US vs UK Wedding Differences

The hats thing isnt just "people wear hats" but that traditionally you wear formal day wear to an English wedding, like nice summer dresses (depending on when it is) and the men wear suits, whereas evening wear seems more common in the US with black/dark suits or tuxedos for the guys and cocktail dresses and heels for the ladies.

I wasn't expecting the colour difference at all, but it's so obvious when you look at the formal shot with my family and his - his family are all in pale colours and mine are all in black and dark purple! 

Oh, and I knew we had this thread before! Here's the other, much longer "differences" thread if anyone wants to read it...

The cakes are generally different in the UK, are they not?  I think I remember a thread similar to this one that mentioned the wedding cakes usually being a sort of fruit cake rather than a sponge.

x-posted with squirrellypoo: I knew I'd read one of these before! 

bookgrl, every venue I visited has the option for outdoor weddings! Scotland has different rules for marriages.

ETA: Yes, the cake here is fruitcake. I believe that comes from the tradition of sending bits of the cake to anyone who couldn't come to the wedding, and a sponge would go stale while a fruitcake lasts forever!

Here the traditional order is ceremony-drinks reception/photos-wedding breakfast (usually sit down meal)-dancing-break for evening buffet-more dancing. The evening buffet is because often ceremonies are quite early (like 12), so the wedding breakfast is quite an early meal, while the dancing may go until midnight or 1. The evening buffet gives people some warm food to keep them going, and is also to feed any separate evening guests you might have. We're not having one, as our ceremony is going to be at 2:30 and our meal at a more normal dinner time, plus no separate evening guests.

Yup I really hate when weddings are split day/evening and you only invite some people to the rubbish buffet bit. I understand why people do that, but I hate the idea of saying "you're our good friends, your our not quite as good friends".

I'm slightly worried about the timing for ours, our ceremony is at 1, then pictures/hanging out on the steps at the registry office, then we're getting on our london bus around 3pm for 2 hours of champagne and being driven around London (most of the guests aren't from London) then the reception starts at 5pm with canapes and more champagne (blimey) and dinner is a bit later, around 7:30pm.  Obviously there's the museum to run around in and a band after that. Hopefully no one will mind not eating from 1pm to 5pm (people will have lunch first I assume!) Might have to warn people!

Having hordes of little girls as bridesmaids in UK.

Yup I really hate when weddings are split day/evening and you only invite some people to the rubbish buffet bit. I understand why people do that, but I hate the idea of saying "you're our good friends, your our not quite as good friends".

Yeah, a few years ago I was a guest at the wedding of one of my school friends (she's the only school friend I'm still in contact with actually) and the reception set up was a bit strange. The wedding breakfast was held at a local hotel, but they didn't have enough room for everyone so some people (myself included) had to eat our meals in the church! As a result, I had to spend the entire afternoon sitting on a table with a load of people I didn't know when the only people I did know at the wedding (the bride and groom) were eating their meals and listening to the toasts in a hotel 6 miles away!

Yup I really hate when weddings are split day/evening and you only invite some people to the rubbish buffet bit. I understand why people do that, but I hate the idea of saying "you're our good friends, your our not quite as good friends".

That's exactly how I felt. We invited everyone we want to have there, and they were there for the whole thing. That also meant we didn't do a late-night buffet as all our guests had been there for the meal already.

Yes, yes - the durable fruit cake! 

That's exactly how I felt. We invited everyone we want to have there, and they were there for the whole thing. That also meant we didn't do a late-night buffet as all our guests had been there for the meal already.

Me too and no late night buffet either.  I'm hoping if people eat around 7:30 they wont need any more food, there will be cakes, macaroons and chocolate so everyone can get hopped up on sugar

We were invited to DH's co-worker's buffet, but not her ceremony.  I didn't mind, honestly, because obviously DH only knows her from work and I didn't know her at all.  I thought it was a nice gesture to invite the co-workers at all, but I'm glad we didn't have to go to the ceremony.  It's a bit awkward to see someone married when you've never met them before.  Also, whilst fruitcake is common, it's also possible to have a sponge wedding cake.  We had a very nice Victoria sponge from M&S for our UK reception.  

We didn't have fruitcake either. I actually really like fruitcake, but only in wintertime. My cousin makes cakes for a living and she made us a lovely lemon sponge.

My fiancee hates fruitcake, so we are avoiding it entirely.  I believe we are doing a different flavor for different layers.  I don't really remember as my mother-in-law-to-be is handling the cake.  I don't really like sweets that much, and have little interest in the cake's flavor; as long as the guests enjoy it, I'm happy.

I simply found some pictures of 3 cakes I liked, wrote down what aesthetic element I like and wanted from each cake, and sent it to his mum.  Plain and simple.


BTW- We're having tartan ribbon on our cake and a quaitch!!!!  That's the only part I cared about, lol.


Take a look.  This is the general design we're going for:

My fiancee hates fruitcake, so we are avoiding it entirely.  I believe we are doing a different flavor for different layers.  I don't really remember as my mother-in-law-to-be is handling the cake.  I don't really like sweets that much, and have little interest in the cake's flavor; as long as the guests enjoy it, I'm happy.

I simply found some pictures of 3 cakes I liked, wrote down what aesthetic element I like and wanted from each cake, and sent it to his mum.  Plain and simple.


BTW- We're having tartan ribbon on our cake and a quaitch!!!!  That's the only part I cared about, lol.


Take a look.  This is the general design we're going for:

That's cool, that hand piping work is really nice. I've been working on my piping recently.

We're doing this - http://www.crumbsanddoilies.co.uk/gallery_page_2.html

bookgrl, every venue I visited has the option for outdoor weddings! Scotland has different rules for marriages.

Ummm, I don't think I posted in this thread?  Did I?

*headwall* Sorry, I was reading both threads at the same time and must have seen it in the other one! D'oh! Or I just misread the name because I was in a hurry!

Yep, misread it, should have been lamuella. Apologies!!