Throwback Thursday: Our Wedding Reception

Four years ago today was our wedding reception. It was a Saturday and we had more than a few inches of snow on the ground that scared this new bride to death. I feared no one would be able to come and Ryan and I would have to eat all fifteen gallons of ice cream on our own! Whew!

That would not have been good, considering I barely fit into that dress a second time as it was. I looked back over my reception posts this week, and I think this one is my favorite. It shows some of the reception photos that almost recreated wedding photos. Such fun! Of course, I also love this one, which pays tribute to our time in the prayer chapel prior to the reception. (And if you're just caught up in the days when I had dark hair, this post and this post show how we decorated, and this post gives a glimpse into the day.)

But today, in honor of the fourth anniversary of this sweet day in our lives, I thought I'd show some never-before-blogged photos of the reception fun! ENJOY!!!

Our good friends Tom and Olivia, who drove from New York to be part of our day. The best part was the text I got from Olivia a few weeks after the reception telling us she was sorry she neglected to RSVP for three, but #3 didn't eat much. EEEEEEEEE!!! What a great baby announcement!

Shawn and Ryan. Shawn was one of the first to arrive that day and that reflects his commitment to Ryan and to us. He is always first to help (moved most of our stuff from Marion last year BY HIMSELF), the first to visit (hello, gallbladder surgery) and the first in line to be the friend Ryan needs - always. Shawn, we love you!

An example of one of the things we loved most about the day: watching friends and family mix, mingle, talk, laugh, relax, hang out, and enjoy.

No grooms were bloodied in the pinning of the boutonniere. (I still can't spell that word right on the first try.)

If you heard this week's podcast, this is the picture we were talking about. Best. Family. Photo. Ever.

I love this one. This is my mom with Mrs. Thomas, who was my third grade teacher, and I dearly loved being in her class. After my third grade year, Mrs. Thomas moved to teaching first grade and Mom was her aide. Those two were a brilliant team and their kids loved them. This is a really good picture of both of them!

Listening for the ocean. Doesn't it just melt you?

Love. (Enough said.)

Dear Ronda. She walked the darkest part of my life right beside me and even flew all the way to Florida just to attend our wedding. This day was a bit colder, but she was there again, supporting and loving us!

I won't lie. I wouldn't hate another piece of this cake. Delicious.

Randy is my parents' neighbor, and not only is he one of the most hilarious people I've ever met in my life, he's one of the very best neighbors. He and his wife and their kids are probably better kids to my parents than I am sometimes. We are so grateful for them and how much they love Mom and Dad.

Love this picture of Ryan's mom and her sister, who we call Aunt Ruthie Woo Hoo. (If you have missed that story in the past, I didn't know about Aunt Ruthie when Ryan and I first started dating. I found a picture of Ryan that his mom had posted to Facebook after a week at the lake. It is a scrumptious photo of him - all six-packy and shirtless on the pier. While I was busy appreciating it, I noticed this person named Ruthie had left a "woo hoo" on the picture. I got right on the phone and texted to Ryan, "WHO IS RUTHIE AND WHY IS SHE WOO HOOING THIS PICTURE???" He cracked up so hard and was like, "Well that's my AUNT...." Whoopsie!! She loves that story, though, and has forevermore been my Aunt Ruthie Woo Hoo.)

Sara, from our wedding party, was so excited that Lynne came to the reception. When I told her Lynne would be there, she said, "LYNNE? LYNNE FORD? I GET TO MEET LYNNE FORD?" So of course I had to make sure they got a picture together!

Oh my word! What a difference four years makes! These two girls are no longer toothless and pig-tailed. They're all grown up! And their mom, my friend Faith, is like another sister to me. (And we have, in fact, been mistaken for sisters on many occasions.)

Guess who got caught talking during the movie? Whoopsie!!! (This is our amazing wedding party. Mark and Lynnette drove from Virginia for the wedding AND again for the reception. Adam and Sara lived here in Indiana back then, and made the trek to Florida to be with us before coming to the reception and my niece, Cassie, traveled from Kansas for both the wedding and reception!)

Our little bears were back! (If you're new here, we had an honorary bridesmaid and groomsman - in memory of my nephew, Kirk, and my former roommate, Angela.)

This is one of my FAVORITE pictures of the whole day. Angel was my co-worker in Financial Aid, and her dear husband (I never got to meet him before he died) was just amazing to her. He set the bar really high. So when she and I would have long talks about the single life, she would encourage me to never settle, because she knew the joy of a kind, hard-working, God-loving husband. But Angel also has this adorable sass about her, so after the loving admonitions, she'd get her finger wagging and her lips pursed and say to me, "GIRL, you better make sure that man has a J-O-B and a Dubbayah-TWO." (You have to say it just like that for it to be authentic Angel.) So when I saw she'd cornered Ryan at the reception, and he had this look on his face, and that finger was wagging, I could only IMAGINE that she was saying to him, "LISTEN buddy. You better make sure you keep your J-O-B and your Dubbayah-TWO, know what I'm sayin'? MMMMMMMM hmmm."

My dad with Randy (the neighbor) and Randy's wife, Tami (wanted you to see how cute she is!) and in the background -- WHAT is happening to my face???

That's all, folks! Hope you enjoyed the little throwback to four years ago!!


** All photo credit to my mother-in-law, Nita Echelbarger, and my friends Rachel Ashley and Greg Spangler. The trio documented the day for me and I am profoundly grateful. **

Reception Fun

I thought I would wrap up the wedding coverage for you today...by giving you a peek inside the reception!

Before I do, though, I wanted to tell you that Ryan's grandpa will be having surgery today because of a brain bleed. Brain surgery is a pretty big deal, and we'd love you prayer warriors to join us in lifting him up today! Thanks so much!

And now...wanna see Kasey and Cassie's wedding reception? It was so beautiful in that room {you remember...the one that took a whole bunch of us 9 hours to set up?} with the soft lights and all the cake!

One of my favorite pictures...the guests of honor making their entrance.

The head table all filled up!

Bride and groom!

The bad part about being the photography nut is that you have to do all your own selfies.

{Those are Cokes...FYI.}

Toasts and cake-cutting. {You can just know I parked NEXT to the cake so I could get those shots!}

Let's pause to appreciate the cake, shall we? {I miss it.}

 {Peanut butter cup for me and French toast maple bacon for Ryan.}

First dances were so sweet. I took more pictures than I should have but I won't make you look at ALL of them.

 And speaking of dances....

...Ryan and I did some slow dances, and then one of the groomsmen came up and asked Ryan if he could dance with me. Ryan said yes, and I hurried to explain that I actually cannot dance. Well, guess what? HE CAN!!!! I flew around that floor so fast. Had no idea what was happening and could not catch my breath. Oh. My. Word. Ryan was taking pictures, but they're all a blur because so were we!

It was fun though, and he was very kind. {He took my sister out for a dance, too. She fared as well as I did.}

But after that, I was back to slow dances with my date for life. I love him so much!

And a couple other pictures Ryan took at the reception:

In Which We Transform a Reception Hall

Podcast Tuesday!!! And this week, we took the whole show on the road!! Literally!

 Click here to listen.

The whole reason we drove through the night to get to Kansas in a big fat hurry was so we could help decorate the reception hall. {You know how I hate to miss the fun stuff!}

Here is the before picture of that adventure:

That's a big ole blank canvas, isn't it? So that you can fully appreciate the 9 hours of work that went into this room, here was the after shot:

But in between the two...so much work. And so much fun! Between family members and wedding party members, we had quite a bit of help!

I don't think I really have to explain to you how happy Ryan was to get to decorate atop the scissor lift. {They covered this garage door with a backdrop made up of lace, burlap, and tulle. And if you would have been there, you would know that in our family, this is now known as "tool-ee on a spool-ee."}

Doesn't it look like we TP'd the place? We didn't! Cassie's mother-in-law and sister-in-law made this STUNNING wagon wheel/mason jar chandelier, and they strung the tool-ee on a spool-ee from the center to the corners. Lori and I had the job of stretching out the strands of lights to nest in the tool-ee.

While we're talking about the chandelier...you GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!

 Can you even believe it???

But back to the stage before it looked like that...

Ryan's #1 helper was Murphy, Cassie's dog. Murphy is such a good dog. He made me miss Phoebe SO MUCH!

Broke one. Whoopsie. Didn't know our own strength.

The backdrop! Didn't they do great work?

Committee meeting to figure out how to decorate the doors. This was another really cool thing! They had these five old {HEAVY!!!!} doors that they used for the backdrop behind the cake table. AMAZING. Here's how it looked finished.

Ryan and I got a LITTLE tired, you know, because of the all-night driving adventure, so mid-afternoon, we had to wave the white flag and go check into our hotel for a nap. So we missed setting up tables and putting out the centerpieces, but the whole thing looked so amazing when it was done!

Here are a few other shots from the finished product:

 {The picture below is hilarious to me. They had three huge tanks filled with ice and drinks and they put blankets over it to keep it cold all day. Ryan walked in and thought someone was asleep in there!}

I was so glad we came early to help...this was an exhausting but fun day!! Amazing how the place transformed over the course of the day!