= new reply since forum marked as read
but I feel that big is definitely not necessary. I'm very conservative, style-wise. My wedding was at my folks home.
Centerpieces are nice, but if they're floral they only last for a couple of days. NOT NECESSARY! Also I think favors are silly. You're giving a wedding/party, so guests need gifts??? I don't get it. 
I do like the idea of putting disposable cameras on tables, pics taken by guests of eachother, cameras to be left after the event for you to have developed > lots of souvenirs.
BEST OF LUCK!
They can be expensive if they're fancy floral arrangements. Not sure you need to keep costs down, but if you do, you can try what we did: I used a lot of ivy in our decorations and floral arrangements. Our centerpieces were sprigs of ivy in a pot stenciled with an ivy pattern (I potted and stenciled them myself, also to keep costs down). We put a penny under one dinner plate at each table--whoever sat at the place with the penny underneath got to take the centerpiece home.
I also second the disposable cameras idea, but be prepared for a lot of stupid, blurry shots...including at least one photo of someone's meal. 
I insisted on it at my son's:
The bride and groom (or groom and groom
, bride and bride ) stand (or dance)in the center of the dance floor.
Family members and friends hold hands and perform a free form ring dance around them to the tune of Kermit's "Rainbow Connection".
I'll relate a little story about the wedding Mr Pipi and I had at our house.
We had gotten married three months before with a JP in VT (just us and two friends as witnesses) and we wanted to have another ceremony with the Minister of Mr Pipi's church at the house and invite friends and family. Which we did.
During the ceremony, Mr Pipi's Best Man read a passage from "The Prophet", then afterward we all joined hands and sang "Amazing Grace". Our two mini Schnauzers who were spending the time in the laundry room joined in with howling of their own.
Then, near the end of the "reception" in the kitchen, my not-so-swift sister decided she wanted to hold one of our pet baby mice, which jumped out of her hand, ran across the table through the deli platters, causing my mom to screech in terror because she's terrified of mice.
It was a memorable day.
favors were small bags of personalized chocolate coins, which we jokingly referred to as our jew gold. speeches, i think my dad, the best man and maid of honor and the bridesmaid who introduced us did toasts. my best friend, who is living in germany and couldn't make the wedding, recorded a toast and sent it as an mp3 that we played from an ipod.
remember, just have fun with it. i can't wait to see how beautifully it turns out 
picture mat and asked people to write something and sign it. The mat eventually goes into a frame with one of the wedding pictures. I thought that was a nice idea.
That's all I got.
Kidding of course 
Congrats!
If you don't want any speeches, then by golly there better not be any. If you LOVE speeches then you can have as many as you want! If you really love the idea of the whole formal wedding reception complete with floral centerpieces and goodie bags for all the guests, then it needs to be there for you. If you are more low key or informal people then you can pretty much do whatever suits you.
We usually are pretty informal people. We got married on April 1 in a church. A lot of people thought the whole thing was a prank (an EXPENSIVE prank, mind you...) but most realized it was serious after they finally got to the church. For me, I was less about some fru-fru dress and more about the fun of the day for us and for the guests. Kev just wanted to get married, he refused to elope (I begged him to!) and he wanted a fun party to be part of the day. We did a punch and cake reception at the church immediately after the ceremony for all the "tea totalers" and otherwise conservative guests. Then we had a family and close friend dinner at a restaurant. THEN we had OUR party at a local hall with a band and cocktails... Long day but a huge amount of fun!
I've seen the disposable camera idea here, and I agree--those candid shots can be a hoot. We did that and mostly it was pretty cool, however, be advised that there is gonna be some expense there for stupid pictures of the floor or the wall, or worse. Some drunk got hold of one of those disposable cameras and we paid to develop an entire camera's worth of shots of women's boobs/cleavage. I was supremely happy he didn't think to take that camera into the men's room too...
We put a white paper runner down the center of each table along with boxes of crayons. I was amazed at some of the artwork and some of the wit that ended up on there. Similarly, we did a "graffiti wall" at the entrance. We covered the wall with some really thick white paper and hung up sharpies on ribbons. We did put a couple of our own comments on the wall so people knew what it was--we got it started--but the stuff on there was an absolute riot. Hint: Take a really good picture of the wall before you take it down. That paper will get creased over time, but the picture will stay nice and store easier.
I skipped out on the whole goodie bag for guests thing at the reception, but I did do up baskets for the hotel rooms of family and friends. I had cheese crackers, nuts, granola bars, snack sized bags of cookies and a couple bottles of water in each one. When they checked in, the hotel gave them their basket and that way they had something in the room to nibble on without needing to dig up change for a vending machine. I had directions and maps to everything printed out and in those baskets as well.
Good luck, and I am so very happy for you!
Laura
I have seen small potted plants that guests take home - the coolest were "blooming" bromiliads - exotic and pretty easy to care for, but I have seen cactus too 
