Wedding Day - The Reception

We got a little bit more geeky at the reception - our table centerpieces (which also named each table for the seating chart) were all ships from different Sci-Fi and fantasy universes that Brian and I both enjoy and/or introduced each other to.  All photos by Modest Monkey Photography, unless otherwise noted. 

The head table, of course.

Points if you can name every movie/tv show!

Photo by Pamela Cuffee

Photo by Pamela Cuffee

Photo by Pamela Cuffee

Photo by Pamela Cuffee

Ok, some are cars.

Photo by Pamela Cuffee

Photo by Pamela Cuffee

My mom made the beautiful - and delicious - cakes.  The wedding cake was frosted in a pale blue to match my dress, and embellished with royal icing roses, lilacs, and lace motifs.  Brian requested a Millenium Falcon groom's cake, which Mom also made.  And Optimus Prime graced the cake table, because why not?

Photo by Pamela Cuffee

When we entered the reception hall, we surprised our guests with a karaoke song:

We sang "Life's a Happy Song" from The Muppet Movie.  And we danced a bit.

Brian loves to dance.

For the call-and-response part of the song, we had each member of the wedding party sing one line of the response:

Every table had mini lightsabers and folded paper favors with mints inside.  I'll have to do a separate post on the favors, I think.  They were a bit complicated.  The lightsabers were pretty simple, though.  I followed this tutorial that I found on Pinterest, and they turned out really cute!

The toasts - there were five total - were all beautiful and made me cry.  One each from the Maid and Matron of Honor and the two Best Men, and my brother also requested a toast, which was very touching. 

Little did we know that there was more geekiness in store!  My parents and siblings collaborated on a surprise lightsaber arch midway through the reception:

There were eight total lightsabers - all of which my dad and sister made - carried by the five groomsmen and three ushers.  It was quite possibly the coolest thing that has ever happened to me.

Our first dance was to Aretha Franklin's version of "You Send Me."

Father/Daughter Dance was "My Girl" by The Temptations:

And the Mother/Son dance was "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King:

We also sang "A Whole New World" from Aladdin to kick off the karaoke portion of the evening:

And we danced like fools:

My spaced-out expression here can be attributed to concentrating on my killer moves.  Or something. 

See?  Killer moves.

Have I mentioned Brian loves to dance?

Obligatory bouquet toss:

My brother's date, Ami caught it.

Jordan (Brian's son and Best Man) caught the garter!

Ceremonial cake-cutting:

We fed each other very nicely:

Mmmmmm... Chocolate!

With one hour of the reception to go, we said goodnight to the live-stream viewers:

And we lived happily ever after!  :p 

Wedding Day - Bridal Party Pictures

We took the wedding party photos at Colonial Williamsburg, between the ceremony and the reception.  It was a beautiful day, and a beautiful setting!  All photos by Modest Monkey Photography.

First we took a carriage ride - Brian had made sure to buy the tickets the night before:  

Did I mention I felt like a princess in my gown?

We shared the carriage ride with another couple - they were celebrating their seventh anniversary!

While they were waiting for us during our (very lovely and relaxing) carriage ride, Stephen took photos of the wedding party: 

The groomsmen all had matching vests and coordinating ties.  Since the bridesmaids all had different dresses, there was no need for the guys' outfits to all be exactly the same.

The bridesmaids' dresses were all based on fashion icons of the past!  Most of the patterns came from this book, which Brian had given me for Christmas the year before:  Famous Frocks.

From left to right we have Diana Ross, Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis, Jackie O., and Marilyn Monroe

The girls all wore silver shoes in different styles: 

My mom made her own dress, in addition to making three of the bridesmaids' dresses, the flower girl dress, all five groomsmen's vests, and bow ties for the ring bearers!  Oh, and the cake.  That'll be in the next post.

 Family photos: 

The whole bridal party (minus the ring bearers):

 Me and the girls: 

Brian and his entourage:

After the group photos were done, my sisters helped me remove the train of my gown (and the train of the petticoat) so I could move a little more easily.  I celebrated by twirling! 

Have I mentioned that I love this dress?

Then we parted ways with the rest of the bridal party and went off to take some photos of just the two of us.  We have a few favorite spots when we visit Williamsburg where Brian likes to take photos of me for my costuming blog.  Most of these spots are located behind the Governor's Palace, so we bought Stephen a day pass so the three of us could get the photos we wanted.