Quote Originally Posted by auld argonian View Post
I have to think how fortunate my wife and I were in light of these problems.

We were in our middle thirties when we got married and figured that at that age our parents had no responsibilities (or input) concerning our wedding.

We bore the full expense of the whole shebang. We even did our own flowers. We hired a lovely young lady to play piano at the reception and asked her to stick to light classical, Gerswin, Cole Porter, etc. I subsequently had to point out one of my more "lively" old Polish uncles and told her, "That man will most probably come over here and offer you ten dollars to play a polka...should that happen, I'll give you twenty not to." We had the ceremony at a beautiful Episcopal Church on the Near North Side and had the reception on the eighth floor of Orchestra Hall overlooking Grant Park and the Lake Front. My wife got a very slinky white full length dress from Neiman Marcus and I got a dark, double breasted Valentino suit. The wedding cake was a multi-layer cheese cake and we cut it together but did not, repeat NOT, feed each other pieces of the cake. When the assembled multitudes started tapping their silverware against the wine glasses, we kissed once and then I stood up and said in a very good natured way, "If you do that again, the waiters will be taking away your silverware and bringing you plastic forks." The maitre d', a remarkable ex-Pullman Porter with an air of authority that any Marine Corp Master Sargeant would admire, then added, "...and we will do it."

All the folks had to do was show up.

Worth every penny we spent. In one day we made it very clear that we had "cut the cords" and still provided the family with an event that fulfilled their concept of a legitimate wedding while giving them an affair that was, in many ways, out of their typical experience.

If you can do it that way, do it. While my wife and I were dating, several of my relatives expressed the concern that we might "cheat them out of a wedding" by just going off and getting married...they got their wedding but they got it on our terms.

Best

AA
BRAVO!