Showing posts with label reception. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reception. Show all posts

Thursday, June 17, 2010

We've got a Latte Love: Party all night long

We opted to wait until after dinner for our first dances, so after the toasts we just enjoyed each other's company and yummy food.

We tried a pork and beef option at our tasting and weren't totally impressed, so this was our menu:
Garden salad

Minestrone soup

Asparagus with feta

Roasted garlic mashed potatoes

Lemon Chicken Piccata
Chicken Florentine (to DIE for)
Baked ziti

We ate enough, maybe even too much! I had heard enough from my Weddingbee girls that you should eat whenever possible on the wedding day, and I have to say I was stuffed at the end of the night!
The drawback of this, was that we were so busy eating, we didn't get to greet many of our guests. I was really disappointed about this the day after the wedding, because once we left for our honeymoon, we were moving almost directly to California. So our wedding was the last/only chance to spend time with all my family and our friends.

Our slideshow played in the corner during dinner, which was a great idea for us as people could watch or not watch if they wanted. I have mixed feelings on slideshows (especially long ones) because for newer friends and in-laws, baby pictures aren't always terribly interesting. But people seemed to expect it, and our DJ offered to do it as part of our package--all I had to was send him photos in chronological order!

I'm embedding the three sections of our slideshow here for anyone who is interested, but please feel free to scroll right on past them! (I'll list all the songs used at the end)
Songs
E--
God Made Me by Judy Rogers
Sunshine by Johnny Cash
You're my Home by Billy Joel
Me-
The Dress Looks Nice on You by Sufjan Stevens
In My Life by the Beatles
Us--
Anyone Else But You by the Moldy Peaches
Beauty and the Beast (instrumental) by Alan Menken (let it be known that this was entirely E's choice! Disney has a place in our hearts, but I certainly don't think him a beast)

It took us ages to come up with the songs we did so I hope someone finds them helpful!

Somehow 6pm turned into 8:40 lightning fast and it was time for the dances.
Press play before scrolling through the photos


Let it Be Me performed by Rosie Thomas

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We danced like high schoolers and got lost in the moment. But after the first 30 seconds, we started to realize all the eyes on us and were glad we picked a short song!

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I never gave my bridesmaids clear instructions on keeping the "wings" of my bustle under wraps, and I didn't realize i had virtual horns coming out of my backside all night until I saw these pictures. Ugh!

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photo by Stephen (DJ)

I danced with dad to "My Girl" by the Temptations. A little strange because it's obviously a more romantic song, but we grew up listening to the Temptations in my dad's old honda on cassette tape so it holds many fond childhood memories for us

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we laughed and chatted, I did a final spin and we scooted off.

Then E took the dance floor with his mom. They are really close, and the dance was so sweet to watch!

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We had asked out guests to wait on the chocolate fountain until we did our first taste, and guests were anxious!
So we each dipped a strawberry and fed it to each other.
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and sealed in with a chocolatey kiss
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Then it was back to the dance floor for the dollar dance.
BM and MOH ready to collect for us.

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It started out slow--we danced to some Rat Pack while a small line formed.

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my brother

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(E also danced with a 2 month old baby! wish we had a picture!)

When things started slowing down, E's groomsmen Austin had our DJ start playing Money Honey by Lady GaGa





The groomsmen surrounded us dancing
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and started making it rain with dollar bills!

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That really got the party started. We danced (and sang and air guitared)
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all my little cousins!

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and chatted
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and danced some more.

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It was absolutely the time of my life!

The night wore one and we did the traditional bouquet and garter throwing

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(i threw it right into the ceiling!)
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Then the dancing started to wind down, and we started to say goodbye to our guests.

Welcome, blog world, to my ugly cry face, saying goodbye to Caramel

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The night was over.

I only wish I could do it over again, and again!

I'm not finished with recaps, per se, but I am finished with the chronological order of events for the day--which is good enough for me!

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and just in time.
As you read this, E and I are on our way to a little weekend anniversary getaway. I'm so excited for 2.5 uninterrupted days with my husband in bliss. It won't compare to Italy, but it's something
Can't wait to tell you all about it when we're back!

We've got a Latte Love: The fun begins

PS. If you're reading in google reader, click over to use the music player!

As the last of the guests found their seats in the banquet room, the bridal party and parents lined up for the grand entrance.

Press play to hear the song we chose for our bridal party entrance.

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photo by Stephen (DJ)

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photo by Stephen(DJ)

We got pumped as our bridal party paraded in dancing and cheering.

Then it was our turn!
We took a deep breath and squeezed hands before making our big entrance.


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photo by Stephen (DJ)

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photo by Stephen(DJ)

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for some reason I bite my lip and close my eyes when I'm excited?

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We loved the songs we chose for the entrances, and had a blast walking in. An entire room of people that love us stood up and cheered.

I don't think there is a bigger high than the feeling we felt walking into the reception. I wanted to scream and cry at the same time.

We got seated and the toasts began.

My dad asked me several weeks before the wedding if I would be comfortable with him speaking at the reception. I thought he would give a welcome to the guests and a toast! Instead he had prepared a two page speech, recounting embarrassing childhood tales, more recent escapades, and his feelings about me being the first to "fly the nest".
It was really moving for me, but I later I did feel bad for some of the guests who wouldn't understand the inside jokes and drawn out stories!

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Sister White Choc gave her MOH speech. I knew she was going to write it down ahead of time because of her nervousness to speak in public. But it was still sweet and sincere. We've had a roller coaster relationship through the years being barely 17 months apart. But we've both gotten older and wiser and I'm proud to call her my sister!

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Lastly, Alex, the best man, was up.
Alex is brilliant and funny, so I knew his toast would be fantastic. (I am so disappointed we don't have it on film!) Alex and E were college roommates since before E and I even met, and they are a blast together.

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Check out my obnoxious laugh face! We were like this for most of his toast.


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We raised our glasses and everyone toasted us newlyweds :-)

Later, looking at these picture I regretted not hiring a videographer for the reception (or at least asking a friend to take video of a few moments--the entrances, toasts and first dance)
I'm afraid of forgetting what it was like!

I had asked my grandfather to give the blessing over the meal. He is a man very in touch with his emotions (which I love!), and his prayer was so sincere and loving. (ps. his mother was my great grandmother we visited earlier in the day)

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Finally it was time to dig in!


Monday, June 14, 2010

We've got a Latte Love: MORE photos?

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I'm eventually going to write up a big regrets/what went wrong post. And I'm hoping it will be very cathartic to finally release the frustration of all the things that I disliked about our wedding day.
One of my big regrets is how we used our cocktail hour. I originally planned on having all our family pictures taken at the country club during the cocktail hour because I really wanted outdoor photos.

Well, as it turned out, a lot of my family was helping move decorations/clean up at church so we were on our own. I wasn't sure about mingling with our guests before our grand entrance (what was I thinking?) so we took some more shots of E and I.

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Chris and Sara got the idea to try to recreate one of their wedding day photos from 10 years earlier. It nearly resulted in a torn veil and a groom wipeout. But I love the way my dress billows in this picture!


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we kissed [made out!] by the weeping willow

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this photo made our photographer's business card!


I hate my profile, but love E's face in this pic (plus it's a great shot of my jewelry!)
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By this time the wind was picking up and the forecasted storms were well on their way (Check out some of the weather photos from the area on our wedding day!)

We attempted some family pictures.
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But the wind was brutal and we were all (especially E) really sick of posing. It was time to party!

Finally, we traipsed in, grabbed drinks, and lined up for our big entrance.


 

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