Reception Fun!

We are having an "official" reception in a few months, but we wanted to have a nice, low-key reception to celebrate with our friends and family after the wedding. So here is a a peek into that!

Our hotel was a series of little buildings in U-shapes around little courtyard areas. So we had our reception in the courtyard outside the area where most of us were staying. (We figured that was least invasive to other guests.) We just kept it simple - subs and chips and cake. (And water and coffee.) No one seemed to mind the menu and everyone seemed to enjoy sitting around resting and talking!

It was nearly dark by the time Ryan and I finished up our little photo shoot so pictures were going to be a bit tough. Our videographer hung around for a bit to take some footage, so he turned on the light to his camera and allowed people to use that for camera light if they wanted. SO nice!

So we started our reception by cutting our cake. We actually brought this cake from Indiana. It survived the car ride (INCLUDING the 2 hour and 45 minute traffic jam in the middle of the heat of the day!) - with only one little mess up in the icing! My friend Sarah Rife made all our cakes for us and this one (by our choosing) was called "wired." Chocolate and espresso. :)

 The cake had been in the fridge and was really hard to cut! LOL!!! Woopsie! Trivia...our knife and server belonged to my sister, Lori and brother-in-law, Jeff. They used them at their wedding and then Lori loaned them to our other sister, Julie, for her wedding to Tom. Despite the fact that Lori doesn't have most of her original earthly possessions anymore after the tornado...she still had these! I asked her if I could borrow them and she said yes! I loved that!

 We were nice to each other. (We have to wear these outfits again at our reception later...)

 And we REALLY didn't want to stop eating cake!

 Cakey kiss!

 This is how I smile when I'm afraid I have cake in my teeth. :)

 Since we are SUCH coffee fans, and since coffee is our thing - we drink it together every night and did from the get-go of our dating time - we decided to toast with coffee at our wedding. We had these personalized mugs made from Lauren Bausch's Etsy Shop and LOVED them.

 I've been waiting and waiting to show you this one. This was the very first thing we bought for our wedding, even before we were engaged! Ryan wanted to show me how serious he was about a forever life with me, so we went out and did a photo shoot so we could have this made. (I'd seen this on some Facebook pictures of someone I know.) This is our acrylic cake topper! And it's US.

See? This is the picture it came from:

Isn't that SO COOL?? I've never found a cake topper I liked completely, so when I saw a similar one on Facebook, I searched until I found a shop that made them and we ordered it right away. We loved it so much and are excited to use it again at our bigger reception - and then use it somehow in our home! We also used the picture of the silhouette topper on the front of our program. It looked so great!

Back to the reception...Lynnette toasted to us...and made me cry!! She did such a great job. We've been friends since we were kids, so we've walked a long road together.

 More coffee!!! (Love that the bears are in this picture too)

 Adam also toasted to us - said some really wonderful (and true!) things about Ryan and the friendship they have.

 LOVE this picture - and so thankful for Ryan's friends and how they push him closer to the Lord!

 Sharing a few thoughts with our guests...

 And a little prayer. Good thing we weren't peeking!!!

 Our Trinity candles...the stones we placed in the beginning of our family altar...our rings...the bears...all these things made great decor too!!

We had a great time just hanging out with our friends, getting to talk to them for a bit, and LOVING the chance to enjoy these last moments of the day together.

Ryan's mom also so graciously took some last photos of us. Here we are in the gazebo where we first saw each other earlier in the day... 

 Hmmmm - this looks familiar!! :)

 Walking back toward the beach where we were married.

 Goodnight from the Shaffers!! :)

 Okay REALLY goodbye!! :)

Hope you loved "attending" our wedding!!!!