Santa Clause for the Wedding Party

[WorkingHardforSmallRewards]

Allright, at first I quietly scoffed at the idea and thought it was ridiculous, but then I started thinking about it some more.


My fiance (well, technically my wife as of yesterday, but a fellow has to start visa paperwork at some point...) has said many times that she wants the wedding to be very fun and relaxed, with everyone talking and feeling comfortable.

During the first half of the wedding party we will be dressed in our tux and dress. about an hour through it we will leave and take about 30 minutes to switch into kimonos. We will then come back and go from table to table greeting everyone, and there will be a video of each of us growing up, pictures playing, etc (a Japanese custom) then at the very end each of the parents will say something, me and her, some exchange of gifts between us,the lighting of essentially a unity candle, etc etc.

Now the wedding day will be just before Christmas. While some people in Japan, mochiro, truly celebrate Christmas, most people, like this group, dont celebrate it the way most do in the West. There are alot of "Xmas" sales, some Xmas trees around, even more pictures of Xmas trees, and it is Japanese custom to mail off and exchange gifts with most of your friends and family (distant and close) throughout December and into the new years (which is a very old tradition). They dont really have a christmas day exactly, but they do kind of make good sport of the holiday.

Now that out of the way, we are thinking about having a christmas tree at the wedding. We can either give everyone an ornament to sign and hang up, or have each of the guest bring a 5 dollar gift, we bring a 5 dollar gift, and exchange the gifts in celebration of "Xmas."

Our wedding planner suggested that when we come back from changing into our kimonos I could dress up as Santa Claus over the Kimono and exchange gifts with the guests.

It will be open bar, so at this point they will be pretty well drunk all around (dont worry, busses are being provided). So, thinking about it some more, I thought...hmm, it might be kind of fun. (there will be essentially no children there though, just a fun time among adults)

Without further ado, there was plenty ado enough already, here is the poll

 

[WorkingHardforSmallRewards]

Photos and other similar poll based thread can be found here: Photos

 

[WorkingHardforSmallRewards]

sorry about the double post everyone, this is the final version of the poll as I intended it.

 

[ringster]

maybe you should move this thread to the Bride forum? you might get more responses.

i personally think your wedding planner is off her rocker and the dressing up as santa suggestion makes me question her taste level as they would say on "project runway". i would suggest not having any xmas related things just because you already kind of have a theme -- the mexican style of your venue -- and i think it would be too much to have another theme .... it will seem more like it''s a small world at disneyland than a wedding. but that is just my own opinion.

 

[WorkingHardforSmallRewards]

lol, well, it was a little more dramatic of an opinion than I had expected but def good to get some.@]

Though honestly there isnt really a mexican theme to the wedding. It is just that the overal decor of the hotel is in a mexican/spanish style. And the food is french. lol, it is just sort of how things are done, you have to remember, the wedding ceremony is after all a "western" style theme as well, not being in the west (which is how about 70% of weddings are down in Japan at the moment, because they think of it as "cool") but I will def. give some thought to what you have said.

honestly, we dont really have a theme to the wedding at the moment. like I said, there is nothing mexican in the actual ceremony, music, or party, just an undertone within the hotel itself. The ceremony is kind of a blend of American and Japanese tradition, but is fairly normal here, and the party so far consist of all the normal Japanese customs without any extra flair or unifying theme throughout. so, with taht, a little more elaboration on what I was thinking:

the wedding invitations that she has picked out have a little ribbon on them, after having picked it out it actually kind of looked like a present to me.

so then I was thinking that on the menus my mom and I could wrap some clear paper around it and tie a little ribbon around them, and on the seating chart that everyone is supposed to be given we could tie a little ribbon around that as well. Thus giving it kind of gift opening christmas theme starting at the invitations and ending at the christmas tree.

After seeing the votes here I have been thinking, and am leaning toward the ornaments myself, as we could then set up a room in our house in the future with a little tree and all those Japanese signature ornaments, plus a normal christmas tree in a seperate room--and it might make for a pretty good addition and memorial to our wedding in the future. But anyway, not sure yet, I appreciate the input though!

 

[steph72276]

My wedding was around Christmas and we had Christmas trees up to decorate the reception area and it was beautiful. We gave each of our guests ornaments that had a ribbon to hang them with our name and wedding date on them. We still have people wish us happy anniversary 6 years later b/c they see our date when they are putting the onament on their trees every year. I think dressing up like Santa is a little (ok a lot) over the top for a wedding. Maybe just do the ornament idea and give each guest a favor wrapped in a box as the present instead of requiring people to bring a gift to exchange.

 

[partgypsy]

I know you want the wedding to be fun loving, but to me it seems dressing in kimonos and either having a Christmas tree or exchanging small gifts seems like it would be festive enough. Dressing as Santa, well the guests might find it fun or they might see it as "funny"and you may come off as foolish. Though it is your wedding I don''t think you have to provide the entertainment as well. I think very few guys have the personality to carry something like that off without looking foolish.