Hmm...

First wedding: maid of honor and a best man. That was the "big" wedding.
Second wedding: no attendants, although it was a semi-fancy ceremony at a hotel.
Third wedding: no attendants, just office workers witnessing at the courthouse.
Fourth wedding: looks like we will have six bridesmaids, since we have six daughters between us. And one son, so there's no problem choosing a best man. But I'm still not going to spend a lot of money.

OH! You only asked married people, which I aren't.

Our wedding party was small, a maid of honor and a best man. We invited only family and our best friends; about 25 people.

We spend all the money for the wedding on three things; the location (an old manor house), the photographer, and her ring. It was her second marriage (claims the first was a starter marriage), so she knew what she found to be a waste of money and what was worth spending the money. Since we paid for everything together, I was cool with that.

The pictures are awesome and she still loves her ring. We're coming up on our 15th anniversary this year. I guess that mean I can't count this as my starter marriage anymore.

No way you could do it, Tim.

We had about 125 people in our wedding party, friends and family (we have big families).
We had a party in a small farm in my wife's home town, and a friend of ours has made the . My favourite part of the wedding--besides the humorous vows we said to each other--was when Anne sang a romantic song to me. That song made me cry.

3 bridesmaids, 3 groomsmen.

I loved our food (we got married early and had brunch, with French toast and an omelet station). We dropped the biggest bucks on the photographer though, but it was worth it.

I know I'm not single, but i can say there is one thing about other weddings I have hated...McWedding. When the bride and groom do everything in packages and there is nothing personal about the whole thing. Just "we'll take dinner #4, and cake #6 and centerpiece #7 in blue". Oh, and also, DJs playing loud music trying to get people to dance who just plain don't want to dance.

The are no rules. And there shouldn't be.

Pick who you want and who represents you.

Don't cave into family request and pressure.It's your (you&partner) day, your (both of your) wedding and that's all that counts.
No matter who's flipping the bill.

So do what feels right to you and make sure to keep control over the things that matter.

Not just my advice, but advice all of my friends who wished they'd done things differently.

PS - They only thing I think that's important to guests at weddings are....

A couple in love. (your joy will make it fun for everyone)
Open bar.
Good music. (dj or band - doesn't matters. Music helps the booze fill the dance floor)
Tasty Appetizers. (no one expects amazing dinners but fresh apps are key.)

Lets see...
Good music... check!
We've had a DJ--with good musical taste, obviously--playing whatever he wanted to. I wasn't giving a damn for what songs he would play, providing he was entertaining our guests. Not forcing them to dance, only playing good songs. Of course alcohol encouraged some folks to go dancing.

Open bar... double check!
Beer and shots... My measure for the drinks abundance had been one uncle and two cousins. They came to me asking to say the waiter to stop serving their table, for they weren't being able to drink anymore. Those guys are known in my family to get out of a party only after seeing the last bottle being emptied.

Tasty Appetizers... for sure.
Barbecue. The guys at the grill were outstanding.

A couple in love... You betcha!!!

We used a huge part of our savings to pay for the wedding's stuff. We chose throwing the best party we could afford, to make the day remarkable.

Remarkable for us, because it was the happiest day of our lives and we just wanted to have a great day, and we didn't want to think about anything else than having fun. We wanted to have a great memory of that day.

And for our guests, because we wanted them to witness how happy we are, and show them they are part of this happiness of ours.

It was worth every cent spent. We still talk about that day as if it had just happened yesterday...

I couldn't agree more with Baierman, well said.

My first wedding sucked: traditional, about 200 people with family and high school friends etc. I wanted to wear black because that's what I do, but my grandmother said she wouldn't be able to go if I did that so I wore royal purple instead and she was still shocked. I'm not religious so we were married in a non-denominational church, had 2 bridesmaids and matching ushers/groomsmen/whatever you call them. Then pictures at the local gardens where everyone does that, then a reception and dinner and dancing at a rented hall. Bleah. It wasn't what I wanted, he couldn't care less, and we were just doing what was expected which is pretty much why I was marrying him in the first place which is stupid of course. The marriage lasted 9 years anyway somehow.

My second wedding was perfect in that it was what we wanted to do. He'd just moved to Canada from the US and wasn't allowed to work yet so we were broke. We wanted something simple and intimate. Still not religious so we arranged for a reverend from a non-denominational church to perform the ceremony.

We invited close family only, it was about 25 people. We made arrangements with a restaurant just out of town, in a heritage building from the 1800's with a celtic theme. They had banquet facilities upstairs in the loft which they let out for free if you order catering from them. So we asked everyone who wanted to be there to pay for their own meal and not give presents and they all agreed, no one was offended. We completely wrote our own vows and all the words of the ceremony, and were married standing in front of a crackling fireplace. It was December and everything was decorated for Christmas. And I wore the black velvet dress that I'd wanted to in the first place :o)

After everyone had a great meal and a few drinks while listening to some celtic music. For favours we gave out CD's with copies of our vows and mp3's of the songs they had been listening to. This was in 2000 so it was considered a bit weird and most of them didn't know how to get the mp3s to work on their computers but they liked the CD idea and it was all fitting considering we met online.

Everyone said they really liked the simplicity of it. No stags, showers or throwing of garters etc. No presents makes it easy as well. And it was a relatively early evening for everyone. No rushing off to the airport or home to pack for an expensive honeymoon. We just went home and enjoyed a weekend of private fun :o)

Wow I didn't realize that was so long. Sorry I'm at home sick and apparently have time on my hands.

Can I just be catty and say at my wedding we had 6 Pallbearers and about 50 mourners. My favorite part of the wedding was when the embalming fluid kicked in.