** Click here for Episode 171 **
Wedding bells ring for Annie from London. Or do they? She writes:
My partner Seb and are shortly going to be getting hitched.
We’re not keen on a traditional English ceremony as neither of us are religious, so we’d like to do something a bit different. At first we thought we might do a drive-thru wedding in Vegas but we’re not sure our respective parents would approve!
So if you can answer me this it would be a huge help to us: what is the coolest way to get married?
That raises another question: is marriage cool at all? Vegas is definitely NOT cool, because it is, well, vile. And the ubiquity of Vegas weddings is the enemy of cool; plus, in our experience, drive-through establishments tend not to be compatible with institutions aspiring to permanence.
Over here we’ve got wedding preparations of our own to worry about, so readers, do us a favour by going to the comments and planning Annie’s wedding for her. If you do a good job, there might be a lucrative career in it for you.
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Answer Me This! Podcast 
March 28, 2011 at 6:42 pm |
@flavia That inflatable church is Awesome!!
As far as cool weddings… My Mom and Stepdad got married mid-air during a skydive, preist, kiss, and all. I might have a clip or pic somewhere.
Gosh… Wedding + cool is a difficult combo.
March 27, 2011 at 4:08 pm |
Rent the inflatable chuch!!!
http://www.inflatablechurch.com/
and then an inflateble castle for reseption
March 25, 2011 at 9:26 am |
Surely the definition of cool is to do what you want and to hell with what everyone else thinks? Do something that’s completely personal to the two of you. Accept that the preparation is probably still going to be stressful, and that compromises might have to be made on the grounds of cost etc., but ultimately make sure you both have a fantastic time on the day surrounded by awesome people.
March 24, 2011 at 7:09 pm |
Make your wedding cool by booking a great band to play for you and your guests. If you are doing an outdoors wedding with a relaxed summer festival feel then Stylus Dust would be perfect – http://www.myspace.com/stylusdust
March 23, 2011 at 9:37 pm |
Why not buck the staid tradition and not get married at all? Why involve church and state in your personal chemical condition? Promising to love someone for eternity is like promising to be surprised or frightened by someone for the rest of time. Not a safe bet. Why not enjoy what you have, spend the money on some great adventure holiday that you would both enjoy without dragging relatives and people you barely know into the mix. Save cash, have fun, and in the end you have memories that dont require lawyers.
March 23, 2011 at 7:33 pm |
I think the coolest way to get married is to do something that means something to you as a couple. Eg. If you love the outdoors have a picnic in the park, or if you love cocktail parties do that with dancing after, or love dessert, have a wedding followed by all your favorite sweet treats.
The traditional wedding is not expected anymore, and really the most important thing about marriage is sharing it with those you love and are close to. That is the coolest thing about marriage, getting everyone together to be there just for you!
Whatever you decide, as long as you are clear to your guests what to expect in advance, they can prepare themselves, and if they know and love you they will be excited about sharing your day and will be ther no matter what! We had 80 people drive 2 hours to our favorite beach town in new Zealand (where we live) and they loved the experience! Especially because it meant more because it was special to us!
Whatever you choose I hope you love it, as it is your day and that’s what matters!
Be sure to tell answer me this listeners what you decide!
Good luck and have fun!!!
Michelle
March 23, 2011 at 6:34 pm |
You could get married on the moon. It’s been ages since the Clangers got to see a wedding.
March 23, 2011 at 5:16 pm |
A friend of mine fulfilled my childhood ideal of a wedding last year. I was raised VERY catholic and attended many of my older cousin’s weddings as a small child. After 14 of the most forgettably similar weddings, I told my sister that my ideal wedding would be this:
You have a cookout on the beach or on a lake or somewhere nice and normal and fun and then after every one has grilled and eaten and before the sweets, grab their attention and say “If you’ll all come over here, we’re just going to get married.” My sister thought that this would rob guests of preparing and that one runs the risk of people not coming thinking that they’re not in the mood for a BBQ, and then being irked that they weren’t at our wedding.
Last spring on the lake of Zürich, however, a fork was clinked against a SIGG bottle and we were told that we were attendants at a wedding. It was fantastic. i recommend it. I loved my wedding at a castle on the lake of Constance, but I still wish I’d gone the low-key route.
March 23, 2011 at 3:27 pm |
Hey now, I got married in Vegas! It wasn’t a quickie, it was more sentimental. Hubby and I love to go there, and we were having so much trouble putting together a local wedding (we decided in May 1999 to get married in March 2000. The millennium?! Get hosed – nowhere was available on “short” notice in the millennium!!), so we joked, “What about Vegas?” As soon as we said it, it felt right, and we took our Top Ten and got hitched at Treasure Island (our favorite hotel at the time, before it went to shit, IMO)
That’s a really long way to say, what place do you best like to go? Maybe you can get married there.
March 23, 2011 at 11:06 am |
We got married in the back room of our favourite restaurant. We had a friend get ordained to marry us (this was in the States). Everyone came in, ordered their meal, stood up, we got married, sat back down, and they brought the starters. There was no formal photography, no wedding cake, I wore a $20 dress I’d bought earlier in the summer and flip flops, and my husband wore a shirt and pants and flip flops. Everyone wore what they liked, including my maid of honor and my husband’s best man. Other than my bouquet and flowers for our moms, there were no flowers or other decorations. It was totally chilled out and I didn’t have a single thing to stress about. We planned the whole thing one evening over dinner. It was about as expensive as a week’s vacation, maybe a bit less. Everyone said it was one of the most relaxed and fun weddings they’d ever been to. I wouldn’t have had it any other way, and looking back, I don’t have a single regret.
March 23, 2011 at 11:05 am |
My sister got married in Texas on a ranch that they use as a set for towns in westerns etc. It sounds tacky, but it wasn’t in the slightest was really properly cool – way better than Vegas. Plus there was plenty of room for guests etc that won’t upset the parents*. Was just outside Austin at a place called (I think) Star Hill Ranch.
*BTW got married myself not long ago and found parents to be the most stressful part of the whole process!!
March 23, 2011 at 11:04 am |
Come to Japan and have a Japanese-style wedding in Kyoto. You’ll love the kimono they wear here.