Traditional or Not?

We will be following some wedding traditions, including:

• We will have a religious ceremony.
• We will have bridesmaids and groomsmen, flower girls and a ring bearer.
• Close relatives and friends will attend.
• My father will walk me down the aisle.
• Our mothers will light our unity candle tapers.
  
  
  
• We will have cocktails, dinner, speeches and dancing.
• We have registered at wedding registries:
  • Sears
  • Rob McIntosh
• We will have an informal brunch the day after the wedding before vacationing on honeymoon.

Traditions that we will not be following include:

• We are not having the ceremony in a church, then requiring our guests to travel elsewhere for the reception. Both ceremony and reception are in the hall, by the fireplace.
• Bridesmaids and groomsmen are not all dressed the same - they can dress individually. Our groomsmen are wearing suits, and tuxes among gentleman guests are discouraged.
• Seating at the ceremony will not be divided into the bride's side and the groom's side. Since our parents are divorced with new spouses, both mothers will sit in the front row on the left, and both fathers will sit in the front row on the right. Everyone else can sit where they like.
• We will not eat dinner at round tables with centrepieces on tablecloths. The tables are long, medieval-style wood tables, with two large candles on each.
• Dinner will not be served in courses. It will be a buffet, so people have freedom to eat when and what they like.
• We will not have a Master of Ceremonies.
• We will not have a long part of the evening with many speeches. We will have three short episodes of a few short speeches, each hour while our jazz pianist takes a break.
• We will not have a dance where everyone watches the bridal party dance in pairs.
• We will not be tossing anything - no garter toss or bridal bouquet toss.
• Our wedding plan is not a negotiation between the plans of parents on both sides. Since we've both been on our own for years, we live in Toronto and are marrying here, and none of our parents are local, we're fortunate to have freedom to plan our wedding as we would like it to be.