Weddingbee Blog

“Make sure you eat at your reception!”

Before our wedding, this was the one thing that we heard from so many of our friends that were already married. Thus, we were bound and determined to try some of the amazing food that we had selected for our reception. Us, not eat? Ha! You haven’t seen the damage I can do to a bowl of pasta. Or a quesadilla. Or mashed potatoes. Or really…any combination of cheese and carbs.

Once they opened, Mr. FF and I took the lead and visited our three food stations. For some reason, I remember exactly what I picked out: a mashed potato martini, some pasta, and a chicken quesadilla (uhm, see above comment re: cheese + carbs).

Mashed. Potato. Martini. NOM.

When we got back to our table…we looked at our plates, and then at each other, and confessed that we just weren’t hungry! I think the excitement of the day had taken its toll on our appetites. We ate a little bit, but picked at our food for the most part. Luckily, our coordinator thought ahead and sent some of everything up to our room so we could eat after the reception ended. Super thoughtful, and much appreciated—so, future brides, take note!

Us, making a valiant effort to eat our dinners like we were instructed!

Since we didn’t eat much, we took the opportunity at dinner to go around and visit our guest tables. I’m really glad we did it this way—we didn’t have a receiving line or a cocktail hour to talk to people, and going from table to table worked really well. I think, in my bride-addled brain, that the question I asked people most after thanking them for coming was “did you get enough to eat?” I definitely showed my German “food=love” roots.

Everyone remarked that they were having a great time, definitely got enough to eat, and that they *loved* the candy centerpieces! I saw several people walking around and mingling with other tables, while filling up their goody bags. Success! People were having fun, and mingling!

Shortly after dinner and before our first dance, we showed our wedding slideshow. In the weeks before the wedding, we collected pictures and I worked like crazy to get them all uploaded into our slideshow program (we used iPhoto) and organized - we settled on alternating a picture of Mr. FF with a picture of yours truly, and then adding pictures of both of us together at the end. It was more work than I expected, but it paid off in the end; our slideshow turned out great, and I think our guests really enjoyed it (judging by their cheers and laughs!).

Here it is, in case you’re interested in seeing it - although, fair warning: there’s a lot of awkward middle/high school pictures of us both!

Our Wedding Slideshow from mrsfrenchfries on Vimeo.

After the slideshow, I remember having a quiet moment while we were sitting at our table. I looked at my new husband, at all of our guests having a great time, and at all of the decor and details that I had worked so hard on…and I had a “wow, we really did it!” moment. I can’t exactly describe it, but that moment made up for the trials and tribulations that we had encountered during planning. We were married (!!!) and everyone was having a great time—and it was about to get even better…because my favorite part of our reception was about to start. Dancing!

Miss a Chapter?

First, we drove all of our stuff to our venue.
Then, I freaked about the weather forecast.
Next, we rehearsed.
We had a yummy rehearsal dinner!
The girls got glam.
We both got dressed and ready to rock and roll.
Mr. FF watched me walk down the aisle.
We got married!!!
We beat the storm for our bridal party pictures.
We grabbed umbrellas and got lovey-dovey.
I kept it real.
We got a peek at our reception, and made our entrance Miyagi-style.
We ate cake!
We toasted, and hugging was involved.

(Unless otherwise noted, all photos in this post are courtesy of Molly from MThree Studio.)