Wedding Recap: Reception, Part 1

Very continently, our ceremony was in my parent's front yard and our reception was on their back lawn. They call it their mullet house (business in the front, party in the back). So after the ceremony everyone signed the wedding certificate and helped us move the chairs to the backyard (an easy way to save $100 or so--only rent one set of chairs).

P. and I ended up getting stuck at the fence between the front and back saying hi to people in an impromptu receiving line. I can't really say I particularly enjoyed that part of the night. Taking pictures with an endless stream of people wasn't that fun and we didn't really get any time to ourselves after the ceremony. While it did give us a chance to say hi to some people I didn't talk to again during the reception, in hind site I wish we had ducked into the reception and not waited out there.

(As an aside, I made that path by deconstructing a wood pile my dad was going to get rid of, placing the logs in a path, and then raking the middle. It was very easy, free, and a good way to get people where we wanted them.)

While we were out doing the meet & greet, people were out back having a good time drinking, eating appetizers, and playing with the photobooth.

At some point we made our way into the reception, and I went straight for the food...
My mom arranged the appetizers. She had been insisting she could do it herself, but I was happy to see that some friends stepped in to help set them up and keep them filled and let her enjoy the party too.

That happened with a lot of things at our reception... Since we hadn't hired many official vendors, friends and family were doing a lot of the work. It was nice to see other people step in to help them or relieve them so everyone could enjoy the party.

During appetizers and dinner we'd set up a play list on our iPod so our DJ/friend could hang out with us and eat. That turned out really well and I'd highly recommend the iPod as background music.

I have two younger sisters. While the middle one really wanted to be a bridesmaid (it was the first thing she said when I told her I was getting married), the younger one did not want any part of it. I was sort of sad to not have her around most of the day while we were taking pictures, so we spent some time together at the reception (and you'll see later that I made her dance for the first time in her life...she's a shy one).

While we were all playing in the backyard, the puppies where playing and getting love from our friends...

Hazel (our puppy) doesn't normally look so chubby, but she was getting fed people food left and right that weekend. By Monday morning her poor stomach looked like it was going to explode. She seemed perfectly happy though.

Up next...what we ate.