It's hard to believe how fast time flies. It's already been one month since our wedding anniversary! Today we celebrate another wedding milestone: the one year anniversary of our Maine Reception!
Since we had a destination wedding, not all of our friends and family members were able to make the trip down to Florida. Eliot and I had planned on having receptions in our home states so that we could celebrate with everyone.
We had our reception in Maine exactly one month after our wedding. We had access to the Disney Wedding ceremony footage since it was still on the online website. We decided that we would play the wedding video and then have an informal reception. I'd always loved Maine in the fall with the pretty changing leaves, so we decided to use that as our theme.
It was pretty crazy to plan the entire thing right after our Disney Wedding. The paper for the invitations didn't arrive in time to make them and send them out. We were scrambling to get everything together. But my Mom, Nana and Aunt Sherrie are all amazing, and between the four of us, we pulled it all together.
We rented a hall at the campground across the street from the road I grew up on. So the "venue" was literally 5 minutes away from my house. It was a newer building with tall ceilings and a projector already set up. It was perfect. And since it was the campgrounds "off season," the price was incredibly inexpensive. Perfect! They even let us come to decorate the night before!
We got a bunch of pumpkins and flowers from one of my Dad's clients. Eliot and I met my parents at iParty a few days before and we bought tablecloths, plates, napkins, plastic silverware and other decorations. I had found some fabrics from JoAnn Fabrics to use. We hung up a photo backdrop in one of the back windows. I also had a bunch of Build-A-Bears that we'd bought a few years prior that were fall themed. We dressed them up as a bride and groom (with a tiara), and the other set as Cinderella and Prince Charming (complete with glass slippers).
I took screenshots of some of our wedding photos since we hadn't gotten the final archival CD but we had the website access to view them. We printed the screenshots so they weren't the best quality, but they were enough for everyone to experience our magical wedding day.
(My Mom actually liked the poster frame displays that I made so much that they are still sitting in the entrance to my Dad's office where all of his clients can admire them!)
I decided to make some treats as part of our favors. I made chocolate dipped pretzel sticks and chocolate covered Oreos. Eliot also had some soaps that he'd made special that were leaf shaped and we added a few of our extra Mickey Mouse soaps from our wedding.
Finally, around 2:30 in the morning, everything was done and it was time to go to sleep so we could get ready for the reception!
We got up early Saturday morning and I attempted to make the cake... that's another story. The cake itself turned out fine... the decorating of it, not so much. Let's just say that my bridesmaids came to the rescue once again and helped frost it for me before I destroyed it in my rush to get it done.
We eventually made our way to the hall where we finished the last of the decorating. We set up the poster frames with the pictures and put the guest book out. We added the leaves that we had people sign and set up the display of some of our wedding invitations, place holders, table signs, celebration buttons and other things that we'd had in Florida. I also grabbed my Cinderella ear hat to use as a decoration on our guest book table.
All of us girls got ready in the bathroom right at the hall. Katie, Katie and Kaitlin were all there to help me get into my dress. After getting ready, we were "announced" by my cousin who I'd asked to be our unofficial DJ. At that point, we had no where to escape to get outside of the hall so we were announced coming out of the bathroom. (At least everyone got a good laugh, including me.)
We watched our wedding video while everyone ate and then had our toasts. Katie gave another wonderful speech. Since BJ and Jeremy were our only groomsmen able to attend, we had asked BJ to be our East Coast best man and to do a toast at our Maine reception. He did a great job and I'm glad that he was able to talk about his and Eliot's friendship and how we all became the fab five.
We played the same songs that we had for our first dance, father/daughter dance and mother/son (in-law) dances at our wedding reception and we re-created those memories. I had really wanted to make sure that we did this so that my grandmother who wasn't able to attend our wedding in Florida could still see me dancing with Eliot and my Dad.
In between the activities, we got some good pictures of the wedding party members who were there.
Our ring bearer Emery was very excited to show me the pictures and the scarecrows that were about the same size as him! He was too cute running all around.
Finally, we made sure to get plenty of family photos. I really wanted to get some with my Grammie and with the rest of my family. We got a great photo with all of us.
And then we took some with my grandparents.
We also got one with my Mom and both of my grandmothers.
And Katie and BJ recreated their signature "Beauty and the Geek" pose from one of our college dances. Eliot and BJ had to get a photo together and BJ and Katie had a husband wife photo op.
Of course, I needed a photo with my maid of honor!
Finally, after visiting with everyone, the party wound down and we started to take everything down and shuttled it back to the house. Somehow, I ended up by myself for a few minutes and had a great time attempting to get myself out of my wedding gown. (Someone came to my rescue finally.)
All in all, it was a great day. Eliot and I were really glad that we could share our wedding fun with some of our friends and family who weren't able to attend our wedding. But we still had plenty of Disney magic sprinkled throughout to make it a magical celebration! °o°