Day After Wedding/Opening of Gifts with Family??

[dearmissie]

So I'm wondering, what did you guys do the day after your wedding?? Did you up and leave right away for your honeymoon?? DF and I were thinking the day after our wedding (which is Saturday) we could sleep in then do a brunch/lunch with our family back at our place. We could all just enjoy a laid back meal while opening up our wedding gifts with everyone. Do people ever do that?? I'm not sure what's the tradition with gift opening because my Mom left straight for her honeymoon last year and FBIL didn't really include the family in the aspects of his wedding. (FMIL did mention, "Are we going to *insert FBIL's name here* house to watch them open their wedding gifts??" I could tell she was excited and wanted to part take in this but it didn't happen.) Is the opening of gifts suppose to be down with family or just us two by ourselves?? I'm unsure because like I mentioned my Mom and FBIL didn't do it, but FMIL said it like it was the norm.

Sunday we plan on sleeping in all day, resting, and organizing things before we leave for our honeymoon (last minute packing). Then Monday flying out to Hawaii for our 2 week honeymoon.

We liked our idea because it allowed us to rest and just enjoy our family, say thank you to them for helping us so much with our wedding, recap the big day with them, and just have time to unwind ourselves (on Sunday) before heading out to Hawaii. I've heard from a few people (Mom, FSIL, Aunt, a lot of friends, etc.) who just up and left for their honeymoon right away that they spent the first one or two days in bed resting and recovering from the wedding while on their honeymoon. I figured we'd be just as beat and we'll want to do the same too (rest) so we may as well just do that at home and not do that on our honeymoon (it'll save us money to do it this way once we won't be paying to sleeping in our hotel all day, plus it means we'll fly out on a Monday aka CHEAPER airfare!!).

Any thoughts, input, advice, and sharing of what you did would be helpful. Thank you.

[yam102284]

We left the early the next morning for the honeymoon. Ours was a day wedding, so we hung out with some family and friends that night in our hotel room, and then went to bed a little early. We woke up at 5 (yuck!) the next morning, and left the hotel at 6. My parents brought all our presents and cards back to their house, since we had to go back there anyways after we got back to pick up DH's car.

Some people do include family members when they open their presents. It's totally up to you what you want to do. If we had not been at a hotel and had been leaving later, then maybe we would've had our parents and siblings over for a breakfast and opening of presents. If it's something you want to do, then do it. If not, then you don't have to. If you wish to open your presents with FH alone, then do it that way.

[starsthrumysoul]

We didn't go on a honeymoon (we bought a house instead). Our plan was to wake up the next morning, meet our family downstairs for breakfast and then open gifts together. Problem was we overslept breakfast :( Once we got up we were supposed to be out of the room like an hour later, so we decided to stay another night. It worked out nice because then everyone came to our room (it was a suite) and we opened gifts there.

My parents advised that if we WERE going to do a honeymoon, to leave on Monday (for a Saturday wedding), that way you're not rushing everything.

[CaseyK37]

We went on a mini honeymoon and still did gift opening the next day. We had everyone be to my sisters at 10am for the gift opening... which was killer because 90% of us were hungover. We opened presents and then had leftovers and cake. We were able to leave for our honeymoon by about noon.

[SkippyNXC]

The day after we slept in a lil bit... and went to the day-after brunch w/our immediate fam and some close friends.... after brunch DH took off for home... i had to go back to my parents house to pick up my car so i hung out for a bit, packed up my stuff and went home

[MrsDM]

Yes, people do that, we did it too!! DH and I are both mostly Polish and come from Polish families (pretty common in our area). Anyways, the Polish always did it, and a lot of people around my area do it.

We had our wedding at a hotel so a lot of my family spent the night. My parents and grandparents put all of our gifts in their vehicles, went back to our house, while Dan and I slept in. My mom picked up the food on the way through and then my mom, aunt and grandma cleaned the house and prepared for the gift opening which was around noon. We had our wedding party, parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles/cousins. When we got there, DH's aunt had made a sign that said "Congratulations Dan and Jeanne - JUST MARRIED 8/22/09" and hung it on our house. It was so cool!

It was the same thing like you were talking about, just a brunch and gift opening, it was a lot of fun. People left around 3/4pm, then I napped lol

We left for vacation on Monday (wedding was on a Saturday), so we had sometime to get things in order and catch our breath. If you have any questions, let me know!

[Brian's Bride]

We also did a gift opening/lunch the day after the wedding. We invited our immediate family because we didn't want to bore our whole wedding party with watching us open our gifts... although they were welcome to come, none of them did. We went to work the immediate week after the wedding, and then left for our honeymoon on Saturday for a week. We really liked the time needed to get everything ready for our vacation and it would've been super-stressful to leave the following day. I think your plan to leave on Monday is a good one and you'll definitely be able to enjoy your vacation without being super-tired!

[f77g4]

We did that too. We left the hotel and went to my parents place for a gift opening with fruit trays, muffins, pastries, etc. It was open to anyone but only my family really showed up and noone from DH's side except for his younger brother who was in our bridal party. Our bridal party did show up but didn't stay for the entire thing as they all lived 2 to 5 hours away.

We went back to our place Sunday night and then on Monday we left for our honeymoon. I liked not being rushed and getting one night's sleep back in my own bed since I had been staying at my parents for a few days leading up to the wedding.