You Are The Best Thing, That Ever Happened to Me

It's my last wedding recap post, and I'm super excited to share the features of our reception. We had a blast visiting with our amazing guests, seeing our vision come to life and celebrating our new vows. Our reception venue was decided on quickly and easily - a huge, refurbished warehouse space provided the roominess and industrial feel that we wanted (my rule was NO carpet in our venue). I knew fairly early on in the planning process that I wanted to feature ladders at the reception - I'd seen a couple of cool Pinterest shots with ladders adorned with candles and loved the rustic whimsy of the look. My husband and my father-in-law are both amazing wood craftsmen, so I had my father-in-law whip up a couple of ladders to suspend over our buffet, and my mom scoured flea markets for five A-frame ladders to place around the site. Our incredible florist blew us away by adding lanterns, gold mercury glass, wooden boxes, candles, wooden table runners (that my mom made), burlap and fresh, eclectic blossoms all over the space. Seriously, y'all. She was INCREDIBLE. We also had a friend make some really fun art that we displayed around the venue that featured snippets of the scriptures that were read during our ceremony, and we chose to have guests sign a photo book of our favorite pictures together in lieu of a traditional guest book - a decision I'm so glad we made.


We also knew that we wanted to have corn hole at our reception - indoor corn hole. Hubbers made the sets, and I painted them - one a Mr. & Mrs. theme and the other one a hometown theme - Charlotte and South Portland, Maine. We loved providing our guests with another activity if they weren't in the mood for moving and grooving. I also stumbled across an old church pew at a flea market and knew it would be perfect for us to sit in as we dined. 


Our reception food was a mouthwatering buffet featuring shrimp and grits, ahi tuna tacos, sage crusted chicken, cream Brussels sprouts, wild mushroom risotto cakes, and roasted vegetables. Our cake was a five-tiered almond cake with strawberry cream filling, and I surprised my groom with a surf-themed groom's cake that was carrot with cream cheese filling. Both were to die for. We had a mix of square, round and cocktail tables... we didn't want anything too terribly uniform. I really, really dislike seated dinners, and I loved the relaxed feel that our buffet and casual seating provided, plus no stress of a seating chart for this bride!


Our first dance was to Ray LaMontagne's "You Are The Best Thing," a song I listen to on repeat regularly to this day. I just love it. We had taken one dance class before our wedding, and we sort of thought we'd use some of those moves for our dance but basically abandoned the entire plan and winged it when we got there. Despite almost having a wardrobe malfunction of the breast-y variety, I wouldn't change one things about that dance. My dad chose our father-daughter song, and I had no idea what it would be until it started playing... he made the perfect selection with Rascal Flatts' "My Wish." Seriously perfect. Although, note about wedding dances: the songs feel like they last FOREVER. Literally, they feel 12 minutes long. The hubbers and his mom followed us by dancing to Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up." It was so sweet watching them twirl around the floor. 


In the middle of our escapades, my groom grabbed a mic and presented me an incredible wedding gift - my entire blog bound and published into a book. A sweeter gift could not have been dreamt up. 


When it came time for us to head to The Ritz for our first night as husband and wife, we outfitted each guest with a small bag of pink and gold sequins adorned with a "Let Love Sparkle" label I designed. We walked out to a shower of sparkles... so, so, so much fun.