You Really Like Us!

(By the way - if you email me, please let me know how you found my page. I'm just curious. And if you're going to review my page for a magazine or newspaper or something, let me know so I can go out and buy a copy!)

Peter and Sue Give Free Wedding Advice is a breath of fresh air for couples who are feeling suffocated by the dos and don'ts of the Evil Wedding Industry, as this site likes to call it. According to this young, down-to-earth couple, a wedding reception should be just like throwing a big party for friends and family. The main thing to remember is "there's nothing that you have to do." So go ahead and feel free to ditch the aisle runner, forgo the cake topper, or use wine for the toast instead of champagne: Most likely, no one will even notice.

Peter and Sue's Wedding Tips: Some of the best advice you'll find on the Web comes from people who - surprise - are not trying to sell you anything. Peter and Sue are a couple of bright young kids who got married in 1996 and are now passing on the good word about the Evil Wedding Industry. Peter and Sue describe it passionately: "It's the subtle pressure on women to devote their entire existence to making sure that this day is to be the one perfect day in their lives come Hell or high water.... It's the feeling that the groom should get out of the way and let it be the bride's day alone.... It's a 39-cent band of elastic being sold as a $14.99 'wedding garter.'" Music to my ears. Not all of Peter and Sue's advice is so strident, but you'd be wise to heed their simple counsel: Be flexible, ignore the dictates of commerce and have fun.

Peter and Sue get married - Hurricane Bertha couldn't stop this wedding! A huge and very useful "advice" section. Hilarious "weird wedding stories". Highly recommended. Yahoo "Internet Life" pick.

• Just wanted to say your wedding page on the net is excellent. There's such a lot of good advice and common sense in there, I'm really pleased to have found it. I think you should distribute it to all the wedding sites on-line to put a dose of reality in there with all the rubbish they publish. - Catherine Boyhan, June 11, 1998

• Damn, you two are my freakin' HEROS! - Mike Colburn, May 8, 1998

• What a great site and terrific advice. I read about it in Yahoo! and what a breath of fresh air. - Debbie Shaw, May 7, 1998

• Thanks very much for your wedding advice page. It's amazing how easy it is to get caught up in the tiniest details and forget that weddings/receptions should really be about people having fun. - Stacey Fugate, April 9, 1998

• Thank God there is someone else out there who feels the way we do. We laughed and agreed with your advice page - and we also feel that the only SANE people around here are in the Catholic Church. At least THEY don't "tsk" when Michael walks into a bridal salon. - Karen Harland, April 2, 1998

• I just wanted to compliment you on your wedding web page. It looks great! My fiancé and I are trying to plan a very "plain and simple" wedding and it is nice to hear others managed to survive without all the expensive and silly wedding "rituals". - Marie Sullivan, September 8, 1997

• This was a very entertaining page!! You've given me some new things to think about eliminating in order to save some $$$ and spend them where I want to. I'll probably keep the electricity and ditch the aisle runner for starters. Great page!!! - Shelley Turner, September 5, 1997

• Yours is the best advice I've read yet! Do what you want and don't feel you have to do what's expected! Almost everyone else's wedding pages describe how everything is designed to be "perfect", but if you ask me they're all the same! When you get rid of some of the formalities and traditions, you personalise it and it becomes more informal and relaxed... Good on ya! - Nicole Sampson, August 21, 1997

• Just wanted to let you know that between 4a and 430a central time I was visiting your pages and found them wonderful. I am planning a wedding for February 15th, 1998 and thought your advice was very sound. - D. Potts, August 19, 1997

• My fiancé came and helped me pick out my wedding dress too and everything else! I think it is a wonderful idea and actually quite fun... I love your page. It definitely makes a wedding seem a little bit easier to accomplish! - honeybe@bellsouth.net, August 15, 1997

• I just read your WHOLE wedding advice page. I just had to send a message to say it was the coolest thing I've seen about weddings on the web so far. Thanks for your opinions! - Beth E Brunsting, August 14, 1997

• I just read through your advice. I find it very helpful to know how someone's wedding went and what they felt about it. I am the kind of bride who wants things done my way, not necessarily the traditional way. So, your advice was helpful and I enjoyed reading it. Thank you for the time you spent in writing it. - Karin, August 6, 1997

• I really liked your advice, although I am sure that my wedding would/will be completely different. The thing you stressed, however, that this is *your* (in a general sense) wedding, and that you should do it any way you wish, was very good. - Elizabeth Leach, July 30, 1997

• I'm just taking a break from making wedding-related phone calls and found your page -- great stuff. Good advice, too. People who say you "have to" do this or that are the ones that are either making money off of you, are related to you, or just want to give you an incredibly hard time. - Kimberly Harrington, July 30, 1997

• Your wedding Web pages are great! - Dianne Jessie, July 29, 1997

• Of all the wedding pages I have seen, I like yours the best... and I am definitely recommending your site to all my friends who are planning weddings. - Julia Talbot, July 28, 1997

• Thank you both for a wonderful wedding page! The wedding planning stress had just set in with full force when I came by your page. Thanks for reminding me this is supposed to be FUN. You just saved my fiancé from forced elopement! - Michelle Krawicki, July 15, 1997

• Great Page! Down with the wedding industry! - Erica Ollmann, June 21, 1997

• Peter, you had some really cute ideas. I think this is the best wedding page I've seen! - Jackie Tabigne Guevarra, June 11, 1997

• I appreciated the sensible wedding advice you included on your pages. I agree -- the point is to have a great day, enjoy yourselves and the company of your friends, and not make a big deal out of the not-so-important details or get sidetracked by Emily Post's version of a wedding. - Melissa Wahl, April 22, 1997

• I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for voicing everything I've been thinking. (And Bill (my fiancé) and I thought we were so clever coming up with the idea of using playing cards as favors!) - Kendra Bond, April 11, 1997

• That was some very practical advice!! Congratulations! - Carole Haigney, March 28, 1997

• You are right, she is cute. - Emily Merkler, March 22, 1997

• I just saw your wedding page on the web, and I had to email. I thought it was great - exactly what I wanted to see. My fiancé (second marriage for both of us) want a relatively stress-free wedding, and some of your tips will be very useful. Thanks. - Ann Marie Denine, March 19, 1997

• I just wanted to let you know I really enjoyed your advice on weddings page. It gave me a lot of ideas to think about for my July 18, 1998 wedding in Massachusetts. Thanks!! - kcounihan@sprynet.com, March 16, 1997

• Stumbled onto your home page and loved it - especially the wedding advice! - Aaron Watkins, March 14, 1997

• Thanks so much for posting your experience. I love your idea of not having a "head table" and instead sitting at a table among our guests. We are definitely going to do it that way. - Donna Sullivan, March 12, 1997

• I was looking through your wedding pictures, and I just wanted to say: Yay! A bride wearing glasses and looking great while doing so! Good stuff all round, too. - Janet Boone, March 12, 1997

• Congratulations on your marriage and your cool web site of the week. Your story is the quintessence of "rolling with the punches". - William Dycus, March 11, 1997

• I would just like to tell you that your wedding advice was the best I've read on any of the way cool wedding of the week sites. - LightninMG@aol.com, March 11, 1997

• Thanks for a great wedding page! - Laura Holmberg, January 30, 1997

Peter A. Dutton, Jr.
dutton@adapco.com