In the old days in the main newspaper in Arkansas there were a few brides featured in the style section every weekend, the “High Profile” brides. They got a full page of full color photos and copy.
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Oops! Hoggirl already answered.
My sister used to read the engagement and wedding notices aloud from the NYT every Sunday. She loved them. We are not from NY and never knew a single person mentioned.
Every single wedding gets that much coverage?
The weddings they select get pretty detailed coverage and there is usually a spotlight couple that gets very extensive coverage. But not every single wedding gets featured.
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Where I lived that coverage was for everyone!
In larger areas, the Times had a regional edition, and anyone who submitted the info was included. For a while there was no charge, but I think that changed. @skieurope can clarify this.
I’m not upset by it. I just think it’s somewhat poor taste and certainly not something I’d follow…
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I remember when my sister was planning her upstate NY (Hudson Valley) wedding 40 years ago one of her friends was from a rural midwest area was shocked at all the hoopla around weddings. In her town, there was punch and cookies or potluck dinner in the church hall. Then there were chairs placed in back of a pickup truck for bride and groom to be driven around town in celebration. That sounded very different to me, but also kindof fun.
I’ve often wondered if there would be more church hall receptions if churches had liquor licenses.
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I am from a small midwest town and NO ONE I know did cake and punch in the church hall. A meal and and open bar was expected!
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Cake and punch in the church hall was pretty common in South when I was coming up. Sometimes they would do the reception elsewhere. It was not a sit down dinner, though. Just a buffet of fancy lil hors d’oeuvres and finger foods like mini ham biscuits, and I can’t remember open bars being very common.
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Even within communities, customs can be different . I got married in Pittsburgh decades ago. No cookie table! I’ve been seeing things lately about how cookie tables are a big thing in Pittsburgh. That was news to me and I grew up there ! But, in looking at the history , it seems it is/was more prevalent in Catholic , Eastern European , Italian, Greek families. That was not my background (Protestant, British, Swedish), so I think I unfortunately missed out on some good cookies!
We just had a cake. How boring!
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In my experience, Southern weddings run the gamut in terms of how lavish they are. This is usually dependent upon means and views on alcohol. I have been to plenty of church weddings where the reception is cake/mints/nuts/punch in the fellowship hall after the ceremony. I have also been to several where the ceremony moves from the church to a country club where there is a band, dancing, open bar, and a lavish buffet. I will say that, at least during my era, a buffet was much more common than a sit-down dinner.
One trend I am now seeing is that both ceremony and reception are held at the same venue and there is less desire among young people to marry at a church, whatever their religious views may be.
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Yea, lots more weddings now with ceremony and reception same place. I mentioned the other day that son/fiancee trying hard to find a wedding venue for next summer in Boston, but at least they only need to coordinate one location since not doing church ceremony. She said, “that is always easier for the guests” … and I agree. (We are both church attenders, would joyfully attend church ceremony if that is what the couple wanted.)
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When we were married most everyone we knew got married in a church and had the reception at another location. I like that fact now that many weddings and receptions happen in the same location. If you belong to a church and want to get married there I think that is great, but many people now don’t attend church so it’s nice they have other options when planning a wedding.
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Synagogues had liquor licenses, so that was what I was used to, growing up. Every Bar/bat mitzvah and wedding in one of two places. By my late 20’s, country clubs were added. Now, every one of my friend’s adult children look for the unusual/interesting.
I like staying in one place.
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I have been to a lot of weddings in the last several years and very few were in churches.
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I think a lot here have church weddings due to a large Roman Catholic population who want their marriages recognized by the church. I would’ve loved to have the ceremony at the venue.
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And some bishops don’t allow the weddings to be done outside a church. A few do, but most don’t want to have to approve every venue so just say no.
My friend got married at the church at Fordham with her reception (in)conveniently located in Ft. Lee, NJ. Big Big points taken off for having to travel across state lines! And when we got to the reception, there was a catholic church right across the street! Big big points taken off.
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The area I grew up in was very heavily Roman Catholic but not many church weddings there these days. There was an article in the local paper a few years ago about it.
@twoinanddone in her defense, there aren’t exactly a lot of decent venues in the South Bronx for a wedding reception. Or at least not back when I went there. Going anywhere from Fordham is going to involve nightmare traffic. Most Catholic churches require you to be a parishioner at that church in order to get married in it. At least that’s how it is where I live. So unless she was from Ft Lee it might not have been possible to get married at that church even if they wanted to for convenience sake. But I agree, getting from Fordham to Ft Lee is no fun. I just made that drive last weekend (Fordham to Meadowlands area - took 30 mins, really wasn’t too bad but it was 8pm on a Saturday night).
I got married at the Naval Academy chapel (Catholic wedding so had to be married in a church). I know you are familiar with the area so I will mention that my reception was across the Bay Bridge. However, we provided a bus to transport people back and forth if they didn’t want to drive, but it was only 20 mins away. I wouldn’t do that now unless marrying in the off-season b/c the beach traffic makes travel across the bridge unpredictable.
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