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

Wedding Week: Our Ceremony Part 2

Our ceremony was a traditional Methodist ceremony without song and had one reading that I ended up finding and thought it was the PERFECT piece to have read to us by one of my dearest friends of life. We pretty much followed the outline for the Methodist ceremony to a T, with the giving away of the bride from her parents and a blessing from the congregation and the Lord's Prayer at the end which was one of my favorite parts. So let's see some of the action shall we?!

 My mom and my brother looking very dapper.

One of the cutest things you ever did see! 
The flower girls walking right up to their uncle! 

And then it was my turn!! EEK! I literally shook the whole time down the aisle squeezing my poor dad's arm with excitement and anticipation. A few tears welled up in my eyes as I focused only on my husband to be who was smiling radiantly at me. One of the things I remember most is that I didn't notice ANYONE other than hubby during that whole ceremony except for a look at the reverend and my friend Lee during the reading. I wish I had caught a glimpse of my mom at least!

I loved getting the opportunity to have a blusher veil, it wasn't something we planned on but I'm glad it worked out in the end that I went with a multilayer veil. Love the added drama a blusher adds. Also once my father gave me away, I started to lose my cool. I definitely teared up a bit when my daddy kissed my check to say goodbye to his little girl. It was such an emotional experience. I knew I'd probably be somewhat of a mess but I was hoping to keep it all together, but I heard that a few people also wear tearing up too!

 

Like I mentioned before my dear friend, Lee, read a reading by James Dillet Freeman called "Blessing for a Marriage" and it goes like this:

May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring, and may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding.

May you always need one another - not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness. A mountain needs a valley to be complete; the valley does not make the mountain less, but more; and the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it. So let it be with you and you.

May you need one another, but not out of weakness.

May you want one another, but not out of lack.

May you entice one another, but not compel one another.

May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another.

May you succeed in all important ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces.

May you look for things to praise, often say, "I love you!" and take no notice of small faults.

If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back.

May you enter into the mystery which is the awareness of one another's presence - no more physical than spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side, and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities.

May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy.

            May you have love, and may you find it loving one another.

I absolutely LOVED this reading and thought it was perfect for us. I loved the words and how it sounded coming from someone else. It flowed so freely. 
We also asked our reverend to elaborate on two of our favorite bible verses instead of having someone else read them because we preferred the word of God coming from him.
 
Ecclesiastes 4: 9-1

⁹ Two are better than one,
    because they have a good return for their labor:
¹⁰ If either of them falls down,
    one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
    and has no one to help them up.

Colossians 3:12-17

¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Finally it was time to exchange vows.. And BOY was this emotional!! Hubby started his first and while he was repeating the vows my eyes started to well up with emotion and tears from his words and by the final vow that he had to say, he choked up too with tears in his eyes and a quiver in his throat. It was a beautiful, memorable moment that I'll never forget. Probably my favorite moment of the day. It was just so real, raw and beautiful.

Our reverend was a family friend of hubby that blessed our marriage and I was so glad he did. He gave a short homily and it was beautiful and funny at the same time. Hubby is a golf pro and so his homily included references to golf that were humorous and fun as well as memorable so I really appreciated his time and effort into crafting a beautiful ceremony for us. I loved that he wanted to hold our hands and bless them in the name of God and our family and friends. It was beautiful.

Then it was time to seal it with a kiss!

And then we were pronounced husband and wife! Love our enthusiasm in this photo below.

You may remember a while back how I posted about our ceremony "surprise", the a cappella group from NC State singing "Stand by Me" to signify our exit as husband and wife. Here are the photos but be sure to catch the video here again!

 

I think this may be my favorite photo from the wedding!

 And we're hitched y'all!!!

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 / 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 from 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