The Absolutely 100% Perfect, Most Magical Weekend: Part Three

God bless you if you are still reading along. If you are still awake and interested, I'll continue with our receptions and other fun moments of the Big Day!!

Because we had such a large wedding, we decided the best option would be to have our reception downstairs in our church's Faith Activities Center. It was the perfect option for 400 of our closest friends and family! As I mentioned before, my bridesmaids and friends had decorated the room the day before and everything was in place! 

Table decorations- check.

Food, catered by my friend Amy- check.

 A billion cupcakes, 250 of which were made by Brian- check.

 Friends and family- check!

I've been at my church for a long time and I know I'm biased, but this was prettiest (and fullest!) it had ever been!

Once we entered the room and were introduced, things started to fly by!! It's amazing how many conversations one can have in a limited amount of time. It was soooo awesome to see so many people from high school, college, church in Roanoke, church in Alexandria, work all in one place. I met a ton of Brian's friends and family (although I wasn't always clear with whom I was talking!)! It was sooo much fun and a bit overwhelming! I wanted each conversation to last about 100 times longer than it did. Brian and I went in different directions to speak to as many people as possible. We knew we had too many people to talk to to have a receiving line or to just speak to together. So we divided and conquered and occasionally saw each other in the process! I can honestly say that talking to everyone, many friends I hadn't seen in years, was definitely a highlight of the weekend. I mean, I love the fact that I married my best friend, but getting to see all those people who have influenced my life and walked together with me in different stages was truly meaningful and invaluable. The only regret, like I said, is that it couldn't last longer.

We did the usual cutting the cake thing which Brian was good about not putting any icing on my face!!

And of course, as a Hokie and true Virginia Tech adorer, I had to figure out a way to do the Hokey Pokey. It's a tradition that most of my college friends have included in their festivities. However, since we were at a Baptist church, technically dancing at a wedding reception was not allowed. I decided to seize the opportunity of a bare stage and went with the whole "it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission thing" and asked all my Hokie friends (and those in the crowd under the age of 10) to join me on stage. The only real problem was that I kind of surprised Brian by the whole thing and bless his heart, he hadn't done the Hokey Pokey since he was about three and he was worried that he couldn't do it! Luckily, it's not hard and we had a great time!! It was so much fun!! And the good news is that I asked for forgiveness and they aren't kicking me out of the church! :) [side note: I am almost always a rules follower but in this case, it was literally just the Hokey Pokey and since they do this in the preschool, I felt like the rules could be bent for a second!]

After all the fun was over, Brian and I and a few groomsmen headed to the next place most brides and grooms go- FIVE GUYS!!! The other thing you need to know about my husband is that he LOVES cheeseburgers and thinks that Five Guys is the greatest place on earth. His original catering plan was to have them provide the food for our reception but that wasn't really a viable option so I wanted him to celebrate the happiest moment of his life with one of his favorite things! The funny thing was that not many people really stared at us. It seemed perfectly normal for a bride and groom to be still in their wedding attire and eating cheeseburgers! I made sure to not order ketchup on my burger so I wouldn't make a mess but honestly, I didn't eat that much at the reception or at Five Guys. I was just running on pure adrenaline!

Our last event of the evening was a second reception at the hotel where most of our friends and family were staying. We had invited everyone to this but had no real way of knowing how many would show up. We had about 200 there! It was fun to be able to spend more time with those who had come from so far to see us! We had costume changes so we I could be more comfortable while visiting with everyone. But we also had another round of food and of course cupcakes! :)

The party was over about midnight and we were soooo bummed that it was over!! We just had the greatest time with everyone!! We did get to see a lot of folks the next morning for brunch and then a few of us spent the afternoon at the Air and Space museum. Brian and I wanted to spend as much quality time with our friends and family as possible and it still didn't seem like it was enough time! Maybe we'll throw another big party to celebrate our anniversary so we can relive all the fun again!!!