Okay ... I need your help again.
Basically ... I have 3 weeks to plan a Wedding Reception.
No. The reception won't take place until January 2nd.
However, in 3 weeks, my whirlwind of traveling starts back up.
I think I mentioned that I will be driving another 9,000 miles
over the course of 6 weeks (on 4 separate trips, to CA, OR, MN, and TX).
I'll get back from all of those trips on Christmas Eve,
and then will have 1 week to pull together all final plans
(and bake enough desserts to feed 100+ people).
I just lost a full week to my lovely acute sinusitis,
so I have 3 weeks left to figure it all out.
Yes. I am the Mother of the Groom for this wedding.
But, since the wedding will be taking place in Texas,
I thought it would be nice to host a reception for our
Washington State friends and family. (Sweet Grandpa,
at 92, isn't up for making the trek to Texas.)
Some of you have planned your children's weddings/receptions.
Most of you have attended weddings/receptions.
Many of you have had your own weddings/receptions.
So ... I would LOVE it if you could do a little
brainstorming for me, and tell me some of the
things that you think make a wedding reception ...
fun ... memorable ... sweet ... special ... unique ...
I have a wonderful room reserved at a local resort.
It will be an afternoon reception (between lunch & dinner time)
on Sunday, January 2nd. (Friends ... put it on your calendars.)
It will be a dessert reception, as we cannot afford to cater a
meal for 100+ friends and family. (Sorry folks ... no Prime Rib.)
We need to design, make, and send out invitations.
We need to plan and make decorations.
We need to plan a dessert/drink menu.
(I just saw pics on a friend's blog, and
loved the idea of a Chocolate Fountain.)
I would love to get pics from Ashleigh's mom
and create a slideshow of both "kids" growing up years.
(But, I don't know if I have the time or know-how to do it.)
Thoughts ???
Ideas ???
Favorite Desserts ???
Favorite Punch ???
Simple yet elegant decoration ideas ???
Dancing ??? (how do you create the music list?)
I'm EXCITED!
I LOVE hosting parties!
I LOVE baking and baking and baking!
I'm not stressed about it,
I would just LOVE to hear your ideas.
THANKS MUCH!!!
Welcome to Our Journey of Faith. My blog is a place where I share the joys and trials of living a faith-filled life as the mother of an extra large (12 children) homeschooling family, and my prayer is that it brings encouragement to others to live their lives as an adventure of faith, as well.
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ReplyDeleteFor Hannah's wedding our invitations were a boxed variety with online templates to personalized. This particular invitation had mini picture frames which we put Hannah and Jon's engagement photo into and glued to the front of the invitation with red and blue (very narrow) ribbons creating a loop bow behind them Colors were red white and blue so this all went well. VERY inexpensive after printing the photos on the computer and we were able to design our text, font and script ourselves. Malachi's I designed online and a freind of Esther's designed hes online for her too. EASY and not costly!!
My mother has a ring which holds her mother's engagement diamond in it. My mom had it reset years ago with sapphires around it. IT is our only family "heirloom" since that diamond is now 100 years old. My mom gave it to me several years ago, and I've shared it as the "something old" the "something borrowed" and the "something blue" all at once for the brides in the family. Caleb's first wife wore it, Hannah wore it, Sopheak wore it and Esther will wear it next week. THAT makes for a special family tradition!!
Hannah andJon's reception food was an island theme since Jon is from Guam, we raised our hogs ourselves, butchered and smoked them in a hand dug pit at home too. Sides were things that complemented the roasted pork...fruit kabobs, veggie kabobs, rice, several authentic Chamoran dishes made by Jon's mom. Fruit kabobs are fun and easy, but get a crew on two sides of atable or island to assemble them and lay them out on trays or stand the skewers up into some artsy craftsy stand ( watermelon worked for us. In December, not so much) but FLORIST FOAM, not styrofoam, covered in a wedding color fabric would work well.
We did buy a cake but had a great discount from a Bridal show earlier in the year. BEWARE of Marine swords when used to cut the cake. Hannah's top tier is in our photos as being the tier that landed upside down on the deck floor. We had the wedding reception at our home but Hannah's wedding wa at church. Malachi's was all at church. Diffeent issues to both.
MUSIC. We had a friend do the DJ-ing. We gave him a list of the songs we wanted played, he found them hither thither and yon. He gave us a list of ideas for songs to pursue such as First Couple Dance, Bride and Her Dad Dance, Groom and His Mom Dance, etc... THAT HELPED keep us focused!!
Hannah and Jon did a Unity Candle and while they were taking their two candles to light the central Unity candle, I sang "Find Your Wings". They didnt do a slide show.
For Malachi's wedding we did the slide show at the beginning of the service as people were being seated. I had never done a power point before ( IN know now) but they are not hard to do an I bet one of your kiddos knows how to do that. WE ran it through twice and then ran it at the end as people were leaving as well. They did a Unity Candle and we had community communion with them. The Dads served, and older brothers assites. VERY intimate touch!!! I snag while they did their Unity cnalde as well.. "Master piece"
Their wedding reception was simpler, sandwich fixings set out on trays with a variety of breads and rolls and condiments. They wanted cheese cake for the Wedding cake, so we had cheese cake bar: lots of toppings for the cheese cake slices set out for individual design! I was going to make the cheese cakes myself but that TIME THING. Walmart makes excellent cheese cake and we had lots of raves. The groom's cake was chocolate and I DID do that one myself and decorate it.
They do not like to dance so we focused on lots of talk and moving around the room.
HAve fun Laurel!
Ok topo much experience for ONE comment!!!!
ReplyDeleteCREATE TEAMS to help you as much as possible!!! I always manage to NOT do that and I'm sorry afterward, but people tend to pitch in easily. BAD POINT. I appranetly didn't tell all the last minute helpers in the kitchen at Malachi's reception that I had three more pounds of sliced meat in the fridge, and we ran out. I thought somehow we' eaten a LOT of meat really fast, but no. Found it after we' cleaned up. So YES to LISTS and TEAMS for this and that are my key words for this wedding. Now an almost 6 wedding planning veteran mom, I am ready for a break. THREE weddings this summer was just a LOT!
Hannah's was probably the most complicated, but I had two out of town friends who helped a LOT as did Jon's mom and sister.
Oh we rented tables and chairs for our outdoor events, and that worked well. Our church is too small and we didn't want to be hauling furniture at 10 PM on a Saturday night anyhow.
AS much disposable stuff as possible is GREAT. We decorated the arch under which our bridal parties walked, with tulle netting and silk flowrs from Hobby Lobby. We used very few lowers in the churches but did tie ribbon around a single rose and attach one of those to each pew. Simple, pretty and a fun event for a group of us to do while munching pizza the day before the weddings!Pizza is a great rehearsal dinner food for casual couples and it was Malachi's choice for their rehearsal. For HAnnah's we had a taco bar at Esther's restaurant. IT was all a lot of fun. Casey's dad is smoking meat for a BBQ next week for that rehearsal dinner. LOTS of country themed food for Esther and Casey but that is who they are. She is my cowgirl and she is marrying her cowboy!!
My favorite idea is to set up your own photo booth with a little chalkboard for guest to write a message for the bride and groom and then hold it up in the photo as a guest book like here http://thenicholsblog.com/2009/08/09/amy-greg/ (you have to scroll down a bit to see the pictures I'm talking about) I love the idea of photo booths with themes to like these: http://www.giverslog.com/?p=10090 (not geared toward weddings but you get the idea)
ReplyDeleteI also did a candy table with all the couples favorite candy in big apothecary jars (borrowed from friends/found at thrift stores) with a scroll over the table that said "a sweet beginning" I tied the the jars with colorful bows to match the decor.
At Joann's they have large paper mache letters that can be painted and look great on a mantel or main table in the couple's initials.
Fun stuff can be found at the dollar store too~ http://dollarstorecrafts.com/find-projects/wedding/ I got tall vases and floating candles there and then used fake rose petals(you can't tell there fake in water!) in the bottom from ikea all in all I think the center pieces came out to $1.35 a table!
For invitations I love using a photo and then adding words/graphics in photoshop (or whatever photo editing software you use) and then uploading to snapfish or where ever you like to have your photos printed and and you have invitations for 10 cents each! (and I am sure you could wrangle one of your photographer children into helping!)
Have fun!!
What fun Laurel...it is an overwhelming task at times but with your great attitude it should be fun...
ReplyDeleteWe did chocolate fountains! A Big hit...We have three if you would like to borrow them. You can do three stations with all the same type of chocolate or three different kinds...everyone seems to have different likes in the chocolate department.
Music playlist...give that task to Jeremiah and Ashley..then it will be music they like or if that doesn't work then maybe to one of your other kids...a fun task for them and one less for you.
Punch can be as simple as frozen juice mixed with it's water and add gingerale and a favorite flavor of sherbet...
I also have 18 12" mirror tiles that work well for centerpieces and around 120 small glass votives.. If you need to borrow any of it just let me know, we'll have to figure out how to get it north.
Have fun!!! enjoy the process and most of all take time to enjoy the reception...too many of us have gotten to the end of the reception and realized we spent so much time working and visiting we didn't even stop to eat!
My daughter had a Christmas wedding and we planned a very simple reception afterwards. After going to some weddings recently I realize just how simple it was, but we worked with what we had! My mom let us use her crystal serving pieces and we had a Christmas tree decorated with (?) I don't even remember! The tables were covered in white and we had burgandy candles and lots of garland. We served a white wedding cake with cream cheese icing, made by one of our church members as a gift. It was beautiful. My second daughter made and froze TONS of sausage balls for this reception. We also served cheese logs and crackers, chocolate covered pretzels, nuts and mints. Drinks were a pineapple-apple punch, water and coffee. I bought plates, cups, napkins and utensils from Sam's.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could serve a variety of cupcakes (freeze before icing). They are apparently IN right now, a variety of cookies which also freeze well, nuts, pretzels, assorted cheese and crackers, a punch, hot chocolate, cider or coffee.
We gotta talk.
ReplyDeleteI got some stuff you could borrow too if you want to. It was cheaper to by with two weddings a month apart than to rent twice.
And some good cheap food ideas.
Donna
Yea ... LOVE all of the ideas! Thanks!!!
ReplyDeleteLinda ... I have my grandmother's wedding ring. Oh how special to offer it to all of the ladies as "something old, something borrowed ...". Jeremiah and I just talked yesterday about having a Cheesecake bar. I had NO IDEA that W*l-Mart sold cheesecakes. (We don't have a Super W*l-Mart ... but I can drive an hour to one.)
CNKCNK - LOVE the Photo Booth idea! Thanks.
Robin - Yes. It would be WONDERFUL if we could borrow your chocolate fountains. Jeremiah liked that idea when I shared it with him yesterday.
Donna - Yes. Let's Chat!
THANKS ladies!!!
Laurel :)
I've caught a few wedding shows recently and the "bar" thing seems to be in right now. One wedding did an ice cream sundae bar. Another did a cheesecake bar. Cheesecake bar seems like it would be pretty easy to set up too!
ReplyDeleteWent to a simple yet lovely wedding reception this summer. They had individual yummy bunt cakes with fresh raspberries dusted with powdered sugar. I know it's a whole different season, but still, they were great. Also, they decorated the tables with different antique teapots filled with fresh flowers. I would guess they got the flowers from somewhere like Costco. I think for winter, candles are wonderful. I like simple and clean so a glass hurricane filled with some sort of filler and a candle looks nice. Or you could find some nice bare branches and place them in a vase or pot and maybe hang some faux crystals off the limbs.
ReplyDeleteMy husband has been a dj to several different weddings lately. He was able get music requests from the wedding party and put it on an ipod, then somehow hook it up to a sound system.
Let me know if you want a hand with things. If I am around and able I would love to.
What about vistaprint postcards for invitations? The website is vistaprint.com and they do postcards, which you can design yourself from scratch or from templates and they print them . You can get 100 for 'free' - just paying postage. Cheap and quick!
ReplyDeleteI'm all yours from Christmas evening to Jan 2nd. Put me to work.
ReplyDelete(disclaimer: assuming I don't get a "Baby's on her way" phone call from Becky that week. She's not due until the 7th, so hopefully she'll be closer to her due date?)
Tim and Carlee did an ice cream sundae bar. Love the cheesecake bar idea. Mmmmmmm!
We'll be having a Hand and Foot tournament at the reception, right? If you can play it with 8-12, you can play it with 200 ;)
I can get the stuff from Robin the week before Christmas and bring it up with me.
LOVE some of the otheriieas and since I am not all done putting Esther and Casey's wedding together...I may borrow a few things from your other friends! Cheesecake bar was a big hit with fresh and canned berries, carmel sauce, raspberry sauce, chocolate sauce, whipped cream. It was a big hit!
ReplyDeleteMy mom was SO thrilled to know that her mother's ring was part of her granddaughter/ grandson's weddings!!! She can't do much since the stroke but that really helped her feel included.
I am with Vicky- home on Christmas break and I would love to help. Also I think a gigantic hand and foot tournament would be incredible! haha
ReplyDeleteFor music I would ask Matt Croyle to compile a playlist. If creating playlists is a spiritual gift, he most definitely has it.
hehehe did I mention just how excited I am for Christmas break. It's going to be fantastic!
also, slideshows can be done pretty easily, and... If you can get me electronic copies of the pictures and the background music you want... I will most likely have time over Thanksgiving break to create it. So let me know.
hooray hooray hooray! Can't wait to see y'all. :D
miss you lots
All my love!!
I am with Vicky- home on Christmas break and I would love to help. Also I think a gigantic hand and foot tournament would be incredible! haha
ReplyDeleteFor music I would ask Matt Croyle to compile a playlist. If creating playlists is a spiritual gift, he most definitely has it.
hehehe did I mention just how excited I am for Christmas break. It's going to be fantastic!
also, slideshows can be done pretty easily, and... If you can get me electronic copies of the pictures and the background music you want... I will most likely have time over Thanksgiving break to create it. So let me know.
hooray hooray hooray! Can't wait to see y'all. :D
miss you lots
All my love!!
Not sure if you are having young kids for the wedding, but of the 5 weddings I attended this summer, the most memorable were the two where there was childcare! I guess this was a gift more for the parents of the young kids than for the bride and groom! Though my kids did behave pretty well the four - five hours at the other weddings without childcare, it sure was nice to be able to eat hot food and visit with friends and family without feeling like the kids were getting neglected! For one of the weddings, a couple friend from BSF provided the childcare as their wedding gift. They set up a room off of the main reception hall and had games, crafts, music and made sure the kids ate. The kids had a great time and the parents were so appreciative! The kids felt included in the wedding (they were there for church) and the kids that wanted to, joined in the dancing.
ReplyDeleteHave fun with all the planning! I love weddings and this must be exciting times for you!
p.s. Did I miss the final tally for your road trip? My husband has wanted to take a road trip with the family for the longest and I am trying to get an idea of what we are looking at costwise.
Slide shows are very easy to set up if you have everything digital and a mac!
ReplyDeleteiphotos has everything to do a very simple one.
At my daughter's reception, the hit of the evening was a kid's table with cookies, goldfish crackers, skittles, slinky's, fans, pinwheels, and a few other very kid friendly items and treats.
ReplyDeleteSecond hand stores are a treasure trove for platters, fun fabric and even funky decorations (spray paint is your friend!)
Have FUN!
Hello again,
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I planned most of our wedding reception ourselves, and we have very fond memories of it.
I would say that wedding cake pops would be a fantastic addition to any reception.
http://www.bakerella.com/wedding-cake-pops/
Good luck with your planning.
Matt