We are planning our youngest daughter's wedding in 2003. I need lots of ideas. We are going to do a few things that no one around here does at weddings. Two thing we are going to do is the 'charm pull'cake, for the wedding party and a sixpense in her shoe! (Had the hardest time finding a sixpense!) No one seems to know the whole riddle: "Something old -Something new- something borrowed--something blue and a sixpense in her shoe."

Can you all share the things you did or have heard of people doing-such as these at weddings. I am looking for things to do at showers and for the wedding. This will be a formal, evening wedding. The reception will just be finger foods and punch. So if you have recipes you want to share I would appreciate them, also.

-- Can't wait (No email please@this site.com), January 17, 2002

Answers

In this community if your younger brother or sister gets married before you do, the older sibling dances in the hog trough. Yes indeed, I've had the honor. Weddings here are a blast. The food is usually just a buffet, hot chicken and ham sandwiches, potato salad, pretzels and chips, the cake, and well, all those kegs. Lots and lots of square dancing. Families here are large and they are all related, the reception can have as many as 1,000 people, but 500-750 is about average. When the couple comes home from their honeymoon, it is time to bell them. Friends of mine rode triumphantly into town on a manure spreader (cleaned-up), my brother and his wife on a hay wagon. The lucky groom gets to wear a wig and brandish a mop, while his beloved pushes him through town in a wheelbarrow. All the while a big bell is gonging and firecrackers are going off. Gee, this doesn't sound too formal, does it? But, it's lots of fun and makes for great memories.

-- vicki in OH (thga76@aol.com), January 17, 2002.

Old fashioned homestead newlyweds use to receive a couple of pigs, a cow or two, some chickens and rabbits and maybe a goat and I think also maybe a horse. I believed they received these to help get their own homesteads started. You might give this a try!

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), January 17, 2002.

The first time I was married, my brother in law and my best man "kidnapped' me before the honeymoon got underway and drove me around for a few hours. They said it was an old ime tradition. The best man escaped, but my wife tore into her brother like a hog to corn shucks when they brought me home.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 17, 2002.

My first husband and I were also "belled". We were working at a lodge on the Skyline Drive. The first night we got back from our honeymoon they came to our cabin and took us away in our PJ's. They loaded us in a laundry cart and drug us all over the property. Everyone followed along ringing bells. Not much happens up there so this was a big event!

-- Cindy in NY (cjpopeck@worldnet.att.net), January 18, 2002.

I don't know about old time traditions, but the comment of the day at my wedding came from a Penn State professor who told us that our wedding was the only one he'd ever been to where he sat between the dog and the keg!

-- Sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), January 18, 2002.

I no longer wonder why I am single.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), January 18, 2002.

Besides buying a few books on the subject for ideas, we did some traditions from our families heritage at our wedding last year. My hubbie is part Croatian, and we found out the photographer is from there. The groom breaks a plate that the bride swepts up to show how she will care for the home in the future. The groom splits a log to show how he will be the provider. We also added a Irish tradition of jumping a broom, but this is not only Irish exclusive - many nationalities do this. After the ceremony we jumped over a broom to leave our pasts behind us. This is the second for both of us, and although we had a minister, it was a common law marriage. We had a pig pit roast and potluck for the reception. All our friends and neighbors joined us. We brewed our own beer and sodas. The day warmed and cleared for the outside ceremony and photos, then rained, then snowed. What a day!

-- Michelle in NM (naychurs_way@hotmail.com), January 18, 2002.

I live in Minnesota's Lake Country and the best wedding I've ever been to was right up here. The couple was married at their parents lake home. I know we're kooky here in Minnesota, butcha gotta imagine this. The minister and groom stood stood waiting for the bride about 200 feet or so offshore on a big pontoon boat. The bridesmaids were "delievered" to the pontoon, one by one, by the groomsmen. Each bridemaid/groomsman team motored to the pontoon in a separate fishing boat. Then the father delievered the bride, from the otherside of the lake, in a big speedboat. All the people attending the wedding were anchored in boats surrounding the "wedding pontoon." After the service, the entire group, weeding party and all the guests, drove around the lake in a single long line of boats, like a regatta. Everyone was blowing their boats horns or had those hand-held pressurized air horns going. People around the lake rushed out on their docks to see what was happening an saw this long line of boats with the bride and groom in the lead pontoon. After the regatta, we ate a superb lakeside picnic--hog roast with all the fixin's and beer. At the end of the day, we all had a big campfire which went late into the night under a star-spangled sky, we told stories, smoked cigars, sang songs and listened to the loons. IMHO, that's a wedding to be remembered! It will be remembered much longer than the traditional formal church weddings.
--Happy trails, Cabin Fever

-- Cabin Fever (cabinfever_MN@yahoo.com), January 18, 2002.

Elope! Everyone will be miffed. But none more so than any others. Most families have their share of mammalian solid waste elimination orifices. This way you avoid them all. Remember that you are "cleaving" to each other. Who cares what the dingbats (those who are miffed, or a close corallary, think!). It is you 2 from now on. Don't wory about anyone else. The Old Philosipher........

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), January 18, 2002.

Cabin Fever------ thanks for the story----I really enjoyed it----!!!

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), January 18, 2002.

The nicest wedding I ever attended was one where the bride, groom, and attendants were on a stage FACING the audience, and the minister faced them with his BACK to the audience!

This was also a double wedding, mother and daughter, and they were amateur actresses, so they had "play bills" printed up with names, parts played, etc. It was wonderful! And it made so much more sense to be able to see the faces of the "main players" instead of their backs.

-- Bonnie (chilton@stateline-isp.com), January 18, 2002.

I plan to get married within the next year. At my wedding, which will be small and intimate, I plan to have the guests sit in a circle. I went to a wedding like that, and it was awesome!

-- Sam McFarland (sammc0@yahoo.com), January 19, 2002.