If you follow me on Instagram, you probably already know that Mark and I have been married for almost three months. Today, I want to tell you about our wedding party that broke most of the rules of a usual wedding. I hope it will be useful for those who are looking for some inspirations and fun for the others.
We had been talking about getting married since the beginning of our relationship. So, all we had to do was to decide on a date, a venue and let our friends and family know.
We decided to get married on the 2nd of June. That was easy. Next step was to decide on the venue. We knew we didn’t want to have a classical wedding party in a hotel’s ballroom or in other classical wedding venues in Istanbul. I also knew that my mum always dreamt about having at least an engagement party in their backyard for my sister or me. When I said this to Mark, he was very excited and told me it was exactly what he wanted too. Luckily, my parents were more than happy when we asked them whether that would be ok.
The rule #1 to have a wedding that looks like a garden party:If it’s possible, organize it in your garden, or a family member’s or even a friend’s garden. If not, the alternative could be to book a nice cosy restaurant with a backyard. Stay away from fancy hotels.
Another thing I was sure about was that I didn’t want to hide in a room until the official ceremony started, like a grounded child or someone so important that she could not be seen until the ceremony. I thought the normal and genuine behaviour would be to welcome the guests when they arrive instead of acting like a princess. We had to negotiate this with the event planners but finally we got what we wanted. They were worried that it would be difficult to gather the guests where the ceremony would take place, if we were already among them. But we were lucky to have a great DJ who had a solution to their concerns. You know, music is just magical. With the right music you can transmit the message you want to and that’s exactly what happened. All we did was to decide on a track that would change the mood and start to walk hand in hand.
The rule #2 to have a wedding like a regular party:Welcome your guests when they arrive and start drinking and chatting with them (mingling is the key). You will notice that way everyone will be more relaxed and the party will start without delay.
Talking about music, obviously the DJ is a crucial part of your party. Lots of people find a DJ at a good price but they had never heard of before. Since they don’t trust the DJ, they then give the list of all the songs that they want him/her to play. That doesn’t make sense to me. If I will prepare the list of the songs, why do I need a DJ? I also think it is a profession like the others and having a good taste in music is not enough to make sure that you play the right kind of music at the right time during the party.
The rule #3: Find a good DJ who understands you and who you can trust. You can thank me later 🙂
I usually get bored at weddings when there is a sit-down dinner. It feels like an obligation that you need to fulfil before being allowed to party. And the worst is when you get stuck at a table where you don’t know anyone. Having said that, I don’t like weddings where there is not enough food and you can’t party because you’re starving either. What we did was to find the perfect catering company that happens also to be a culinary school (MSA). One of the many advantages to hire a culinary school as the caterer is that the young and keen students, who look like your friends, are serving your guests instead of normal waitresses who look as if they don’t even want to be there. As soon as the official ceremony was over, they started to serve the food. I must say one of the stars of the night was MSA (the others were Mark’s son Alex and our DJ/friend Turgay Temeroğlu), after the wedding everyone was talking about how delicious everything was.
The rule #4 for a cosy wedding:Don’t make your guests sit and get bored until the end of the dinner. Serve them ample delicious food but let them have fun at the same time.
Finally rule no#5: Just have fun! Don’t do anything that you don’t want to, just because the wedding planner or some people say so. Don’t forget this is your day to celebrate and be happy, so be yourself and have fun the way you would like to.
