Dinner Reception

As previously mentioned, we held a cake reception and a dinner reception after our wedding! We wanted to be able to have the traditional dinner/dancing reception, but didn't want to have to limit the guest list due to the higher cost of serving guests dinner! So we decided to do both! Everyone was invited to the cake reception, and family, wedding party, and anyone who helped with the wedding were all invited to the dinner. It was hard to decide who to invite to what, so that was what we came up with!

Our dinner reception was held at Old Natchez Country Club in Franklin, TN. Our coordinator, Debbie was fabulous! She made sure that every detail was put in place and carried through, from setting up our table designs, working with the chef on the perfect menu, shooing the kids away from places they shouldn't be, to making sure that Ray and I actually ate something!

(I love that you can see my chocolate fountain in this pic!)

We had a buffet dinner, which I never saw, since our plates were brought to us, and which I heard was wonderful but didn't really even taste it until we ate our goodie bag they sent with us later that night! The best stuff was the Coconut Chicken, with a mango sauce, and Marinated Flank Steak. Oh, that and the cupcakes and the chocolate fountain!

Of course, here is where the cupcakes I have so long raved about (here, here, here, and here!) made their debut! People are STILL talking about these babies!

 

                   

Here's my favorite pictures of our decor. I worked my butt off planning all of this, since I'd kept the church decor simple and left the cake reception up to my mom and Sherri! While I didn't actually put any of this out, I worked hard on buying, ordering, and designing it all! The lovely escort cards (which I was THRILLED with!) were done by my friend Susanna, with sand dollars I bought at one of my favorite beach shops in NC. (So yes, some things really were from the beach!)

During our official dances, we invited other couples, fathers and daughters, and mothers and sons to come join us about halfway through the respective songs. It's kinda awkward to just sit and stair at one pair of dancers.

Our first dance was to "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers. My all time favorite song!

 

Our Father Daughter Dance was "Cinderella" by Stephen Curtis Chapman. It had just come out when I got engaged, and my dad had to listen to it for months in order to make it through the actual dance! He cried when we "practiced" a couple months before!

I loved seeing the other fathers dance with their daughters!  Here's my brother, Rob, dancing with his girls, my brother-in-law Hector and Kaylee,  and then my Jr. Bridesmaids dancin with their daddy.

 

His Mother son dance was to Christina Aguilera's "Por Siempre Tu" (Her Spanish version of "I Turn to You."). He was super cute dancing with his mom, as was my brother Craig with our mom, and my sis-in-laws- Carla dancing with Nicholas and Lindsey dancing with Baby Grey!

After a few dances, it was dinner time!

Then a few impromptu speeches!

 

 

After all that, and an outdoor picture session (which I'll feature pictures from later!), it was time for some serious dancing! It was so crazy and fun, it merits its own post! Stay tuned!

(I'm currently playing with layouts, as I didn't love the sidebar placement on the last and trying to get my pics to show up normal! Sorry if you see a few changes!)