The Mahoney Wedding – Reception (2of 2)

Finally I have arrived at my last re-cap post for my wedding. It’s only been a few days over 3 months, that’s not bad, right? 

When I last left you I finished telling you about the ceremony. 

Our reception was after the ceremony (as soon as people could make the about 20 minute drive) at Thomas’ parents’ home. They have a very nice house with a pretty decent back yard (and by that I’m referring to Los Angeles, not in comparison to some of the backyards I’ve seen on other blogs). Since they knew we were trying to save money on the wedding so that we could buy a home they very graciously allowed us to use their home for free. 

In order to have the reception here we had to rent chairs, tables, linens, and tents. Although we got married in spring we live in an area that does not tend to have cool weather. While a lot of the country was under snow we were having 85+ days. That said - it actually rained the day before the wedding for an hour or two. 

My sister, brother-in-law, and (mostly) my MOH set up the tables early on Saturday morning and made them look gorgeous. I made the center pieces myself and my supervisor’s son made the table numbers – all items were from the Dollar Tree! I didn’t want any flowers on the table because one of the things that bother me at big parties like these is that there are so many decorations on the table you don’t have space for anything else. However my mother-in-law got some flowers donated and those were placed on the tables (I didn’t find out until the reception time).

As I mentioned in the previous post Thomas and I took some time to get to the reception site because the ceremony was shorter than we expected. When we arrived we had the bridal party come out to the front lawn of the house so that we could be organized to be announced into the party. 

While people were clapping for Thomas and I and we were doing a little dance when we walked in someone told us to re-do the cake topper, so we had to oblige! 

As you can imagine the night was a long of mingling and a lot of drinking. For me. The one regret I have from the wedding is that I drank way too much. The cucumber mint martini that I requested we have was SOO good that I couldn’t get enough of it! (My mouth is watering at the thought of it now!). 

The best pictures of the entire day were from the reception. I had a lot of fun and couldn’t stop smiling the entire time. 

My dad was too shy to do a whole speech but my brother-in-law went ahead and did it for him. The night before my nieces decided they wanted to give speeches as well so we let them. Thomas’ dad and best man (his cousin) both gave speeches along with my MOH. 

My brother-in-law (since I was 9).

My youngest niece, Camila.

After the speeches Thomas’ Uncle Greg gave a blessing and we said the Lord’s Prayer.

Thomas' Uncle Greg.

Then it was time for dinner! We chose to have it catered by Stone Fire Grill. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a chain restaurant that is simply delicious and very affordable. We ended up paying about $13 per person! We also had tons of left overs. 

The cake was ordered from a high school friend and she did an amazing job. Not only was it delicious (chocolate, lemon chiffon, and carrot cake) but it looked beautiful! I will be ordering from her again soon! We also ended up having left overs of the chocolate portion of the cake. I think we forgot to tell the caterers that the cakes different flavors so they only passed out the top two layers. Oh well.  

I set up 3 different things for our guests to do during the reception. 

• Jenga Guestbook

I saw this on Pinterest and since Thomas and I like to play games I thought it would be pretty perfect. Instead of a regular guestbook I set out Sharpies and our guests signed on Jenga pieces. Since our guest list was under 70 we had more than enough pieces for everyone. 

• Plate

    I saw this plate on clearance at Jo-Ann’s and thought it would be cut to put up in our home. Of course not I haven’t done it, but it was a cute idea, right?

• Thumb Prints 

I also saw this at Michael's. Everyone left their thumbprints as leaves of a tree.

• The Shoe Game

I’m sure you’ve seen this either in a movie, at a wedding, or floating online. The idea is that guests write down questions that have either a GROOM or BRIDE answer and then the bride and groom have to answer the questions by sitting back to back and lifting up either the bride’s shoe or the grooms. I was nervous to do this because I didn’t want the attention on me, but it ended up being SO much fun! 

There was plenty of dancing, including my dance with my dad to Bob Carlisle’s Butterfly Kisses and my first dance with Thomas to I Still by the Backstreet Boys (yes, of course BSB was played at my wedding!). Thomas had his first dance with his mom as well. I did a lot more dancing than I ever would have though since I hate to dance. 

I imagine I am sitting on his lap here because he is over a foot taller than me!

We did do a Money/Cash dance. It was fun, but also a bit disappointing. We didn't get many people to come out and participate. I think part of this is because people tend to think we are much better off than the rest of the family and also because since it was held in the home people were wandering around the house and not just in the backyard. 

I had to do a lot of this pulling up. I mentioned previously that I forgot to put my bra/underskirt on under my wedding dress!

Because I did end up getting pretty drunk I don’t remember much of what happened in the evening. I remember my MOH taking my dress off of me before she left (she had an early flight back home). I remember throwing up on Thomas’ parents’ bathroom (in the toilet) and that I cried because I felt bad that I had ruined it. Thomas assured me that I hadn’t ruined it and that everyone had fun. 

We also took a lot of pictures with friends and family.

My brother, David.

My MOH.

My Mommy.

And of course I threw the bouquet and he threw the garter!

We finally left at some time around 8pm. My brother-in-law drove us to the hotel we were staying at and he picked us up the next morning. 

The Mahoney Wedding – April 26, 2014 (Part 2)

I understand people hate reading blogs in a million different posts, but I couldn’t really cut out just parts of my wedding days, and the posts were getting really long, so I figured this was the best way to go about it. Thank you to those who have been sticking around for it!

I was surprised that I wasn’t nervous to walk down the aisle. Well, until a minute before when I remembered I didn’t have my shoes on! We were standing in a room to the side of the chapel when I realized I was barefoot! I hadn’t put my heels on because they were way too painful for me to have on when I didn’t need to. My MOH rushed to put them on before they motioned for her to walk down the aisle. 

I stood there with my daddy, waiting for our turn. It was nice to have a moment alone with him. I felt so grateful that he was there. 

I had no worries at that moment. I thought I would be nervous. That I would be freaking out because there were so many people with their eyes on me. But I didn’t. I was calm and excited to walk down the aisle. I looked around at all the people around me as we reached the end of the aisle where the pastor asked my dad if he gave my hand in marriage to Thomas. We had practiced it differently, but my dad caught on and agreed. I think he told Thomas to treat me well and shook his hand before I took Thomas’ arm and walked up to the pastor. 

Although we had a rehearsal the night before, we hadn’t met with the pastor so it was all new and fresh at that moment. We didn’t know how long it would last or what he would say. We knew it would be religious in part, but what the vows would be? Not a clue. Actually I don’t even remember what they were. This part is really just a blur. 

What I remember clearly is that at one point the pastor stopped and so Thomas thought that was the time to give me our first kissed as a married couple. Everyone laughed at that. We had to take the candles our mom’s had lit before the ceremony and light the unity candle. I asked the pastor “do I turn the candle off, now?”, which caused quite the uproar from the guests. That was probably the most embarrassing moment of the ceremony. 

After the ceremony ended, Thomas and I walked out followed by our bridal party. The pastor, Thomas, I, and his best man along with my MOH went to the office so we could sign the marriage certificate. We posed for some pictures there and then returned to the chapel to take more pictures. 

We spent quite a while taking pictures in the chapel. Unfortunately they aren’t the best photos. Although we paid over $1k for pictures for the day, the photographer was not as professional as I would have hoped and it seemed as though she kept the camera on automatic. I could have paid someone a lot less to do the same. You live and learn. Luckily I had friends and family who took some nice shots. 

Trying to get the photos was interesting. Thomas has a huge family.

Initially the photographer told my family to get on my side and his on his, I told her that it wouldn’t work – his family couldn’t fit on just his side as you can see. My entire family numbered 13, including myself! 

After everyone left (and man, everyone was in a hurry to be done with pictures and leave) we took some more individual shots. Since the service took less time than we thought, Thomas, the photographer, and I waited around for the limo to arrive. We took some extra pictures during this time. 

The limo was very nice and included alcohol – unfortunately neither of us liked the alcohol they had. We enjoyed some time alone as husband and wife and took some silly pictures. 

When we arrived at Thomas’ parents’ home for the reception we had to pull to the side and wait because our entire bridal party and family weren’t there for us to make the entrance into the party. After a few minutes they finally arrived and we were able to come in. 

This is our immediate family - siblings, parents, and grandparents.

Here is our ENTIRE family - both sides. Okay. Not really, this is just HIS entire family and my immediate family.  

This is my entire immediate family - except for my sister who was in the hospital at this point.

The pastor had us take this picture. I thought it was amazing! The best picture ever! 

Thomas with our fathers.

Me with our moms.

Our siblings - my sister missing.

Next time I’ll talk about the reception. There will probably be a lot of pictures in the post and not a lot of words – I think. 

The Mahoney Wedding - Part Two

This is the 2^nd part of my 4 part series about… my wedding! To read part one click here!

FRIDAY APRIL 25^th 2014 / /

On Friday morning I had an early appointment to get my hair worked on. The idea was that she would be able to start it on Friday and then finish it off on Saturday. When I had a practice run in January the hair do she gave me lasted a couple of days – this time it barely made it through the night. But I did have nice hair for the rehearsal dinner that night!

After getting my hair done and our hair stylist looking at the girls hair so she knew what she would have to deal with on Saturday, we headed out to buy extra jello supplies. We also needed to pick up some vases to replace the ones that broke the night before – at the Dollar Tree.  We were rushing slightly because the Taco Guy (who was bringing the tables/linens/chairs) was supposed to be at Thomas’ parents’ home (the reception site) at 10am to drop off all the tables and things. We got there after 10am to find out that our Taco guy had not yet arrived. For the next 6 hours Thomas attempted to get a hold of him and get a time of arrival.

We got different replies: “I thought it was between 2 and 3! I’ll be there by 12pm.”

At 2:30 we get a text: “I’m loading up right now, I’ll be there at 3pm!”

He finally showed up at 4:30pm. He saw that I was in tears at that point. Things were not going the way I wanted them to go, we didn’t have enough tables and the decorations weren’t matching. He came over to me to apologize and told me that had a job in the morning. I didn’t say anything to him but my brain said “are you doing us a favor? Because we’re paying you over $1,000 for all of this!”. At that point we also discovered he didn’t bring any of the linens, he planned to bring those in the morning. I told him that I wanted them NOW, not tomorrow. I wouldn’t trust him to be on time in the morning for us to be able to set everything up. He also hadn’t brought the tents we had ordered to block the sun, and now the rain.

He said he would go home and bring back the linens and that the tents would be there at 10pm because the tent person was at another event at the time. I left with Lauren and my nieces to go get ready for the rehearsal and dinner. It was about 5 at this point and we had to leave by 5:30 to get to the chapel.

We got back to my condo in time for us all to change and to finish some cleaning up the condo. My master bedroom had been in painting mode for the previous week and my brother had finished painting that morning, so I had to remove all the blue tape and plastic that was covering the bed and carpet. Between Lauren and I we were able to pull everything up and put it in a ball in the balcony so it would be out of the way for the pictures the next day.

We hurried out of the condo, picked up my nieces, and headed to the church – however by that time we were running late and didn’t arrive until a few minutes after 6pm. The rehearsal was fun and light hearted with Thomas joking around as usual. We were able to walk through all the steps a couple of times. I don’t think anyone took any pictures of the rehearsal.

We finished going through everything at 7pm and as I walked out toward my car I slammed my right foot into my left heel peeling my toenail back, While it didn’t hurt, it definitely would be visible. I asked a few people if they had any super glue (I mean, come on – someone had to carry it). With no luck Lauren, the girls and I stopped at a drug store down the block to pick some up. This is when hilarity ensued:

As Lauren put the glue under the nail I pushed it down. Not a very bright thing to do.

Did you guys know that super glue, is, like… super sticky? My finger on my left hand got glued to the big toe on my right foot. I sat there, my leg up on the car seat, my arm across unable to move, much less drive. I tell them “I can’t drive like this!” I might have been panicking a little bit because when I tried to move my finger away it felt like I was ripping the skin off, and all my maid of honor could say was “hold on! Let me get a picture!”. She’s not even a blogger!

I was finally able to, slowly, peel my toe and thumb apart and my toe looked (from a distance) like normal. It didn’t worry me too much since my dress would cover my feet anyway.

The rehearsal dinner was held at Angel City Café, the same location that Thomas’ twin sister’s rehearsal was held last August. They sectioned out part of the restaurant for us (probably about 40 people). We had set appetizers (both were fish based and I don’t eat fish), two different salads, and then each person could pick an entrée and dessert. I enjoyed some tri-tip, which although the BBQ sauce was gross… the meat itself was smoked and delicious!

The restaurant’s owner/manager (not sure who) had a catering job that morning and was able to use the flowers from then to decorate our tables, which was a nice touch.

It was a nice evening with my family and his (mostly his!). (Although the only pictures I have are the following two...)

Not too long after dinner started my maid of honor pulled me toward the front door of the restaurant. Through the week we had heard that it was going to rain on Friday night. It was only a 40% chance of showers and usually that means no rain for us. I mean, we live in Los Angeles land of permanent draught.  But, alas, it was raining. Not hard, and not a lot, but still it was raining. My reception was in a backyard and we had no tent. So my MOH made me take pictures in the rain:

I wanted to be in bed by 11pm, but we didn’t leave the restaurant until 10pm so there was no way that was going to happen. We had to pick up a cooler so that we could transport the jello shots the next day from Thomas’ parents’ home, so we headed there after dinner. Thankfully the rents had arrived and were being set up – but it was raining and the grass was already wet.

When we got back to the condo we went over what we had to take care of the next day, the girls showered, and we got to bed around 11:30pm. I would have a LONG day ahead of me!