Wedding Photos - Evening Reception

Happy Thursday! Not long until the weekend! :) I never used to count down until the weekends as Liam worked Sundays anyway. But now he is working Monday-Friday, and is out the house for so much longer, I definitely welcome Saturday and Sunday so that I get a couple of days when I'm not alone dealing with the children and the house!

Today I'm going to post the last set of wedding photos. I can't believe they're all done! We'll have been married for 3 months on Sunday, it seems to have gone so quickly. Here are the other wedding photo posts in case you've missed them:

• The Details
• Getting Ready
• Group Photos Before The Ceremony
• The Ceremony
• The Food
• The Drinks Reception and Group Photos

And now this one. They're all linked under my Wedding Tab as well. I might keep adding to the tab if we go out for meals for anniversaries etc - I'm not quite ready to let all the wedding stuff go quite yet!!

After we'd had the drinks reception outside, everyone went inside and downstairs for the evening. We stayed outside with the photographer for a few minutes to take a few more photos and so we could have a "grand entrance" - I'm not quite sure if I like these photos or not!

Once we were inside, we sat at the top table with our parents, Izzy and Toby, Liam's brother/best man Sean, and my sister/bridesmaid Olivia.

My Dad did his speech first...

His speech was really nice (thankfully, I was a bit worried beforehand!) but he must've been saying something *interesting* to get some of these reactions, the photos made me laugh!

Haha, my Mum's reaction makes me laugh the most!! What was Dad saying?!

Next it was Liam's turn to do a speech. He hadn't been looking forward to this at all, and he did miss a few bits out, but it was still a good speech.

He told me how beautiful I looked which was the main thing not to miss out!! ;) He also did a few toasts...

I can't remember exactly who he made toasts to, but presumably the bridesmaids...

and the boys...

and hopefully everyone else who helped to make our day so wonderful!

The final speech was by Liam's brother and best man, Sean...

He told a few jokes, but nothing too embarrassing for Liam - I was hoping to learn some new stories!!

After the speeches were over, it was time to eat. I detailed the meal that we had in my Wedding Photos post about the food, so I'll skip over it now (*gasp*, I know!) and move on to the dancing. The first dance was the part of the day that I was least looking forward to. I'm not the greatest dancer at the best of times, let alone when everyone else is just standing around watching us. As I expected...awkward...

Luckily, after a minute or so my Mum sent Izzy on to the dance floor to help take some of the attention off us!

After our first dance, I danced with my Dad and Liam danced with his Mum (whilst everyone else was dancing as well thankfully!)...

and it seems that Izzy made the most of both her parents being busy to "dance" with one of her friends!

After the first few dances, the photographer suggested that we went outside for a few more photos - "mantelpiece shots" as he called them - as the light was better. I think I like this one - I'm always super critical of photos of myself!

Izzy also played outside for a bit - she was getting tired by this point!

At 9 o'clock we 'cut the cake' (although everyone actually ate cupcakes - the top cake is sitting in my Mum's freezer!)

and then there was a bit more dancing before we called it a night.

Izzy and Toby left a little bit before us (they were staying with my Mother-In-Law for the night) and Izzy got a bit upset about the thought of not seeing us for a week - she was so tired by this point and had worked herself up! Luckily we saw them again when we met up with some of the guests for lunch the next day, so we had a chance to say goodbye to Izzy properly in slightly calmer surroundings! And, of course, she had a fantastic week with all her Grandparents while we were on honeymoon.

So there we go, the last post about our wedding. I hope I haven't bored you all with this series! I've had such fun looking back at all the photos, it was such a great day. And as we still haven't found time to sort out our wedding album yet, hopefully these posts will give us a head-start on which photos are album-worthy - there are so many to choose from!!

Wedding Photos - Drinks Reception and Group Photos

It's that time of the week where I get back to look back on our wedding again! :) I nearly didn't manage to post today as my laptop is very much on its last legs. I managed to revive it this time by taking the battery and charger out, and holding down the power button to reset it, which is what the repair man on the phone always says to do. Then my laptop ran "start-up repair" and, for now, it seems to be working again...a new laptop is definitely top of my Christmas list this year, I just hope this one lasts til then!!

Anyway, moving on to happier times! Last week, I wrote about all the food we served at our wedding, the first round of which was served at the drinks reception 4.30pm-6pm ish.

After the ceremony, Liam and I went to get our drinks first and then, although not planned, we ended up waiting in the archway between the two rooms, chatting to everyone as they passed through. It was really nice to get a chance to speak to everybody - that was one of the things I wanted to make sure I did as it would have been too easy to get caught up in the day and not actually have time to speak to everyone who had travelled to share our day. So this worked well, although admittedly it did mean that it took quite a long time for everyone to make their way outside. Here are a few photos from when we were still inside:

Lots of people getting drinks

Izzy pretending to drink champagne!

Me with Liam's Uncle Chris

Us with Liam's Nan

My friend with her daughter - I love that expression!!!

We then went outside, where some people drank more than others...!!

Haha, sorry Marion, I couldn't resist! :) This is my youngest sister's Godmother (and a very good friend of my Mum's)...apparently the 2nd glass of fizz was Olivia's!

Izzy had a fantastic time playing with my cousin...

So much so that she's not in half the group photos, and those she is in, she's looking wistfully over towards the fun!!

The only photo of the 4 of us and she's not looking at the camera!

Paul, our waiter for the day, handed round more nibbles...

And after a while, Paul, the photographer, started taking group photos. I won't share all the group photos with you as they're probably less interesting, but here are a few of them:

Us with Liam's brother - the best man - and my sister Olivia - a bridesmaid

All the siblings, and children (with Izzy not looking at the camera!)

With my parents

With Liam's parents

The "boys"

The "girls"

Everyone

After the group photos, we had a confetti throw...

And then I also threw my bouquet (there was no space to throw it inside later on)...

Liam's sister, Danni, caught it...

People asked me afterwards if I'd thrown it at Danni on purpose, but my only aim had been to throw the bouquet as far as the line of people!!

After this we all went inside for speeches, food and dancing...but I will save those photos for my final wedding post next week :)

What would be your choice of drink to serve at a wedding? Or, what is your favourite "special" drink? We went with pink fizz, but if it had been purely up to me we would have had Pimms. Pimms is my favourite summery drink, and we've been to a couple of weddings where they did serve Pimms - including the wedding we went to this August. However, we decided that, as the drinks reception was being manned by my Mum's friends, having Pimms would have meant more work for them. I don't really like wine or fizz so I stuck to the fizzy elderflower cordial in the afternoon, and then the venue manager made up a jug of Pimms to have behind the bar especially for me in the evening so I still got to have my favourite drink! :)



Wedding Photos - The Food

Evening everyone! It's time for another wedding photos post...this week I'm going to focus on the food! You can see what I personally ate for breakfast and lunch on our wedding day in the post about getting ready. This post will take a look at all the food we shared with our guests...I hope you enjoy it!

Immediately after the ceremony, we had a drinks reception. The food and drink was laid out in a side room, and then everyone went outside after they'd grabbed something, which gave us a nice chance to talk to everyone as they filed through. My Mum's friends - the waitresses and waiter - prepared all the canapes and drinks themselves on the afternoon of the wedding so it was all really fresh...thank you so much!

For the canapes, they made blinis with smoked salmon and sour cream, and blinis with blue cheese and fig pate...

It's only looking at these photos that I've realised that the vegetarian blinis weren't kept separate from the fishy ones, whoops. There were also bread sticks for the children - we decided those would be the least messy things!!

I ate one of the blue cheese blinis, but didn't get a chance to eat anymore as I was too busy talking to people and then being in photos!

There were also drinks - pink fizz, elderflower cordial with sparkling water, and fruit shoots (wouldn't be my choice of childrens' drinks, but the venue had ordered a load in for a previous function and wanted to use them up!)...

Not the most attractive photo of any of us, but it shows the drinks! I had a glass of sparkling elderflower as I'm not a fan of fizz, plus figured that starting drinking at 4.30pm wasn't the best idea on my wedding day!

The drinks reception went on for about 1.5 hours - including lots of group photos - and then it was time for the evening reception. Speeches first (which I'll cover in a future post) and then the meal. We had formal seating arrangements at tables, but the food was a, mainly cold, buffet catered by a local caterer. Some photos of the main course...

Cold meats, poached salmon, coronation chicken, quiche, quinoa stuffed peppers with goats cheese and lots of salads - mango & beansprout, couscous, quinoa, coleslaw, beetroot, tomato mozzarella & basil, and by the looks of it one other but don't know what that was!

I only took two photos during the wedding - of my plates of food!! I had two stuffed pepper halves, coleslaw, quinoa salad, mozzarella & basil (no tomato, yuck!) plus a couple of hot potatoes with butter...

As well as the potatoes, the stuffed peppers were also served hot, and delicious! I was a bit worried when I first spoke to the caterer as she'd never heard of quinoa (*gasp*!!!) but, bless her, she bought some and experimented and it was really tasty. I don't think she really believed me that people actually ate quinoa though - she still did a big couscous salad but also did a small quinoa one to keep me happy! :) She also did a separate stuffed pepper without the goats cheese for one of our guests who is vegan, and kept it separately for her. Overall, I was really pleased with how the food turned out, and I've only heard good things since so I hope everyone else liked it too!

For dessert, the caterer gave several options - some that she made herself, some bought in.

Raspberry roulade, lemon syllabub, chocolate lumpy bumpy cake and profiteroles. I think it was only actually the lumpy bumpy cake (coincidentally my sister's favourite!) that she didn't make herself. I had a lemon syllabub and one profiterole...

These were really good, although I wish I'd had some raspberry roulade (as well!) - it looks fantastic!

We ate the buffet from about 6.30-7.30pm, then about 9pm it was time for cake...

We cut the top layer - which was just a Victoria sponge - for the photos, but actually served the cupcakes. The purple ones were lemon sponge, and the white with purple flower ones were coffee sponge...

I had a lemon one, which had a lovely texture but was a little bit too sweet. Luckily there were lots of leftovers (more than are pictured below) so we took some on the car journey to the airport the following day (Liam's sister drove us) and I got to have a coffee one - by far my favourite!

It was great that there were some leftovers as Izzy took one in for her teacher on the Monday, Mum gave some to her friends who were waitresses etc - she managed to give away/eat all but one coffee one by the time we got back from Barcelona...and I quickly ate that one!! :)

What food do you like to have at weddings/special events? Or what would be your ideal "event" meal? We went to our friends' wedding last month where we had a delicious three course meal and then a buffet. The vegetarian option was really tasty and it was really nice to have the choice of desserts etc. I liked our buffet too - I think (hope) there was a wide enough variety to cater for everyone and there was certainly plenty of food - the quiche was also vegetarian, but I didn't even think to take any of that as there were plenty of other (tastier in my opinion) options :)