The Wedding {Part Three}

Ready for a long blog post?  Just bear with me, it's the final part of my "The Wedding" Series.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to enjoy much of cocktail hour.  After the ceremony, we went back into the reception room and spent about 10 minutes relaxing and signing the marriage license.  Then, we took photos with Brad's family, some of my family, and the bridal party for about 30 minutes.  When it was finally time to go to the cocktail hour our DOC was saying that we should start getting into place for the receiving line.  

We had the receiving line right outside the reception room, so people could go through the receiving line and pick up their escort cards.  I know some people are against receiving lines, but I liked the idea of being able to say hello and thanks for coming to all our guests.  I'm not a fan of going table to table at receptions because I don't like it when I'm a guest at a wedding and the bride and groom want to come over and say hi to me while I'm eating.  That, and I feel like some people get missed because when the bride and groom come to the table some guests may be in the bathroom, getting food, etc.  The receiving line was our sure-fire way of saying hi to each and every one of our guests.

After the receiving line, the bridal party and Brad and I lined up for our introductions.  Brad's grandpa gave a lovely blessing, and then it was time to eat!  The food was delicious.  Brad and I both said that we were going to eat at our wedding, so we sampled everything. Once the guests started eating they caught onto the pasta saute bar, which created a crazy long line.  Part of the issue was that the caterers weren't going fast enough.  The other part of the issue was that it took at least 2 minutes to cook the food.  That adds up when you have 10+ people in line... with some people getting a plate for someone else...  People were still in line for pasta over an hour after dinner began.  

As our guests were eating, Brad and I really should have gotten up and gone and chatted with guests who were finished with dinner at their tables.  I tried getting Brad to go with me but he told me to just sit and enjoy everything.  (It did feel nice to sit down and relax a little.)  Looking back, I feel bad for not getting up off my butt and talking with our guests.

Around 8:30 our DOC told us that we should start the toasts.  Our Best Man, Andrew, and Maid of Honor, Natalie, gave wonderful speeches.  But if it were a competition (and I may be biased), Natalie would have won.  Her toast made everyone laugh and brought me to tears.

Then it was time to get up and cut the cake!  As I was getting up, I noticed that I had BBQ sauce across the bottom of the front of my dress!  Like 7-8 dime to quarter sized dots in a row!  I remember saying, "Oh my god... Oh my god... How did that happen?  Get the baby wipes," to my Maid of Honor.  She didn't know what was going on until I showed her.  I asked her how this could have happened because there was no way I spilled it on myself-- this part of my dress was under the table while I was eating.  She said that as the catering people were setting up one of them dropped an entire bottle of BBQ sauce and it got all over the tablecloth at the mini-pulled pork sandwich station.  She said that they merely turned the table around so it wasn't as noticeable.  Well, when I was at this station I went on that side of the table and my dress touched the tablecloth where the BBQ sauce was.  I was upset because the spilling of the BBQ sauce could have been handled much better.  Luckily, the baby wipes got most of the BBQ sauce out.

After the BBQ sauce issue, we cut the cake.  Brad fed me the biggest piece of cake, ever.  Haha.  Then, the DJ announced our first dance.  Brad and I stood on the dance floor and waited for him to start playing our song.  But no, he decided to play the last minute of the song that was playing instead of stopping it.  So we stood there and looked like dorks waiting for the song.  Seriously?  Our dance went well.  I was nervous because we hadn't practiced much since our lesson.  Our photographer captured my nervous face in one of the photos.  Ha!  Then, I danced with my dad.  My step-dad cut in about half-way through the song.  (This was planned.)  Brad and his mom shared a dance.  

While Brad and his mom were dancing I looked over and noticed one of the catering people cutting the cake like a 5 year old.  Some of the pieces were cut like cake should be cut and some were giant wedges.  I thought to myself, "Just let it go, Chelsea".  But I couldn't take it anymore.  I got up, walked over, and said, "Hi, can you cut the cake the normal way?"  She said, "Oh, well I've been eyeballing it to be sure that it's all used."  I replied (as nicely as possible), "This cake is made to serve 200 people.  There are 120 people here.  We did that on purpose so that we would have more than enough cake for our guests and to send any leftovers home with family.  Please fix these pieces of cake and start cutting it like it's supposed to be cut."  Then to my horror, she took the giant wedges that were already plated and cut them in half, but not down the middle going height-wise-- she cut them in between the layers!  Who does that!?  At this point, I had to just let it go and sit down because I was going to lose it on this chick.  Brad was exiting the dance floor when I was going to sit back down.  He said, "Honeyyy, what are you doing?"  

To which I replied, "Oh, nothing.  Just sitting down." Hehee.

When the first fast song came on, I hit the floor with my bridesmaids and the flower girl.  The rest of the night is kind of blurry because so much happened (no I wasn't drunk-- I only had a glass of wine and champagne the entire night).  :)  We danced, visited the DIY photo booth, and took some night photos.  I'm hoping to get the photos back and have them refresh my memory.  Ha!  

After the reception, we had to tear the place down.  We had to be out of there by midnight or we would be fined.  My DOC had 4 staff members there to help with the tear down.  Some of our family and friends graciously stayed to help, too.  We had the entire ceremony and reception spaces torn down, including the tables and chairs, in an hour.

All in all, it was a wonderful day.  It flew by so quickly.  I wish I could do it again, but get 8 hours of sleep the night before and stay on schedule.