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Published: January 2nd 2010
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It still fits!!
After 3 months on our honeymoon I was sure relieved that my dress still zipped up :-) A dream wedding, dream honeymoon and we get to come home to another incredible party!? In a word it was breathtaking. Obviously it was our party so OF COURSE I'm going to think that, but I wasn't the only one. The entire setup was just gorgeous and fun too!
I couldn't have done any of it without the help of my Reception Angels at home making it all possible. As anyone who has planned a wedding reception knows it is a large undertaking and thanks to Aunt Valerie, Katherine, Grandma, Kristi and Mom it all came together magically.
I had fallen in love with the Oregon Golf Club the summer before our reception and I couldn't get it out of my mind. It is in a beautiful location in West Linn overlooking the valley and Mt. Hood to the east. Our cocktail reception began at 6:30 on Friday night June 20, 2008.
We held the cocktail reception in the rose garden outside the white tent that would house the dinner and dance fun. Larry and I set up a little receiving line as people walked in, but I owe a lot to my cousins for keeping everyone organized.
Oh, the flowers!
No words will ever be able to describe how INCREDIBLE the flowers were, but they took my breath away. Katherine headed my "Welcome Committee" by giving everyone their table assignments. Karlie and Kailey helped her by taking gifts, directing folks to the guestbook etc. Again - couldn't have done it without them.
The tables in the tent were all given a name after the locations that Larry and I visited on our honeymoon. So the head table was Georgetown, Grand Cayman, but there was an Ephesus table, a Bora Bora table, Taj Mahal...you get the idea.
I enjoyed the cocktail hour in my wedding dress, but as people were directed into the tent I had a fun little surprise to change in to. Not only did I get another reception, but I had another dress too :-) A short, fun party wedding dress. It was awesome if I do say so myself and perfectly represented the mood I wanted people in for the evening - party!!
Our grandparents, parents and attending wedding party all marched in while my cousin/our MC Jeff Johnson announced their names and their relationship to me and Larry. I was glad we did it because there was a whole new group of people in that tent who had no idea why these
people were so special to us. Sara even flew back in from Kentucky for the party! She had a conference in California so I was lucky that she could make a side trip to Portland.
Now to brag about how beautiful/breathtaking/fun and transformed the tent was:
When I walked into the tent I literally just stopped in my tracks and stared. Our florist Crystal Lillies did the most amazing work. Our colors were blue, white, purple and a little green. The arrangements were made of roses, calla lilies, day lilies, iris, hydrangea, hyacinth, orchid and I don't know what else. The tables varied around the room from towering vases to table level arrangements. Equally beautiful and together they created a lot of depth in the room. Even the bar was was decked out in flower arrangments.
Oh the bar! We had one standard corner bar, but the other was a totally enclosed four sided bar. So the bartender stood in the middle with drinkers lining up on all for sides to get their beverage or perhaps a cigar. Those were set out on the bar too. Just another special touch to the evening :-)
By some
Greeting our guests
There was no ceremony so we started right out with receiving line. miracle we managed to find tableclothes that matched my bridesmaids dresses perfectly. Really not all that important, but since it was a favorite shade of blue I loved it all the more. Silver chivare chairs, programs for the evening and personalized fortune cookies for each guest completed the table. The fortune cookies were a really fun touch that made it more "us." The fortune cookies were to represent all of our time in China together and since they were dipped in chocolate with hazlenuts (from GPC) they were certainly unique. Each dark chocolate cookie had a fortune reading "Thank you for sharing in our celebration - Jessica and Larry March 8, 2008." The other fortune in the white chocolate cookie (both in an adorable clear take out box) read "Eat hazelnuts. Vote Republican. The Georges 2008." That was the first suggestion Larry had when I asked him in April what he wanted them to say...
The band - Riffle - played at Kristi and Kyle's wedding and they did a wonderful job for us too. They learned to play our song, You by Rascal Flatts so that we could dance to a live band. They got the rest of
Allayne enjoying the party
Larry's Grandma Allayne made the trip to Grand Cayman with us as well. We were so lucky to have three of our four living grandparents with us for these festivities. the crowd going later in the evening too.
An ongoing event of the reception was our slideshow from the honeymoon. I went through our pictures when I got home and pulled out some of the highlights from each stop. It was a fun way to share our adventures on a gigantic screen by the stage throughout the night. By one of the bars we also had a table set up with a bunch of wedding pictures from Grand Cayman. For the folks who couldn't be with us there they could at least see what it looked like!
Another incredibly special touch was Aunt Carol's cake. She made up enough of her chocolate buttermilk cake to feed the reception hall and it was a hit. I still have people telling me how much they enjoyed that cake. We had three set up on different tiers with flowers as the display with the rest in the back.
It was a truly beautiful magical event and I feel so lucky to call it our reception. I'm sure there are details that I'll remember later, but the pictures will always spark my memory.
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