Tuesday
Aug032010
Wedding recap: the reception, v.2
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 05:37AM
One thing I will always remember about our wedding was how EFFING HOT it was! I couldn't be more grateful though because there was a threat of rain, and hot thick sticky air is better than rain any wedding day. I tried to encourage people to dress comfortably, but several men had long pants or shirts on, and I just wanted to hand them a pair of scissors to remedy the situation. I was pretty steamy in my slip and long dress myself, and Mike kept his pants and long-sleeved shirt on the whole time. But, again, thankful for the heat given the alternative! Anyway, while we were busy with photos, the rest of the crew was enjoying themselves. Everyone was eating and drinking and chatting. They were entertaining themselves with our homemade cootie catchers and pinwheels...
...and enjoying our candy-licious favors and decor.
(Although, we had a hard time getting rid of the candy favors. What the! Those things were awesome. Eventually someone walked around and handed the damn things out. Same thing happened recently at my sister's wedding. My advice to future brides: favors are a waste of time and money.) They were also busy at the photo booth, which I already talked about. And then! Then! We busted out the pinata. Aw yeah. Mike's brother Brian helped the dads hang it up.
While we waited for the photographer to stop screwing around (kidding!), we screwed around a little bit.
Then we took a few swings together. In place of a first dance, we did a first pinata whack.
Then we turned it over to the kids who were, oh my gosh, SO excited they could hardly wait their turn.
Once all the little ones had a few swings, I looked to the adults. Brian was the first to volunteer, and turns out, the last.
With one whack, he sent that thing flying off the tree. And the kids, of course, went crazy. I have to admit, it was kind of crappy candy, cheap stuff from the bulk section, but they didn't care. It's CANDY and it's FLYING EVERYWHERE! Speaking of kids, I'm so glad we kept the kid quota small. It wasn't a vicious thing, but kids tend to dominate a party. All the kids at the wedding were "my" kids, my family. So instead of being overwhelming, it was family. It was fun. And it was just the right amount of people in general. I am so so so glad we didn't let the guest list get out of control. I hear all the time that peoples' guest lists get away from them, but we managed to always keep it reined in, and all I can say is PHEW! On that same note, I pointed out to someone recently that Mike and I managed to have exactly the wedding we said we were going to have. We always stayed true to our vision, and we weren't influenced by any internal or external forces. The wedding we pictured a year ago is the wedding we had on June 12. I'm really proud that we weren't sucked into the wedding industry---we didn't go over our budget, we didn't enlarge our guest list, we didn't get caught up in unnecessary details. I don't think that's always easy to do, so kudos to us babe!
Like they all say, the whole thing went pretty fast, but honestly, not too fast. From start to finish, it was only about 8 hours of our lives. A work day. That's it. So of course it's going to go fast, especially given all the work you put into it. But we made a point to pause and soak it all in several times, and that helped us to slow down and enjoy it. We watched it all happen, but we also participated fully. That's the way to do it. Luckily my sister, the officiant, was on top of things, otherwise we may never have made it official. She called us into the house at one point to sign the marriage license.
I had my sister Andrea sign as my witness (Emily signed hers, and I signed Emily's. Kelli had a friend sign for her.), and Mike asked his mom. As soon as we had gotten all the shots we wanted, I ran off to change. I was actually in my dress for many hours when all was said and done, but I was ready to get out of it. It was HOT! And I really had no problem with this. I got my fifty bucks worth, and then I changed into a short green sundress and flip flops.
Actually the flip flops replaced my gorgeous boudoir slippers almost right away.
I'm in the green, and the rest of the feet belong to my mom and sisters. Can you guess who's who? Next I'm going to tell you about the after party!
Cross posted at Shan & Mike.
...and enjoying our candy-licious favors and decor.
(Although, we had a hard time getting rid of the candy favors. What the! Those things were awesome. Eventually someone walked around and handed the damn things out. Same thing happened recently at my sister's wedding. My advice to future brides: favors are a waste of time and money.) They were also busy at the photo booth, which I already talked about. And then! Then! We busted out the pinata. Aw yeah. Mike's brother Brian helped the dads hang it up.
While we waited for the photographer to stop screwing around (kidding!), we screwed around a little bit.
Then we took a few swings together. In place of a first dance, we did a first pinata whack.
Then we turned it over to the kids who were, oh my gosh, SO excited they could hardly wait their turn.
Once all the little ones had a few swings, I looked to the adults. Brian was the first to volunteer, and turns out, the last.
With one whack, he sent that thing flying off the tree. And the kids, of course, went crazy. I have to admit, it was kind of crappy candy, cheap stuff from the bulk section, but they didn't care. It's CANDY and it's FLYING EVERYWHERE! Speaking of kids, I'm so glad we kept the kid quota small. It wasn't a vicious thing, but kids tend to dominate a party. All the kids at the wedding were "my" kids, my family. So instead of being overwhelming, it was family. It was fun. And it was just the right amount of people in general. I am so so so glad we didn't let the guest list get out of control. I hear all the time that peoples' guest lists get away from them, but we managed to always keep it reined in, and all I can say is PHEW! On that same note, I pointed out to someone recently that Mike and I managed to have exactly the wedding we said we were going to have. We always stayed true to our vision, and we weren't influenced by any internal or external forces. The wedding we pictured a year ago is the wedding we had on June 12. I'm really proud that we weren't sucked into the wedding industry---we didn't go over our budget, we didn't enlarge our guest list, we didn't get caught up in unnecessary details. I don't think that's always easy to do, so kudos to us babe!
(I love this picture and don't know where else to put it, so here is as good as any place.)
Like they all say, the whole thing went pretty fast, but honestly, not too fast. From start to finish, it was only about 8 hours of our lives. A work day. That's it. So of course it's going to go fast, especially given all the work you put into it. But we made a point to pause and soak it all in several times, and that helped us to slow down and enjoy it. We watched it all happen, but we also participated fully. That's the way to do it. Luckily my sister, the officiant, was on top of things, otherwise we may never have made it official. She called us into the house at one point to sign the marriage license.
I had my sister Andrea sign as my witness (Emily signed hers, and I signed Emily's. Kelli had a friend sign for her.), and Mike asked his mom. As soon as we had gotten all the shots we wanted, I ran off to change. I was actually in my dress for many hours when all was said and done, but I was ready to get out of it. It was HOT! And I really had no problem with this. I got my fifty bucks worth, and then I changed into a short green sundress and flip flops.
Actually the flip flops replaced my gorgeous boudoir slippers almost right away.
I'm in the green, and the rest of the feet belong to my mom and sisters. Can you guess who's who? Next I'm going to tell you about the after party!
Cross posted at Shan & Mike.
Reader Comments (3)
Seconding the "favors are a waste" sentiment. We had photo holders (the wire kind--we had painted and antiqued the bases because we didn't like the color but we liked the price) *and* candy in a little metal box and scores were left on the tables. My mother and her cousin went around picking them all up at the end of the night. My mother's cousin kept the chocolate, but my mother ended up with loads of photo holders. Every time someone got married, I tried to pawn them off; they ended up at Goodwill.
I'm going to disagree with the favors thing...sort of. We had frosted glass picture frame/coasters at our wedding, and there were only one or two left at the end of the night. (Which we gladly took for our own personal use.) Another wedding I attended gave pint glasses with the names and date etched on them, and I love the way I think about that couple every time I use the glass. I think favors can be a great little way to for guests to remember your wedding and thank them for coming, but only if it's something people will actually use or enjoy, not just a cheap little piece of crap bought for the sake of having favors.
Rant over.
Dude! Retro candy! What's more awesome than that? I guess we had them all wrapped up so you didn't know what it was until you opened it, but I thought they were a really fun favor. I didn't want to spend money on a trinket, but I thought candy would be appreciated. Maybe people don't love it as much as me...