Worst non-LI/NY wedding you've been to

The BM at Fox Hollow said it best, Long Island is the wedding capital of the US. After attending weddings in other states, I also feel that the quality and presentation does not compare, but that's just my opinion. What's the tackiest/worst/blandest wedding you've been to outside of the Tristate area?

I went to a male friend's wedding in Orlando last fall (he moved there for his pHd from Stony Brook) and it was a huge disappointment: the Jewish ceremony was beautiful, but the cocktail hour was the bare minimum of 3 or 4 items that you had to line up around a small crowded table to get, there was no liquor, and the food was buffett and ran out before our table was called to receive food. The dancefloor was also too small, kept bumping elbows with others, and it was taken apart at the end of the night in front of guests! When FH and I discussed thisnon our way back to NY, he said that we're so used to OUR weddings that we tend to forget other places don't know how to raise the bar.

I hope this wasn't too mean, and I look forward to reading about all of your experiences in other parts of the country!

I went to a wedding in Minnesota that had 4 hot hors d'ovrs and that was it!! NO MAIN COURSE, NO OTHER FOOD! It said on the invite 'Hors D'Ovrs will be served after the ceremony' and we took it as the CH will begin after the ceremony, but there was no other food!!!!!! It was HORRENDOUS...cash bar for drinks, the DJ literally had one speaker, the wedding was a hotel where we had to walk to through the lobby to get to the bathroom...

ooo thats easy!

there is actually two i have in mind.

one in Pittsburgh where they did not even serve food and had no music! it was a night time wedding and all they had was a small table in the corner with some finger food that was horrible. the hall was beautiful tho! we stayed in our booth teh whole night(no tables just large booths surrounding the room). the first and only time i stood up was to use the bathroom, and the stairs to get to the bathroom were scary especially since the lack of food but plenty of drinks being passed were not a good combo lol

the second was in Vermont, this one at least had food and music but i guess we missed the memo that people could show up in ripped daisey duke shorts - i'm talking about the men when i say that. so me and my family looks like we should have been part of the wedding. it was a beautiful hall again, but soooo white trash!

DH and I were invited last year to one of DHs cousins wedding in IN (we didn't go though). Another one of DHs uncles went and said it was at a KOC hall, they had a keg if you wanted beer, and it was a cold buffet of 3 different things to eat.

Also, the stepmom of the groom was caught in the walkin freezer with a groomsmen . After hearing that, we wished we would've went. Just witnessing that would have been worth it lol

Honestly, I think that we are spoiled Long Islanders who will spend $30,000-60,000 on a wedding!

Seriously, it is insanely overpriced.. for ONE DAY lol. It makes me crazy how much everything is adding up.

Weddings in other states are different most likely because they are less expensive.. I am getting married in Rockport MA and can say that it is still adding up but not as much as Long Island for a September wedding.

As much as I love cocktail hours here on long island, it's way too much.. where does all that food go to? Do we really need that much food?

People are probably going to hate me.. but i feel like we spend all this money for one day on lavish things and forget that it is about two people confessing their love and promising to be with one another forever.

I can go on and on.. :) But like i said, I may get shunned after that hahaha

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Posted by Ashleyb22

Honestly, I think that we are spoiled Long Islanders who will spend $30,000-60,000 on a wedding!

Seriously, it is insanely overpriced.. for ONE DAY lol. It makes me crazy how much everything is adding up.

Weddings in other states are different most likely because they are less expensive.. I am getting married in Rockport MA and can say that it is still adding up but not as much as Long Island for a September wedding.

As much as I love cocktail hours here on long island, it's way too much.. where does all that food go to? Do we really need that much food?

People are probably going to hate me.. but i feel like we spend all this money for one day on lavish things and forget that it is about two people confessing their love and promising to be with one another forever.

I can go on and on.. :) But like i said, I may get shunned after that hahaha

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I kind of agree with this!! I mean, I have totally been caught up in the hype of having a big beautiful wedding, but FH and I are paying for pretty much the entire thing ourselves and reallyyyy have been trying to save $$ wherever we can...and with that in mind... we are still close to $40k when all is said and done!!! Absolutely insane. Especially when you take off the wedding hat and put the prices of things in perspective - FH is good at doing that thank god!! Otherwise we'd be in trouble!

ps - did anyone else ever notice that out of state, people actually give GIFTS at weddings? Like, off the registry. Seems so strange! LOL!

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Posted by Ashleyb22

Honestly, I think that we are spoiled Long Islanders who will spend $30,000-60,000 on a wedding!

Seriously, it is insanely overpriced.. for ONE DAY lol. It makes me crazy how much everything is adding up.

Weddings in other states are different most likely because they are less expensive.. I am getting married in Rockport MA and can say that it is still adding up but not as much as Long Island for a September wedding.

As much as I love cocktail hours here on long island, it's way too much.. where does all that food go to? Do we really need that much food?

People are probably going to hate me.. but i feel like we spend all this money for one day on lavish things and forget that it is about two people confessing their love and promising to be with one another forever.

I can go on and on.. :) But like i said, I may get shunned after that hahaha

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I have to completely and utterly agree with this. Nevermind, I've faced a lot of sticker shock on these boards - because let's say my budget is not between $30,000 to $60,000. I can't even fathom spending that much money on a single day, regardless of whether I have it, it just goes against my personal ethics. (no judgment of others, I'd just can't).

I've been to out of state weddings in Ohio and MA while different were beautiful. Ohio One I was in the wedding party and despite dealing with a number of mishaps like the Bride and Groom's limo breaking down - it was fixed (jumped) and quickly replaced.

Not the couple's fault.

I'm working on what must seem like an incredibly tiny budget to some here. I've always though people putting a budget range in increments in their profile made sense.

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Posted by ali427

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Posted by Ashleyb22

As much as I love cocktail hours here on long island, it's way too much.. where does all that food go to? Do we really need that much food?

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ps - did anyone else ever notice that out of state, people actually give GIFTS at weddings? Like, off the registry. Seems so strange! LOL!

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ashley - i agree with you - there is wayyyy too much food. we called Island Harvest and donated all the extra food to them which i thought was awesome since it was right around thanksgiving

ali - i got about 10 physical gifts at my wedding. NONE of them were off my registry unfortunately. all a bunch of crap my BA at the wedding just put them in the bridal suite when people walked in with them. i didnt even know about them until the next day when my mom came over with a ton of boxes

went to a wedding in TX and it was awful! she was native to NY but they had passed around, butler style, like 2 hor d'eurves and you were lucky if you got one!
the food was atrocious and the music ******. no VH - they had no idea what that is over there.

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Posted by leesah85

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Posted by ali427

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Posted by Ashleyb22

As much as I love cocktail hours here on long island, it's way too much.. where does all that food go to? Do we really need that much food?

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ps - did anyone else ever notice that out of state, people actually give GIFTS at weddings? Like, off the registry. Seems so strange! LOL!

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ashley - i agree with you - there is wayyyy too much food. we called Island Harvest and donated all the extra food to them which i thought was awesome since it was right around thanksgiving

ali - i got about 10 physical gifts at my wedding. NONE of them were off my registry unfortunately. all a bunch of crap my BA at the wedding just put them in the bridal suite when people walked in with them. i didnt even know about them until the next day when my mom came over with a ton of boxes

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Yup I got a set of cups...that I did NOT register for and a dish towel from an out of town guest.

The only out of NY wedding I went to was in Charlotte NC, and I really can't complain. It was beautiful!! As for weddings here they all seem very cookie cutter. Same stuff over and over again and so overpriced for what I can't figure out

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Posted by Ashleyb22

Honestly, I think that we are spoiled Long Islanders who will spend $30,000-60,000 on a wedding!

Seriously, it is insanely overpriced.. for ONE DAY lol. It makes me crazy how much everything is adding up.

Weddings in other states are different most likely because they are less expensive.. I am getting married in Rockport MA and can say that it is still adding up but not as much as Long Island for a September wedding.

As much as I love cocktail hours here on long island, it's way too much.. where does all that food go to? Do we really need that much food?

People are probably going to hate me.. but i feel like we spend all this money for one day on lavish things and forget that it is about two people confessing their love and promising to be with one another forever.

I can go on and on.. :) But like i said, I may get shunned after that hahaha

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I agree with you! Well, I don't think we are 'spoiled', I just think we have grown accustomed to a certain elegance and lavishness for weddings.

Both of our families are here in NYC, or we would totally be going somewhere else. We are trying our best to keep the cost down, but it is so expensive...

That being said, one thing I didn't like about a friend's out of state wedding was that cocktail hour was cash bar (and they didn't tell us reception was open bar). There was a tray of cheese and crackers on the bar and another tray of veggies and dip, and no seats except for like 6 of them at the bar. And this was for 75 people for an hour.

FHs family is from the mid west and when they ask me about the wedding its like Im speaking another language. They just don't have big weddings like that. the last one I went to was at a farm and FH and I were the only ones who didn't wear jeans.
I really look at is as a cultural difference. They just don't celebrate the same way as we do. I thought it was so rude that people wore jeans to a wedding but FH said it was the nicest family wedding he had ever been to. it is just a different way.

I don't really understand it lol but I have to accept it.


I just cant wait to see what they are going to say when the come to our big NY style wedding!

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Posted by Ashleyb22

Honestly, I think that we are spoiled Long Islanders who will spend $30,000-60,000 on a wedding!

Seriously, it is insanely overpriced.. for ONE DAY lol. It makes me crazy how much everything is adding up.

Weddings in other states are different most likely because they are less expensive.. I am getting married in Rockport MA and can say that it is still adding up but not as much as Long Island for a September wedding.

As much as I love cocktail hours here on long island, it's way too much.. where does all that food go to? Do we really need that much food?

People are probably going to hate me.. but i feel like we spend all this money for one day on lavish things and forget that it is about two people confessing their love and promising to be with one another forever.

I can go on and on.. :) But like i said, I may get shunned after that hahaha

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I agree Ashley!!! We are on a budget and def not spending 30-40k on our wedding. It's one day!! We are paying for most of the wedding ourselves and would love to start a life debt free!! LOL

I cant say it was the worst bc we had a blast celebrating with friends but it was very different. It was an upstate wedding. Beautiful venue, kinda small tho for the amount of guests they had. Their cocktail hour was tiny and it was a cash bar for those not in the bridal party. But the ceremony was beautiful, the bride & groom were happy and in the end thats all that counts.

My wedding is costing a lot since we are paying the majority, it makes me sick! I wish I could spend a lot less but it could be worse. We are not getting the best of the best, we are doing what we can afford but will go into a small amount of debt over it. But hopefully will pay that off right after.