So before I start - I am in unique positions regarding both weddings, so I probably had a better view of how the sausage gets made. At Wedding 1, I was part of the bridal party and the officiant. At Wedding 2, I was family.

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Wedding 1: Urban zoo

Bride and groom kept their dating anniversary so were married on a Friday. I had to take the whole day as a part of the party, but most of the festivities started around 5:30 or 6 (I can't quite remember), so maybe a half day for locals.

Bride and groom are of different Asian backgrounds, so they were married thrice. Once according to his culture, once according to hers and then a more traditional American thing. The ethnic ceremonies were earlier in the day (3 or 4 pm or so) but with the understanding that it was optional. There were cookies and tea, which was nice because it was outside, foggy, and it's hard to follow a ceremony in a language you don't speak from a culture you're not familiar with. Bride and groom were in outfits that combined their respective cultures for the ethnic ceremonies and then changed into suit and white dress for the rest of the night.

The Western ceremony was fairly straight forward - I got compliments on the speech, so I guess it went okay. The DJ was initially not happy since wearing a dress makes it harder to be miked - but he stuck it on my back and that worked.

All photos were taken ahead of time - which meant a long day for the party - but also meant that we could enjoy cocktail hour, which was nice.

After cocktail hour, we went and lined up to be announced into the reception. Plated dinner, followed by cake, dancing and photo booth. Fish was not great - kinda dry, not enough sauce. Chicken was fine. FH and I didn't get a chance to try the veggie. The photo booth was manned by a photographer - strips printed out, but photos were also projected up on the wall. The DJ was pretty decent, and there were glow bracelets and other glowing accessories for the dance floor, which are always fun. There were only two speeches - one by the groom, one by the groom's dad.

The groomsmen had been tasked to decorate the groom's car. It was a mistake to give us spray on fake snow. It was fun - but the car was not safe to drive as we blocked off the entire rear windshield.

We were running behind and forgot to sign the paperwork, so that happened at midnight at the hotel. Bride and groom had to run back to the venue to get the paperwork.

The Good: The venue was very much the couple's personality, very beautiful, lots of personal touches (pictures of their pets for centerpieces). Somehow we all three - officiant, bride and groom - mentioned a few of the same themes despite bride and groom not reading each other's vows in advance. They both had read the ceremony script though.

The Eh: Getting up at 7 to do hair/makeup to run around and take pictures. Not all the bridal party knew each other, but I guess we made friends over the long day. The bride gave us four different swatches from four different sites. Somehow the other three girls ended up in the same dress, so I was the odd person out. Thankfully the color looked close enough in real life, and they had chosen infinity dresses and tied them differently.

The Bad: It was bloody cold in a dress - I ended up wearing HeatTech leggings underneath. I was the idiot who agreed to officiate and then read a bunch of things about how officiating with an online certificate is possibly a bad idea. I didn't take any pictures because I was panicking about the idea of my phone dying in the middle of the day with the ceremony speech on it.

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Wedding 2: Rural, whole b&b rent out

Bride and groom rented out a B&B in the mountains. You have to rent out the whole thing - they did Thurs, Fri, Sat. Their schedule was Rehearsal Thursday, Ceremony Friday, Goodbye brunch/check out Saturday. We came up Thursday night late, so we missed the rehearsal dinner. I hadn't realized that we were paying for our own rooms, but that's what credit cards are for.

Friday breakfast was provided, lunch was on your own. Ceremony was a five minute drive away, in a really beautiful clearing with a view to the mountains. The venue provided insect repellant, which was a nice touch.

Bride and groom only had their siblings as party. None of the three bridesmaids matched in color, though clearly they were matching as a theme (sea green, pale pink, and a darker red, I think?)

Ceremony was nice - officiant was a friend of the bride and it was a pretty good, personal ceremony. It wasn't a particularly long ceremony, so those of us who were not taking pictures (immediate family), headed back down the road to the b&b for cocktail hour.

Cocktail hour had beer and wine, along with various appetizer-y things. Multiple plates of things were stationed on a table, which were refreshed pretty regularly.

Both moms had a welcome/introduce the family thing, before people got a chance to eat. ... would not recommend or at least be brief.

Dinner was family style, so we were passing food around. It was pretty good - different to have a wedding meal be family style I think.

Afterwards: one last speech - the groom's youngest brother - dancing, cake, ice cream, photo booth. It was too much ice cream - a bunch melted and became sugar soup. After 10, the DJ had to stop, but the basement of the B&B had pool, a karaoke machine and a bunch of other stuff. There was also a late night junk food snack for those of us still awake. There was a piano in the lobby which some people played, which was really fun. Plus the groom is part of a band, and they played a bit.

Good: Beautiful ceremony site, great to have a post party right on site, people loved the late night snack

Eh: It's an older b&b with shared bathrooms. It's fine, just not ideal. The ice cream waste. Also the wine waste - we had a bottle of white and red on each table, and they ended up taking a bottle away before we were done with it.

Bad: I wish we had known that we were paying for the hotel rooms. I guess I should have guessed? It was in a very small town with not a lot to do, so there wasn't a lot to do before the wedding. Overly long intros. Even if it is family tradition to introduce everyone, please be brief. And bring your glasses.

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Edit: I think I should clarify the room/venue situation. The venue was a B&B - they have a spot in the woods for ceremonies. To use them as a venue, you are required to rent the entire premises. When I was told that, I presumed that that meant guests weren't paying for their rooms, because that was already part of what the bride and groom had already paid to rent the whole venue. That was not the case. We paid the B&B another few hundred dollars for the two nights. I have no idea how their contract worked, and I don't want to know. I was surprised by the cost because it wasn't worded like a hotel block where you Could get a room for slightly cheaper.

In addition, because the B&B is not that large, not all guests were invited to stay at the B&B, just closer family and friends. Some guests had to stay in other hotels/AirBnBs.