In my wedding guest era

Last weekend, I attended my fifth wedding this year — the third one where I’ve been a part of the wedding party. The season isn’t quite over yet as we still have one to go.

It’s interesting because I remember several years ago when I was a bridesmaid for the first time. I had barely been to any weddings, and the ones I had been to were family weddings.

It was so exciting to be watching my friends get married and being a part of their day.

Now, I’ve been in and attended so many weddings they are starting to all blur together. The moments that once brought me to tears no matter who the bride and groom were, now have little affect on me.

I’ve been matron of honor (what a horrible title) twice and a bridesmaid in four weddings over the past five years. That’s not including being the bride in my own wedding!

It’s made more complicated by the fact that most of these weddings are more than five hours from Creston. Even for our own wedding, we had one of the longest commutes.

Larry and John have had to cover for me a number of sporting events this fall as we had to travel for Thursday or Friday night rehersal dinners.

One of the weddings I wasn’t a member of the wedding party, my husband Patrick was. This includes me in a number of the bridal party activities as a spouse.

We got married near the start of this wedding boom, but I wonder what I would have done differently after seeing what others have done. There are some unique ideas, and many have strayed from the typical traditions.

My sister’s wedding was the first of this year. I was the matron of honor and other than the extreme August heat and an outdoor venue, I had a lot of fun.

One of the things I most liked that she did was a “Polaroid” app where guests could take up to 10 photos that would disappear after they took it. Then at midnight, anyone who had registered for the app got to see the full photo album from all attendees. This also meant my sister and her husband were able to go back and look at all the goofy fun had throughout the night.

Another thing I loved was what they did instead of the traditional clinking of the glass kisses. They asked guests to instead donate to The Friendship Fund, a charity that assisted them when my sister’s stepson was in the hospital with appendicitis.

The next wedding was being a bridesmaid for one of my best friends — Meghan. She wore a black wedding dress and everything about the day fit her perfectly.

The two were married at her family’s farm under a big tent. With mostly oldies, rock and 2000′s alternative music, the soundtrack was unlike any other wedding I’ve been to.

To be fair, this was the wedding of the friend who had us each wear one of her oversized band T-shirts at her bachelorette party.

We have a friend from high school everyone calls Face. His real name is Andrew, but no one calls him that.

Patrick was a groomsman in Face’s wedding in August as were many of the guys in our friend group. All the wives were invited along to the rehearsal dinner and on the party bus from the ceremony to the reception.

Their reception was at the Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque. Again, this was a first for me. While most of the actual wedding was upstairs in one of the ballrooms, we did make time to blow $40 each on virtual blackjack. Before you come for me, the cheapest blackjack tables were a $10 minimum. We’re not big spenders, we just like to have a little fun and usually go home with empty pockets.

They also had a fun photo option with a 360 degree video booth where participants stood back to back with props while a camera spun around the platform shooting a video.

The video results were set to music, played with slow-mo and reverse effects and able to be downloaded to the phone. It was a lot of fun!

We have two weddings this year for coworkers of Patrick, both local weddings, thank God.

The first one was in October in Stuart and had a really fun game requiring volunteers to go around to guests asking for random things like money, a business card or a medical device. They raced back trying not to be the last one. I think that’s one idea I may have stolen. It doesn’t cost anything, but we all had so much fun.

Last weekend I was in my friend Addie’s wedding in Eau Claire. They were married in a stunning historic theater with enough charm to need no decoration at all.

At the reception, they did their first dance right after the grand march. I’ve heard of this idea, but never seen it in action. It did allow more people to witness the special moment.

My favorite thing they did was throw T-shirts into the crowd during the dancing portion of the reception.

Patrick fought to get one of the prizes and now he’s the proud owner of a shirt reading “I went to Brett and Addie’s wedding and all I got was this stupid T-shirt.”

I think I’m reaching the tail end of the wedding era of my life. While it’s going to be a blessing for my schedule, my car and my wallet, I know I’ll miss it when it’s gone.