In case you missed it or want to refresh your memory from almost two weeks ago:
Oh Happy Day: Part One
Oh Happy Day: Part Two
Oh Happy Day: Part Three
Oh Happy Day: Part Four
Oh Happy Day: Part Five
Oh Happy Day: Part Six
Oh Happy Day: Part Seven
Oh Happy Day: Part Eight
Oh Happy Day: Part Nine
Oh Happy Day: Part Ten
Oh Happy Day: Part Eleven
I need to give you fair warning....today is Thursday, tomorrow is Friday, the next day is Saturday, and the next day is Sunday. Yep, that's how many days we have left. Now, obviously today's was posted on Facebook. Tomorrow's will be posted on Facebook as well, but there is a slight possibility that Saturday's and Sunday's will NOT be posted on Facebook because of my inability to be on a computer. I can post from my cell phone to the blog, but I cannot post from my cell phone to Facebook. So just a word of warning...the posts will be here even if I am not!
Back to today. Today is when you FINALLY get to see our reception location. First of all, let me explain to you how VERY difficult it is to find somewhere to hold a reception in Starkville, Mississippi. Because of that, we looked everywhere to try to figure out options. I have always said that I wanted my reception to be at the Palmeiro Center at Mississippi State. If you are unfamiliar with the Palmeiro Center, it is the indoor practice facility for the baseball and football team. However, there is a front banquet room that is used for receptions and events. I have many memories in this room, and as a diamond girl, it holds a special place in my heart.
So, when we requested it for the month of June, the answer was no. No? Why no? Well, camps go on during the month of June. After texting and calling a few baseball friends, we were able to work around camps {or so we thought} and we wound up with the Bryce Griffis Room in the Palmeiro Center for June 19th aka the same time as the College World Series in Omaha.
Now, before you go all nutso on me like a bunch of people did... Yes, I am the biggest college baseball fan, BUT I knew that the ONLY way I would be safe was to request the room for a day I knew that MSU wouldn't be at home. If by some crazy event we hosted a regional or super regional {please control your laughter at the thought, but no one expected us to be in a super regional this year either}, I wanted to know that we would be safe and secure and not looking for a new reception site the week before.
And so began plans to beautify the Bryce Griffis room. Now, before I show you the room, you need to know that David and I had one request about the reception spot. We have sweated on people too many times to count at receptions in the summer, and the last thing we wanted was for it to be hot, gross, and sweaty and have people in a cramped space smelling of each other. So rather then that, we chose to go with this place:
This is standing at the front door of the undecorated, rather large Bryce Griffis room. Our work was cut out for us. And this is standing at the back facing the doors of the undecorated, rather large Bryce Griffis room.
I am so thankful to say that we had some of the best of the best working with us, and our decor turned out incredible. As mom said, her favorite part was watching people who had seen the space before {what you see above} come in and watching their reaction. She said you could tell they had never seen it look so beautiful. So here we go...
We sent Rebecca Long ahead of everyone to the reception location to take many photos of the decor before everyone got there. I'm so thankful to her because without her we wouldn't have a lot of the table decorations because people began sitting down at tables and eating. Which, while that was what we wanted them to do, left our head photographer little time to photograph the decor. However, she does have some great pictures as well that I'll share too. These are all mixed. This is how we went from the above, to THIS:
When you walked into the room, you were greeted by a table with two of these large arrangements. There were two others in the room as well. They were bold and made a statement in the large space.
We asked guests to write us notes of blessings during the prelude of the wedding service. That way, people could leave us advice, prayers, funny memories, and blessings. We read them all when we got back from our honeymoon and intend to read them again in the coming days. So many special people took part, but some had forgotten to write or drop theirs off. So we placed a guestbook page and blessing cards on the table right as you walked in the door.
I'll show you my cake area now. Both of our cake tables were on either side of the door and had a big glass wall behind it. These are the flowers behind the cake table. They include all of the bridesmaids bouquets in the 8 containers on the table along with the toss bouquet laying on the table.
An upclose of the bridesmaid bouquet.
This was the toss bouquet, though I must admit I barely remember holding it!
And this is the entire picture set by the bride's cake tables. Can you see the flowers on the table behind? I also want to point out my cake stand which was made for me by our wedding mastermind Mrs. Kitty. She is the one from a bunch of posts back. She made this cake stand for her daughter and let us use it as well. I'm not a big fan of the traditional cake of silver. I'm sure a bunch of you are, but I think it tends to overpower the cake and it's beauty a bunch of the time. I had seen a mirrored cake stand in Miss Mississippi and thought that's what I wanted. Kitty was on mission to find a pretty picture frame that she thought would work to put glass in. However, when she made this for her daughter, she knew it would fit perfectly on my bride's table.
Look at the beautiful glasswork! Made with love! I shouldn't be telling y'all that. I'm just kidding guys! We had that handcrafted and sent in from France! Don't you love it? KIDDING!
And the cake? Oh the yummy, yummy cake! We have a very good friend, Mrs. Beverly, who has been asking about what day she'd get to see the cakes. Well today is your lucky day Mrs. Beverly! It's cake day! :)
Our friend Mrs. Beverly hooked us up with an incredible cake guy. Because we aren't from Starkville, we kind of just had to trust everyone when it came to vendors to use. And as soon as we got engaged, Mrs. Beverly set us up a meeting with Mr. Steve. Mr. Steve has a day job. He doesn't do cakes for just anyone. Apparently, Mrs. Beverly had to call him and tell him her "daughter" was getting married. His response? "For someone who doesn't have any children, you sure have a lot of daughters Beverly." But he agreed to meet us.
Okay...y'all need to understand something. I. Love. Chocolate. Not only do I love chocolate, but I love it paired with peanut butter. Love it. All of it. {Just wait till we get to the groom's cake later on} I also love wedding cake as long as it doesn't taste like what I call "Wal Mart Cake." {no offense Wal Mart}. So I've figured it out. I just don't like that criscoy tasting icing. So if we go to your wedding and you see David with three pieces of cake, it's not because he was hungry. It's because I've tried one piece, it tasted like Wal Mart cake, and I handed it to him. In hopes that the other cake tastes better, I've gotten a slice of it, eaten it, and handed it to David. So, when our cake man asked me what I wanted, I responded, "I don't care. I just don't want it to taste like Wal Mart cake." Yep. That was my quote. He responded and offered suggestions. My response was always, "I don't care. I just don't want it to taste like Wal Mart cake."
So somehow, we settled on pound cake with white buttercream icing. And I told him I just wanted the swirly things on it. He asked me what flavoring and began to list options. I said I didn't care, and that all I cared about was the chocolate cake because I loved chocolate. So he asked if I wanted white chocolate. So white chocolate pound cake it was. And man was it great! No Wal Mart cake here!
Funny story about the initial at the top. He also asked me what I wanted at the top. I didn't care {expected that didn't you}. So my Mom and Mrs. Kitty said that I wanted the initial atop it. He asked if I wanted the three monogram initials to which my answer was no.
Why you ask? Well, if the bride's first name initial is on the left and the last name in the middle and the groom's first name initial is on the right, what does that spell for us? Yep...SAD. No WAY was I going to have SAD on top of my wedding cake on a JOYous occasion. So it was settled to just have the A. And I loved it. I thought it was beautiful and perfect. I guess we'll let my brother-in-law's future spouse use it one day. I think it lost a jewel or two though.
Table decor, I had the same attitude. Our florist--Tracy Proctor--tried on numerous occasions to get me to come to Tupelo and look at containers and choose flowers. I told him I didn't care. I told him he went to school for this, and not me and that I'd feel way more confident with him doing it. And so he did. We had high tables and regular long rectangular tables. Some had photos of David and I on them with rose buds in vases.
Some held maroon calalillies among other flowers I'd never heard of. We used maroon table squares and circles to cover silver and champagne table cloths to set the affair.
Little rosebud vases could be found in multiple places.
And the food, OH THE FOOD! Yum! We used Harding Catering out of Caledonia, MS and they were FANTASTIC! I would recommend them to anyone and everyone. And I know, yet again, you'll find this hard to believe, but I looked at her and told her to pick the food because I wasn't going to get to eat it. I had two requests. One was that I wanted hand dipped MSU Ice Cream--muscadine ripple specifically. The second was that I wanted boiled shrimp. And she did the rest. I specifically remember telling her to do whatever would "look pretty."
Asparagus roll ups, BBQ cups, and chicken salad croissants can be seen in the photo below.
Yummy asparagus roll ups!
And what would a wedding be in the south without BBQ! These cute little cups were so easy to eat out of. First they had a layer of baked beans on the bottom, topped with BBQ pulled pork. Next they had a layer of cole slaw and were garnished with a breadstick! Incredible!
Yummy chicken salad croissants! With no onions. Because I don't like onion in my chicken salad.
And beautiful it looked! And when I tasted it at 6pm on the way to Birmingham that night because I was famished, it was incredible! David's mom told me the other day that they were talking about our wedding with some friends a couple weeks ago, and the husband said, "oh the one with the really good food!!" So I take that to mean it was good. Especially if someone can remember it a year later!
BLT bites and shrimp shooters can be seen below.
Yummy shrimp and one of my two requests! But the cocktail sauce is what was to die for!
Shrimp again because I just love them.
Funny story about the shrimp. Last June, the great oil spill of 2010 was still going on. I was so upset when my Mom told me that we probably wouldn't be having shrimp at the wedding because of the oil spill. Dumb BP. However, when I talked to Bridgett at Harding Catering, she told me not to worry because we'd have our shrimp. So thankful she was right!
This was the fruit, veggie, and Mississippi State cheese area. I did kind of request Mississippi State cheeses too. Although, my Mom wanted it as well!
MSU Cheese is so yummy. You should come get some of it too! I was in the Cheese store the other day on campus, and they are about to mail out their Christmas order forms. In July. Yeah. July. Crazy! But if you've ever tried to buy cheese in December, you know it's impossible!
And for entertainment, we even had an incredible Big Band era style band play. They were fantastic and really set a great atmosphere for guests. We weren't going to have a band. I didn't really want to dance, and it just wasn't at the top of my priority list. BUT, we found out a few weeks before the wedding that Cheerleading camp would be going on in the gym. Yep. Cheerleading camp. So we had already been talking to this particular band and asked them to come. I'm happy to say, I never once heard a cheerleader. I SAW a few outside, but I never heard one. Thank goodness!
I just love the saxophone!
My second request which was the MSU Ice Cream. This was found on the right side of the Groom's table area. We served Muscadine Ripple {if you haven't had it, get in your car, drive to Starkville, and get some--you won't regret it!} and Vanilla ice cream.
I loved the plate we put on the table. It says... "A bulldog fan-someone who bleeds maroon and white. Knows the word "dog" is pronounced "dawg." Refuses to wear red and blue. Has no idea what a Hotty Toddy is and doesn't care. Has a pet named Bully. Carries a cowbell at all times. Dreams of winning Golden Eggs. Thinks there is only one real college in the State of Mississippi. Was born to yell "Go Dawgs!"" So perfect for David and I.
We had to be authentic. I wanted the ice cream served in MSU cups like what you buy MSU ice cream out of.
And what would MSU ice cream be without the traditional wooden spoons? I'm telling you. Drive to Starkville, get ice cream and cheese! Your life isn't complete until you do!
Now you see why this is the only thing I cared about! YUMMY!
What you can't see very well {so I'll point it out to you} is that the cake is set atop a cake stand that we made out of four cowbells that we then rusted and welded together. Then we used a piece of glass that we had cut to support the cake. It is all sitting on a maroon cowhide. This cake went so fast that there was none left right after they cut it. Yes, it was in such high demand that they went back and cut the topper that they had saved for us. As some of my friends say, "we were served crumbs of Reeses for grooms cake." It was just that good.
Here's a better view of the rusted cowbells. When you lift the stand up, they even still have clangers to ring!
I'm drooling now! Are you?
And what would a good MSU reception be without cowbells?! In between the grooms cake table on the left and the ice cream table on the right, there was a cowbell tree. Yep, a cowbell tree. It was covered in cowbells hanging from ribbons. And the base of the table was covered with cowbell favors for people to ring as we left and take with them gifts.
The cowbells had cards attached that said "Make a Joyful Noise" on them and had our wedding date on the back of the card. Stickered to the front of the cowbells was an A initial with our names on either side.
And what would a cowbell table be without cowbells for the Bride and Groom?
I hope you enjoyed seeing our reception decor? Wasn't it just breathtakingly beautiful? We loved it, and it was so perfect in every way!
Tomorrow you'll get to see us at the reception and all of the people that were in attendance. Well, not all of the people, but a bunch of them! Hope you'll check back!
