Weddingbee Blog

The sun had long set.

We’d dined, danced, and enjoyed the evening, but it was over much too quickly.

At least for us it was.

Our guests, however, got to continue drinking and partying for another half hour. See, we didn’t actually do a send off. As much as I love the photos of guests waving flags, ribbon wands, or sparklers as the couple departs their wedding reception, we had a plan, and needed to stick to it.

Because we were having an after party in our hotel suite right after the reception, we needed to get a head start on our guests. So we snuck out of our reception a half hour before the charter bus was coming for everyone. We wanted the party to continue for everyone else, while we had time to change, get ice and set up everything for the after party.

But that didn’t mean we couldn’t still get a few cute departing photos!

Our DOC slyly gathered my bag, shoes and all the stuff we needed to take with us, and inconspicuously ushered us out the back of our venue and around to the front.

We hopped into the limo, the driver opened up the sunroof for us, and we were off!

It was about a half hour ride back to our hotel from our venue, and I must say, it was an amazing part of the night for both of us (I know, I know, I’ve said that about almost every part of our wedding!). We just cuddled in the back of the limo, and quietly recapped our wedding the whole way back to the hotel. Going over all the love we felt that night, how fun it was to see everyone, the highs (so many!) and the lows (so few), we just talked and reminisced, and it was wonderful. The drive felt like it was only a few minutes long, and we soaked up all the emotions from the day and just held on to them. It was a perfect end to our reception.

But that wasn’t the end of our night. We still had an after party to get ready for!

What are your plans for departing your wedding reception?

Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:

• I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress
• We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors
• Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves
• Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties
• A day of DIYing flower arrangements
• I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
• We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
• We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
• I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
• Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees
• What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
• My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
• I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
• The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
• Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
• We got to see each other for the first time on our wedding day at our first look
• We took some time for bride and groom pictures in the park
• I gave you a behind the scenes look at our family, friends and DOC setting up our venue
• Arriving at our venue and getting ready for the ceremony to start
• Everyone walked down the aisle
• Excerpts from our ceremony, and reading the vows we wrote for each other
• I interrupted our officiant, we exchanged rings, and with a kiss we were officially married!
• Wedding party and family portraits, and my thoughts on missing pictures
• Our guests enjoyed cocktail hour while we took a few more photos
• Everyone ate a delicious dinner, and our siblings gave beautiful toasts
• We didn’t practice, but we had a very special and wonderful first dance as husband and wife
• I showed you some disposable camera pictures, which were totally worth it to include on our tables!
• I found a target and tossed my bouquet at her
• Mr. Cola finally managed to find my garter under my dress and tossed it
• We fed each other cupcakes, and our guests swarmed our 6ft tall cupcake tower
• We stole some private moments together that our photographers documented
• All our guests had some fun taking pictures in our DIY fauxtobooth
• We enjoyed the rest of the evening with our guests
• I showcased all the pretty details from our wedding, part 1 and part 2

(Unless otherwise noted, all photos in this post were taken by the very talented photographers of Shoot Me Now Photography)