Our Wedding: Partying, Part One

It's everything you've ever feared! A two-part final wedding recap! Will it ever end? Probably not. This was going to be the last wedding recap, with all the reception merged into one post, but I got distracted and a little confused writing it (we did a fake exit so our photographer/friend could start partying, and then realized we forgot to throw the bouquet ... needless to say, this did not help my confusion about the order in which things occurred that night!) So I separated the post into two categories: non-sweaty mess and hot mess.

I promise the madness that is wedding recaps will end eventually.

So let's start with the reception decor, which, as all you brides out there know, did not look this cute by accident. I really depended on the gorgeous venue to do a lot of the work for me and it did. The only ceremony decorations we had were a few Martha Stewart white lanterns and an awesome old tree, as you saw in the promising post.

But with all the getting married part said and done, it was time to party! I retreated into the bride's room while the wedding party and  family turned the ceremony site from this:

   

into this: (I'm pulling from some guest photos too, to show you the full scene since we only had one photographer and she was being fabulous elsewhere.)

The white tent in the background is where the buffet was set up. It looked quite wedding-y.

It required moving the chairs onto the grass from their semi-hidden location, surrounding them with chairs and placing the centerpieces on them. I had spent many nights stressing about this, but am assured it went quite smoothly.

The awning in the back of this photo is where the band played. The blurs in the greenery are fans.

As soon as the ceremony was over the bar opened (we served wine and beer) and the appetizers were put out (fruit, veggies and cucumber slices topped with chicken salad), so people would flock to that area, freeing up the grass for the tables to be set up. Andrew pretty much got everything he requested at the wedding, since he only had three or four opinions on the whole thing. The chicken salad/cucumber was one of those requests, which I joked would seem out of place with all the Southern-themed food. It was actually a huge hit. A formal apology has been issued to Nurse A.

I am still obsessed with this chalkboard, made out of a cabinet door. It hangs in our living room now.

We served fried catfish, cole slaw, fried okra, hushpuppies, lemonade, water and sweet tea. (Very similar to one of our rehearsal dinner meal options, but in hindsight I'm glad, because I only ate a couple pieces of fried okra, veggies and the cucumber/chicken salad at the reception and would have been quite disappointed had I made it through the whole weekend with two events catered by Taylor Grocery and not had fried catfish.

I loved that hot sauce was part of our centerpieces.

Along with the courtyard area (is that what it's called? It sounds classier than backyard), we also had the whole downstairs of the house we were renting.

We had the guest book set up on the front porch. My sister and I found this board the Thursday before the wedding laying in the aisle of an antique shop down the road from my house. We picked up some colored sharpies Friday afternoon (my mom spent a really long time obsessing over which permanent markers to get) and stuck them in a mug my stepfather made, and thus the guest book was born.

We hung this in our kitchen after the wedding and it's such a lovely, simple reminder of our wonderful day. The baskets are filled with sandalwood fans, cause it was hot y'all.

We pointed guests in the right direction with sign recycled from my sister's wedding, made by Mrs. S. of Poor is the New Black.

The interior of the house was so beautiful on its own that we kept it simple. I picked up lots of antique-looking frames for half off at Hobby Lobby, my mom brought some more up and my MIL had a whole bunch from the rehearsal dinner, all filled with our engagement photos by Jenny.

One of the mantles.

The Fashionable Wife made these letters for me, when I almost paid a ton for similar ones from Anthropologie! Aren't they cute?We've got them set up in our house now. Basically, we decorated our house with all our leftover wedding stuff.

This table is where the charter for our university was signed.

Check out the chandelier.

After everyone ate, I think we cut the cake. I actually have no idea what order things went in that evening, but everyone's pictures seem to suggest that after eating, we cut the cake. That seems logical, right? I didn't really eat though, so what was I doing? Probably drinking, or wandering around in awe.

 

Our cupcakes were a mixture of caramel and triple chocolate (Andrew's second request--chocolate groom's cupcakes) and the florist decorated them with daisies and billy balls. I love the photos of the cupcakes.

 

Andrew got a mouthful of daisy. As you can see, we're now transitioning from non-sweaty mess to hot mess, as evidenced by this photo. (Although it's still one of my favorites!)

I love this picture! I love these people! I love this day! Does looking back at your wedding pictures make you freakishly happy? I think that's a good sign.

I couldn't fully brush through my hair until Thursday. No lie.

And then we ate cake.

I have an awkward habit of leaning toward someone when there are multiple people in the picture...

Coming up eventually, friends, we will head outside for dancing, a wedding crasher, beer drinking and a fake exit! And then we will exit for real and the recaps will end! You have these shenanigans to look forward to:

Our bffs got the party started!

Do you look at your wedding pictures far too much? Did you decorate your entire house with your wedding decor afterward because you were too broke to buy new stuff and your house is too small to store it all in a closet?