Hello friends! I'm back with the 7th installment of our wedding recaps. Thanks to
Gray Photography, Mr. SE and I have more pictures than we know what to do with! Our last recap left off with the "post ceremony gap" that we created to make time for those lovely pictures, as well as shuttling our guests around downtown Nashville.
This first set of pictures are from our cocktail hour. War Memorial was a perfect venue for our reception, since there was a separate hour for the cocktail hour and reception. I loved the columns and how it felt very "DC". A lot of our paper goodies were made by Amanda of
Customized Stationary- referred by my lovely friend Tami. Amanda worked with our invitation, designed by
Jessica, and created items that complimented our aesthetic.
Our guest book was out in the courtyard, and instructed guests to write well wishes for Ryan and I. The concept of our wish tree was a combination of several ideas: the wish tree was something that I'd seen a lot on wedding blogs, and the prompts were from Martha Stewart Weddings. Sometimes it's hard to think what to write, so I wrote sayings such as "Once Upon A Time..." and let our guests fill in the rest. You can see my planning post about it
here.
The seating chart was a total labor of love, and I'm hopelessly obsessed with it. Right now it's residing in our bonus room, as a reminder of all our friends and family that were there to support us on this special day. We worked again with Amanda of
Customized Stationary to create this ginormous poster that mimicked the layout of the room. More on our table names when I do our details post!
We had a surprise planned for my dad during the cocktail hour. He loves steel drum music, so I contacted
Deep Grooves Steel Drum Band from Vanderbilt and had a two person steel drum band playing during the hour. It was a perfect touch for our cocktail hour, as we wanted the wedding to be formal but fun. I love how the guys wore tropical shirts- it was the perfect music for mingling!
Here's a shot of our cocktail hour setup. We had cafe tables scattered around the courtyard, with linens in either teal, royal, or navy satin. I loved the dynamic palette of jewel tones against the ecru courtyard marble. The simple arrangements by
Brocade Designs really made the tables. When the sun went down, Hillary lit the candles to create a gorgeous glowing atmosphere for guests who needed a breath of fresh air.
At the top of the hour, it was time for our reception introductions. We both agreed that entrances set the tone for receptions, so we wanted ours to be lively and fun. As a nod to his baseball days, Mr. SE worked with Josh Rose of
Cosmo Creations to have different intros for each group that was being introduced.
My parents with our flower girl
Mr. SE's mother and father
Ushers. Mr. SE had them enter to "Yeah" by Usher, funny.
And They Stay There!!
Nicole knows how to work a room
Down on the Chattahoochee
All smiles for my Matron of Honor and Groomsman Lance
Sister in law (new mom!) Shannon and Groomsman Adam break it down
Maid of Honor Dani and Best Man (Mr. SE's brother) get the party started
Making our first entrance as Mr. and Mrs.
Hoping those dance lessons paid off! First dance to Michael Buble's "Everything"
*a dream*
At the end of our first dance, Mr. SE gave me a big hug and kept holding me very tight. This trippy house music started playing, and the lights dimmed. Once I had a chance to wrap my head around what was happening the lights turned back up and my girl Miley (Party In The USA) started blasting. Mr. SE spun me around and I saw all of our wedding guests, friends and family, surrounding us on the dance floor! What a master of surprise-- he'd managed to inform everyone of this plan without me catching on!
Since Ryan and I love to dance, this was such a fun way to start our reception. Everyone had a blast and it really got the party started! Next post-- reception time!
Other Recaps
