Pot Luck Wedding

[Ken Puls]

Okay guys, I've got to ask... has anyone heard of one of these?

Today we're going to a my wife's cousin's wedding... and it's pot luck. Bring you own food and beverages! :eek: I've never heard of such an animal before. What's really funny is that my wife worked in a resort for almost 10 years, all in Food & Beverage, and 3 as a wedding planner, and she's never heard of this either!

Maybe I'm just calous and cheap, but I figured that if you expect me to bring a wedding gift (the invite specified what they wanted as a gift), the least you could do is buy me dinner. This isn't a business, after all, and I bought dinner for all our wedding guests... actually, my father in law bought them drinks too!

What makes it even better to me is that they never even specified what kind of dish they wanted us to bring. (Gift yes, food no.) So you never know, there could be 40 salads when we get there. In all my experience of attending pot luck events, the organizer usually gets that much done.

So... has anyone heard of this before, or is it just me?

[MOS MASTER]

Well in Holland I've never heard of such an animal! :rofl:

Over here you get invited bring youreself a gift for the couple and feast on the drinks & food provided. (No surprises there)

I heard however a friend of mine going to a wedding in Ireland that he did meet the critter.
He went there with his family and his big gift for the couple and over at the wedding he got one drink from the couple. When he was up for the seccond round the bartender told him to pay for it.

For him this was a shocker and he told me about it numerous times because we've never heard about this sort of wedding/party and we don't expect it. :eek:

[Ken Puls]

That's funny! See, I know of a a cash bar where you have to buy your own drinks. Wedding bars can get quite expensive and in the case of some of my friends, could even start the married couple out on the path to bankruptcy! :rotlaugh:

But not providing the meal? That's just weird...

[MOS MASTER]

But not providing the meal? That's just weird...

Uhms not to mention it before but not providing drinks and a meal at a wedding is called being "cheap" where I come from. :rofl: :rotlaugh:

[TonyJollans]

It's a new one on me. I have on one occasion been invited to a wedding ceremony and not to the reception (which I also thought odd) but I have never been asked to bring my own food, nor heard of anyone else being asked.

It is a kind of unspoken quid pro quo isn't it - a gift for a meal? And it doesn't have to cost a fortune if they are really hard up - and haven't got any family support.

[MOS MASTER]

It is a kind of unspoken quid pro quo isn't it - a gift for a meal? And it doesn't have to cost a fortune if they are really hard up - and haven't got any family support.

Amen...:bow: :yes

[Scottie P]

:dunno I was inclined (on my own behalf) to believe that the feast afterward was your reward for bringing a gift and sitting through the ceremony...

what the hell is the world coming too!? :motz2:

[Brandtrock]

Never heard of a pot luck wedding before. I have been invited to a reception but not the ceremony (church was very small, bride's family was huge; groom's friends bought off with free kegs at reception) AND to a wedding ceremony where the couple opted for no reception.

Every function I ever attended at the Methodist Church in my hometown (EXCEPT weddings) included a pot luck dinner. I figure if they didn't do pot lucks for weddings, it isn't done anywhere.

[brettdj]

When you said pot luck wedding I had a slightly different impression of what could be up for grabs.

[sheeeng]

What is Pot Luck Wedding?

[Ken Puls]

When you said pot luck wedding I had a slightly different impression of what could be up for grabs.

ROTFL! Dave, you're a :devil: man!


What is Pot Luck Wedding?
Hi Sheeng! You're expected to bring your own food and drink in addition to a gift for the bride and groom.

[MOS MASTER]

Hi Ken, :yes

So now you've been to a "pot luck wedding"...how was it?

Did you eat 20 different sallads? .... :rofl: Tell us your experience?

[Brandtrock]

What is Pot Luck Wedding?

Until Ken replies, we'll all have to guess I guess. In general though a pot luck is a gathering of persons for a common purpose (family reunion, church social gathering, etc.) where each family or person will bring a dish (casserole, salad, dessert, etc.) or two. All of the food is placed on a table or counter or whatever, and everyone goes through the line taking whatever they choose to eat. It is generally a pleasant experience, but most certainly not the norm for a wedding reception.

Given Dave's comment, it COULD be very interesting to get Ken's report.

We all want some distinctification on this one Ken!!!

:rotlaugh:

[MOS MASTER]

Given Dave's comment, it COULD be very interesting to get Ken's report.

We all want some distinctification on this one Ken!!!

Double LOL!! :rofl: :rotlaugh:

[shades]

Let's see, when we got married, they had just invented alcohol, so it was relatively inexpensive. We had a reception for about 150 people, an evening meal at my in-laws, then a wedding dance for about 200 people, and free whiskey and beer all night. Total cost was about $750 for the whole day with that many people. Don't think it could be done, now 35 years later. :D

[MOS MASTER]

Hi Rich,

Well these days $750 isn't a whole lot of money for a wedding but I'll bet it was worth a whole lot more in those days. (When I of course didn't exist yet) :rofl:

Btw..35 Years.....RESPECT! :bow:


Now Ken...come on what's up with the Pot luck tail????? ..... please....:yes

[Ken Puls]

I'll give you some info later tonight, Joost. :)

A teaser though... at one point the groom's nephew (4) was seen running down the hallway with a black bra in his hand... :giggle

[MOS MASTER]

I'll give you some info later tonight, Joost. :)

A teaser though... at one point the groom's nephew (4) was seen running down the hallway with a black bra in his hand... :giggle

Please..stop teasing me Ken! :devil: (Spill it out will yah)

Ahums..Ken, buddy, homie....hehehe..black bra? When's your next "Pot Luck"?....Can I get an invitation? :*)

[Ken Puls]

Okay, so here goes. Honestly, I already gave you the most racy part of the whole thing, but the wedding reads more like a comic book than anything else...

So first off, I've got to give a little more background... this is my wife's cousin... we'll call him #1 since he's was the groom. He has an identical twin brother (#2) who has already been married and is now in process of divorcing, and the nephew I referred to is his (#2's) son. Make sense so far?

So #1 is getting married to this girl we've never met. We get the obligatory family invite, which turns out to be this "Pot Luck" invitation. It's on an island a short ferry ride away from us, at this place that we've never heard of. They do not provide directions. So my wife heads out on the net (she's the queen of google) to find directions for all or our family. After 2 hours, she finally finds directions from a couple who had their wedding there 2 years ago. There is NOTHING else on the net at all... no reference to the property, nothing!

Then we started to complain about the pot luck part, especially after we found out is was applicable to food & drink both, you know?

So the day comes, and we head off, armed with our sketchy directions to find this place. Sure enough, it starts to POUR rain, but no biggie. :rotlaugh:

We get off the boat and take a wrong turn. We knew we were supposed to bear right, but none of the roads off the ferry have any road signs at all. Finally, we figure we're going the wrong way, so we turn around and head back the other way. We go bombing down the road and find the intersection where we were supposed to bear right, and take it. Shortly AFTER the intersection, we see a pie plate, nailed to the SIDE (facing us as we drove past, not up to it) of a telephone pole that says "this way!"

So here's my next question. If you haven't given your guests directions, wouldn't you put the directional signs facing the driver as they drive up BEFORE the intersection? I didn't realize that I was getting in to a damn treasure hunt here! :eek:

What makes it even better is that every pie plate we saw was like that. After the intersection, nailed to the side of the pole. Now this gets funny... They all had arrows pointing to the left. I assume that it's the reason they were on the side of the pole, actually, since they couldn't figure out how to make the arrow point straight ahead or something. The last turn, though, was a right... so guess how they did it?

Oh yeah! They tagged the sign to the side of the poll... and wrapped it around the back of the telephone poll! Now that is REALLY helpful when your directional sign is on the BACK of the landmark you are approaching! :doh: Honest to gawd though... I'll bet that someone actually thought they were being quite bright! Oh, and before anyone asks.. there was no traffic coming from the other direction at all.

At any rate, we pull in at 2:45. It's supposed to start at 3:00. We're rushed down to the lawn there. "Leave the food! It's starting, hurry!" Again, organization NOT the strong point here. So we rush down to the beachfront (actually is was a really nice place right on the beach, outdoor setting) and park ourselves in chairs. We sit... and sit... and after 20 minutes of waiting, the rain storm catches up to us! Huge panic, move everything inside! :outtahere

The wedding goes off okay (if they'd done it when they rushed us down, it would have been finished by the time the rain was 10 minutes away.) Bride had a nice dress, #1 had a nice tux, #2 was the best man and slept in his clothes the night before, Bridesmaid... well... she might have been with #2, or maybe just her clothes were... I can't be sure.:giggle

So then they clear the seats away, set up tables, and start laying out the food. Bride and groom are off taking pictures, meanwhile everyone starts pigging out! :eek: (Have I said that the organization was the pits?)

I think it was about that point that I heard the Bride's sister start going on about her Pot Luck wedding only 2 years before. She struck me as just a little odd though... :cuckoo:

At any rate, things got kind of fun after that. My father in law backed up the bar, and the wine started flowing. :drunkard: We happened to have my father-in-law, mother-in-law, wife's Uncle and Aunt (also uncle and aunt to #1 & #2), who are all hysterical people.

My father-in-law works for a fish farm, and this place was pretty hippy dippy. They had all the anti-salmon farming literature around and stuff... we'll that's what he brought to the pot luck. He waited till everyone ate then spilled the beans on that. Wife's uncle is a retired farmer and just about got into a fight about organic vs non-organic foods... we had a riot! :rofl:

At any rate, I've gone on long enough here. Food summary was a huge amount of salmon (it's a BC thing). Not much salad at all, as a matter of fact! :rotlaugh: For me, the food was cool, but my wife's not a huge seafood fan at all, so she ended up going home hungry.

Oh! And the bra... someone sent #2's son running around the corner with the bra to capture the expression on #2's face. I missed that part of it, but apparently it was pretty classic.

[Brandtrock]

Wull now that I see it is a terdition in the bride's family, I git it. :beerchug:

[MOS MASTER]

Great story Ken...thanx for sharing! :yes

[brettdj]

Great story Ken...thanx for sharing! :yes

Loved the story, thanks for sharing

[MOS MASTER]

Loved the story, thanks for sharing
Did I also tell a story? :rofl:

[Ken Puls]

LOL!

You're welcome guys! Always more fun that way!

[geekgirlau]

I've never even heard of a pot-luck wedding before - my personal worst wedding story was where the entire wedding party and all guests bar myself, one bridesmaid and the band were members of Amway. A fun-filled evening with lots of people hinting about a great business opportunity they knew about ...

[Ken Puls]

LOL! Neither had I, Anne, neither had I... What's even better is that they didn't even bother to send out thank you cards for the gifts they got! I mean really, how much does it cost to buy a box of cards? Just rude, IMHO.

Now an Amway convention disguised as a wedding... LOL! That's very funny, too! :rotlaugh:

[shades]

As a pastor, I have performed a good many weddings. I never cared for them, because everybody thinks they run the "show" even in the sanctuary. But only one time have I regretted agreeing to the wedding. He had been married before (years before I was pastor), and at his first wedding he came with a tux coat, blue jeans and red tennis shoes.

At least at his second wedding which I performed, he was dressed half-way decent. But he had been drinking before the wedding (we had a "no booze on the premise policy" - to little avail). I didn't know it because of the arrangement of our church. But I preach in a conversational manner, using rhetorical questions. He was inebriated enough that he began answering my questions! Loudly!!! http://vbaexpress.com/forum/images/smilies/sad2.gif http://vbaexpress.com/forum/images/smilies/astrosmiley.gif After the third time I stopped in mid-sentence of the sermon. I immediately moved into the vows, etc.

Later I found out at a pastors' conference - they began ribbing me about breaking with the Church body and marrying two women (I am in a conservative Lutheran church body). Well, I couldn't figure out what they meant. Come to find out, during the wedding when I asked them about marrying each other, I turned to the woman and asked her "Will you have this woman to be your husband?" I was so angry with the guy I didn't know I had made the slip of the tongue.

Be careful, very careful who you marry. It might be the surprise of your life!:rofl:

[Zack Barresse]

ROFL!!!!!

[XLGibbs]

I think the modus operandi would be to smoke pot, and wish for luck.

Never heard of such an animal...except maybe on Springer...