Our Wedding - The Reception
As a way to finish out my series recapping our wedding day, I wanted to share a bit about our reception! A lot of the little details of planning went to this portion of the day, and it really turned out better than I ever could’ve imagined! It was the perfect way to end our special day.
Directly after our Ceremony, our guests were ushered to a cocktail hour on the back patio while we finished up taking photos and video. You will notice that some of the photos here are in the ballroom - I chose to include our pre-Ceremony cocktail hour photos here as well, mostly because it made the most sense. As guests arrived, they were greeted with champagne and music by the Bexley String Quarter, who played in the loft of the ballroom. We really wanted our guests to have time to have a drink and say hello to friends and family before beginning our Ceremony! At the post-Ceremony cocktail hour, they were able to enjoy our signature cocktails: French Seventy-Seven and a Gin and Tonic (our favorite drinks). This was also the time where they could view our seating chart - which we made ourselves (Mark crafted the pedestal, and I designed the banner), sign the guests book which was comprised of vintage Ohio postcards, and view our memory table, where we honored all of our family members who have passed and couldn’t be with us that day.
After the cocktail hour, guests found their seats in the sunroom. The table decor turned out beautifully, with florals and candlesticks from State & Arrow, glassware and silverware from Event Source Rentals, Menus custom made and printed by me, and to top it all off, beautiful hand-lettered name cards by Calligraphy by Keri.
Our sweetheart table for dinner was truly one of my favorite details of our wedding day. The gorgeous florals, candlesticks, and rented chairs from Lost and Found Vintage Rentals. One of my favorite touches were some special gold filigreed champagne glasses (from Anthropologie) and gold vintage goblets (from a vintage Etsy shop) that we used for drinks for the night for the two of us. We were able to keep those glasses, and I love seeing them on our bar cart every day, as a simple little reminder of our wedding. I also made a banner to hang above our sweetheart table, where we got to utilize the beautiful crest that my Maid of Honor, Hannah, designed for our invitation suite. I hope that we can find somewhere special to hang this banner in our future home!
During dinner, guests could also pick up their favors from our custom build board. We ordered these amazing vintage-inspired keychains imprinted with a quote from one of our readings. We really wanted to prioritize a favor that was fun, practical, and didn’t have our names or wedding date on them - so that they could be a reminder in people’s lives of our day and our love for them, without being too obvious that it was a wedding favor.
After dinner, my Mom and our bridesmaids and groomsmen gave Speeches, and we cried a whole lot! The words spoken by our best people that day are something that I will always hold close to me. We then entered an adjoining room to cut the cake that was so beautifully made by Miam Cakes. I adore her work, especially the sculpted flowers - plus, it was absolutely delicious! Atop our cake, sat two little golden vintage birds that we found at a flea market together. You might also notice those birds throughout our day - namely in our beautiful illustrated crest!
After cutting the cake, we headed to the ballroom for our first dance. Mark and I chose “Love Me Tender” by Elvis for our first dance. We have lots of songs that we’ve loved throughout our relationship together, but the simplicity and timelessness of “Love Me Tender” was what we decided we wanted to remember our day by.
Then - it was time to party! I bought some gold streamer cannons from amazon, and without me knowing, our planner had a couple of our guests poised to shoot the canons off directly after our dances, and it was one of the most fun moments of the evening - especially because most of us didn’t know it was coming! By the end of the evening, our cardboard cutout cat heads came out - this was our little symbolic way of having our kitties with us on our day.
In the ballroom, throughout the dancing and fun hung my favorite banner of the day, that read: “Love is the Ultimate Outlaw” - again from the Tom Robbins excerpt read at our Ceremony. This is another piece that I hope to have in our home someday!
About half an hour before our event ended, Mark and I said our goodbyes and headed to the rented vintage convertible that we rented as a getaway car. As we drove to the hotel, we were able to put the roof down and were so amazed at how clear the night sky full of stars was. We got to drive through the Ohio countryside, and soak in that moment, and chat about how wonderful our day had been. It’s something i’ll never have a photo or video of, but it was the perfect way to end the day, and is a memory I will cherish forever.
I’ve shared a lot of my thoughts on our wedding day, but overall, I just truly feel so blessed to have had such a dream of a day come to fruition. I know that I put in a lot of hard work and thought to our day, but so did so many others, and for that, I will be forever grateful. It wasn’t a “perfect” day by any means, but to me, it was perfect in its imperfections. Beyond all of the details and the pretty photos, it was a celebration of a relationship and a love that I wasn’t sure I would ever find. Being surrounded by the people I love most in the world, and basking in the joy of becoming a wife to my favorite person i’ve ever met is a feeling that I hope I never, ever forget.
Thanks for sticking around for all of these posts. If you’ve made it this far - please let me know what your favorite part of the day that I shared was! As always: feel free to reach out if you’re planning a wedding or have any questions for me!