A Cool Wedding Idea
April 17th, 2008 @ 12:07 pm by Mrs. Hummingbird
I’ll be the first to admit, I am a very excitable bride. Put a wacky idea in my head and nine times out of ten, it gets stuck there. Unfortunately for me (and poor Mr. Hum who gets carried off on these crazy whims with me), a lot of the time, with the momentum of the wedding, this enthusiasm overrides all my logic and I ended up getting invested in something that just does not make sense. Finnish ice dancers? A herd of Peruvian alpacas? A rapping klezmer band? I can get behind it all if I’m feeling silly enough.
Well okay, maybe not those specific examples, but I have had three big wacky thoughts, the first of which involved renting a bouncy castle to set up in the yard where the wedding is taking place.
(A picture from www.biha.org.uk of the world’s largest bouncy castle. Oh the delightful jumping goodness!)
This idea was quickly scrapped because:
1. The backyard is a bit hilly and the only flat place is where the tent is going, meaning that, if we were to set one up it would be on a slant and easily tippable.
2. There are not really any kids coming and I don’t think a tonne of our adult guests would be willing to jump around in their wedding outfits.
3. Open bar + bouncy castle = A disaster waiting to happen.
My next thought was to set up some sort of video game lounge for people to relax and play Wii in (we had the Wii at our engagement party after party and it was a big hit).
(Picture courtesy of www.racksandstands.com. This picture sort of looks like me and Mr. Hum in that I think that is similar to the expression I make when I pwn Mr. Hum at Super Smash Brothers.)
This idea was scrapped because:
1. There would not be enough power to run it.
2. Not everyone plays videogames.
3. Mr. Hum and a bunch of our geeky guests would get sucked in there and never leave.
Finally, I had my third idea which came to me once the weather started to get better here in Toronto. As the locals know, in the summer when it gets hot, if you’re in the downtown core, you have to go down to Nathan Phillips Square because there you’ll find . . .
(Picture courtesy of www.olympicsoftee.com. It is not truly summer unless you’ve stood in line at one of these trucks.)
The ice cream trucks! Seriously, one of my absolute favourite things to do is to grab a creamy soft serve cone or a delicious cherry slush. It’s so tasty and refreshing, even if it’s a stinking hot day, it just makes everything seem awesome.
Anyway, I thought about renting a truck for about five seconds when I realized just how out of our budget it was and disappointedly scrapped it. However, as someone pointed out, with the hot weather and with ours being an outdoor summer wedding, having ice cream around might not be a bad idea. So, although we will be going without the truck, Mr. Hum and I have been talking about having ice cream sandwiches and popsicles at the wedding!
We’re not quite sure what kinds or how we’re going to store them so that they are available to our guests, but as far as crazy ideas go, I think this is actually a good one.
When it comes to your wedding, what crazy ideas have you had? Have you taken them and incorporated them into your big day, modified them or did you have to scrap them all together?
(Sub-question - What kind of ice cream sandwiches/popsicles/frozen dessert treats are your favourite?)
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19 Responses to “A Cool Wedding Idea”
We’re having ice cream cakes for our wedding cake =) If there’s a Ben&Jerry’s nearby, they’ll come and set up a make your own sundae bar for a few dollars a person!
Skinny Cow! They have the CUTEST ice cream sandwiches. They even made it into MSW, it’s that serious. They come in lots of different flavors (i.e. colors!), and look super cute stacked up. Not sure if you can get them in Canada though, but you can check out their site, it lists authorized sellers, and which products each store carries.
I say go for the bouncy castle! So funny! I joked about having some version of one at our wedding this Sunday when we saw a large kids version of a bouncy obstacle course at Seattle Center. I too thought no one would want to bounce in their nice clothes. =)
I also recently got the bouncy castle idea stuck in my head when I drove by one. I thought that this might mean that I was, indeed, completely nuts. I’m glad I’m not the only one! But, no, we won’t be having a bouncy castle at our wedding.
OMG! After all my dieting and exercise I deserve ice cream at my wedding! Yummmmmmmmmmmm This is the bestest idea I have heard!!!
I’m in love with the sundae bar idea, I wish we would have done this instead of the chocolate fountain we ended up going with. The guests love it but I still dream of ice cream!!
We considered getting those inflatable sumo wrestling suits. How funny would the pictures be? But alas, the nice clothes thing plus trying to avoid a child’s birthday-esque party stopped us.
Bouncy Castle, booze and ice cream = A Great Time. As for Ice Cream - I’m all about the cookie-wich - ice cream & cookies. There are a bunch of different places that make tons of combinations. I’m partial to the chocolate cookies with chocolate chips and mint ice cream. Yummy. Now for a nice way to store/display your cold snacks, think - rental of a freezer or ice cream cart instead of a truck…or maybe even a soft serve machine. A quick google search showed this:
http://www.partypop.com/redirect.cfm?vid=3133763&weburl=partytimemachines.com/html/icecreamnew.html
maybe their is something like this in your area.
In lieu of a grooms cake, we are doing homeade ice cream sandwiches. There’s a local shop which makes they’re own delicious cookies and then makes sandwiches with them. We like the idea that people have a choice of cake, ice cream, cookies, or a combo of them all!
I do love, love, love the idea of doing something off beat. I would be worried about the staining potential of popcycles and icecream sandwishes on a hot day. It brings images of an orange stained wedding dress and ice cream drips on ties. Softserve in a bowl seems less messy.
Miss Teacup
Cold Stone Creamery also does a party thing like Ben & Jerry’s…for like $3 a person or so they’ll bring a couple people in and do an ice cream bar kind of thing, if you have either of those companies in Toronto.
I didn’t have too many crazy ideas but followed through with a few unique touches though (mashed potato bar; a strolling Filipino guitar duo; ‘oshibori’ wet hand towels before cocktails). In terms of ice cream, my preference is for gelato. You can get it in many flavours, its less messy, and a touch more sophisticated I think for a wedding. Your local Dominion grocery store would be able to provide the gelato. Another idea I had was a coffee cart to serve cappuccinos and espressos (we are coffee fanatics).
Ummm… can you please reassess the bouncy castle. I want it! You would never be able to get Nick out of it.
gelato is awesome! it comes in many flavors and is sophisticated and pretty, but you can’t beat ice cream sandwiches and popsicles in a portability contest. Good Humor makes several different ice cream treats on a stick, my favorite of which is a strawberry shortcake flavor. Not sure if that particular brand is avaliable in Canada, though.
Don’t give up on the ice-cream truck idea! There’s a company in Toronto called Way Cool Smoothies that will bring their truck to your event. We used them at my college’s orientation and they were a big hit! Quite reasonably priced, too. Their website is http://www.waycoolsmoothies.com
I absolutely LOVE the ice cream idea… really, in any form whatsoever. A sundae bar would such a hit! As for favorite ice cream treat, for me you just can’t beat a creamsicle, refreshing orange, creamy smooth vanilla, oh so good! What about getting a variety of bars from Dairy Queen?
@Miss Gingerbread: If we were more local to Toronto, I would totally do this, but unfortunately, we’re getting married outside of the city in the country so it might be hard to convince a truck to come out on the rural roads.
@Erin: That was totally my first idea and I would love to, but with the size of the backyard, I don’t think there is enough room! I think we need to just have a fun summer party and rent the bouncy castle then. 
Mrs. Hummingbird, Toronto
Age and Occupation: 25, Publishing Coordinator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Videogame Designer/Cartoonist
Engagement Date: May 4, 2007
Wedding Date: June 28, 2008
Blogging Since: September 18, 2007
Venue: A garden wedding followed by a tented reception on Mr. Hummingbird's father's property.
About Me: I’m a pop culture loving, vintage obsessed foodie living in Canada’s biggest city with my fantastic fiancé and our lovable fluffy cat Bettie. I’m stoked to marry my best friend and to throw what I hope will be
the most fun and colourful party of our lives.
What a fun post! I wonder if you could just get an ice cream truck to stop by without actually renting it. I can’t see why the ice cream truck wouldn’t want to swing down a street where they know they’ll sell a bunch of ice cream.