See all the great grape vine around the poles, and the magnolias tucked in the tent corners? My mom did that, too! See my classy flip flops?? I didn't even wait until after the formalties to shed my shoes...blame it on the rain.
...they love their football more. Knowing this, we had a little fun with our crowd.
At the start of the reception, the DJ introduced our parents, our wedding party and just as the guests caught sight of us the DJ said, "Ladies and gentleman, the announcement you've all been waiting for..." Instead of announcing our arrival, he read off the college football scores from the games of my and Mr Dub's alma maters - both very big football schools. Everyone loved it! Then we walked in to the tent as to the band playing my school's fight song and saw these happy faces everywhere!
After our first dance, we cut this cake...
and listened to toasts from my MOHs and Mr. W's Best Man.
I am such a cryer!
Then....dinner was served! 
Some people may tell you that I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to setting up for a big event or a party. They will not be lying. However, I surprised even myself when after checking off on the placement of a few things Friday, I easily left all the details in the hands of the designers at Marriott Ranch (and my fabulous friend Josh!) who took my rustic elegance vision and exectuted it just as I wanted!
I wanted tone-on-tone neutral colors, mixed textures (yep, that's burlap on the buffet table)....
varying heights throughout the tent, lots and lots of candlelight....
tons of white pumpkins since it was Fall...
and creative ways to display the food...like on an old window, for example.
Because if I had used just plain silver platters, no one would have felt moved to dance like this:
To the left is my sassy grandmother. She is 80 going on 18.
Hours later, after all that dancing left guests hungry again, and a noise ordanince made us shut down the party in the tent, we moved back inside to the Manor House,where we were met with with a round of these greasy delights....
If you're Southern, you know what a Krystal burger is, and you know good it tastes after a night of....um, dancing!
...and this masterpiece of a Groom's Cake was cut!
And so began The After Party.....
There's not much to say about TAP. It went on for hours. It was entirely unscripted. It was the most fun I have ever had with my family and friends.
My Stepdad best described it like this: People started dancing like their parents weren't around! (Only...there were still plenty of parents in the house)
This picture of beer cans (since the after party went on way into the AM, the caterers took away all the glasses but mine) and my lonely champange glass both cracks me up and shames me. But this picture...where I see so many of the people Mr W and I love the most in the whole world reminds me of what a spectacular day we had.....
When the bus came back for the last of the guests, we went upstairs to a room my friends had filled with food and flowers and candles. We woke up and rehashed the night with our wedding party over the most yummy breakfast, and when we left the Ranch in route to our Honeymoon, I cried happy tears the entire way.
I, I Do Declare, promise to love, honor and cherish my readers by not bringing up my wedding again for a VERY long time.
2 comments:
Love the burlap table covering and the window idea but best of all I love that you shared the TAP- The essential part of any really , fun wedding - you know the people that stick around for that are your true friends :)
Your table for the reception dinner is *Gorgeous* !! Thanks for the inspirations!
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