> That's advice I'd already taken when I wrote the post (so it was good advice, just already been done). I'm just trying to think of creative, inexpensive little touches (especially for the reception, which is in the groom's parents' backyard) that will make it beautiful and fun. I have plenty of creativity; it just runs more to getting through adventure games live games with my sanity still intact. I wonder... maybe I can get a fantasy quest theme going?

The only really great wedding I've been to was when my cousin got married in Japan. There were some things about the Japanese wedding which struck me as pretty cool at the time. For example, it was the only interesting wedding *reception* I've ever been to. It seems like the usual idea at a reception is that people stand up and make speeches which are both embarrassed and embarrassing, then everybody gets drunk. In contrast to this, my cousin's bride explained that at a Japanese wedding reception, the idea is for the guests to entertain the bridal couple and the rest of the group. When the invitations were sent out, guests had this idea explained to them and were invited to put their names down for a short entertainment of some kind.

Obviously not everybody wanted to do something, but there were all sorts of performances and many were very good. All were interesting. It doesn't have to be relevant to marriage in any way. Some people sang a song or read a poem which they felt was significant to the day or the bridal couple. Several people performed a musical piece. Two very little boys dressed up as their favourite TV characters and did what they fondly imagined to be a martial arts display, which seemed like they just made it up thirty seconds before they started, but they had their moment of glory and it was very funny to the adults watching.

After the entertainments, a screen was brought out and a slide show compiled by the bride's and groom's parents was shown, of pictures of each of them throughout their childhood, up until the time they met, and concluding with pictures taken the previous day as they prepared for the wedding. The parents talked the audience through the various slides in a sort of "This is Your Life" show, so that friends and relatives on both sides would get to know about the person their friend or relative was marrying. The completed set of slides was then presented to the bride and groom. Somebody said a symbolic empty photo album might also be given, for them to fill up as they continue their life together.