Taylor & Michael's wedding-The Reception

Today we come to the end of Taylor & Michael's wedding adventure aka: The Reception.

As I told you yesterday, the reception didn't actually start until 7pm. But there was going to be a ring ceremony at 6:30 for family & close friends. Which ended up being almost everyone who came. The place was packed.

And since I didn't have my camera, and I was busy helping them set up the cupcake/cake area, I didn't get any photos of the ring ceremony.

After the ring ceremony, there was a short slide presentation with photos of Taylor & Michael growing up over the years. It was so cute.

Here is the table for the presents. See that black & white gift bag in the back? That was my present to the bride & groom. It even matched their decorations. Aren't I so smart?

I didn't get my present until 9:30pm the night before the wedding. I went to Target & printed out their wish list. But most everything had already been purchased & I didn't see anything else I wanted to get them. So I decided to just get a gift card for them. Now Mike hates, and I mean HATES giving gift cards. So as we were walking to the check stand to get a gift card we walked by a display of waffle makers. Mike was so excited. He wanted to know if Taylor & Michael had a waffle maker on their wish list. I looked & said "No".

Mike then said, "Everyone needs a waffle maker. How could they not have one on their list?". I didn't know the answer to that. I thought, maybe young kids think waffles are "Eggo or frozen" waffles. Mike said, "Let's get them a waffle maker". I agreed. So we got the waffle maker and some pancake/waffle mix and some maple syrup. Plus I did also get them a gift card.

We were over joyed when we found out that Taylor & Michael loved our gift. In fact, they took the waffle maker with them on their honeymoon. And I hear they make waffles almost every morning for breakfast.

Enough about my present, let's get back to the reception.

For drinks, they had these 2 containers full of what I think was a mixture of strawberries and lemon lime soda. But I could be way off. The bad part was that the drink disappeared way to quickly. So they had to keep filling them up with water.

Note to people who are going to have a wedding reception, have plenty of fluids to drink. Dancing can make you quite thirsty.

Tessa (one of Taylor's girlfriends who was a bridesmaid), Danica and Cade sitting at the bridal party table.

The only food at the reception was going to be desserts, cupcakes & candy bar. Here is the dessert table. A couple of the women who Jeannette works with at the hospital made all the desserts as a wedding gift to the couple. My favorite dessert was the mini cheesecakes.

Here is the candy bar area. Take special note of the tower of chocolate covered strawberries.

What happens when you get this many boys (and one girl) around a table covered in candy and goodies? (Did you notice that they are all related?) And in case you were wondering who all these hoodlums are: Noah, Brandon, Simon, Nate, Jodi, Cade. Jodi was the ring leader (of course).

The tower of strawberries comes crashing down.

It seems that one of the legs from the tower of strawberries was sitting on top of the crack between 2 tables. Once the table got bumped, the crack opened up & the leg fell in, and the tower she came a tumbling down. Chocolate covered strawberries went everywhere.

It was kind of funny at the time. But the girl in charge of the candy bar didn't think so. But most of the strawberries were salvageable. The display just didn't look quite as nice as it had.

Something always must go wrong at a wedding.

Later on, Danica found that someone had placed a napkin on top of one of the candles on the candy bar, it caught fire. But luckily she found it & blew out the fire before everything went up in flames.

So the candy bar was the happening place that night.

Here is Simon eating one some rock candy.

Noah is pretending to be smoking some rock candy. Why Noah???

You would think that since I blog, I would take more photos. But I didn't. I did manage to get a couple of photos of the centerpiece. And I managed to get a few people in the background as well. Here is Jesse looking bored. I missed getting a photo of his girlfriend. Jeannette & Eric didn't even notice that either of them were there that night. Probably since we were a little late, we had to sit in the back of the room.

Here is Jodi trying to horn in on my shot of the centerpiece. I never did get any photos of Mom, Dad, Mike, Me, Todd, Andrea, Jamey, Eric, Jeannette. You know, a big chunk of my family.

My excuse is that I was busy having a good time dancing.

Here is Julianna dancing with Jase. Is it weird to be slow dancing with your cousin? Just call us Hillbilly's. Did you notice they are not looking at one another? I guess that takes the weirdness out of it.

Cade dancing with his girlfriend Tara. At least she was his girlfriend at the wedding reception. I think they have since broken up.

Mari dancing with Brett. This one is OK as Brett is Jeannette's nephew from her side of the family. Mari is Eric's niece from his side of the family. So no relation. Not that it wouldn't be OK if they were related. Heck, I danced all night with my nieces and nephews. I just didn't slow dance with them.

Dancing was the best part of the night. And dancing with the kids made it a blast. I have never had so much fun dancing at a wedding reception before. Don't worry, I did dance with my hubby Mike a few times. We even slow danced. But shhhh, don't tell anyone.

Here is the cupcake area. The cupcakes were for everyone to eat all evening long. The cake was small as it was just for Taylor & Michael to have something to cut for photos.

Did you notice all my pretty glass cake plates and pedestals? Originally Jeannette had bought a cupcake stand online. But when it came we found out it was some cheesy cardboard. And it wasn't even stable. So we scrapped that & I said I had lots of cake plates and pedestals that we could use. Looks much better than cardboard. Don't you agree?

Even the black & white damask table runner was mine. I just got it in Utah at Hobby Lobby a week or so before. It went perfectly with the theme.


And here is the cake. A girl in Eric & Jeannette's ward made the cake. Didn't she do a beautiful job?

And finally we have the happy couple cutting the cake. I never did get any photos of them eating it. I think they were civilized & did not smash it in one an other's face.

This was the last photo I took that night. I was borrowing Mom's camera as I had left mine at home. Mom, Dad & Jodi left right after the cutting of the cake. So I was unable to take any photos of the throwing of the bouquet or garter. Some friend of Taylor's caught the bouquet, and Cade caught the garter.

When it was time for Taylor & Michael to leave, everyone lined up & put their arms up and clasped hands with the person across from them. This made a tunnel that Taylor & Michael had to cross under to get out the door.

Once they reached the end & were going out the door, Mike blew the Vuvuzela aka: loud horn in celebration. If you don't know what a Vuvuzela is, it's that loud obnoxious horn that was so popular at the World cup. Yes, we have one of those obnoxious horns (at least Brandon does).

The happy couple was off to start their honeymoon.

The rest of us, stayed to clean up the room. Jeannette announced that anyone who wanted the vases of flowers used for centerpieces could have them. Before I could grab one off a table, they were all gone.

Same thing happened when she mentioned taking all the candy. It was gone in a flash. Before you could blink you eye. And I got nothing. NOTHING!!!

I guess when you get as old as me, we don't move fast enough. Oh well, I didn't need any dang candy. Or flowers.

All in all, it was a fabulously fun time. And Taylor and Michael are sooooo happy. Isn't that what matters the most?

Congrats to Taylor & Michael. May your love for one another continue to grow and blossom. And welcome to the family Michael. I think you will fit right in.

Now when do I get my dance lesson?