Happy Holidays, Inspy Romance Readers! I’ve just spent the weekend at a family wedding in Birmingham, Alabama! It was just so beautiful. The ceremony was outdoors on a ranch with horses, and the rehearsal took place in the beautifully refurbished barn.
There were some fun things I hadn’t seen before, like a corn hole game that all the guests were to sign, a selfie both where you attached your phone, a few barn games out back. Like all weddings, the food, cake, and music occupied their places. And I always get teary eyed at the ceremony. When I saw the father of the bride (my nephew) almost lose it walking down the aisle, the tears flowed. Pretty much every man or women in the audience did the same. Of course, the bride and groom were precious! The smiles, the starry-eyed looks, and love abounded. (My own groom and I below.)
Goodness, I love a fun wedding! So…in many of my novels, I often go ahead and have an epilogue where my characters tie the knot. Several have been beach weddings, some church weddings, some venue weddings. It’s just so much fun to let them have their full happily-ever-after, which is kind of funny, because I had a really short engagement and a sort of low-frills wedding. I was just not that into to planning one, other than having a pretty white dress for myself. Maybe novel weddings are easier to plan and cost me a lot less?
I won’t tell you if there’s a wedding in my novel coming out December 16th. You’ll have to read it! But I’d love to know what do you think about novel weddings? Do you love? Hate? Don’t care? Do you have any favorite novel weddings that come to mind? Any funny stories about your own wedding? Can I use them in a book, ha?
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Janet W. Ferguson is a Christy Award finalist and the FHL Readers Choice Award winning author of realistic inspirational fiction. An avid reader, she loved books so much she found a job as a librarian so she could be around them all day. Then she turned that love of story into writing faith-filled novels with characters who feel like best friends. You’ll laugh and cry as the quirky heroes and heroines chase their happily ever after. Janet and her husband live in Mississippi where they say y’all a lot, and she forces him to visit the beach as often as possible. They have two grown children, one really smart dog, and a cat that allows them to share the space. Connect with her at http://www.janetfergusonauthor.com/
Weddings in novels are always wonderful. The hiccups are sometimes even better.
At the moment I still don’t know where my future husband is hahaha
I’ve been to a couple of weddings in my family … one in the country and one in a church I couldn’t eat cake at any … they broke it too late and I was a pre-teen / early teen at the time. We left before the wedding.
I love weddings but they aren’t necessarily needed to make a good book.
Yes, they are fun if you can laugh about!
I’ve had to clear out before the cake too, ha!
I can take or leave weddings in books.
Always enjoy weddings in the books
I honestly don’t care if there’s a wedding the book in or not! I’m happy just knowing that there will be one eventually!!
Hey Janet, we recently attended a wedding too. Our son’s friend got married our son was the best man. It was outside, about 50 degrees, and breezy. We arrived, got seated in time for them to announce the wedding was postponed an hour because their facebook wedding page (I didn’t even know that was a thing) got the time wrong. They said we could stay in the reception hall til the new wedding time. We went and sat in the car. An hour later, it was even breezier and a few degrees lower temp. The preacher was fast and we were cold. Brrrr. But the wedding was beautiful and the couple started their happily-ever-after.
I’m good with or without novel weddings as long as I feel like the fictional couple is embarking on forever.
I love weddings in novels, I just don’t like it at all when the groom and the bride smear cake all over their faces, to me it wouldn’t be a very good start to a marriage . I love it when the two main characters fall in love and then they have their wedding at the end of the novel. My husband and I got married at my in laws house of which they don’t live in the same house anymore , actually I think they have moved about 4 times after that house. Anyways it was a small wedding, we got married by a judge and it was mostly family and only a few friends. Well, my husbands friend who was supposed to be the best man didn’t show up, so my husband asked one of his uncles if he would stand up for him and he did. My husbands friend didn’t show up because he had an hangover that day. We had a very nice wedding though.
I do love to read about the wedding in a book, but it’s not necessary for me to enjoy the story. I’m good with a proposal at the end, or a epilogue featuring the wedding or at the very least, a definite future together at the end of the book….though I prefer the other two over this type of ending. Being a hopeless romantic, the highlight for me is seeing the happily-ever-after!
No funny wedding story for me but one wedding that stands out in my mind is one where my cousin got married years ago. The bride & groom washed each others feet as part of the ceremony symbolizing that they would serve each other in love just as Christ did. It was just so beautiful and not a dry eye in the place was had! Yes, please feel free to use that in a book if you’d like! It’s a beautiful testament to the couples devotion, love & selfless service to each other throughout the marriage. :-)
Thanks for the free book, I picked it up!
Makes sense 😊
Works for me!
They can me fun!
Yes! Gotta have a HEA!
Oh no! That would be stressful though!
Oh crazy! Are they still friends?
I think the message and ceremony are the sweetest part and the parts that matter . Glad it turned out okay.
Weddings can be fun but I don’t mind when they aren’t included. Maybe in part because I never had a wedding, in the traditional sense. We went to the court and had just my immediate family there. My parents gave us the option of a big reception or a small family gathering at their house and the money saved they bought us a piece of furniture. We chose the practical one. We only had a couple of friends at our wedding and we found out a few years later that my girlfriend and my husband were birth siblings. That was a strange twist!
Thanks for the book!
Such a beautiful thing to do! I love it!
I’m a romantic too!
Oh and you’re welcome!
I did the smaller version to save money too. It can get out of hand really quickly!
I am sentimental so I love weddings in a book. Especially the description of the dress!
I loved them! They certainly help tie things up in books, especially after the couple has been through a lot. I loved the one you had for Joy and Davis. :)
Oh I wish I knew more about fabrics and styles of dressings! Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you so much 😊 I’m so happy you enjoyed it!
On weddings in a book it depends. If the author has rushed one in the epilogue with no details except they walk down the isle looking into each others eyes with no description of anything else then I would rather not have the epilogue. or if its just the internal dialogue and then they are married not a fan. But when there is a little detail like who the bridesmaids are and what colour dress. what flower are in the brides bouquet and a little about the dress and the venue. It doesn’t have to be pages of detail but enough so we can picture the place, the wedding party etc. It doesn’t even have to mention the vows etc but just a little detail goes a long way with me.
I went to an outdoor wedding a couple years back it was at a winery and they got married by a lake and photos in the woods on the property. They had a barn or Woolshed which was converted so one side open but the rest was covered. They had a photo both where it took 3 photos in a strip and you got 2 copies. the idea was to keep one and put one with a message into a photo album that was there for this. They also like second hand bookstores and had picked out a book for all the guests with there name and had put a message inside it. Totally different idea. They were not big fans of wedding cake (here its normally fruit cake) so had dessert pizza’s instead. (can’t say I am a huge fan but after not being able to eat most of the food it was something to eat. I am a fussy eater and they had asked for allergies etc. which I mentioned so there were a couple of wood fire pizzas I could have eaten but I am not a seafood lover or pumpkin lover. the main was Paella which is spicy (I cant eat spicy food) but the dessert pizza I had was the one with popcorn and salted caramel and it was ok).
Well I love that book idea! I might be guilty of leaving out details sometimes because I’m not detail oriented, instead I’m a big picture person 😀 My editor often reminds me to describe the room.
I love books with weddings in books.i have a friend that on her wedding when the groom was carrying her out to their car he hit her head on a post and they just thought it was really funny they just kept laughing .
I love novel weddings. I cannot think of any off the top of my head at this moment. I love to go through all the excitement of planning the wedding as well as reading about the emotions of the bride and groom as the say I do. Thank you so much for sharing.
A book I love the wedding is Diary of a Teen Mom by Aspen Faraway. My wedding was very small with just parents there & it was the hottest day of the year & it’s outside. I forgot my lines to say in my vows at one point & it was funny but it’s something I’ll never forget lol.
I’ve read a few books with weddings & there good. At my wedding a funny thing was it was super sunny out & it was an outside wedding & everyone called me Mr. Clean cause I wasn’t tanned yet till after my honeymoon haha
Nice! Friends and family can be a tough audience, ha! Tanning isn’t really good for us anyway, right?
Ha! I couldn’t think during my ceremony, and I felt like I would faint! I definitely didn’t want to get married outside in Mississippi, though many bride do, because of the weather, LOL!
I love to try to be in my bride and groom’s head. It’s fun to live that through the characters! You’re welcome!
Ha! Sounds like something me and my husband would do! Yes, laughing it off is probably best!
I think my answer went below again for some reason. I’m reading this again and all the food mentions are making me so hungry!
Funny wedding mishaps can be fun to read about!
I think so too!
Love it! And I LOVE this series!!!
You’re always so encouraging 😀
Hi, Janet! I like the mental and emotional details of the wedding but not so much the physical trappings. Real-life experiences can be fun, too. My new mother-in-law got a bit flustered meeting my boss in the receiving line and said “Please don’t fire him!” :-)
Lol! That sounds like something I’d do! I’m not into the physical trappings either. Mostly the emotions.