Kentucky Wedding, Part 3 - Wedding and Reception

By 7 p.m. (or 7:30, I still can't remember exactly what time it started) the clouds were gone and the sun was just started to set.  It really was perfect weather for an outdoor ceremony - the pictures don't even capture it.

DH's mom wasn't able to attend, so I was in charge of videoing the ceremony so that she could watch it later.  The brother's were able to set her up with Skype so that she could see the ceremony live, but there were problems getting the audio to work and attempts to do audio through a cell phone didn't work either, so I'm glad I was able to take the video. 

Ready to go!

Beautiful bride

The minister was a family friend of the bride, and quite the quirky old man.  The ceremony involved him pulling out a guitar at one point and playing a song about ships or something like that, and after the song, he explained the significance of why he chose that song.  (Sorry, I don't remember the significance - I was multitasking like crazy and unfortunately not really able to pay attention as closely as I might have liked.) It was a nice ceremony - not too short, not too long, and more personalized than your traditional run-of-the-mill church ceremony.

The picture above is the ceremony from my perspective - I managed to take regular photos AND videotape at the same time.  Talented, I am.

And then it was over! Husband and wife.

Picture taking ensued and I was even asked to be in one of the pictures, which mortified me since I had decided that I needed to wear flip flops to the wedding given all of the walking that I was going to be doing, and the fact that I can't wear heels for more than 15 minutes or so without my feet hurting like crazy these days.  Hopefully I was successful in hiding them, but I highly doubt it.

I managed to snap a quick shot of DH and I.

I then headed over the reception with some of DH's family members.  It was at least 8:30 at this point, and I was STARVING. I can't even express to you how hungry I was.  I hadn't eaten since my pizza lunch and although I had planned to have a snack around 5 p.m., it was too crazy with DH scrambling to get ready, and then I had to get ready, and the snack never happened.  There were small appetizers but unfortunately the only ones I could really eat were the pulled pork sandwiches (which were delicious) but also unfortunately I could only get my hands on two of them, and they were tiny, so I was still wanting more.  I think there were initially a lot more appetizers, but since we got there late, a lot of the stuff seemed to be picked over.

Everyone else was filling up on liquid calories, but I sipped a Diet Coke to give me some caffeine to get through the rest of the night.  The set-up was really pretty, with lights hanging from the trees and pies as centerpieces on the tables. The one unfortunate thing was this weird sewer smell that was fairly intense in one particular area of the yard, mostly near the bar area.  I'm not sure what was causing it, but it's definitely something that the owners of the place should look into, because seriously, who wants to smell sewage at their wedding reception?

The pie centerpieces and the Skype laptop set-up in the background

The bridal party entered about 45 minutes later but I videoed their entrances, so no photos of that.  In fact, I realize now that I don't have photos of most of the major events of the reception, since I was videoing.  The entrances, first dance, cake (or rather, pie) cutting, the maid of honor and best man speeches.... no pictureso f any of it!

Anyway, I was double starving at this point, and dinner was thankfully served shortly after the introductions!  The food was good - I'm pretty sure it would have been good either way, but it tasted even better because I was so hungry.  I just wish that there had been opportunities to get more because even after clearing my plate, I still could have eaten more.  I AM eating for two after all, right?  Oh well...

Speeches and dancing followed, as well as one of the groomsmen getting a pie in the face.  You might be horrified to hear this, but I assure you, he was thrilled.  Apparently it was a life-long dream of his to get hit in the face with a pie, and the groom was finally able to give him his dream with a leftover lemon cream pie.  Ridiculous, for sure.


The reception lasted until midnight and I was exhausted by this point, so I took an offer for a ride home while the drinkers went to the tavern for the after party.  Through text messages, I convinced DH to come back to the hotel right around 2 p.m., which he originally resisted, but I think the next morning he was glad he came back. 

All in all, it was a great event with great weather and great people - a definite success!