Monday, September 27, 2010

The cocktail hour (and we're home from our honeymoon!)

Hi all! We're back from paradise! I'm dying to tell you all about it, but I don't want to jump the gun here. Let's get back to where we left off shall we? 

Once that whole "getting married" thing was done with, we had a cocktail hour with a jazz trio. I'd love to say that it was amazing and the music was wonderful, but I have no idea. This is likely the biggest regret of the day for me. Dan was so excited about the jazz trio, but because we had fallen behind in the photo area earlier, we had to use the cocktail hour to make up for it. We did the photos pretty quickly, but every time you try to move along, someone stops you to congratulate you, you speak for a few minutes, etc and before you know it, it's time for the receiving line! I insisted on going downstairs for just a few minutes to say hi and thank you to our musicians, check out what was left of the cheese buffet, and have a precious few moments with my stepson before getting ushered back upstairs to keep the evening moving. 

 A lovely surprise sign from the Alton Mill!
 
The bread for the cheese buffet on a lovely cut wood platter.

Cheese buffet. There were also passed apps, but I haven't seen any 
photos of them since I assume people were inhaling them rather than
taking photos of them. I don't blame them, they were delicious!


My husband loves cheese. He is also lactose intolerant. My solution.

 Showing my stepson into my secret room! He didn't fall for it.

The cocktail reception area outside in the Waterfall Courtyard.

The guests making their way down over the waterfall. 

The musicians Dan and I unfortunately missed. 

I'm thrilled I finally got downstairs to say hi!

One of my favourite pictures of the day: Taking a few minutes with my 
stepson to tell him what a great job he did as ringbearer. 

Then we were on our way to the receiving line. Here's tip #2 of today. Be clear to the people involved in the receiving line to keep things short and simple. This is not the time for 10 minute conversations (*ahem* parents). Since our parents were in a chatty mood, I think we had the world's longest receiving line. I felt bad for our guests. Dan and I started waving people through since it was taking so long and jeez, we were all hungry! Thankfully our guests were good humoured and thought the whole thing was quite funny and we got people through and seated even if they didn't say hi to the parents and just came straight to us. 

 "Hey! Parents! Stop yakking and keep the line moving! My feet are 
killing me and we have to feed these people! Love you!"

A VIP skips the line to say goodnight.

Next up, moving into the tent for the reception!

3 comments:

  1. What a beautiful wedding! That cheese buffet looks incredible too!

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  2. This all looks uh-may-zing!!! The more I look at your dress the more I love it too. In hindsight I wish I went with a dress that was more like yours.

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  3. Thanks ladies!

    Dancy - Maybe a note to make you feel better: Had I not lost a few extra pounds from stress in the couple days before the wedding, I wouldn't have been able to pee in my dress without taking the whole thing off!!! Thankfully I lost an inch or two in my hips and I was able to slide it up, but at my last fitting that was an impossible task. Also, the giant wrap around elastic to keep it all in place was relatively uncomfortable, although really I didn't notice until I had eaten about 2/3 of my dinner and wanted more but physically couldn't fit more in my dress! LOL! It was a beautiful dress and I LOVE it don't get me wrong, but I think on the scale of practicality and comfort, it rates a 6 out of 10. Looks-wise it gets a 10 from me ;)

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