Wedding: The Party

We celebrated our marriage at a local restaurant situated above the boathouse where I learned to row. The city has put a lot of resources into beautifying the lake since I rowed there, and it ended up being a gorgeous backdrop.

Dan and I loved having our reception at a restaurant. Because they coordinated a lot of the details--including food, tables and dinnerware, and extra tables for gifts and the cake--our stress was pretty low approaching the wedding. The room even had a built-in speaker system, so my sister acted as DJ.

My mom and best friend organized all of the flowers--it made my life super easy.

Just like our ceremony, our reception was relatively small, with only our closest friends and family in attendance. We began the evening with mingling, and got to talk to most of the guests before we even sat down for the meal!

Talking to my grandpa at the beginning of the evening

I enjoyed a rare treat--a Shirley Temple--before dinner, and filled up on crudites to prepare for the rapid dinner to come. During the meal, which consisted of a salad appetizer and a main course, Dan and I made our way around to the tables to talk to our guests.

We were totally happy with the size of the party--we had an opportunity to stop at each table, and talk with each of our guests for a reasonable amount of time. Of course, all of this happened during the dinner, so Dan and I both had to scarf down our meals relatively quickly. Dinner was not the star of the show.

After dinner, we got to cut our cake! If there were two things I wanted out of my wedding, they were a husband and a delicious cake. I got both.

Aiming was just as difficult as expected.

Having been to weddings before, I've been uninspired by the wedding cake. I love cake--it is my favorite dessert-- and to waste such an excellent opportunity on sheet cake seemed a pity. So, Dan and I did some serious cake-tasting research.

(Actually, we only went to one bakery--a childhood favorite. But we did sample a lot of the flavors, many times.)

In the end, we picked an unusual design, inspired by the De Stijl art movement, in the color scheme of the wedding. The cake was primarily made of chocolate-hazelnut cake with a thick layer of buttercream, all wrapped in marzipan. The top tier, which we took home, was a princess cake.

We regret not delaying our dancing by five minutes to enjoy a second slice of cake, but we've promised each other a trip to the bakery.

We concluded the evening with dancing. Dan and I danced to Hard to Concentrate by the Red Hot Chili Peppers--one of our favorite songs. My dad and I danced to Daughters by Jack Johnson--during which I shed my first and only tears of the evening.

I was wearing 4 inch heels. Dan is TALL. 

As the evening began to wind down, and people headed home, Dan and I also rode off into the darkness to begin our very brief honeymoon (part 1).

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or emailing me at piquantprose [at] gmail [dot] com.

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