By around 10:30am we'd gotten both of our cars loaded with everything from the suite, and I headed up to my grandfather's house a couple miles away to help with setting up tables, while Mr. Cola checked us out of the hotel and went to Safeway for the luncheon food trays, ice and orange juice for mimosas.
Here's a look at my grandfather's house, all set up for the luncheon. We borrowed some extra tables and chairs from neighbors, bought linen-like disposable table cloths (the same kind we used for our rehearsal dinner tables), and reused the small reception centerpieces and bridesmaid purse bouquets to decorate the tables for the lunch. Plus my mom had bought brightly colored disposable plates and napkins on sale for about 80% off, so big win on cheap decor for our Sunday event!
I helped set up some umbrellas in the back yard, and a couple fans, since it was another ridiculously hot day for June, and Mr. Cola arrived with the build-your-own sandwich platters. We also had meatballs, BBQ chicken and ribs, various snacks, and of course, lots of left over cupcakes for dessert.
I poured mimosas for everyone, and managed to snap a few more photos of our luncheon before my mom yelled at me to sit down and eat something. But I was past the point of exhaustion at that point, and could only pick at my food.
I tell ya, after shopping for wedding flowers Wednesday morning, the low key bachelorette party Wednesday night, arranging flowers all day Thursday, our wedding party welcome dinner and sunset cruise Thursday night, the ceremony rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Friday, our amazing wedding, and after party, I was about running on empty. So if you are planning on having a ton of wedding events like we did, just plan on being really, really tired after it's all over. Definitely pack some Double Shots or 5 Hour Energy shots in your purse, in case you need a last minute pick me up. And drink a ton of water, staying hydrated will help you keep your energy up through days of non-stop events!
After picking at my lunch, our officiant friend reminded us that we still had a very important matter to take care of. We'd forgotten to sign our marriage license at our wedding! So I ran out to my car to retrieve it, and then we had to figure out how to actually fill it out correctly.
I think I was counting out what day we had to mail it in by in this picture....
And to make sure we were all clear on who had to sign what and where, our officiant read the instructions out loud.
Form signing galore! I like that in this picture you can see that our smaller wedding centerpieces were still holding up pretty well, considering we arranged them on Thursday.
And....I'm totally not sure why I'm posing like a crazy person in this photo. Showing off my Anthro dress maybe? Who knows, like I said, I was too tired to be thinking completely clearly!
Once our officiant filled out his part, it was my sister and my BIL's turn to sign as witnesses.
And we too had to get in on the posing while signing action, even though we didn't really need to sign anything!
After posing for a few more photos as family members requested, it was time for hugs all around. Some of our guests were taking off to go sightseeing for the afternoon, and Mr. Cola and a groomsman had to go back up to our venue to pick up the Uhaul full of our wedding decor.
I loaded up my car, said goodbye to a few more of my family members, and just like that, it was all over. And it was surreal....and bittersweet.
15 months of planning, crafting, budgeting, blogging, more planning, and finally the executing--it was all over and done with. And I won't lie and say I wasn't a bit sad driving back home by myself. Actually, during my 25 minute drive home after our luncheon is probably the closest I came to crying our entire wedding week. I'm not a crier (at all!), but just thinking about how much love I'd felt all week, how great it was to see friends and family, how wonderful everything was, and the fact that everyone was packing up and going home, and it was really and truly over made me tear up a little.
But alas, luckily I couldn't dwell on it for too long. Once I arrived back home, we had to unload the 10 foot Uhaul truck, return it, pickup some last minute honeymoon items at the drug store, say goodbye to the last of our wedding party before they flew home, and procrastinate on finishing packing for our honeymoon by laughing at and uploading fauxtobooth pictures for guests to download. It ended up taking about 4x too long that night to pack for our honeymoon (which we were leaving for at 9am the next morning), because we were just plain dead tired and brain fried.
But that Sunday night was the best, most restful night of sleep we'd had in weeks, in our own bed, married.
Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:
- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress
- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors
- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves
- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties
- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements
- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees
- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
- The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
- Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
- We got to see each other for the first time on our wedding day at our first look
- We took some time for bride and groom pictures in the park
- I gave you a behind the scenes look at our family, friends and DOC setting up our venue
- Arriving at our venue and getting ready for the ceremony to start
- Everyone walked down the aisle
- Excerpts from our ceremony, and reading the vows we wrote for each other
- I interrupted our officiant, we exchanged rings, and with a kiss we were officially married!
- Wedding party and family portraits, and my thoughts on missing pictures
- Our guests enjoyed cocktail hour while we took a few more photos
- Everyone ate a delicious dinner, and our siblings gave beautiful toasts
- We didn't practice, but we had a very special and wonderful first dance as husband and wife
- I showed you some disposable camera pictures, which were totally worth it to include on our tables!
- I found a target and tossed my bouquet at her
- Mr. Cola finally managed to find my garter under my dress and tossed it
- We fed each other cupcakes, and our guests swarmed our 6ft tall cupcake tower
- We stole some private moments together that our photographers documented
- All our guests had some fun taking pictures in our DIY fauxtobooth
- We enjoyed the rest of the evening with our guests
- I showcased all the pretty details from our wedding, part 1 and part 2
- We snuck out of our reception and away into the night
- We partied into the early morning at our awesome after party
(All photos in this post are personal, taken on either my camera or Bridesmaid H's camera)
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Phew, that's a lot of events! I feel you on the back-to-back-to-back activity and how draining it can be. I'm sorry you were feeling sad on your drive back home, but I think it's totally natural to feel that way - it's always bittersweet to see a good thing come to an end, especially one that you have poured so much of yourself into. I've really loved your recaps, and you've inspired me to start mine soon :)
ReplyDeleteThe luncheon looked amazing, but I can imagine how exhausted you must have been! Wow! I was super tired on the way to Hawaii the day after our wedding, and we scheduled so many activities that while the honeymoon was fun, it was not very relaxing, either.
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