Wedding Week: Our Reception Part 1

After being on such a high after our ceremony hubs and I went downstairs to sign our marriage contract, and more importantly, so that I could sit! Boy my feet hurt by then, shew! It was fun to have a few minutes to relax and just take a breather, we also realized that with the hustle and bustle of the past week, we never had a chance to practice our first dance. We did actually have a few dance lessons and my mom hired someone to help choreograph our first dance and the father daughter dance. 

Here are some details from our reception. I do have a few admissions: 1. The flowers on our tables came out nothing like I had imagined.. Mom and I looked back at the photos and were like "what were those?!" 2. I wish the lighting was better so I had more detailed shots 3. We had a lounge area and one of the pillows didn't get a chance to have a filling and so that was lacking in the pictures. Obviously I didn't notice any of this that night but the photos are there to remind me. Oh well, shall we?!

 

I swear I never wanted pink flowers.. This centerpiece above is actually "decent"..

I did love the above focal point when you entered, it's what I had envisioned with tons of cheeses and meats (I heard 8lbs!), fruits and veggies. I wish I had an upclose of the flowers I swear I noticed almost nothing that day. Again, the florist didn't understand "peachy orange". But y'all!!! MINI HAM BISCUITS!! (And seriously, that was about all I ate that night, and one cracker with cheese.. For real.)

 

We had some pillows made from Etsy for the reception and here's the couch/lounge area that I was a bit disappointed with, but oh well, once people were sitting on it, no one noticed how simple it looked as when it was photographed. We actually saved some money and brought in our own couches that are in our place from Ikea. WOO.

We did the photo wall of marriage photos from our family which we loved and I'm sorry there is no bigger photo of it, but it spanned a whole wall with photos of aunts and uncles, grandparents, parents and even siblings on their wedding day! I sat with mom on Thursday night putting it together and it was fun to bond with her and look at all the family photos from their respective wedding day. Especially my grandmother who is no longer with us. She looked like she belonged with the cast of Downton Abbey.

We also approached our reception as more of a cocktail reception with only 7 tables and about 9 cocktail tables, some with chairs, some without. We wanted to focus on the party with the band instead of having a table for everyone and it worked out because most of our guests were under 40 so they didn't require a seat the whole not. We also had two couches in the upper lounge as well as a couch station in the back by the bar. I really liked the set up a lot. You can kind of get a feel from the above photo.

 

Our signature cocktail I found the recipe for about two or three weeks before the wedding off Style me Pretty and although I didn't get to try it, I heard it was awesome! I sadly didn't name it either, we tried but sometimes things go by the wayside. Here's the recipe for the cocktail though, super easy and we made it for Thanksgiving:

Adapted from Chef Jamie Gwen 
INGREDIENTS
Champagne or Sparkling Wine
Apple Cider
Pumpkin Pie Spice
Coarse Sugar or Cinnamon

1. Combine Pumpkin Pie Spice and Coarse Sugar in a shallow bowl. (We replaced sugar with coarse ground cinnamon). In another shallow bowl pour a bit of the apple cider
2. To rim glasses, first dip the glass rim in the apple cider then dip into the spice mixture
3. Finally, fill each flute with a mixture of 3/4 champagne to 1/4 cider and voila! Sparkling Champagne Cider for you and your guests to enjoy.

No party is complete without glow sticks and koozies y'all! I got the glow sticks off the dollar spot at Target and my poor dad and brother spent the morning of the wedding putting the little plastic caps on them. Thanks for the love!

 

I loved our guest book. We actually purchased "The Travel Book" off Amazon with a keepsake box and had people sign a country of their choice with a message on love and marriage. It was fun to guess why people had signed where they did and it's a nice coffee table book to be able to keep forever.

Then it was time for us to enter our celebration! We didn't waste too much time between the ceremony and reception because we had already taken pictures and everything so I think we entered about 45 minutes post ceremony, enough time to allow guests to drive or walk over and grab a drink and some snacks, then we were announced as Mr. & Mrs! 

Love this photo of us entering and us just being in sheer bliss or maybe terror as we're about to do our first dance! We ended up choosing "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" by Franki Valli because I LOVED the words and I liked that it started pretty slow and then got fast and upbeat. It made it easier to dance to because we're happy people and we wanted the song to be happy and fun. As much as I love my Jason Mraz or Dave Matthews, I think ultimately we made the right choice.

 

I seriously love the above photo, it's so clean and classic and it seems like no one is around and that's how your day really feels sometimes. Perfect ending to our first dance!

Dad and I then danced to "My Girl" by the Temptations, a song that I've always loved and can hear dad singing to me growing up. We had practiced this being cheoreographed but by the time our dance came around I didn't remember a single thing!! Minus the fact that we thought it would be fun if dad put sunglasses on when it says "I've got sunshine", and he did and it was awesome.

Hubby and his mom danced casually to James Taylor's "How Sweet it is to be Loved By You", because I really wanted my own dance with my father and I knew it would be an important part of the day for hubby and his mom to have this special time.

We decided with our timeline and the flow of what we wanted to accomplish with our wedding to do our dances first while everyone was still interested and to do our toasts right after to get it out of the way and retain what attention we could since we didn't do a sit down dinner of any type. I think it worked out quite well so that we could spend the evening dancing away!

So these two photos below, I love my dad's enthusiasm in his toast, he did such a great job for winging it as far as I know. But the most amazing thing is I never REALLLLY knew how much I looked like my dad until I saw the two photos below.. WOW...

And then hubby winged his toast too and we kept it short and simple because people were getting antsy. I also am always amazed at how eloquently hubs speaks so I let him do the talking for us. We kept it simple and just thanked our family and friends and asked them to have a great time and capped it off with "let's party!" And that is just what we did y'all!!

Stay tuned for part 2, for more of the fun from our reception that was rocked out by The Dickens Band and some of my favorite photos, the cake cutting!

In case you missed it:

Wedding Video!

Bridal Luncheon

Rehearsal Dinner
Wedding Timeline
Getting Ready  
First Look

Portraits

Our Wedding Ceremony: Part 1 

 

xoxo,

mrs. a.

 

Photographer: Meredith Perdue / Videographer: Simile Productions / Venue: The Stockroom at 230 / Linens: CE Rentals / Rentals & Lighting: Themeworks / Flowers: Aldena Frye / Hair: Kari Berry via Marigold Parlour / Makeup Artist: Fiquet Bailey Swain via Luxe Apothecary / Bride’s Gown: “Lauren" by Amsale / Bride’s Shoes: Christian Louboutin from Coplon's / Bride’s Earrings: ED-1D-261 by Bounkit via Coplon's / Bride’s Veil: Veils of Art via Etsy / Wedding Invitation: Palm Papers / Bridesmaid Dresses: “ G558C" and "G660C" in Charcoal by Amsale / Groom’s Attire: Custom Tuxedo by Indochino / Groom Bowtie: Ralph Lauren / Groomsmen Tuxedo: Vera Wang from Men's Warehouse  / Groom’s Cufflinks: Nordstrom