Originally, Keane and I thought we may have our wedding reception at our family lake, at the same location as the wedding, with a tent and dance floor. I thought it would be simple, would take less time overall, and would be fun. However, we eventually decided this wasn't our best option. Keane was going to make the food, and that itself was stressful. Also, the weather is so unpredictable, not to mention uneven ground and bugs. We felt safer renting a hall. I called a couple nearby halls but one was booked and one was not open to the public. At a half an hour's drive from home, we were fortunate to find a hall that was still available. They also catered! Win-win.
We met with them once, and closer to the wedding I called and emailed and even texted the hall owner/caterer multiple times with finishing details.
I picked details from different Pinterest wedding photos and decided what I wanted my table decorations to consist of. Mason jars with tea light candles, mason jars with pink flowers, wooden slabs, and tall clear vases with golden sticks and white hydrangeas. I also decided on white table linens with burlap table runners which my mother so graciously made! We incorporated some gold glitter and hundreds of cut-out hearts I punched from old love books. My mom and I also made some gold toothpick balls for the tables.
(sample run in my living room)
We had also decided we wanted fireworks and sparklers. I was so glad when the reception venue agreed to letting us incorporate this into our reception near their lake. I bought a tall metal tin and chalkboard sign for the sparklers.
We also incorporated a "Kids' Table." This consisted of neon coloring books I found and printed here and tied together with twine. There were crayons, Capri Suns, Dum Dums, and Blow pops as well.
Our wedding favors were these koozies that my sister designed and ordered for us from Discount Favors. I absolutely love these.
Like I mentioned, we had catering through our reception venue. We chose two meat choices: roast beef and Monterey chicken. We had three sides: salad, green beans, and garlic potatoes. It was delicious! They served tea and lemonade, and we offered canned soda, bottled water, and 30 cases of beer (Coors Light and Budlight)!
Although we haven't received our professional wedding photos yet, I collected some friends' photos of the reception:
