Welcome back! Last week I posted the first half of my wedding update and it felt really good to get the pictures out of the vault and onto the world wide web! Now let's get to the second half of the wedding- the reception! It was super fun and definitely the most fun wedding I've never been to! And I'm not biased or anything, haha.

We did the typical bridal party entry, and I decided I wanted to do that things they used to do in the old days when the bridal party would stick their arms and bouquets up and the bride and groom would walk through it. We didn’t have a real “bridal party”. We had my parents (short), John’s mom and her escort (short), my sister (short), the officiant friend (short) and John’s sister and her boyfriend. So, they all basically stuck their arms up in the air sort of like a bridge and we walked under. Honestly, I was so happy that we got to do it (cue the fist pump of joy) that I didn’t even notice that they weren’t actually touching.

We moved into the dances afterward, and John and I swayed to Say You Won't Let Go. We don’t slow dance (ever) and I found it to be sweet but repetitive, so I asked him to twirl me. He asked if I was sure, then gave me a whirl, which was really fun!

I danced with my dad to Butterfly, Fly Away by Miley Cyrus and John danced with his mom to All To You by Scott Keo.

Then, we moved on to speeches from John’s brother, my sister, and my dad. I was always curious what my dad would say at my wedding, since he’s a funny and cheesy and crazy guy (see where I get it from?) and he didn’t disappoint. Then, once he finished his speech, my sister came back up and looked nervous. AND THAT’S WHEN I KNEW IT WAS HAPPENING.

You see, months and months before, I had stumbled upon this video and had half-jokingly sent it to my dad and sister on Facebook, saying that if they didn’t do a Disney parody at my wedding, I would never forgive them. Then I completely forgot about it because you know… wedding planning. So when they came up I knew what was happening. They sang several Disney parodies, including “I Owe” sung to Heigh-Ho from Snow White, all about how John needed to work overtime to pay for the wedding. They pulled out these construction hats and marched in place while they did it, which was hilarious. I hope my videographer captured the whole thing. I’ll post it on YouTube!

After that, everything was pretty typical. We ate, danced a bit, and cut the cake, then went outside to take some nighttime photos.

It was raining again at that point, so we got some really cool rainy backlit photos! John wasn’t impressed with the photos at first. I didn’t understand why, because they were GORGEOUS. And he goes, I don’t like that fake starry sky they added. Once I explained to him it was the rain, he loved them as much as I did.

My sister came out to look for us at that point, and told us that we only had about an hour left to the reception. I had decided early on that I wanted to be 100% present for my wedding, so aside from a couple of glasses of champagne, I didn’t drink until after the cake was cut. I figured at that point, all the “important” stuff would be done, and I could let loose and have fun a bit. We went back to the venue, and I gathered a few of my friends to help me get ready to party. One friend went to the bar to get me 2 of my favorite drinks. My sister and a coworker helped me use the bathroom in privacy, then we all dressed me up from head to toe in my party gear. I met John in the bridal suite, he got dressed, and we emerged.

Ok, no surprise that I like parties. But, one of my favorite things is light-up stuff at parties. I’m like a kid at heart. On one of our first dates, John took me to a bar with his friends, and a guy was selling some light up necklaces and he bought me one. I wore it until it broke. So, we decided that we wanted the last hour of our wedding to be 90’s music, full of fun dancing, light up party supplies, and laughter! John and I added some special gear to our outfits- a light-up bow tie and suspenders for him, a light-up flower crown and sneakers for me! No one knew about our plans for the glow-light “after party” so they were all really excited and got dressed up. It made for some really funny and psychedelic photos. Plus have you ever seen a bride wearing glow sneakers under her dress?! Probably not!

Everyone loooooved the light up stuff! They all got decked out in necklaces, rings, sunglasses and bracelets. The DJ took requests, so everyone was loving the music! Seriously, the dance floor was so full and it seemed like everyone got up at some point to dance! It made for some amazing and pretty trippy photos.

We added in some Greek line dancing (of course) and watched as some of my parents’ closest friends knew all the moves despite not being Greek, and watched our friends struggle to keep up. Overall Greek dancing is fun either way, since you’re basically in a long, winding line and moving along while kicking.

The last hour lasted a little longer, since we had an extra hour with our DJ contracted and the venue was able to clean up the tables while we played and danced. Another reason why the Woodloch was amazing! So we ended up with probably an extra 30 minutes of fun. The day flew by, so I was happy to get any extra one to relax and enjoy myself.

Photography by Lora Reehling
Dress by Maggie Sottero Bridal
Makeup by Woodloch Lodge & Spa
Shoes by Badgley Mischka