Most unusual wedding I ever attended

15 years ago

Nodakgal's post jogged my memory.

This happened back around 1975. A friend who would almost have been described as a hippie had it been 8-9 years earlier, except he had a regular job. He and his bride got married on a farm owned by her family. The groom and all his groomsmen wore white with flower lei's around their necks (!). The bride also in white, the bridesmaid multicolored, barefoot, with flower tiaras, or whatever you would call them. The minister or whatever - don't know what faith he was or even his credentials - at one point made the traditional 'speak now, or forever hold your peace' statement. Right at that moment a horse whinnied out in the pasture. The minister jumped right in with, 'And Lord, you've seen fit to have the animals of the field lend voice to your approval'. We all chuckled a little at that one. The reception was held in the freshly cleaned out & scrubbed barn and afterward we all camped out overnight.

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Comments (28)

sharon_fl
15 years ago
Cool! Nodakgal's post & yours, set my mind to thinking also. The most beautiful & unusual wedding I ever attended was for my girlfriend. We lived in northeast PA..along the Susquehanna river. There's a cliff on this one mountain which overlooks the river and she staged her wedding there. It was amid beautiful pine & maple trees, we sat on logs, with the scent of pine needles everywhere.A lone guitarist played love songs. As the couple said their vows-we were in awe of the sereneness as we looked at them and the aerial background of the river behind them. Following the ceremony, a caterer provided the most delicious meal. OH...did I mention that the wedding was a 6AM Sunrise ceremony while the aroma of bacon & eggs and cinnamon buns & coffee filled the air amidst the dawn of a new day? Beautiful!
socks
15 years ago
Sounds wonderful to me!
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marry
15 years ago
Late 70's......
A girlfriend and her husband were married out on the lake! Bridal party and minister were on a pontoon and the rest of the folks that were invited were all present on different boats and pontoons! It was a lovely late afternoon wedding. A bit before the wedding a group of us went out on the lake to let folks know what was going to be going on and asked that things please stay quiet during the wedding........there was a boat full of college age boys that were skiing they thought that a wedding sounded like great fun! They left the lake only to return in time for the wedding! All wearing ties with their swimsuits!!!
I hadn't thought about that in a long time!
lynn_d
15 years ago
Nothing really odd or offbeat, except that it was at our house. A few years ago hubby's best buddy got married in our backyard! What fun it was, they had a small wedding, about 150 guests. We found out that our deck will seat 100!!! LOL!

Here is a link that might be useful: Barry's Wedding
lindyluwho
15 years ago
I love these stories. Keep 'em coming!

Lynn, you have a lovely place for a wedding. It looks like everyone had a great time.

Linda
linda_in_iowa
15 years ago
I am loving the posts on this thread.
firemanswife
15 years ago
My DH best friend got married about 5 years ago. Keep in mind his bride is NUTS. After they had done the traditional dance and dance with parents and so on. She asked the DJ to have everyone clear the floor that she wanted to dance by HERSELF! So everyone cleared the dance floor and he played some slow soft song and she danced by herself. It was very odd.
waddles
15 years ago
My sister lives in MA and was married 12 years ago in October. The ceremony was at a tiny church and one of her friends got ordained for the day to do the ceremony. My Aunt made my sisters dress and my sister had not seen it or had been fitted until the day we got there. She wore boots and had on long johns. After the ceremony we went back to the YMCA camp that she worked at took some pictures and then she declared nap time. After nap we had the reception there. She is an odd bird.
Adella Bedella
15 years ago
Place: Arkansas

Wedding: A man married his step-sister. The mother of the bride sat with the father of the groom since they were married to each other. The father of the bride sat on the bride's side with the bride's step-mother. The mother of the groom refused to attend. The groomsmen were brothers/step-brothers of the bride and groom. The photographer had the groomsmen pose like they were trying to get the bride to marry them.
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15 years ago
My DH's sister, the bride, was deaf as was her groom. As the minister said the service it was 'signed' by a young girl to the people in the church. It was beautiful, and what I remember most was a young woman signed as another sang The Lords Prayer. Beautiful. DSIL & her Hubby are gone now. Dottie
whidbeykathy
15 years ago
A friend of DH had the most different wedding.

She wore a white leather dress, knee boots and carried corn instead of flowers. Her son pounded on a toy drum as she walked up the aisle. It was supposed to honor our native brothers. (That's what the program said.)

I was fine until the vows, which consisted of telling how her husband was the leader, got to make all choices and right or wrong, her vow was " I WILL OBEY". Nothing about love, honor etc..just simply I will obey..

Deep breaths, calm myself..I will not make a scene..what a wedding..Kathy
lydia1959
15 years ago
These are great stories! Some of these weddings sound really wonderful.

I had friends who got married at the Wilderness Church in Silver Dollar City in Branson. It was a very small wedding and quite lovely.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wilderness Church Weddings
wildchild
15 years ago
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linda_in_iowa
15 years ago
The only odd wedding I have been to only had one thing odd about it. Instead of vowing to love, honor, etc. till death do us part they vowed "as long as we both shall love". They were married on the deck of the groom's house and he wanted his small dog to be part of the wedding so the dog walked around during the ceremony. The ceremony was performed by a friend who got something by mail order certifying him to perform a ceremony. They have been married about 20 years now and still keep all their money completely separate. They also have one child.
rosebudms
15 years ago
A young couple met at one of those gatherings for people who are selling cleaning products through a pyramid-type scheme.(Dare I go ahead and say Am-Way?) They fell madly in love at first sight and were married a week later. The wedding was at the home of the couple who enticed the girl to join the group. As soon as the vows were said, the sponsoring couple and the just married couple went dashing off to the regular AmWay meeting to announce to the other AmWayers that they had married, and to invite everyone back to the house for the reception.

P.S. The marriage lasted 3 weeks.
danihoney
15 years ago
Oh wow - these are good stories. The only unusual wedding was DH's firefighter buddy. He is the nicest person you'll ever meet and he comes from a great family. His bride...was crazy. They got married at the end of October on a friends property. They had a Halloween themed wedding were guests were invited to come in costume. The bride and groom wore traditional clothes only hers was backless and showed a HUGE tattoo. They walked down the isle to the theme from Star Wars with various Draculas, mermaids, and pirates in the audience. DH and I just sat in the back with huge eyes and our jaws dropped. They then had their reception at the firehouse all decked out in black and orange with jack-o-lanterns and hay bails. Crazy!

That marriage didn't last and a couple years ago he married a lovely and much more traditional girl.
des_arc_ya_ya
15 years ago
Didn't go to this one but I knew all the people involved: a local stock contractor/rodeoman/cowboy got married in the arena before his rodeo started one night. He rode in from one side of the arena, his bride rode a white horse in from the other side. Pastor was on horseback in the middle of the arena. They were married and then rode around the arena to the cheers of the crowd. Rodeo went on without a hitch. Marriage lasted a few years...LOL
msmarion
15 years ago
We attended the wedding of our next door neighbors 10 years ago. They were a gay couple, married in a church. The bride wore a lovely gown and her partner wore a tux. It was very traditional, they wrote their own vows, it was probably the most heartfelt wedding we have ever attended. Everything was done just perfect. Emily Post would have been pleased. They broke up several years later...the bride married a straight man. I thought I was going to need therapy after hold her hand through the break up.
paula_pa
15 years ago
My brother and sister had a double wedding - two separate ceremonies were held in the reception hall before the reception.
Velleen78
15 years ago
I have a recent one to tell about. Our Grandson was getting married The brides father and grooms father,our son came to Vincent to do the job He sure wasn't prepared but he borrowed a tie, a bible and a sportcoat. He got the job done but ??
Jodi_SoCal
15 years ago
Two summers ago Lisa, a longtime friend got married. Nothing unusual about that. For the third time. Nothing terribly usual about that. To a guy 10 years her junior. Somewhat unusual, but no unheard of. At the beautiful, upscale Ritz-Carlton in Southern California overlooking the Pacific ocean on a picture perfect day. No shortage of beautiful days in So. Calif. but I'm sure the Ritz had never hosted a wedding as garish, gaudy and colorful as Lisa's.

The colors were shocking pink and bright orange.
The bride wore a white bustier with a 30ft train.
A woman in the wedding party wearing a hot pink mini-dress walked Lisa's Chihuahua dressed in tulle down the aisle on a long pink feather boa.
Martini glasses had feather boas around the stem.
Cocktails had flashing ice cubes.
Inside the reception room, feather boas hung from the chandeliers.
Each table represented a festive country. We sat at the Paris table.
There was a large band who started playing even before dinner began as did the dancing. When you were on the dance floor, gals walked around handing out feather boas, sunglasses and other assorted gifts to the dancers.
A DJ followed the band later in the evening and two film crews recorded everything.
The cake was incredible. It was made up of individual cakes wrapped in orange and pink chocolate and topped with shaved chocolate and chocolate covered coffee beans.

Lisa is quite an interesting gal. She worked for me about 30 years ago. Very naive. No education other than high school. She has come a long way and is now quite wealthy. The wedding cost over $100,000 and she planned every last detail herself.

It was beautiful, wonderfully fun, perfect day, perfect wedding.

I took about 200 photos that can be viewed at the link below.

Jodi-

Here is a link that might be useful: Lisa and Eric's perfect wedding.
cate52
15 years ago
Jodi! The photos were wonderful!! Looks like everyone had a great time... I always like a wedding that expresses the personalities of the couple!
nodakgal
15 years ago
Wow what stories! Those photos were great Jodi, what I was imagining and what the pics showed were different!
angela59
15 years ago
Friends of my daughter were married last December outside! It was in the mid teens and snowy. We are in Colorado and it was held in a park that has forest all around, they were married in a gazebo and the guests were gathered on a hillside right next to it which had concrete seating (so cold! They handed out those disposable hand warmers). It was all white lights, colors pink, black and white. The girls all had on white fur trimmed long capes.
I have to say that being cold was worth it, it was the most beautiful wedding I've ever attended!
Angela
Jodi_SoCal
15 years ago
Wow, Angela, would love to see pictures of that wedding!

Jodi-
monica_pa Grieves
15 years ago
Sister's SIL's wedding.
DH and I were invited a week before, a verbal invitation...because they had to guarantee a number of dinners for the wedding reception, and not enough people replied they were coming.
We declined, but I did go to the church as my nephew was reading the gospel at the Mass.

It was an old grey stone church in an area of Camden, NJ...that had deteriorated. I never did learn why...neither family lived there.
A dark, drizzling rain could be seen through several broken stained glass windows as the bridesmaids started up the aisle...in black taffeta strapless gowns with antebellum full skirts.
A thought crossed my mind....it was a "Wuthering Heights" wedding.
Following the bridesmaids, the brides 8 year old twin nieces, flower girls) came down the aisle in identical black gowns.

After the wedding party sat down, all you could see from the pews were the little twins bare shoulders. Their grandparents sat in front of me, so I could plainly hear the grandfather's voice as he said "Good God, they look naked".
mariend
15 years ago
My DD and SIL had their marriage outside in the Redwoods. Then a nice lunch. Beatiful and great food.
angela59
15 years ago
Jodi, unfortunately I don't have any pictures (except in my head!)........it was night time too and I'll say that we were almost unbearably cold by the time it was over but again it was worth it! Angela

Most unusual wedding I ever attended

Comments (28)

sharon_fl

socks

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