Weddings and User Experience
Last weekend, as many of you know, I proposed to my girlfriend Leigh… Before I proposed, Leigh and I were hanging out at this swanky hotel. It was probably around 95 degrees last Saturday here in NC and we were in the hotel’s pool with some nice fruity drinks to stay cool.
What was funny was right next to where we were in the pool, a wedding was actually taking place. As we sat in that wonderful pool, we watched as the wedding guests sat under the boiling sun in their best attire of suits and dresses, sweating and wishing for the ceremony to end already so they can get into some air conditioning.
I began to wonder as I sipped my frozen margarita from my cool pool, what were the bride and groom thinking?
Bride: “Ok, let’s have the wedding right here where their is absolutely no shade in mid June right around 2-3 o’clock in the afternoon when the average temperature is around 90 degrees. Yea!
Let’s invite all the people that we are closest to in the world; our family, our friends and let’s force the men to get dressed in black suits and ties and the women in uncomfortable dresses so they can sweat like they never have before. Right!
Let’s also make sure they are seated at least a half an hour before the ceremony even starts so they will be giant piles of sweat for the reception!
Great idea!! Book it Danno!”
I know weddings are about the bride and groom, but I always thought that a wedding is a celebration of two people finding love. And if you think about it that way, a celebration involves all the family and friends and it is not just about the bride and the groom.
This really got me thinking about all the weddings that I have ever attended. You know most of them are pretty much just a huge inconvenience. Let’s look at my wedding inconvenience checklist:
- The wedding is usually scheduled on some long holiday weekend when you would rather be doing something else.
- You have to get all dressed up – I hate fricken ties – You see I have no neck – genetics suck.
- You sometimes have to travel long distances – Trains, planes and automobiles, oh my.
- You have to shell out cash for present, travel, hotel, gas, etc. – Do I sound cheap?
- No matter what denomination of the ceremony is it usually is WAY TOO long. I think we need to tell every priest, reverend and rabbi that a wedding ceremony is not about them and pick up the pace!
- The food usually blows.
- And finally if they do not have an open bar, I make a wish that their luggage is lost on the way to their honeymoon – Just kidding, while maybe not.
I write constantly here about User and Customer Experience in marketing and I realized that weddings are a terrible user experience. So I was thinking, maybe there is a way to pull of a wedding that can be a great experience for not only the bride and groom, but also the attendees and maybe I can do this for my wedding!
To do this, I figured that both Leigh and I are going to need a whole lot of help. That is where you come in. I have added a new tab to the top of the page called wedding ideas. This is where Leigh and I are asking for your help in planning our wedding. We need all your thoughts, experiences and ideas. If that is not exciting enough, we are also offering for anyone that gives us a great idea that we use, you and a significant other will receive an invitation to our wedding! Think about it, could this be a good story or what?
Please head over to the wedding ideas page and start posting your ideas and thoughts. Thanks!
Technorati Tags: proposed, Customer Experience, marketing, user experience
A crowd-sourced wedding… BRILLIANT!
I hope mine wasn’t too big of an inconvenience.
I know exactly what you are referring to though because I have also been too many uncomfortable/expensive ones.
Judson – Your wedding was one of the best. I would love to get your roommate to sing like you did! We are also doing the custom vows just like yours…
Adam – BRILLIANT!
Awww I think you’re looking at the negative side of a wedding. That’s unfair. So here are some things that might as well change your perspective towards wedding:
1. A wedding is scheduled on the days convenient for the new couples. After all, the day and the celebration is not for anyone else; it’s for the bride and the groom.
2. You can always replace ties with something else without losing that good looks. The couple and the others will always understand knowing your genetic make up.
3. Isn’t travel a nice treat to yourself?
4. Sometimes you have to spend for presents for friends. If you do all whole heartedly you’ll also receive the same reward a thousand fold.
5. Too long wedding ceremonies are indeed boring but they just entertain yourself with a lot of beautiful girls around you.
We turned our wedding into a cocktail party. It started at 7:30, we had a 15 minute ceremony, then the party started. There was a buffet of sandwiches, cheese, chocolates, and other treats, a fun mix of music (no dj!). The buffet, party-like atmosphere meant that we were able to speak to everyone, enjoy our party, and others were able to, as well.
My best advice is to throw the kind of party you want to throw and, if you don’t want to do wedding traditions, just don’t!
Rarely are weddings about the bride and groom. You’ll soon find out that everyone’s opinion is more important than yours. Perhaps when I get older I’ll understand why it’s that way.
My husband and I ( 3 months married) went to the Bahamas with our mothers and his sister so 5 in all and it was awesome. Simple. All we had to do was show up. Check it out.