Reception!

The last post ended with us finishing up the pictures after the ceremony. We stood outside the reception venue and waited as the photographer ran inside to tell the DJ that we were ready to be announced. I was so excited! The ceremony was over and now it was time to party! We heard our names being announced and our entrance song starting (Tonight by the Black Eyed Peas) so we opened the door and walked in!
I wasn't really sure what to do once we walked in. I knew if I tried to dance I would look like an idiot, so instead I went right to my dad and gave him a big hug.

We gave lots more hugs and then started to look around at the venue. My cake looked pretty good even if it wasn't exactly what I had asked for. I had wanted an ivory cake with little bursts of fall arrangements. I had told my florist that and he was supposed to drop off the flowers and then the woman making my cake would put the flowers on the cake. I guess my florist misunderstood what I had wanted because he dropped of roses instead of fall arrangements. I think the florist was also late so the cake lady just left and didn't put any flowers on at all. My mom walked in and saw a plain ivory cake and knew that it was not right so she got the reception venue to try to decorate it. It turned out ok and it tasted great!

Our favors were set up on a table up front and they looked awesome!

On the tables were some fall candles we had bought and our reception venue put them on top of little mirrors. They were surrounded by fall candle holders. I was pretty pleased with how the tables looked. Luckily, JJ had stopped by the reception venue earlier in the day because they had not put our centerpieces out! JJ told them they still needed to do that and they did. Phew! I would have been pretty upset if I had walked in and saw that none of the tables had the centerpieces I had bought!

The photographer was only able to stay for about 30 minutes during the reception (we could only afford to hire the photographer for 4 hours) so we took some fake pictures of us cutting the cake and leaving.

After the photographer left, JJ and I headed straight to the buffet stations. We were determined to eat! The food was pretty good and we got to sit and eat for a few minutes. My father then did his toast and it was beautiful. Our best man and maid of honor were supposed to give toasts but they both chicken out (which my dad made sure to bring up during his toast! Ha!).

Our first dance was to Then by Brad Paisley. JJ cried like 3 times during the song and it was so sweet. We had not taken any dance lessons so I am sure our dance wasn't the most entertaining to watch but I didn't care. We had so much to do since we planned everything on our own that dance lessons just weren't possible. I still thought our first dance was perfect.

Next, my dad and I did the father daughter dance to Hero by Mariah Carey. I spent that whole dance either cracking up (my dad was trying to make me laugh) or crying. My sister and cousin were up on a little balcony above the dance floor. At one point, I looked up at her and mouthed "I love you." She smiled and mouthed it back and it was one of my favorite moments of the evening.

There were not a lot of people that were dancing which was a little disappointing to me. I love to dance and was really hoping that some people would want to dance, but everyone seemed a little shy. I heard that after JJ and I left some people finally started dancing which was good. I just wish I had seen it!

Next up was the cake cutting. I had told JJ about a million times to please not throw cake in my face. So I took a tiny piece of cake and very gently fed it to him. He took a HUGE piece and shoved in into my mouth so I was left with frosting all over my mouth! In return, I threw a bunch of cake in his face. I thought it was hilarious and it looks so funny on the wedding video!

After the cake cutting we did the garter and bouquet tosses. A lot of people were leaving early so we decided to go ahead and leave because we didn't want to be the last people left at our own reception! When we got outside my car was covered with writing and balloons. We climbed in and headed off! I have seen tons of movies where the bride opens the window, hangs out and waves so I just had to do that! It was such a cool moment! We were married and headed home as husband and wife!

When we got home we immediately changed into comfy clothes and finished packing for the honeymoon. We asked our parents and siblings to come over our house after the reception was over and I am so glad we did that. We all hung out watching football and eating leftovers. It was so nice to just relax with family after such a busy day. Around 10:00, JJ's brother drove us to the airport. It was much harder to say goodbye to everyone than I had thought it would be! Overall, it really was the best day of my life!