Weddingbee Blog

After dinner was served it was time for the toast. Oh, the toasts!

Mr. EB’s best man took charge of organizing the people who wanted to speak, and I highly recommend appointing someone to do this if you haven’t already.

It made it so that Mr. EB and I didn’t have to worry about making sure everyone who wanted to speak got a chance to, and we could instead just listen to the amazing things our incredibly wonderful family and friends said.

On the other hand though, we had a LOT of people speak—my two co-MOHs, Mr. EB’s sister (and groomswoman), his best man, each of his parents, both of my parents, and several aunts, uncles and cousins. While this was appreciated, it meant that the toasts lasted a lot longer than anyone was really expecting—to the point that we were nearly an hour off schedule by the time we made our way back into the Great Hall for dancing. This is a LONG time to listen to people speak, and while I was enjoying it, I do remember thinking in the back of my head that this meant we weren’t going to have as much time for dancing.

But their words were so special, and it really did mean a lot to both Mr. EB and me that they wanted to speak.

I should note that my family is from North Carolina, and when my mom broke into the North Carolina toast (”Here’s to the land of the long leaf pine”), my sister and I couldn’t help but stand up and toast along!

My mom also thanked all of the staff who had made it such an incredible weekend, including IslandWood’s wonderful chef, the house manager, and of course, our amazing coordinator.

The toasts finally ended when my cousins on my mom’s side came up to say a few final words (we’re spread out across the country, but we all spent at least two weeks at the North Carolina beach every summer so we still got to feel like we grew up together). It was the perfect end to the toasts and we managed to get a couple of great photos out of the craziness!

Finally, it was time to dance!

How much time are you allotting to toasts at your wedding? Do you plan on having a lot of people speak?

*Unless otherwise noted, all photos by the fabulously talented Persimmon Images.

Want to catch up?

• We rehearse!
• Our indoor forest was complete.
• The girls get pretty.
• The guys suit up.
• I get dressed.
• We had our first look!
• We enjoy the sun at the Tree House!
• We take photos with our people.
• It’s time!
• We make our entrance.
• We say I do.
• We take family pictures.
• We join our guests for cocktail hour.
• Dinner time!