Wedding Nonsense, Part III

So I got my mom to agree to a potluck....

And it didn't actually take too terribly much convincing. I've been telling her I planned to elope when I got married for years now, though, so I think now that I've decided to actually have a wedding and reception, she's willing to go along with most things. Plus, once I explained it to her in more detail, she thought it made sense.

Now, I know what you're thinking. A potluck reception?! Who does that?! But hear me out.

I've grown up on potlucks. I always loved them at church as a kid - you get to eat everyone's best dishes. What could be better than that? Plus, you get to sample a wide variety of food, and if there's something you don't like, well, there's always plenty of other options. Sounds like a good thing for a reception, especially with so many dietary needs - vegetarian, food allergies, etc.

Of course, I'm not so cracked that I'm also going to expect gifts. Part of the appeal of a potluck is that we don't want gifts. We don't need any more kitchenware, we don't need a bunch of random knickknacks. I don't like clutter, and we have pretty much everything we need. Oh, and we definitely have NO use for china. Thus, asking for a dish to share instead of a gift sounds good to us.

So, the out-of-towners. I don't expect them to make food. They are more than welcome to grab a bag of chips at the grocery store. You normally have to buy a gift anyway, so instead, buy some packaged food. I also fully intend to encourage my out-of-town uncle and his fam to order pizza from the local pizza place they love so much. They try to get it every time they come into town anyway.

I don't think I'll be calling it a reception. Even I hesitate at that. The traditional reception is so ingrained in most people's minds that a potluck reception is very nearly an oxymoron. Currently, the plan is to call it a Potluck Celebration in Honor of the Marriage of blah blah blah.

Plus, it's going to be very very casual, but more on that later.

And think of all the money saved on caterers. And not having to worry that the mass produced food will taste like... mass produced food. And all the money saved on gifts. Bringing food should be far cheaper for the guests, too.

I'm sure some people will still think I'm nuts. But I'm okay with that.

Wedding Nonsense, Part II

So the current plan is for a small wedding and a casual reception. I say 'current' because I've heard about brides who started out thinking they'd be oh-so-casual and cheap. Then they got all caught up in the Wedding Nonsense and went off the deep end. Thus, I'm allowing for the possibility that this could happen to me.

But I really hope not.

Anyway, I like the idea of a very small wedding (about 30 people - immediate family and close friends only), and then a larger reception (more on that in a future post). My mom suggested a wedding in the morning (and by morning I'm thinking 11:00am at the earliest), and then we all go out for lunch somewhere. Sounds good to me.

Plus, a small wedding is necessary for the location I want, which is part of the Geauga County Park District. The nice benefit of using a park location is that it's free to residents. I'm no longer a resident of Geauga County, but my parents are. I intend to be the one to reserve it, but if they have a problem with that, I can always have my parents call. Of course, the drawback of the park is that I can't reserve it until November 1, so I might need a backup plan if someone manages to reserve it before I do. However, I doubt it's a really popular location. It's really beautiful - bridge over a creek that runs into a small pond, and a beautiful flowering tree (if indeed it is still flowering in June, which might not be the case), but it's out in the boonies. Here's hoping it's available.