Looking for wedding reception fun ideas? We are continuing the series from our blog category about “Meeting the love of your life,” and the story of my husband and I when we first met and then got married.

If you have been following us, this time I am going to invite you to the scene of our reception. It was fun and memorable to say the least.

Show off your Personality at your Wedding

Use items at your wedding to show what shaped who you are. It was nothing big, yet it was big in the eyes of my friends and family. You see I did not grow up with much money. It was not the usual wedding reception you would expect. My mom and I had fun buying items for the big party and finding them for 75% off. It took a while deciding what to do for our wedding cake. You see, I am a practical kind of girl who has expensive taste. According to my mother, I am just like my grandmother (or her mom who has since passed away now). She had expensive taste on a frugal budget. Growing up in a family with limited resources, yet not really knowing it shaped who I am today.

I am beyond grateful for everything I have today. My parents figured out how to be creative and make my two brothers and I feel like we have money through making crafts out of nothing, making learning fun, and bonding with us using everyday items.

I say all that to say, I have always wanted a great wedding like other girls, yet value money at the same time. My fiance (at the time), Mark, and I agreed that we would rather spend the money saved from our wedding to put on a house. We know how to make a wedding fun with or without money.

Finding the Perfect Wedding Cake

I say all that to say, after looking at several wedding cakes, we decided to be creative and purchased a cake from Walmart. Walmart??? (you are thinking). I know, I know. It  is not the traditional answer you would expect. We bought two large sheet cakes and one smaller cake for my fiance and I. We found a cute gazebo decoration to use as a cake topper with a picture of ourselves in it. It was a big deal to us because it showcased our personality in the cake, and still tasted great. Besides, by having two sheet cakes we could please everyone with flavor and have one white and one chocolate cake.

Be Creative at your Wedding Reception

other things that set our reception apart were the cute goldfish swimming in a bowl on our table where we sat as the bride and groom. My dad had this brilliant idea to get the fish and put them in a bowl to surprise us. The fish were strange to some, but as we told the story, it made sense.

The fish had memories to me as our family always had fish in a pond somewhere growing up throughout my life. I remember the days of sitting together and watching the fish swim in our back yard. I wanted to have fireworks at the end of my wedding too, but that idea got banned.

We all have our weird, yet fun quirks. It is important to make your wedding reception, yours. It is your one day to shine and show who all has influenced your life and made you the woman or man you are today.

Other Fun Wedding Reception Ideas

For other fun wedding reception ideas check out this link here.

1. Be yourself

2. Be entertaining

3. Include activities for all ages.

What advice would you give to help other with fun wedding reception ideas? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post Wedding Reception Fun Ideas appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

You are a new bride. Let’s look at what to put in a wedding time capsule to remember what life was like the year you were married.

He had it all planned out. He would bury the time capsule one month before he proposed to her. The close group of friends gathered around to reminisce and were going through the objects they wanted to put in their time capsule to be opened in 20 years.

He Proposes using a Time Capsule

Then, the hole was dug and to the surprise of the girlfriend, there was already something else in the ground. The shovel hit something hard as they were digging to bury this time capsule. At first, she thought is was just a hard rock. Then, she realized it was another time capsule someone else buried (“what if it’s Hitler’s? What if it’s gold?,” she said). When this old time capsule (already in the ground) was opened, she found something she never imagined…..a ring box. Then, her boyfriend (on one knee) pulled the actual ring from his pocket and proposed to her. It was so romantic. You can read more about the story and see the video here.

A wedding time capsule is a heartfelt and enduring gift that lasts for generations to come. Imagine being able to open it again (with all of your mementos and heirloom items from your wedding day, honeymoon, or your first year of marital bliss).

Do you remember making your own time capsule when you were in first grade. Then, when you graduated high-school that special teacher mailed you your time capsule. What answers did you write on your worksheet asking about what you wanted to be when you grew up? Do you even know where that time capsule is to this day. It is such a special gift to give a student that means so much years later. It is like opening up a lost treasure.

Think about how much fun it would be to stroll down memory lane again for you when your 25th Wedding Anniversary comes around and you reopen your time capsule.

List of what to put in a wedding time capsule 

• A local daily newspaper
• A DVD of the local nightly news
• A National newspaper (USA Today)
• A Television Guide
• A weekly news magazine (Time)
• Special interest magazines (Sports Illustrated, Mother Earth News)
• Ceremony program from the wedding
• Personalized napkin from the wedding
• Cork from your champagne toast
• Copy of your marriage certificate
• Copy of your wedding invitation
• Wedding favors
• Utensils used on the cake
• Cake topper
• Airline ticket stubs from your honeymoon
• Brochure from your hotel or cruise
• Matchbook or item with hotel logo from your honeymoon
• Event/sightseeing tickets
• Foreign currency (if traveled outside of the country) for your honeymoon

• Receipts an other memorabilia
• Ticket stubs fro a concert or movie
• A sample of product packaging (Coke/Pepsi can)
• Extended family tree (after you are married)
• Drawn floor plan of your first home together
• Stocks and Bonds
• US Savings Bonds
• Popular music or tv show recorded.
• A menu from your favorite restaurant
• Items from your job (business card)
• Messages from guests at your wedding reception (have them fill out “Message to the Future” letters to the bride and groom predicting their future, like how many kids they will have).
• A current postage stamp
• A Year-in-Review magazine or newspaper
• Lock of hair from the bride and groom (before it turns gray, or goes away completely).

For 69 other great ideas, order your own Wedding Time Capsule here and get a FREE Inventory Checklist. What would you put in your Wedding Time Capsule? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post What to put in a Wedding Time Capsule appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

I have been looking for songs to walk down the aisle to at my wedding.  The first time I heard it I knew it was the one. I was working and it came on the radio. I was hooked to the words. It was perfect. It described my father and I to a T. If you have been following our story, this is a continuation blog about the category of “Meeting the Love of your Life.”

There are so many different wedding aisle songs to choose from. Check these other ideas out here.

I have typed up her lyrics here along with the story behind the song for me.

In My Daughter’s Eyes by Martina McBride

Story behind this section: Who are you to your children? What do you want them to remember you for? If you were to write your kids a “Message to the Future” letter, what would you say? Reminisce with your child years later with a decorative Baby Time Capsule. Keep their memories and mementos in the time capsule. Then in 20 to 40 years re-open the time capsule and relive what life was like when your baby was first born.

I am a reflection of my father in many ways. I am sure you can relate. I have his determination, passion, longing to constantly learn, playfulness, entrepreneurial heart and drive, good looks (Ha Ha – just kidding), love for others, and other quirks. What did you pass on to your children?

Ask yourself, how are my babies “a reflection of who I am and what will be?” It was hard moving out of my parent’s house, when I grew up, but I knew I had to. It was time to start a new journey. New memories only come, when you let go and move on. My husband and father are very close and very similar. It is a rare honor to marry someone as close to my father as Mark (my husband) is. For that reason, my father will always be there.

What songs to walk down the aisle to, do you recommend? Do you have a story behind your choice? Share with us below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post Songs to Walk Down the Aisle To appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

The wedding day timeline surprises were being worked on by myself and my father-in-law.

I have heard it said, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”  Every life has a moment that takes our breaths away.  We all experience something that makes time stop, for just an instant, and we will never be the same after we experience the moment. It is a milestone moment in our lives.

For most people, their wedding day is one of those moments.  Another might be the birth of each of their children.  Today, I want to share one of the moments that changed my life.

The Wedding Day Plans

Your wedding day timeline is important to follow as close as possible, to keep stress levels down. My wife and her family had spent many months preparing for our wedding.  I had done my part in preparing for the honeymoon.  I had prepared mentally and done the things she had asked me to.

All the preparations that could be made had been.  The day had come and we were in the final minutes.

There were butterflies in my stomach as the ceremony began.  In traditional style, I did not see my wife the day of the wedding.  I had spent the morning preparing our home for our first night together.  My sister and her two children had spent the night with me the night before.  I was very close to my niece, and she wanted to help me prepare the house.  Most of it had already been cleaned, but there was a little bit of “straightening up” that needed to happen because of the night before.  Then we left to go to our local florist.  My niece came with me.  We purchased 6 dozen roses, of varying colors.

After purchasing the flowers, we returned to my home.  I put 2 dozen of the roses in a vase and placed it on the kitchen table.  The remaining 4 dozen roses became my project with my niece.  We tore the petals off of the flowers and began spreading them around the house.  We put them on my bed.  We put them in my bathtub, and in the shower.  We spread them on the floor in the bedroom, and kitchen.  They were everywhere.  It was romantic.  I wanted my new wife to have something extra special when she came into my home for the first time as my wife.

Behind the Scenes Fun at the Wedding

At that point, we left for the church.  I had finished dressing and all of my final preparations.  It was now about 15 minutes before our ceremony.  I could hear the musicians playing for our guests.  I had done everything I could do.  My soon-to-be-father-in-law came up to me, wrapped his arm around my shoulder and said to me, “Now, son, right now, you have a choice.  In a few minutes, after she walks down that isle, if you both say, ‘I do,’ don’t bring her back to my house!”  He paused for a few moments to let that whole thing sink in, then proceeded to say, “At that point, she is all yours!”

I laughed.  I think he could see that the tension was starting to mount and that I needed a comical moment to relieve my stress.  As a side note, the rest of the afternoon, after the ceremony, and at the reception, every time he would walk past me, he would just smile and say softly, “All yours!”  Each time he did it, it got funnier.

“She’s All Yours”

A few minutes later, I was standing at the front of the chapel and watching as my beautiful bride was being escorted by her father down the isle.  She was a radiant beauty!  I don’t think I had ever seen her quite so lovely.  The walk down the isle seemed to take an eternity.  I became more excited with each step they took.  I looked into my father-in-laws eyes and I could see a father who understood.  I could see the deep thoughts and feelings running through his heart and mind.  He was proud of his daughter.  He wasn’t sure that he wanted to let her go, but knew that she was in love with me.  While no father ever is “ready to give up his daughter,” he knew that this was her decision.

The Milestone Moment that gripped me with love.

They finally arrived at the front of the church where I was, and I heard my pastor say, “Who gives this woman away?”  I heard my brides father say, “Her mother and I.”  Then it happened.  The moment that changed my life happened.  A moment frozen in time.  It was like a time capsule moment. As I reached for my brides hand, my father-in-law reached out his hand and took mine.  I didn’t realize what was happening, so I pulled away a little.  He intentionally grabbed my hand, flipped it over, and placed it in my brides hand.  I was stunned.  It wasn’t that he simply “approved of this wedding.”  He was telling me that he genuinely wanted this to happen.  It wasn’t just that he “allowed it” but that he actually was blessing it.  He wanted her and I to be married.

I had never experienced such a powerful moment in such a simple gesture.  It was a moment that I think about even today.  It was a moment that I will never forget.

It took my breath away and I am a better man because of that one simple moment.

What milestone moments have made a great impact on your life? Comment below. We would love to hear your story too.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Mark

The post Wedding Day Timeline Surprises appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

Have your favorite mascot marry you.

Sometimes, there are fun wedding pranks to entertain your guests, and surprise your bride and groom at the same time.  Weddings can be full of surprises, and I am not just talking about our “Wedding of substitutions,” as discussed in our last blog in the category “Meeting the Love of your Life.” No matter how well you plan a wedding, some things go right, others go wrong, and the day of the wedding can be full of fun and irritating problems.

What would you do in this wedding disaster moment? 

I recently heard from a pastor about a wedding in Indiana that was planned perfectly.  This was, what I would call “a high-end wedding.”  The church was set perfectly.  Thousands of dollars had been spent on decorations and fresh flowers.  The bride had positioned 6 candelabras in the center isle to finish off the rest of the perfect décor.  The wedding dress was magnificent and had an amazingly long, beautiful trane.  As the bride made her appearance around the corner, everyone in the chapel gasped at her beauty.  That is where things took a turn for the worst.

The bridesmaid who was in charge of the trane lost her focus for a moment and looked away from her duties.  The back corner of the trane caught the first candelabra, pulled it down on top of the dress and set the dress on fire.  After the fire was put out, and the time came to restart the wedding, the bride started to think about how her day had been ruined.  She was about to loose it when her father leaned down and whispered something in her ear.  She smiled, composed herself and continued the march down the isle to complete the journey she had started.

After the wedding was over, the pastor asked the father of the bride what he had whispered to his daughter in that crucial moment.  The father smiled at him and replied, “I simply said to her, ‘One down, five more to go.'”

It’s all about perspective.

What a perfect moment!  I know that no one wants to have problems in their wedding, but the reality is that this can be a part of it!  People have lives.  Kids get sick at inconvenient times.  Accidents happen.  No amount of planning can prevent things like this from happening, but how we deal with them is what makes or breaks the moment.  This father knew his daughter well.  He knew that a bit of humor could diffuse this most incredibly tense moment.  I mean, women plan their wedding day from the time they are little girls, and I am sure that no little girls dream wedding includes being set on fire while walking down the isle or standing in front of the church in a charred dress!  But at the same time, they now have a story to tell, and a memory that will never die!  I mean, it is hard to show someone your wedding pictures and not explain the giant burn mark on your dress!  (And for the record, a swatch of this dress is a perfect thing to put in a wedding time capsule!)

It can be more than accidents as well.  Sometimes people think they are being humorous, and are playing jokes.  Things like writing “S.O.S” or “Help Me” on the bottom of the Grooms shoes, so when they kneel at the alter it is shows.  Or pretending to forget the rings and presenting the bride or groom with something else instead, such as a life saver, a piece of yarn tied in a circle, or even a doughnut.  While some jokes are in poor taste, other can be quite funny.  My personal favorite was when I was a best man, the Bride asked me to “make sure the groom was ready” for their first kiss.  So, when the pastor said, “you may kiss your bride,” the groom turned to me and I “brushed the lint off” of his tuxedo, straightened his tie, sprayed his mouth with a freshener, and gave him “two thumbs up.”  The entire thing was planned, with both the bride and groom’s approval, and received a fantastic laugh.  To this day, most of the wedding guests still think it was something the groom and I had planned, and no one believes the bride was in on it.

Planning fun on your Wedding Day

You must really be careful when you plan something of this nature.  All parties need to agree to what is happening.  When my parents were young, my father sent a note to the “honeymoon suite” of their friends wedding on their wedding night that stated, “We found you.”  Needless to say, this spoiled the “planned events” of the evening as the couple was afraid he might show up at any moment.  These kinds of jokes are typically not found to be funny. For 10 great prank ideas for your wedding day check out this fun article here. Also check out these fun videos here, of examples of how to entertain your guests on your wedding day. Whatever you do, don’t forget to save these fun, memorable moments and videos in your Wedding Time Capsule.

What did you do for your first day of marriage? (besides…. you know…)

For my wife and I, we chose to go home for our first night together.  We left for our honeymoon three days after the wedding, but were able to spend that time undisturbed, at home (in our own bed for our first night of marriage).  We were able to start by opening our wedding gifts, and telling stories about the precious relationships we had with the people who had blessed us with so much.  We didn’t worry about who might show up because no one knew we were there. (They all thought we already left for our honeymoon). Our wedding photos were taken digitally, so our photographer dropped off a CD containing all of our photos the first day and we were able to view the images of the wedding before even going on our honeymoon.  This was truly amazing!

There were some jokes that are truly harmless and just make people smile.  Our wedding centerpieces were bowls of water with floating candles in them.  My father-in-law decided it would be a good idea to put two goldfish in the wedding party’s table centerpiece.  This surprised me as I was eating and noticed a goldfish staring at me from under a candle.  Not only did it make me laugh, but it confirmed in my mind that my father-in-law thought of me as “one of his kids.”

Whatever happens on your wedding day.  Be sure that you are planned as much as you can be.  Relax and enjoy the day . . . after all, it is all about you!  Things will go wrong, but it is not something to stress about.  Roll with the punches and make the best of it.  Stressing about the moment will not change anything.  If something comes up that can be fixed, fix it.  If it cannot be fixed – forget it and move on!

So how did you turn your lemons into lemonade at your wedding? Share below in the comments. We would love to hear your story too.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Mark

The post Fun Wedding Pranks appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.