All images courtesy of Martin Studio Photography and video by 3 Blind Mice Productions.

After dinner, came the toasts by Lu's best men (his childhood best friend and his college roommate) and my maid and matron of honors (my sisters). I LOVED their toasts! They were the right mix of sentimental and funny, and they each reflected the toaster's personality. Lu and I both felt truly blessed:



Then it was time to party! Well, almost -- starting with the cake-cutting (which was delicious), our toasts (totally didn't think about that, my apologies for the rambling), the garter belt removal (loved Lu's apology to my dad after), bouquet toss (from the balcony -- pretty cool), garter belt hot potato (a unique idea I got from a friend at our crafternoon last month), a special dance with our parents (both married for decades), and then it was time to really get down.









I really liked that pretty much everyone at our reception danced. Lu wanted a live band, but we just couldn't stretch our budget that far. Besides, the Atrium package came with a DJ.


To get people up and moving, we asked him to start with the cheesy songs that everyone knows and enjoys dancing to even if they won't admit it. Soooo, the first song played at our wedding reception was the Electric Slide, followed by the Booty Call, and the Cupid Shuffle. This is when the videographer left, but you'll see that the dance floor was packed! When the DJ switched to more modern music, everyone was already up and stayed that way -- we even had a soul train line.








Overall, our reception was a ton of fun: our candy bar was delicious (and devoured), my second dress was a hit, and we left with just enough time to get back to the hotel room, guzzle a 5-hour energy, and head out to our after party! That's right... the wedding day recap continues!

All images courtesy of Martin Studio Photography and video by 3 Blind Mice Productions.

To continue my video/photo recap of our wedding day, here's what happened after our ceremony.

As a wedding guest (and having not been in a wedding since I was 6 years old), this is always the weird part of the day. You know that the couple is taking pictures and having some one-on-one time, but some people pop up to the reception in 30 minutes while others take two hours!

We had a cocktail hour planned for our guests, but I was adamant that we not take a ton of pictures. I'm not a fan of really posed stuff anyway, so we just took the basics in the church: bridesmaids, groomsmen, family in various combinations in the church. (Note: My FAVORITE part of the video clip below is 1:44-1:47. Love it!)



After the formal pictures, we had some fun! The church had a playground in the back, so Lu and I played around there with the rest of our bridal party joining us.






Ms. L spotted this weird piece of equipment -- not sure how you're supposed to play with it, but we got a really cool picture of our whole bridal party! We also took some pictures in our vintage car before heading over to the reception.







Once we were there, Gary -- the amazing hospitality director at the Atrium at Treetops -- shuttled us upstairs, where he had a plate of appetizers ready for us. We took a few minutes to bask in the after-ceremony glow before getting ready for our glass elevator entrance.

We wanted to break up the formal parts of the reception a bit, so we came in and did our first dance right away then danced with our parents before settling down to a delicious dinner.






Tomorrow's post will be on the after-dinner fun stuff -- toasts, cake-cutting, bouquet toss, garter belt hot potato, and of course dancing!