Our Wedding: The Reception

Today is our actual wedding anniversary (!!) and I'm excited to share with you all about our reception:

Our reception was held at the beautiful Hacienda de las Flores. We primarily used the outdoor space of their facility, with our dance floor, bar, and tables being set up on the patio. The buffet was held inside the building, right off the patio. The site was already gorgeous and needed little added decor.  

We began the reception with a cocktail hour of passed appetizers and drinks. We decided to do our first dance right of the bat, so our wedding party preceded us as we made it out onto the dance floor (aka patio).

We danced to Van Morrison's Days Like This, while the bridal party swayed in the background. 

After our first dance, we headed to the lawn for a few more photos, while our guests continued the cocktail hour. 

Next, we sat down for the dinner hour. Nick and I didn't really want a head table set above the rest of the reception, so we compromised with a U-shaped seating arrangement on the same level as the rest of the tables. Dinner included a trio of buffet tables serving a variety of foods. Our indecisiveness led us to include three different types of food at the wedding, Asian, Mexican, and traditional American. Although I didn't eat much, we had many compliments on the food, so I'm sure it was tasty!

After Nick and I ate quickly, we got up and visited each table to thank all 200 of our guests for sharing our special day.

 

After mingling with our guests, it was time to get our dance on! Luckily, we had one of those receptions where everyone ended up on the dance floor. 

When guests felt the need to take a break from dancing, they refueled at our candy bar, filling the pink and black bags with their sugary choices.

The simple table decor really shone at night:

Cake was next:

Our D.J. ended the night with a little game. He  had us stand back to back with a shoe in each hand. Then he asked Nick and I questions about our relationship and we gave our answer by either holding up the bride shoe or the groom shoe.

If this game is any predictor of marriage longevity, I think we'll be okay, since we had the same answers for all the questions!

The reception ended much too quickly! However, it was the perfect celebration of our marriage and the coming together of great families and friends. It truly was the best day of our lives!