Are you referring to a Taylor ham egg and cheese? 
I can make you one right now.
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Simple but awful: SIL’s first wedding in a park on a 100 degree day in Texas. Surprised no one fainted. Reception followed at the Southfork Trailer Park clubhouse, a small scale mobile home version of the TV show “Dallas” ranch. Guests threw potpourri at the departing bride and groom, after which H and I frantically picked hundreds of bits of potpourri out of the carpet, as we were the default cleanup crew (but had no cleaning supplies). We had only been married a few years at that point ourselves but swore if we ever had a daughter, even if we could only afford cake and punch in the church hall, that we would hire help to serve and cleanup.
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Simple
Bride’s dress $100, Groom wore a suit, flowers were white wildflowers they picked that morning. Location the balcony of their apartment. Attendees: the bride’s sister and brother-in-law in London, (she wore a fascinator, he wore tails), Mom and Dad in Hong Kong (where it was the crack of dawn 4 am I think), brother in California and us in New York all via Zoom. They wrote their own vows, D.C. didn’t even require them to have an officiant. They just had to sign the marriage license somewhere that was recognizably in the District of Columbia. It was surprisingly sweet and moving, though we do hope someday there will be a bigger party.
Fancy (or at least fancier)
Friends of ours who had actually had an article in one of the New York papers written about why they weren’t getting married despite being together for twenty years, about ten years after that decided after a health scare that maybe it made sense to actually tie the knot, and if they were going to do that they were going to go all out. It was at a local venue on the water, with food, dancing and all (well most of) the usual hoopla. The New York Times covered them. She wore a beige suit, the kids were the wedding party.
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Simple : Friends of ours son got married in New York on his apartment balcony with family in attendence during the pandemic. The vows and ceremony was beautiful. Seen also many backyard weddings during the pandemic. You don’t need a lot to have a memorable wedding.
Most fun… Of course ours 34 years ago. We paid for it. Really no money. We negotiated with a place in Pontiac Michigan. It was an old beautiful theater and they never did a wedding before. So they like charged us only for the food not the place. We had people sitting in the balconies all the way up. Hard to describe but it worked.
We had a brunch wedding with a mimosa fountain. No other liqueur. Best part. The live band was made up of Motown session musicians with a great singer. Guess what music we played??!!! Everyone was dancing the entire time. People still talk about it till this day.
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Oooh, did you get married at the Strand? It’s been renovated & it’s beautiful now.
Not sure what it was called. It’s been 34 years… Lol…
In addition to the Simple/Elaborate themes, I’d like to introduce “ most unfortunate….
Simple: Bride intended to wear her grandmother’s fragile gown so bought a silvery beaded dress from Nordstoms rack for $98 to dance in at the reception. After months of touring venues, tastings, fittings, looking at all the wedding industrial complex magazines, they said no. Married in Aunt’s backyard with 35 guests, mostly family members. Wore the $98 dress and looked like a million bucks. Champagne and nibbles on the deck before, best friend performed the ceremony.
Most unfortunate : of course it’s the weather….outdoor ceremony at very very pricy Seattle venue in early September. The covered part of the veranda is not nearly big enough for all the guests to be in chairs, and the idea that we could all just stand meant nobody could see the couple. It’s funny looking back and they have a wonderful marriage, which is most important, but much money was wasted.
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Simple:
My sister’s in 1990. Mom was in nursing school and we had no money. The dress was borrowed from one cousin, the veil from another. I was the only bridesmaid, we found a dress at the mall for $13 and then my mom added poufy sleeves so that it would incorporate all 3 wedding colors. For the groom, we had stopped in a small town consignment and there happened to be a white tux and shoes that fit his 6’3" long torso body and size 13 feet. Reception in the church hall with ice cream sundaes.
Mine was a little bit more, as I got to have a reception with dance at the county fairgrounds. My brother was DJ. My mom made my dress and both moms made bridesmaid dresses and flower girl dresses. Actually my mom made my sister’s bridesmaid dress twice, as she was very pregnant by wedding time.
I wouldn’t say I’ve been to an extravagant wedding.
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Most unfortunate. My coworkers D. Anyone remember the superstorm that hit Charleston a few years back? They were to have a beach wedding that day. The whole family and wedding party was there, so they were determined to still have it happen. It was to be held under the house that was on stilts.
The caters cancelled, but they had the food half ready. So my co-worker went out to get what was ready. The cake person wouldn’t come, so he had to get that too. he said that every time he had to run out, more and more roads and bridges were closed.
The minister cancelled. So the brother of the bride got on the internet and married the couple. And finally, as they were coming down the stairs, a toddler of a bridesmaid slipped and his mom caught him by the arm. He was crying throughout the whole wedding. Afterwards, they had to drive for hours to find open roads and a clinic. He had a dislocated elbow. I also think the canopy they rented blew away in the storm. It was a disaster, but they did get married!
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It makes for quite a story they can tell for the rest of their lives!
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I love that the moms were involved in sewing the dresses. It just adds such a meaningful extra touch!
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Simple: We had two weddings. The first in the US was for visa/immigration purposes. The second had a lot of people invited and would be a religious ceremony. We had not known we would have an immigration issue, so we had to improvise. ShawWife’s friends had planned a bridal shower and we converted those invitations into a small wedding.
ShawWife wanted to go the city hall in a (a pretty gritty urban area, which seemed a little unromantic to me. Instead, a friend’s GF’s family had a house with some land between the ocean and a lagoon and her family allowed us to use the place. ShawWife wore a white jersey dress. We asked the local justice of the peace to do the shortest ceremony he could (as we had a formal ceremony coming up). The friends brought food. The setting was spectacular. We went swimming after the ceremony.
Unfortunate: An outdoor wedding without a tent. It rained. Hard. Couple still happily married 40 years later.
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Another category—unusual wedding. The daughter of close friends got married in 2019. The ceremony was in a small concert hall venue. Guests sat in the audience and there was a jazz band playing on stage. The couple and their families came out from behind the stage and a judge walked up onto the stage and performed the ceremony. The bride wore a beautiful black dress. After the ceremony/vows everyone on stage then sat in the audience (first row)and the jazz group did a concert. There was also a cabaret-type singer who performed as well. Good music. This was late afternoon—when the concert was over, everyone went to a private club where there was a reception with food/drink and another band. The bride changed into a white dress! Lots of dancing. We had a great time.
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I went to a friend’s wedding when we were all young (around 24?). It was really fun. She worked for Marriott so got a great deal on the room, food, etc. and we made good use of the open bar. After a few, I said to my table, “This is a really great wedding but those have to be some of the ugliest bridesmaids dresses I’ve ever seen.” (they were purple eyelet, sort of Barney purple). The guy next to me said “And you didn’t have to pay for one.” His wife was a bridesmaid!
Still really fun.
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I’ve been to sone simple backyard weddings where they had punch and cake plus many more elaborate ones with hundreds of guests and multi-course meals. As long as the couple is happy, I’m happy.
I still remember the wedding I attended where the bride’s parents refused to attend. The poor bride was in tears. The couple is still married over 30 years later but I felt so sad that the bride was so sad on her wedding day.
Simple/unusual/very personal: my nephew’s wedding at his dad’s farm. I actually wouldn’t say it was simple, but it was very “them” and very down to earth. They had the ceremony on the “lawn.” My brother in law made a pretty arch. About 10 years ago he bought church pews from an auction and used those for seating, along with a set of antique chairs he got at the same auction and hay bales. They had the reception in the barn and they also had ping pong, pool, horseshoe and a bonfire after dark. The food was buffet style and very good. They also let people camp overnight on their property and some people bought campers. Some people also stayed at nearby hotels. It was a lot of fun and not like most weddings I’ve been to. My BIL loves to entertain, so this party was fun for him. It didn’t end up costing much. The bride and groom just paid for the catering, clothes, and some decorations and the photographer.
Best extravagant: the daughter of a long time family friend. The ceremony itself wasn’t anything to write home about, but it was short. The church was nice, but very dated (orange carpet). The reception was beautiful. It was at a fancy country club in a very fancy gated neighborhood. The food was amazing (filet mignon), the cake was good as well. Lots of dancing and fun. And the flowers were amazing. Peonies all over the place!
Worst extravagant: co-worker’s daughter. In common with what @melvin123 said, this family had an extravagant wedding when they couldn’t really afford one. This co-worker (I’ve worked with her for at least 15 years) and her husband have a hard time saying 'NO" to their daughter, their daughter always gets what she wants. As a result, she’s spoiled and rude. This co-worker is always complaining about her daughter and says her daughter often throws a hissy fit until she gets her way. Anyways, her wedding was over-the-top and felt very contrived and like it was done to keep up with the Joneses.
Another good wedding was my niece’s. It was very nice and some would say it was extravagant. I do know that she and her husband saved up to have it and she even lived at home during their engagement, so they could save for the wedding. They also took a short simple honeymoon, so they could have a fancier wedding. Plus, she got married at Christmastime when the church was already decorated so she didn’t have to spend money on flowers! The wedding was very fun and felt very personal.
My other nephew and his wife got married on the terrace at a restaurant overlooking the harbor and the ocean. They chose the venue because, being a restaurant, food was already included in the price. It was a neat wedding and the weather was perfect (in our area you always have to worry about the fog rolling in in the later afternoon, but it stayed clear the whole time).
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A cousin had a small town wedding that was extravagant too! The groom’s father was an ambassador (Poland I think) so there was a Germanic theme to the food. The wedding was in a small, clapboard church, very cute but no A/C. Only 2 bridesmaids fainted!
Reception was in her family yard, but what a yard. Huge. Big tent with lots and lots of hanging baskets of beautiful flowers. Lots of food. More food. Even more food. Entertainment of German dancers. Bride and Groom had attended Georgetown so a lot of their friends and a lot of younger adults (cousins by the dozen). Only 4 or 5 ended up in the swimming pool dressed in their wedding suits.
The bridesmaids’ dresses were lovely, a gray with little flower print that when you looked at them and said “Oh, those could be shortened to wear again” they really could be! The guys all had gray summer suits that really could be worn to work (except that half of them were her brothers and they’d all have the same suit on!).
It was lovely, except the bride looked overwhelmed the whole day.
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Sounds great. I could see DD’19 and BF going for something like this. DH is actually working on our barn, but it will probably never be wedding quality!
Another really unfortunate wedding. I had an EA for a couple of years who was a single mother with kid who had epilepsy (I believe). She was very attractive and lots of fun but also a bit of a wild woman (her life was somehow always a little bit out of control). She met a lovely guy – a nerd programmer and a really nice guy – and they really hit it off. He figured he had hit the jackpot and at some point proposed. She discovered after they were engaged that he came from a wealthy family – the parents set aside a goodly sum to buy them a house for their wedding present. So, cue up an elaborate wedding and part way through the ceremony, the daughter has an event (I’m guessing this is an epileptic seizure but it has been a long time). So, she rushes to the ER in an ambulance in her wedding dress. Somehow epitomized her life. But, what an end to the wedding.
The daughter is fine and they now have at least one other kid.
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Most dramatic wedding—my relative had a wedding that ended with the police and an ambulance. It started off pretty normal — ceremony at church, reception in ballroom of nice hotel. We left during the dancing as we had young children.
After we left, one of the groomsmen noticed a thief stealthily grabbing all the purses and valuables from the head table. He raised the alarm and a footrace ensued. The thief jumped off the balcony which was on the 3rd floor and ended up needing ambulance services.
The wedding party was interviewed by the police. I believe the thief had the nerve to file suit (which was promptly dismissed).not sure everything was recovered but was not sorry to have missed the excitement.
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