The "Worst" Part of Your Wedding Day?

Everyone says your reception is the worst part of your wedding day.  My Grandpa says he offered all his daughters 1 1/2 times their money but none of them took it.  He told me to be the smart one and not have a reception.  I almost listened to him.  I had kinda decided that I didn't want to do a reception, I'd do the cake and first dance at my luncheon and be done by 2.  It would be the most chill wedding day either side of my family had seen.  Yet, there was a small part of me that felt I would be missing out on something if I didn't have a reception, there would be so man people you didn't have a chance to talk to.  Plus, you spend so much money on your dress it'd be a shame for nobody to see it.    

When Spencer and I started talking about marriage I told him I didn't want a reception.  I figured he would think this was an added bonus, but he surprised me.  He told me he wanted a reception, and he knew his parents would too.  Of course, once I told my mom this she said, "If you do a reception in Kaysville you have to do one here."  That's how I ended up with not one, but two receptions.  Now that it's all said and done, however, I am SO glad that we did a reception.  I thought the whole thing was a blast.  In fact, I wish we could do it all again!

Once it was decided we were doing a reception, we had to choose a location.  This part was a no-brainer for me.  Living in Cove there are very few options.  You can do your reception in Logan, but many people won't drive that far.  So, my backyard became the automatic pick.  This led to my entire family being forced into a yardwork frenzy.  We put in sidewalk int he backyard, curbing all around the house, woodchips on the flower beds, planted hundreds of petunias and other flowers, called the lawn doctor, and made our garden look immacualte.  Even though it stressed my mom to the max, she finally got the dream yard she'd been waiting for.  

The whole wedding "line".  With the exception of my friend, Marisa, we only had family members as our wedding party.  One of my biggest regrets from our reception is we did most of our pictures in front of the white garage wall.  There's a gorgeous rock wall and flowers behind us, you just can't see them.  

I love my nieces, and they looked pretty dang adorable in their yellow and grey dresses.  I had to get my classic bridesmaid shot with our bouquets.  And, of course, some of my best friends and I at the luncheon.  Most of these girls would have been my roommates this year had I not gotten married.  The luncheon is the unmentioned part of the wedding.  But I thought even the luncheon was a blast.  Can you tell I had fun on my wedding day??

I spent hours making the scrapbook of "our dating" while Spencer
 did homework all summer.  The pictures and quote "Grow old with
me the best is yet to be" were a Pinterest find.  The cute picture was  
painted by my boss at the "Campus Store."  On the right you can see our sign in table with my favorite wedding picture.  My mom wouldn't let me get a big version of it because, "people would think  I got married at the fair."  It wasn't worth arguing.  

We ordered flowers in bulk from Sam's Club (it saves tons of money!) and my neighbor, Susan Andersen, arranged all the flower centerpieces for me.  They turned out gorgeous!  As a side note, look how beautiful the field is behind the pictures.

I had this great vision of buying wooden letters that said "Cazier" for decor.  First I tried custom ordering them, to save money, but then they were way too thin and wouldn't stand up.  So, I bought some at Hobby Lobby.  They told me they'd order me the letter "Z", so come back in 2 weeks.  When I came back, they told me the company didn't make the letter "Z".  Are you kidding me?!?!?  Ultimately I bought a metal letter Z and spray painted it.  It didn't REALLY match, but you reach a point where you just don't care.
The paper lanterns on chairs....another Pinterest steal.
I really wanted a frozen yogurt bar, but apparently you can't rent a yogurt machine.  We ended up with an ice cream bar, but I still think it looks pretty cute.  (This was one thing I didn't see until I saw the pictures.)

I have a lot of quilts from my Grandma's.  We have this big ugly concrete storage area under our deck, so we hung quilts and got creative to cover it all up.  Bonus: two of my neighbors do interior design, they designed all of this.  I just bought the stuff.   

We found a lady that made our cake for about 1/6 the price of anywhere else.  Plus it turned out pretty dang cute.  The lanterns were one of those things that I had the vision of, but absolutely no idea how we were going to hang them.  That's what dads and fiancés are for.    

It was the line that would never end.  But I really didn't mind.  It's way better than nobody showing up.

I have always thought that cutting the cake is only great if you smash it in each others' faces.  But, I told Spencer not to smash it in my face.  He smashed it anyway, just like I've always secretly wanted it.  

I've wanted to do the Father-daughter dance ever since I watched the movie "What A Girl Wants."  And our first dance was a given.  Spencer even chose the song for us, "Could Not Ask For More."

These two are proof that catching the garter and bouquet really does work.  They just barely got engaged....to each other!  (And I'm really excited)

Last but not least, our car., decorated so nicely by our friends.  Unfortunately you can't really see the more inappropriate parts added by Greg and Pete.

Conclusion:  Having a reception is a blast, so long as you don't get caught up in the details.  My advice?  Get a goodnights sleep the night before (I would argue it's a very appropriate time to take some Tylenol PM) and wear good shoes.  It also helps to have the love of your life with you the whole time.  :)