wedding recap part 4 - cocktail hour!

*disclaimer - i am so sorry to be posting these separately and sporadically, but there are so many photos that i want to focus on each aspect of the day in it’s own post.  and PS - HAPPY FRIDAY!!*

so we’re all caught up now, we’ve discussed the rehearsal, the morning-of, and the ceremony, which brings us now to cocktail hour!

after arriving at the yacht club, i was able to walk in to the venue before anyone else arrived and really see all of my details all put together.  my table numbers, my menus, the rock place”cards”, the blue mason jars (love!), the guestbook, the cake, the pretty stripey straws, the puff balls!, and, and, and…  there were SO many details and i was thrilled to see them all come to life.  it was one of my favorite moments of the day.  but the cake is what really took my breath away.  i literally gave my venue a tiny little picture (see below), and their resident cake guy was able to replicate it - to a T!  it was amazing.  i could have looked at that thing all day long.

photo i gave cake guy:

photo of our cake that cake guy mastered:

seriously - i was OBSESSED with this cake.  i only got the bite that pat gave me (and no, we didn’t smash it in each other’s faces), but it was a red velvet cake and it was freaking amazing.  luckily my venue guy remembered to save the top portion so it now resides in my parents freezer waiting to be eaten on september 25, 2011 :)

ok so i totally went out of order here so i’ll get back to the story.  so we arrive at the yacht club, i go crazy over the details, and then it’s time to take the rest of our photos.  we head out on the lawn overlooking the water and took a bunch of pictures on the docks, and i almost fell in the water about 5 times.  my heels kept getting stuck in between the wood boards on the docks and it was comical (because i didn’t fall in - if i did fall in, it would not have been comical.)  my biggest regret of the day (i’ll post more on this later) is that i didn’t give my photographer a list of “must have” pics.  seriously - i was like, ok, ok, take the pictures, i want to go party!  our photographers did an AMAZING job, trust me, but it was my fault that i didn’t make the stupid list.  i had so many little details i wanted pictures of but just never even thought to make a list, and even with the urging from my photographers “are you sure you don’t want any other specific pictures?”, i still missed some things.  my fault!

and here’s some pics to give you a feel of our cocktail hour - another favorite part of my day.  i had two friends, one who i have known for more years than i can count, we worked at the hardware store together and he’s been one of my good friends forever, play acoustic guitars for our cocktail hour and sing music to the likes of dave matthews, ray lamontagne, coldplay, and all the laid back tunes you could think of.  jon and aaron (of JA2M) were outstanding.  they made the cocktail hour so perfectly laid back and relaxed, but still with an elegant feel.  i loved them!  in fact i love them so much i was talking them up to fellow bride and blogger erin from sparkle & hay, that she ended up booking them for her wedding too!  love it!

during cocktail hour we had our signature cocktail that i labored for so long about what to serve - and they were a hit (with my little handmade cards to remind of the ingredients)!  this is where the pretty stripey straws came in to play, and my photographers took an amazing shot of the straws for one of our ring pics :)

and here’s a few more pics of my little details brought to life:

and then, before we knew it, it was already time to line up for our announcements and the beginning of the reception!

i PROMISE to finish up next week but there are so many pics i want to share that putting all in one post would be the world’s longest post ever known to man.  thank you for your patience (and for continuing to read :))

don’t forget to enter the giveaway for the etsy travel tote!  winner will be drawn on monday :)