonoklast]

17. My nephews' wedding

He met his future wife when they were at Skidmore in upstate N.Y. and got married four years later. They held the wedding reception at the old Casino in Saratoga Springs. My God it was awesome.

My brother and SIL have beaucoup dinero but it really doesn't mean much to them; if you saw my bro on his day off fishing you would want to buy him a sandwich, he looks like he's homeless. They spent a ton of money on that wedding, but all he said that he wanted everyone to have a good time, and by God, we sure did.

Some of the relatives RSVP'd regrets that it was just too far to go, and he sent them airline tickets. Told them that there was no way that he would live with himself if they missed the wedding.

Nephew and wife just had baby boy in May, and are coming back to Ohio for my niece's wedding (his sister) Sat. after Thanksgiving. Reception to be held at Huntington Building Ballroom in Cleveland. If you've ever been there or seen it, you know this is gonna be another blowout. Can't wait for the party to start.

[KitchenWitch]

18. A person I knew was a high level trader for one of the big financial

services companies.

She was in her late thirties and had never been married. Obviously she had some means, but her bridal attendants did not. She made her bridesmaids buy custom made dresses to the tune of $800 each. Her maid of honor was African American, and for the wedding she spent $200 on getting her hair done (she had an up do with some tiny pearls embedded in her hair). The bride had a FIT, wanted her to remove the pearls because it took the spotlight off of her. In the meanwhile, she was wearing a dress with a cathedral length train, and a veil the same length.

The service was during the holidays, so the decor was pointsettias and holly, and was very beautiful.

The reception was wayyyyyy over the top. Her buffet included prime rib, shrimp scampi (more like prawn scampi) and poached salmon. Very nice meal, but she had 600 guests, and only one buffet line. Her rich coworkers were through the line first, and us plebes did not end up getting to the buffet line until 11PM.

She had a DJ and dancing. Pretty typical. She also had roving entertainment, which included a small group of acapella carolers, a magician and a juggler.

I was set to get married within the year and I was just disgusted with her wedding.

[flamingyouth]

19. One where a bride arrived in a horse-drawn carriage

Then, after the ceremony, they proceeded to take two hours' worth of pictures while the guests sat around with nothing to eat or drink. Little Miss Princess Bride wouldn't allow anyone to have food unless she was there. We finally left at about 8 because we were starving.

Oh, and they were divorced within a year. :eyes:

[eyesroll]

20. I've never been to a truly over-the-top wedding...

My oldest friend (I've known her since kindergarten) got married in '99, and it was appallingly expensive (her parents are status-seekers and footed the bill), but there was not a hint of "it's my speesshhhul daaay" princess-ness on her part.

My fundie co-worker got married a couple of years ago, and his ceremony was in one of those nondenominational mega-churches...it was odd, to me, but not too fancy. The reception was pretty normal, even if the toasts were more religious than I'm used to.

[mulsh]

23. both mothers flew to milan to

have a table cloth woven especially for the head table.
Big SF wedding in the early 90's. ceremony at ST's Peter & Paul in north beach, Bishop from Peru flown up by brides family along with 6 of his attendants. The church was packed. the reception was that the Hass-Lillenthal mansion. different theme on each floor. amazing food. The couple were pretty much your average schmos with filthy rich parents. the groom's mom told my mom the wedding cost way over half a mil "but it was worth it to get rid of my son." the couple received a house in SF and one in Tahoe as wedding presents among other things.

When I was a cook I worked at a wedding where both sets of parents were from Greece but grew up in the bay area and wanted their kids to get married here. So they flew most of the party to the hotel along with waiters from a couple of clubs in London. The Average White Band played at the reception, Rod Stewart sang a couple of songs for the lovely couple. Someone must have been involved in the music industry.
the families were fantastic to us grunts at the hotel. Gave us big tips and invited us to the reception, after dinner was cleared.

[Pithlet]

24. A relative married a professional boxer at the height of his career

I was 9 or 10, but I remember it well because it was easily the most over the top wedding I'd ever attended. It was a very glitzy affair, but what I remember most is the band playing "Eye of the Tiger" when the bride and groom made their entrance at the reception.

[shanti]

25. my son's, last year

one of the bridesmaids did the "worm" on the dancefloor, but oops - she forgot her panties! also, when the boquet was tossed, she leapt out to catch it, knocking over several people! there were other incidents, but long story short, she was wasted!

[hunter]

27. Yes, I confess, I've been to weddings like that.

Trust me, you never want to be sitting between your mom and your wife at someone's reception when your mom looks out and says, "Oh my... she shaves."

( :hi: mom! )

[nashbridges]

26. My own

We got married in 2001, and because my wife is successful and she waited to get married - she went nuts.

We just finished paying it off. The only cost I agreed with was her buying the bridesmaids' dresses.