Weddingbee Blog

I’m not sure what our pastor was expecting from our reception, but it is fair to say that he decided to roll with the punches once he saw that we were keeping it relaxing and casual. After our caterer arrived and set things up, Mr. Cannon gave a brief welcome and thank you to our guests and introduced the pastor, who came up to say grace. He gave a nice blessing to our marriage and our families, but he did a musical grace, in keeping with our not-so-serious reception. Although this was a total surprise, it was also meaningful for me because we did the exact same musical grace when I went to church camp when I was a kid. It’s to the tune of “Rock Around the Clock.”

“God is great, God is good, and we thank Him for our food! We’re gonna thank him in the morning, noon, and night! We’re gonna thank our Lord, cuz he’s outta sight! Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen.” My sister was totally weirded out that I knew the words to this song. I am totally weirded out that I remember them, since I went to church camp in fourth grade. But it was a pretty cool coincidence.

After grace, it was time to eat. We had a buffet set up with all the barbecue goodness from City BBQ that I mentioned in my planning post. It was awesome. Everything was delicious and we got TONS of compliments on the food. It’s hard to disappoint when you’re serving giant piles of meat and macaroni and cheese.

We wanted to get all the official wedding business out of the way as soon as possible, so as soon as people were wrapping up with dinner we started the toasts.

First, do not even get me started about those damn cupcakes on the corner of EVERY one of these toast pictures. I really wish someone had moved them.

My dad gave a LOOOONG toast that was basically my entire biography. It started with my parents going to the hospital when I was born, and continued on from there. It was sweet and thoughtful. My dad and I don’t have a “daddy’s little princess” type of relationship; it’s honestly more of a begrudging love. But it is a love, and I know half the time we butt heads it is because we are alike in many ways. He has made a lot of sacrifices in his life for the sake of our family, and while he’ll never be my best friend, he’s a great dad and one of my favorite people. It’s thanks to his high expectations of me that I’ve accomplished many of the things I’ve done in my life.

Well, before I start writing a toast for my dad here, I’ll digress and just say that his speech was meaningful for me because he’s not someone who goes around saying nice things about me every day, so it was extra special to hear him say them.

Next, my sister gave a cute speech that I would transcribe here, since she gave me a copy of it, but I can’t because I lost it. But she talked about when I first started dating Mr. Cannon and about how I went on and on about how great he was during the night of her high school graduation when she and I went to a party. I pointed out that I was pretty drunk at the time, which everyone found to be most hilarious. Probably because everyone knows how I can be after a few drinks…

Then she relayed a story about a conversation we’d had when she was thinking about whether she wanted to marry her boyfriend. *Spoiler alert* She did want to marry him and they got married last October. Anyway, she’d asked me how I knew I wanted to marry Mr. Cannon, and I had responded that no matter what happened, his goofy crooked smile always made everything better and made me fall in love with him all over again.

After my sister’s speech, the best man was up. The best man has been a good friend of Mr. Cannon’s since high school. They have had many adventures and traveled the country together throughout the years. He gave a humorous and touching toast alluding to different songs, most notably “Three Is a Magic Number” when he talked about how adding Ramona to our family had made us stronger. He also made sure that everyone knew all kind of ridiculous things Mr. Cannon has done over the years, and how happy he was we had found each other.

I don’t regret not hiring a videographer. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything by not having a wedding trailer. But I REALLY wish I had handed someone my video camera to record the toasts. I guess I’ll just have to keep my memories and these pictures.

Did you get a copy of your wedding speeches?

All Photos by Mary Wyar Photography