part IV: {reception}

our ring ceremony was at 5:30 on Saturday, with our reception following at 7:00 at this wonderful renovated train station with big vintage doors and exposed red brick. we loved the place. we spent all morning  {and afternoon, really} fetching flowers, setting up the venue, and pretty much running around. it was busy, but we had a lot of fun doing it with everyone. so many people stayed up late on friday night setting up and then waking up early saturday to come help. it was awesome to see it all come together with everyone that pitched in.

 

we had a buffet dinner of good ole southern cuisine: M's choice {and my resounding approval}... pulled pork, roasted chicken, mac & cheese, corn on the cob, and mashed potatoes. and yes, we did eat, we made sure of it.

we had our cake cutting, first dance and dances with our dads/mom. i threw my bouquet {which hit one of those awesome hanging lights and exploded before my cousin Ashlyn caught it} and a customized KC Chiefs garter my sister/MOH made me. and we watched a wonderful video my amazing father made that pulled everyone together. and then we danced the night away {thanks to our amazing friend/DJ Lara Hubbard who manned the ipod playlist and was an expert at that sound equipment, couldn't have done it without you!}

I remember dancing our last slow dance {At Last - Etta James} and M leaning in close and daring me to list one  thing that I didn't like about that night {knowing the perfectionist I am}. and I remember saying "that it won't last longer". its true, we were tired, we were getting burnt out. our feet hurt, and we probably really smelled. but we could have stayed there all night laughing and dancing and celebrating with everyone. it was truly a perfect night.

{fun fact: after the ring ceremony everyone peaced out on the trolleys back to the where the reception took place while M and I took pics on the beach. on the way back we saw a McDonalds - and we zipped through the drive thru for a large DC and a large DDP. Only M's family knows that because we stopped back at the hotel to tidy up {it was real windy at the beach and my hair was shot to heck} and they were walking down to the reception center when we pulled up. I remember his dad saying to M "so, you get married and take her to McDonalds, real classy" even though he already knew it was my idea :)}

part III: {ring ceremony}

 

many that are close to M and I were not able to attend our sealing inside the temple, and so we wanted to do something that would somehow include them in witnessing our union as husband and wife, so we opted to skip exchanging rings at the temple and wait until the next day. 

Now, disclaimer: this is something we had been planning to do for a long time though, because I knew it was something I would definitely do when I got married, and so when we started talking about how we would do it we quickly came to one conclusion, it was going to completely shout to the roof tops "THIS IS SO M AND J" and that is how our ring ceremony was born. 

We had it at the beach because thats one of our favorite spots on earth. We did it on the NC coast because thats where I have spent so many of my happy memories. We had M's dad conduct the ceremony and speak. We had our brother and sister as our MOH/BM. We said vows that we literally thought of on the spot. And we had M's other brother play piano for our intro/extro {yeah, not words.} It was so us, and I am so happy we did it, not only for those close family members and friends who had the opportunity to participate in our wedding in some way, but because we were able to express to eachother in another way our symbolic sense of our love that will last forever.

and hey, I got to wear my dress twice. not too shabby, eh?

part II: {sealing linner}

so before we ever got engaged both M and I knew that we didn't want our sealing and reception on the same day. for many reasons, we knew it. well when we decided to get sealed in the Raleigh, NC temple and then have the rest of our festivities on the coast {2 hours away} we knew we wanted to do something after our sealing to celebrate even before the rest of the celebration! I mean for goodness sakes we would be married!

so, we had a linner. {lunch + dinner - and yes thats exactly what I put on the invitations thankyouverymuch} and we had it at one of the most delicious italian places in raleigh I've eaten - ok maybe I was just real starved but for reals, it was the bomb dot com. Anyways we decided italian because {spoiler!} we had barbeque at the reception {and its my fave, duh}.

and oh, italian we did eat.

we had our own private room with a bunch of round tables set up - it was a perfect way to have all our family and friends in one room and let them get to know eachother - and catch up - some of them hadn't seen eachother for years! and it was a great way for M and I to mingle and really connect with everyone in the midst of all the wonderful wedding-ness.

side note: I didn't take any pictures. these are stolen from various people.

Some things I remember about the dinner:

• I was showing Mary Grigg my ring, and telling her about how M & I's wedding bands are identical and have the same engraving inside - and she told me a hilarious story about her 10th anniversary gift {which by the way, their anniversay was THAT day! now we have the same anniversary! shout out!}
• M & his cousin Robert sitting and chatting forever like little girls. There was a few times M would disappear and I knew I would find him next to Robert - {they hadn't seen eachother since before M's mission and used to be real close}
• hearing the laughter from the table in the corner {which housed the following: Ashley, Jessica, Rachael, Lara, Ryan and my brothers Billy and Michael. yeah, what a combination}
• Madeline sitting on my stepdad Gary's lap pointing at all the pictures in the Wilmington guidebook and saying "daddy!" "daddy!" "daddy!" at every picture she saw. yeah she wasn't too good at talking yet.
• and lets be honest here - THE FOOD. IT WAS SO GOOD.

The room was full of love and how grateful I am for those few hours that we got to spend with those people that just shared such an important event in our lives. I'm so glad we decided to do it, and a big thankyou to M's parents for making it happen :) best in-laws ever!

up next: part III: {ring ceremony}