It's Reception Time!

I'll just jump into the pictures as it's really late tonight:

This was a low-rise table setting. We also had taller displays on every other table.

Here's the room setup. The table in the middle is actually four round tables and held the wedding party. We decided it was better to be able to see the better men and matron of honor instead of being in a long table where we couldn't talk.

The cakes! The flavors were vanilla, vanilla/chocolate swirl and red velvet.

Wedding cake topping close up.

One of the taller flower arrangements. The ginger is beautiful.

Eating the cake....oh no! It was mostly chocolate from the swirl. We wanted it to be vanilla. Damn. Hence the smirk on our faces.

LL's dad, sister, niece and my niece practicing the hokey pokey in the back room before the reception officially started.

We did walk around and say hi to all the tables early in the evening. Since we saw most everyone for a few days before the wedding, and after, this wasn't a huge focus for us. Here though we're visiting with my dad.

Here's LL parents, Don and Mary. They were integral to the whole wedding both financially and in man hours (or woman hours) of various tasks.

This was from the father/daughter and mother/son dance. It was At Last by Etta James.

Here's LL kicking it up with her nephew Ben.

Instead of going up for our first dance, the announcement of the first dance set in motion my posse: Naperville Greg to the guitar, Joisey Ken to set up a chair on the two stair stage for LL and Ricardo to position the microphones. LL had no idea what was being planned, but she does not like to be the center of attention to any great degree. I thought she'd like this though.

Here's Greg all set up.

To what end? Joe is about to sing to her! That's right. Instead of dancing to "I want to grow old with you" by Adam Sandler (aka Robbie Hart) from The Wedding Singer, Greg played the guitar while I sang the song. Even after breaking up during our vows and my welcome speech, I nailed the song.

And LL loved it.

Greg was pretty proud of me too!

And our real first dance, to Unforgettable by Natalie and Nat King Cole.

Now for the rest of the story. As we sat down to dinner and the Better Men and Matron of Honor gave their speeches, I quickly became very, very ill. I was sweating profusely, had the chills and couldn't eat any of the delicious dinner we had picked out. It was a no brainer to me that I had food poisoning or was getting a Meniere's attack and was not long for the party. LL was very concerned for me, but I really wanted to at least get through singing the song before leaving. The question was, could I make it to and then through the song?? Well, it turns out that it was just nerves! That may have seemed obvious to you, but I've spoken in front of groups as large as 600 people before, so being nervous was never a consideration for me. Maybe I'd forget the words or break down while singing, but I wasn't going to be nervous.

Well, it must have been the nerves because I felt 100% better as soon as the song was over and was very thankful that we decided to have snack food brought out around 10:00 or so as that became my dinner. It wouldn't have been another day of the wedding without some kind of drama!!

The Sutton, Davis and Kulinski Families.