Continued from Part 1!
In Between the Ceremony and the Reception
After the ceremony, the bridal party and both sides of the family lingered around the church to take pictures against the backdrop of the neighbourhood's old, majestic trees!
Having taken pictures with our immediate family members, the bridal party zoomed off to take more pictures in a field behind our city's baseball stadium that had an awesome view of the downtown skyline! It was SO much fun and our photographer,
Jasser, was freakin' amazing and ridiculously inventive with getting us to laugh and smile during this photo session!
Afterwards, we headed to the reception venue to kick off the evening's festivities and by that time, we were all ready to just whoop it up and celebrate!!!
Tip for the Brides-to-Be: BRING SNACKS! Luckily, this is exactly what we did! By the time we were halfway through our bridal party photo session, we were all hankering for some serious
grub and we were SO happy being able to dig into the mini-cooler full of snacks and drinks that we had brought to help tie our tummies over until dinnertime at the reception!
The Reception
When we arrived at the Art Gallery of Alberta, I finally saw my vision come to life and that was definitely a "WOW" moment for me! Our DOCs did a FANTASTIC job of pulling everything together exactly as I
had planned and it was amazing to see the 20 months' worth of planning finally come together! As much as I loved seeing how all the decors helped to create a beautiful setting, seeing all our guests come together under one roof to celebrate
our marriage, chit-chatting and laughing amongst themselves was even more magical!!
The playlist we had created was definitely groove-worthy, all of the meals and the wedding cake/cupcakes were super-yummy, and the service from the Art Gallery's staff was exceptional!! The speeches given by DH's best man, my MOH, our
parents and to eachother were incredibly moving, heartfelt and absolute tear-jerkers. I can honestly say that it was so humbling to hear how loved we were as individuals and as a couple - yet another magical moment of the day for the both of
us!
After dinner, two of my nephews each serenaded us with beautiful Jason Mraz songs, complete with guitar accompaniment. It was beyond beautiful and even now, as I sit here recalling that moment, I can't help but get a little choked
up. They did an amazing job and the both of them had us in tears by the end of their songs.
Our first dance was heaven. It's funny, in the weeks leading up to the wedding, DH and I would get so emotional and teary-eyed just listening to our first dance song, but there were zero tears during our first dance together - just two
equally large and silly grins plastered on our faces! But when it came to DH's dance with his Mum and my dance with my Papa, that's a whole different story! TEARS GALORE!!! Thank goodness for waterproof mascara!!!! LOL!!
The rest of the night was spent tearing up the dancefloor to some wicked rocksteady, dancehall, funk, hip-hop, reggae tunes, along with our favourite songs from the 80's and 90's. Um, hello Pat Benetar - I STILL LOVE YOU!! LOL
There was tonnes of hugging and kissing of guests and the best cigars were lit just outside the entrance of the Art Gallery! We managed to find enough time in between all the frenzied celebratory moments to personally thank all of our guests
and it felt SO good to hear all the compliments about the food, the decor, how beautiful/dapper we all looked and how memorable the whole day was for them! It was the BEST feeling ever to know that our guests had as good of a time as we
did!!
Luckily, we only had 3 no-shows!! 1 of which is excused, but the other two...well, I could continue on with how I'd love to repeatedly jab them in the forehead with a fork, BUT there's no point in disrupting the positive vibes of this
recap, right? ;)
I wish I could express how ridiculously AWESOME our wedding day, but I can't. There are not words to describe it - only feelings of immense love, gratitude and contentment, which in and of itself is more than enough to convey how beautiful
that day was for the both of us.
Tip for Brides-to-Be: DON'T SWEAT THE DETAILS! In fact, I didn't even care that our DOCs had to make tiny, last-minute revisions to our decor! Focus on the beauty of the atmosphere in
your venue, all the smiling faces because it's true - none of the guests know what's missing or had to be changed, so focus on the LOVE, not the misplaced candelabra! ;)
