It fills me with joy to be told such nice comments from you all about my wedding day series. Some of you have even expressed that you get excited for Mondays so you can see more photos from my wedding! I love that! Today, I’m sharing some of my favorite photos from our wedding reception.
We had our ceremony and reception both at the same place and I am so glad we did that. If you’re in the Rochester, New York area and are looking for a venue that has both, you need to book your special day with The Plantation Party House. They do an absolute fantastic job helping you plan your big day and execute your big day. From their food to their decor – I cannot rave about them enough!
After taking photos, it was time for the bridal party entrance into the reception. Michael and I love, love Coldplay so we incorporated them into our wedding by having the bridal party entrance song be, A Sky Full of Stars.
Right after the grand entrance, we went right into the toasts and dinner. Michael’s cousin Aaron was his best man, and he started off the toasts. He had a fantastic speech and ended it with a letter he wrote in the 3rd grade about his best friend…Michael. Definitely had everyone’s emotions going!
Then it came time for my maids of honor’s toasts by my sweet sisters, Bethany and Corryn. Bethany was about 3 seconds into her toast and was already in tears! She just spoke from the heart and it really touched my heart, as well as everyone else’s in the room. She really got me when she looked at Michael and said, “I can only hope to marry a man who looks at me the way you look at my sister.” When Corryn was giving her speech, she was so sincere and heart-warming, and definitely tug on my heart strings. I most definitely almost lost it when she said, “I have only thought of you as sister, not just my half sister…”. Oh my soul, it was so special.
The toasts at our wedding truly touched everyone there and to this day, we’re still getting compliments about them. Everyone could feel the love.
After the blessing over the meal, we all dug in and enjoyed the food (it was delicious). Before we knew it, both Michael and I were walking around chatting with all of our dear guests. It meant so much for us to be able to talk to everyone who came to support us. We love our family and friends!
Then it was time for the cake cutting! For some reason, the fact that we had to cut the cake completely slipped my mind until the moment we were being brought over to the cake. We had talked briefly before that we were going to be nice with the cake, but I never had time to think the whole process through, so naturally I was freaking out inside.
The way our cake way facing us had the flowers where we would’ve normally cut the cake, so we went to the backside of the cake. Because I’m so tiny, it was a reach for me! The whole time we were whispering and laughing to each other about it.
If you didn’t know already, I was a trained competitive dancer in all styles of dance growing up. Ironically, I had never slow danced with anyone before. This made it extra special in a personal way for me to be dancing with my handsome groom.
Our first dance song was Turning Page by Sleeping At Last.
Can we please just acknowledge how adorable this photo is right here? ^
My father and I danced to the song Summer Breeze by Seals & Crofts. It was the song that influenced my name, so it just made sense for it to be our daddy-daughter song. Michael and his mother danced to Bob Dylan’s Forever Young, which was the first song she heard when she held Michael in her arms for the first time. Adorable.
After the dance floor was opened up for a bit, it was then time for the bouquet and garter toss!
It was a fun time, of course. I mean, look at his face haha!
Okay, let’s move onto more dancing and partying!
After an absolutely perfect and fun night with everyone we love, it was time to head out!
And there you have it, a good wrap up of our big day! Is that all I have to share though? Nope! Be sure to come back the next couple of Mondays for more wedding day related posts, including posts about our phenomenal bridal party and my one-of-a-kind wedding dress.
ALL PHOTOS WERE TAKEN BY ANNA JOY PHOTO.
