For Jay and me, our reception was the ideal dance party. We started with the introduction, set to the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was the intro song for the Carolina Gamecock football.
Once we were all announced, Jay and I started the party with our first dance, “With This Ring” by the Platters. We left traditional ‘first dances’ in our dust as we danced the Carolina Shag.
We were then followed by speeches from our bridal party and my father. My dad has this tradition of saying a silly grace each holiday (For an example: “God is Great, though fate is Murky, let us thank Him for our Turkey). For our wedding, he made one up to go with the day (God is great, You’ve heard my homily, Let us thank him for our family).
From there we ate! Jay and I actually got a good amount of food on our wedding day (though I was still starving afterward!) I am so glad we were able to sit down and enjoy the meal. Our strategy was to have our attendant?? (one server was assigned to us all evening, we’ll call her an attendant) get us two plates with a little of everything while we started the rounds. We ate and then as our guests were finishing, we completed the rounds.
Now, Jay was not as much of a pro as me :) so while I made it to every table, he only saw half. He wasn’t very good about moving on and probably had more meaningful conversations than I did.
Then we moved on to the father/daughter and mother/son dance. My dad and I started dancing to the song “At Last” by Etta James; Jay and his mom joined us about 2 minutes in before we invited all father/daughter and mother/son pairs. It WAS Father’s Day after all.
Throughout the whole evening, our photographer, Dani, took great pictures of our guests. Above and below are just a few examples. The top left is a picture of all the guys who attended Jay’s bachelor party.
After dinner, we hit the dance floor. Below are six pictures that I think capture the party. We literally had hundreds of photos to choose from! We had such a great party!
As you can see, the dance floor was hopping. Our DJ, Frank, did a great job of keeping a lot of people on the dance floor. It was nice to see a wide variety of ages out there, too. While he definitely played favorites for both the young, old and everywhere in between, he also played a good mix of multi-generational tunes.
Despite the dance party dominating the evening, we did manage to also get in our cake cutting and bouquet toss. For the cake, we had always agreed to the smashing route. I am not sure who in the back ground yelled it, but after Jay’s fake black eye at our rehearsal lunch, I knew smashing cake into his eye was a must. In return, Jay daintily fed me my piece and then attacked me with a cakey-messy-kiss.
The bouquet toss was to “Wannabe” by The Spice Girls for my childhood friends (who else is guilty of making dance routines to Spice Girls music as a kid?). My friend Charlotte really wanted the bouquet. As I was getting ready to throw it I looked for her but didn’t see her. I figured “oh well” and started to throw. The pictures from the bouquet segment are hilarious as you can see Charlotte (in the bridesmaids dress) running in from the right side of the picture. Despite her best effort, Charlotte did not catch the bouquet. One of our other friends snatched it from above her!
And as quickly as the night began, it all came to an end. As we danced to “Sweet Caroline” (another Gamecock favorite), Jay pulled me inside a circle that formed and performed a dramatic dip and kiss. Later, he told me he saw Dani and purposely went in for the picture (BOYS!!). Despite how quickly the time flew by, the entire day was very memorable. Like many brides, I will cherish that day for the rest of my life.
Wait, wait, I’m not done yet. One more wedding post with all our details is coming your way next week.
*** photos courtesy of Dani Leigh Photography***
