Wedding Traditions We Skipped

I'm acting like such a typical girl these few days, thinking about our wedding. I thought I'd mention a few of the "have-tos" that we skipped. Either out of necessity or because we just didn't want to or because we didn't even know such traditions existed at the time.

 I love this photo.

Angel took it, it's his mom doing my hair, and his dad bothering us while getting ready in my Grandma and Grandpa's dining room.

--The groom seeing the bride before the wedding. We drove to the church together. With 4 other people in the same car. Cars were limited ya'll, we had to be practical.

--Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue. Technically, my wedding dress was new, and I'd had my shoes for about a year or so, so they were a little old. Besides that, too bad!

--My Dad walking me down the aisle. Not from lack of intent, we were just on different continents at the time.

--Garter/Garter Toss. That sounded really awkward to both of us...

--Bridesmaids/Groomsmen. Just an MOH for each of us.

--Ring Bearer. I'd seen too many ring bearers gone wrong, so I thought it was safer to avoid having one.

--Rented Tuxedos. Seemed inefficient to me. Angel bought a suit.

--A veil. I never ever pictured myself with a veil. If anything, it would have been a birdcage veil, but I went without.

--Unity Candle/Unity Sand. I like the theory more than the actual ceremony.

--Wedding favors. Something nice would have been outside the budget, and anything cheap that we saw wasn't worth it.

--First Dance. Or any dance for that matter. As far as I know, the church where we had our reception didn't allow dancing even if we had wanted it.

--Birdseed/Bubbles/etc. as the bride and groom left. I honestly don't really remember leaving, except I remember a lot of people helping us load the car with gifts and suitcases and I remember Angel being quite distressed at what a mess our car was. But there was no walking past a whole bunch of people throwing birdseed, jumping in the car and driving away.

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And with all that I still think it was an exceptionally traditional wedding. I mean for me, anyways. I'm so grateful for all of the family members who put in a lot of time and effort to pull the whole thing together (In 9 weeks, Grandpa, not 3--which is the timeline he gives when telling the story), and for everyone who traveled a long way to share the day with us. Three years later, we're "still smiling"!

Did any of you break with tradition and skip any of the things others said you "had to" do? Or did you embrace every bit of tradition?