What military traditions (if any) are you including in your wedding.  

Also, is your wedding in your home town, fh's home town, or where you're living now?

thanks!

We're hoping to do a saber arch at our wedding.  So I've heard rumors that some places have swords that they can loan- has anyone heard that?  

In the USCG officers can carry swords with their dress uniform & do the arch.  FI's close friend who would probably be a groomsman is a warrant officer, but he doesn't own a sword (FI and the other guys have them from the academy).  I really don't want his friend to buy a sword just for our wedding since they're so $$$.  I guess one other option would be to have a set of guys who do the arch who are not the groomsmen.  Too confusing!  Anyone deal with that?  Who has had one?  Did you do it after the ceremony or at the reception?

Wedding is going to be where FI is stationed- I don't want to deal with planning a wedding long distance, that seems like it would be waaaaay too much stress.

FH is in California and I'm in Ohio.  We're planning a wedding in Chicago.  Luckily, we've got lots of time & it's about a 5 hour drive for me.  

We're still trying to figure out the saber arch.  Not sure if we're going to have one, because we're so far away from a Marine Corps base.  I think it would be fun, but we'll have to see who is able to make it!

Do you think some of your Fiance's friends that have swords would let the Warrant Officer borrow? I know my FH's sword only comes out once a year, for the Marine Corps Ball and for weddings.    

We are doing the arch! We have 2 gms who are military- so they will be in the arch. FI has asked other friends to be in the arch- they will also act as ushers during the wedding. We will also be cutting the cake with the sword.

we are getting married where we went to college. Neither of us live there, so it is definitely difficult to plan from a distance.

All of our guys either own their own swords or will be borrowing them from a friend. Rumor is that the chaplain has swords that can be borrowed? But I don't know if this is actually the case. I have a friend who had guys from a local ROTC do the arch- maybe borrowing swords from them is an option too? It wouldn't hurt to ask.

We will have the arch out of the wedding ceremony- outside the steps of the church.

Wildfire was just married and they had an arch- I am sure you can get more details from her!

he's wearing his uniform and that's about it we're getting married in my hometown but we live in New Hampshire so planning has definitely been difficult since i'm planning from 1300 miles away.

p.s. if ya'll do the arch make sure your photog understand how it works I went to a weding where they did the arch but the photog didn't understand how it worked and was in the middle of the aisle the guys created when they got called to attention and presented arms. The photog totally screwed the whole thing up because they couldn't raise their swords at the same time without hitting him. Then when the guys at the end were supposed to lower they're swords so the couple could kiss the photog was once again in the way. Needless to say the guys were upset and the photog ruined the whole thing.