Wedding Part IV-Reception Cake and Family

Cake time...

Cutting the cake was really hard because it was so pretty!
No fancy cake knife, just one from the kitchen.

The cake was delicious!! We should have taken some on our honeymoon with us because by the time we got back what was left over wasn't really any good.

even though Jesse doesn't like cake he was a good sport and ate it anyways.

A kiss to sweeten the deal!

Kylee, a friend we know through riding, caught the bouquet. I don't think it will be too long before she and Chris are throwing a similar party!

Ryan, Marti's brother, and his wife Jessica and their children were down in San Diego with us for the wedding. We didn't get any pictures with them down there because they were having some car trouble. So to make up for it, we snagged them at the reception to commemorate their trip down!

The Morrow Family, neighbors of my parents, have been more like family to us than simply neighbors. Linda was a major help to my mom as she and Lynne prepared for the wedding. She even made most of the food for my bridal shower. Our family has been so blessed to have the Morrow Family as neighbors over the years!!

Here my mom stands between her two younger brothers. I was so excited that they were both able to make it out here for the wedding activities!!! I think my mom was pretty excited too!
My mom and her side of the family. Janet, Redd, mom, dad, Homer, and Patti. (It's not often that these six people are able to stand that close to one another.)

And, as the best man, Rob was in charge of decorating our chariot (along with the help of most of the wedding party!)

I must say that they did an excellent job! I had heard stories about the decorating done by Dave and accomplices, I was kind of worried when I realized it would be my car that fell victim, but it was awesome!!

They left just enough room for Jesse and I to squeeze in! It was quite an experiencing driving the short distance to our new abode.

Here's Maddie, Adam's daughter, playing with one of the umbrellas we used for decorating. All of the little girls that were there during clean up thoroughly enjoyed playing with them.

This is just a really good picture of my parents!

I am so grateful for all the work and money that our parents put in to make our reception everything I ever wanted (I say I because Jesse didn't have any opinions on the matter). I love all four of them so much.

It was the best two days ever!

Wedding Part III-Reception Dancing

Another post with in a week, I'm on a roll...

Poor Jesse, he HATES posed photography. But he knew how important these events were to me and he was a good sport. He cooperated with all the different shots I asked for. He is so wonderful.

I love this one too!! We have so many good ones its hard to choose one!

Steve Arens was one of Jesse's groomsmen. He had to work Friday so he couldn't make it to San Diego but he put a tux on for the reception. They've been close friends since high school and still go out to the track on Saturdays.

OUR FIRST DANCE!

Before we were even engaged, Jesse had picked two songs that we could dance to, Home to You by John Michael Montgomery and You Had Me From Hello by Kenney Chesney. I then surprised him with which one we danced to, I chose You Had Me From Hello.

According to Jesse this was to be our first and last dance as a married couple (lucky with the help of Marti I got another dance out of him a month later at Eric and Kayla's wedding :)
For how much he was hating it, he has a pretty big smile (he's probably thinking about the post-reception activity...) I love him so much! Marrying him (in the temple) is the best decision I've ever made. He and I have so much fun together!!!! I love you Jesse.

My Daddy-Daughter Dance!!! My dad was quite the dancer back in college. He was on the BYU ballroom dance team. Unfortunately my mom's lack of interested in dancing kept my dad off the floor most of the time. (There's a smile on his face! Danielle and Sandy are the only ones that have really been able to capture a real smile and I think it's because he wasn't paying attention to the fact that they were taking pictures!!!)

Yet he still had some moves in him. He twirled me several times and I love this picture because it captures the twirly dress!!! I LOVE TWIRLY DRESSES!!! That was very special to dance with my dad, I love him so much!

Mother-son dance! Marti and I are both the ones that like to dance in our respective relationships so to get Jesse to even dance ONCE was harder then pulling teeth!

Jesse is even smiling :)

Like I said, Marti and I are the ones that like to dance, but Scott was a good sport and danced with me!

Lynne and Ryan enjoying their time together. Although they should have shown us some Salsa moves as well!

Grandpa and Shawna made it out on the dance floor!

My newly appointed neice Kelsey helped fill my dance card and twirled around the floor with me!! I love you Kelsey! XOXO

We could have danced the night away...

Dad wanted a turn though! Kelsey's daddy-daughter dance.

I'm pretty sure I danced with Katelyn too but I don't have any pictures. Katelyn's daddy-daughter dance.

And a mommy-daughter dance!

We had a lot of dancing shots, most of them are going to go in our wedding album when I get around to making it. I'm hoping that it's done with in a years time (hopefully before our 2nd anniversary...)

Wedding Part II-Reception details

Now that it's been 10 months since the wedding, I have finally taken the time to edit some of the photos from the wedding. I'm going to break the reception post up in to several small ones so that they are easier on the eyes to read. This first post on the reception is just how all the elements came together. We had so much help on the wedding and I am so grateful to everyone that helped make the event awesome!

We asked Shirley Jones from the 4th ward to do all the flowers for the wedding and she did a phenomenal job!! I loved the center pieces, it was exactly what I had in mind. And the fabric underneath was a suggestion of either my mom or Marti and I think that it added dimension to the display! The dress and tux paper boxes were complements of one of my photographers, Sandy. She die-cut them at home for me and added the yellow sash and red flower accents. They were perfect for everyone in the bridal party to take home, a 'thank you' for participating.

This is a shot of al the tables. It looked awesome with all the flowers on the table and ribbons hanging down from the ceiling. My mom and Lynne spent hours hanging the ribbons from the hula hoops, and our neighbor Linda even spent some time working on them.

We first asked Melanie Cortez at the start of the planning to help with the reception and we are so grateful that she willingly accepted the call. Melanie has wonderful resources that she shared with my mom. My mom got the ribbon from a supplier that Melanie suggested. A special thank you to Melanie for helping to make our reception one that we will never forget.

Here is the cake table. I love the flowers made from ribbons and buttons! Carol Matthews and her daughter Jennifer Stewart really stepped up to the plate. My mom went to Carol with some questions and Carol went beyond a simple answer. She called Jennifer and they took things to a whole new level.

This is the food table, with vases filled with lemons for decoration. I loved this technique. It brought in the colors of our wedding with the lemons and red ribbon and tying in the fact that it was the food table. The vases had monograms of JBA and other elements to personalize the decorations. Thank you Melanie!!! The center piece of the table is the beautiful fruit display put together by my brother-in-law's mother, Val Hawkins. I love strawberries and knew that fruit was something that would be served at the reception but she made it look too good to eat!!!

Then of course, a crucial element of any wedding... the cake! Mine was perfect. I've know forever what I wanted and the Breadbasket was awesome. They produced the exact cake I had been picturing in my head since I knew I wanted to marry Jesse. I loved the each tier being a different shape with the vibrant red ribbon along the base of each. The flowers done by Shirley Jones were perfect, not too many that you loose the elements of the cake but enhanced each layer.

And a close up to show off the special details. It looked amazing and tasted delicious!

Here is the gift table. The red wagons were a nice touch! It allowed for more space to place gifts, incorporated the red element, and staggered the heights! Brilliant Jennifer!

We did cupcakes for the guests which was a brilliant idea!!!! Less hassle, no need to cut up individual pieces. Guests that wanted to leave early could grab one for the road, and they looked AWESOME on the table. I had so many wonderful suggestions for the reception and it all came together perfectly :)

Close up of the floral decorations, complements of Shirley (and I believe those that assembled them in the kitchen prior to display).

Close up of the ribbon flowers. Danielle and Sandy really did an awesome job with the photos.

Flowers to give life to the empty spots!

The arch that Jesse and I stood under to greet our guests. (Nice use of the ribbons!)

Our sign in table. A special thank you to Tammy Berg, she was kind enough to make the scrapbook pages for my guests to sign.

That's it for this first post. I have at least two more for the reception and I don't plan on it taking as long to get those posted. . .a month at the most!