The reception!!!

Our reception was so much fun!!!! The food was good, the music was good. I had such a good time!!!

We got to the venue and not all the guests had gotten there so we waited outside of the room. It turned into a mini receiving line for the guests who got there after us. I was pretty cool with that. It made me wish we had done an official receiving line.

While we were out there waiting, the DJ came out and talked to us. We were standing there and all of a sudden, the DJ says, "Don't move!" Then Dane looked and said it too. I thought my dress was caught on something, but it was much better than that. My dress is satin with an embroidered lace organza overlay. There was a grasshopper between the organza and the satin. It was all the way up close to my hips. I have no idea how long that little fellow had been in my dress. He may have been there for a while. It was so funny. The photographer wasn't there to catch it. Darn it!

After that, Alex came out and she pulled me to the side. She said, "Mom, what color is your cake supposed to be?" Now you know when you get asked what color is it SUPPOSED to be that it's not the right color. I told her ivory. She proceeded to tell me that my cake had parts that were green with a purple stripe. Our wedding colors were plum and yellow, so purple I could see maybe, but green? Anyway, I laughed about it. The only thing I was concerned about was what flavor the cake was. I had waited almost a year and a half for my hot buttered coconut rum cake with pina colado frosting and I was going to be very disappointed if it was the wrong flavor.

The DJ announced us to the room and we walked in. Everybody clapped for us. We were starving so we immediately went through the buffet. When we had our food, the buffet was opened for everyone else. We made sure we got to eat since we were starving! When I got a chance, I took a look at the cake. It was beautiful. Absolutely a beautiful cake. It was the right shape, but it had parts that were green and then a stripe dividing the ivory and green was not purple, but chocolate brown. It also had edible handmade flowers on it. Gorgeous! I just have no idea why it was green and brown. Turns out it was the right flavor, so I didn't really care about the color. The groom's cake was exactly as it was supposed to be. It was gorgeous too.

As soon as we were done eating, we cut the cake, then had the best man toast, and immediately went into the first dance. We got through with our first dances and Dane was talking to some friends. I walked over and chatted with them too. It had been maybe 15 minutes since we cut the cakes. I looked around and the platter for the groom's cake was empty. I thought the caterer must have cut pieces and put them on another table, so I was looking for the pieces of this chocolate cake. There was no more chocolate cake. I could not believe it. That cake was gone faster than I've ever seen a cake disappear in my life. Thankfully the caterer had cut us a piece and put it at our table so we could definitely get some. Problem was we only ate a few bites between all the craziness and next thing I knew, they had collected all the plates. :-( Oh well. The cake is for the guests and they apparently enjoyed it a lot.

Awesome events from our reception:
First dance - We danced to I Don't Want To Miss A Thing by Aerosmith. It's really too long, and we realized it while we were dancing. You can only dance and kiss alone on the dance floor for so long before you really just want everyone to be able to dance too. I'm sure everyone was tired of watching us by the time that song ended. But it's a beautiful song. I just wish it had been shorter.

Father/Daughter, Mother/Son dance - We danced to My Wish by Rascal Flatts. First thing my dad asked was, "Is this going to be some crazy rock song too? I hope it's not as long as that song you two danced to." I laughed and told him it was a country song and not nearly as long.

Anniversary dance - My Uncle Roger and Aunt Karan were the couple married the longest. Their advice to us was to keep talking. I think that's some good advice.

Cotton Eyed Joe - My mom is 74 years old and she could put some young people to shame when it comes to dancing. She started dancing and everyone circled around her and clapped. If only I had a video. It was awesome. Everyone was very impressed at her energy.

Thomas - Our ring bearer was tearing up the dance floor. He was spinning and sliding and doing the splits. It was so great!!!

Babies - There were three babies under age one at our wedding and I did not hear one cry until after the reception had ended and one was a little hungry. Jonah was crawling around the dance floor. Lizzie was being held by all Dane's family. Lydia was being passed around my side of the family. All beautiful babies and all very well behaved. I'm so glad they were there!

Train - The DJ had me start the train and lead everyone around the room. There was barely anyone left sitting by the time we got around the room. It was really fun. He kept making us turn around and go the opposite direction. We were laughing pretty hard.

Caterer - JoAnne Vaughn at Special Touch Catering. Okay, honestly, our caterer must be the best caterer known to man. The DJ asked if I was ready to toss my bouquet and I had no idea where my tossing bouquet was. The photographer went to look for it. The caterer looked and there wasn't one there.... so she made me one. We had a huge arrangement on the buffet table. She took some of the flowers out of it and took one of the organza tables runners and she made me a bouquet to toss. It did not look like it had been made on the fly. Awesome!