Dulcea, you are absolutely right. Looks like most of my previous post was either partly or fully wrong. I didn't realize that having it in the park meant not spending family ac Thanks for setting the record straight!
Given that the cost is the same to hold the party at home or in the park, it makes more sense to do it in the park where the cost of items (arch, bar, piano, refrigerator, oven and countertop) is essentially nil. The only reason I can see now to hold it at home is if you already had all those items AND active lot sims to staff them instead of relying on hired help. I must have tried 5 or six times to get gold at home and just couldn't get past the task of having guests watch the wedding... they were always too busy inside the house to come outside and watch! When I tried it again at the park I was able to get gold without too much trouble. I believe Mike and Katrina were as relieved as I was to get out of that darn cycle.
Maybe I'm micromanaging the whole operation too much.
Anyway, here are the goals for getting gold:
Main Goal: Get Married!
Chat with guests for 2 hours
Have 3 drinks
Eat 4 servings of food
Have guests watch the ceremony
Have the betrothed kiss
Take the first slice
I found it much easier to get the drinks/food out of the way after I'd had Katrina move in with Mike prior to the ceremony. That way I could use both of them and cover 2/3 of the drink goal and 2/4 food of the food goal.
Pick the right day! Sunday was the only day that both Mike and Katrina had off from work. I wonder if perhaps all jobs get Sunday off? I made sure they were both about as maxed in their needs as possible before going to bed on Saturday night.
Plan The Wedding as early in the day as possible, so you have plenty of time in case guests are inexplicably slow. I also seemed to have a larger selection of guests at 7:45AM (11) than I did at 10:30AM (2).
The caterer made the cake (and added the wedding topping!), and then stopped until I give him another couple of countertops, whereupon he whipped up several tasty dishes in no time flat.
Getting the mixologist to mix drinks was a little tricky -- sometimes she'd act like a guest and all I'd get were greeting options.
Make sure there's adequate room around the arch for guests to stand or sit.
It is always better (goal-wise) to get in a conversation with a guest before ordering a drink or grabbing a plate of food because it gives you an option to order/grab for your entire group.When the goals for drinks, conversation and food are satisfied, the Have the Betrothed Kiss goal appears. If at least a couple of your guests are reasonably unoccupied (and not partying inside your house or off using the park toilets) then you can now click on the arch to get your sims married. The ceremony is very sweet, including a first kiss popup (odd, considering Katrina had never been stingy with her kisses before that) that will satisfy both the kissing goal and the main goal. After that, a final goal appears -- Take the First Slice. Have one of the newlyweds go get the first slice from the wedding cake and they'll share it with their new hubby
Item rewards:
Pro-quality knife block set (clutter)
The Food Annihilator (microwave)
The Caffeininator (coffee pot)
Wedding pillar w/ floral basket (silver or better)
In full bloom centerpiece (silver or better)
VIP bucket (gold)