Love is All About "We": Ballroom Sneak Peek

All photos below by The Wiebners unless otherwise noted. We purchased a disc of all unedited images from our wedding day, so some post-processing has been done by me for the purpose of sharing the photos with you. Click on any photo to enlarge.

As the clock was nearing 7:00, the catering manager grabbed Mr. Cupcake, me, and our parents for a sneak peek at the transformed ballroom before the doors opened for our guests. I think I actually gasped when I saw how beautiful it looked. Every little detail had finally fallen into place, and the result was divine!

Here's a little before and after....

BEFORE | The Desmond's ballroom with fairly standard decor (photo from their website):

AFTER | All set up for our reception:

These photos were taken before our guests were seated (obviously!) so the lights were turned up a bit more than they would eventually be... but even so, everything just twinkled and looked so lovely!

The teal chair sashes and napkins really added the perfect pop of color. The chair covers were, fortunately, included with our package since The Desmond owns their own and doesn't have to rent them from an outside vendor, so we splurged for the addition of the sashes. I am so glad we did.

The table settings looked exactly as I had pictured, complete with the silver leaf acrylic chargers I had purchased in bulk from Save on Crafts and the menus I created sitting on top of each charger, folded inside a teal napkin.

The menus were a last-minute project I put together the week before the wedding — I had collected so many pictures of menus I loved, but I had hemmed and hawed for too long over what I was actually going to do... so I finally just sat down and designed them. I used the silhouette monogram that you also saw on our drink menus in my last post, and layered the menus on top of various teal and moss green patterns (the same that I used for our little blank book place cards). I ended up loving the result.

We had three centerpiece designs that alternated from table-to-table. They all incorporated the beautiful cut glass votives that we (mostly my MIL) had been collecting for the last year. It's amazing how one idea found ages ago on a blog ended up shaping our whole reception space! Wade at Blue Moon had created the perfect floral arrangements to accent the cut glass.

{ photo by SIL Cupcake }

{ photo by SIL Cupcake }

One of my favorite extra little touches were all the candles on the mantle of the fireplace.

{ photo by SIL Cupcake }

I also made tented table numbers for each table (we had long ago given up trying to come up with creative names for each table, because there just isn't 18 of anything that relates to us that is interesting enough for table names!). Again I incorporated the various teal and moss green patterns, so each table number looked a little different. You may remember the below pattern from our invitation envelope liners.

Another sweet little pop of color was added by the strawberries on each guest's champagne glass. (They were sweet and yummy, too!)

Our toasting glasses were the vintage coupe glasses I found at a secondhand shop.

By far, the most delicious detail was our amazing cake from Sweet Jazmine's. It looked even more spectacular than I could have imagined (and I couldn't wait to put a knife to that thing and take a giant bite!)

The cake stand we had provided was not quite big enough for the bottom tier of the cake, but that was okay — they sat the cake and its platform right on top of the cake plate, and we still got that added height that we were looking for.

Some scatter crystals that I got on sale from Smith & Hawken were also added to the cake table for a little extra sparkle.

{ photo by SIL Cupcake}

{ photo by SIL Cupcake}

Mr. C and I were mesmerized by the fondant-covered creation. (And about ready to dive right in since we didn't get our hands on many hors d'oeuvres!)

Last, but not least, were the "Just" and "Married" chair signs I had created for my new hubby and me. I had seen lots of "Mr." and "Mrs." chair signs floating around the interwebs, but I thought I'd do something a little different. I used some silver and teal card stock and some glittery letters I picked up at Michaels and voila — chair signs! They were a fun little bonus surprise for anyone who walked behind us that evening :-)


Up next: let's get this reception show on the road!

Previously in our wedding recaps:
The Eve of Our Big Day: The Rehearsal Dinner
Love is All About "We": Getting Gorgeous
Love is All About "We": The Dress!
Love is All About "We": The Guys Get Sexy
Love is All About "We": The First Look
Love is All About "We": Our Entourage
Love is All About "We": Almost Time
Love is All About "We": We Do!
Love is All About "We": Ready for Our Close-Up
Love is All About "We": Cocktails, Anyone?

Love is All About "We": Cocktails, Anyone?

All photos below by The Wiebners unless otherwise noted. We purchased a disc of all unedited images from our wedding day, so some post-processing has been done by me for the purpose of sharing the photos with you. Click on any photo to enlarge.

As we were making our way back from our portrait session, the Garden Room at The Desmond was all set up for our cocktail hour. If guests arrived a bit early, they were greeted with this sign:


I have to admit that this sign may have been the height of my OCD-ness. The nice people at The Desmond provide a sign that they place outside of the Garden Room, instructing guests when the cocktail hour will begin, but it basically has a somewhat outdated stock image of faded roses and the couple's names printed on top. Well, you know that just didn't go with our colors AT ALL! So, crazy me made sure to get the measurements of the frame ahead of time so I could print my own sign for them to use instead. How many guests noticed this effort? Probably zero. But it made me feel better :-)

Just inside the Garden Room, perhaps our favorite surprise of the evening awaited: our classic photo booth. I had communicated with the people at the photo booth company beforehand to find out the size of the three frames that are on the front and sides of the photo booth, and I designed posters to fit in those frames. I was able to utilize a large-scale printer at my workplace to print these, and I was so pleased with the result. It really made the photo booth a personal touch! I included some photo strips that Mr. C and I had taken together while dating, as well as a photo strip with some family members and all of the photo strips from my bachelorette party at El Vez.


Next to the photo booth, a table was set up with this sign:

{ photo by SIL Cupcake }

The sign was accompanied by the photo mats that were awaiting our guests' photo strips.


I had also created a memo board with some foam core, silver fabric, teal ribbon and thumb tacks to hold guests' photo mats while they enjoyed the reception. We used an old photo strip of us to illustrate what the board was supposed to be used for.


I had also created a memo board to serve as an alternative to a guest book. Rather than writing notes in a traditional guest book, we asked our guests to write their advice and well-wishes on little cards and tuck them behind the ribbons on the memo board. Throughout the night, it filled up with some wonderful messages!


Another detail that awaited the arrival of our guests was our place card table. We wanted to give each guest something that was a bit more than just a folded card with their name on it, so I made little blank books that served as place cards. Each book had several sheets of blank copy paper stapled down the center to create a little booklet, and there were about 20 different teal and moss green patterns that I printed to create the covers; I attached the covers with skinny silver satin ribbon. On each cover I attached a tag that said "this book belongs to," the guest's name, and their table number.

{ photo by SIL Cupcake }

I had originally intended for the little books to be set up standing upright on the place card table, and I assumed the people setting them up would know this, but I had never actually told anyone. Oops. I was a little disappointed when I saw them lying flat, but I brushed it off because I knew that ultimately it wasn't a big deal (and all of the patterns actually looked pretty cute lined up lying down). But brides, take this as a lesson: never assume any detail will be obvious to the people setting up your details! If you have a specific vision in mind, make sure you tell someone.

I don't know if any of our guests used their little blank books after our wedding day, but I still thought they were cute :-)


On a banquette in the Garden Room, collages of Mr. Cupcake and I through the years stood behind wedding photos of our parents, grandparents, and siblings.


Throughout the room, guests could also pick up the Flickr photo cards that I had created, following in the footsteps of many bees before me (including Candy Corn and Lemon, amongst others!). We had also included these in our hotel welcome bags for guests who stayed overnight at The Desmond.

{ photo by SIL Cupcake }

On the bar sat the signature cocktail sign that I had created with our last-minute signature drinks. I included a silhouette monogram that I had designed about a week before the wedding, when I had a few last-minute projects to design and I was tired of looking at all the same designs and fonts. I love how it turned out!


Our cocktails were the Something Bluetini (Mr. Cupcake thought of that one all by himself! I was so proud...), the Forrytini (for our new last name), and the Birdie Special (a little tribute to my Nana who loved her vodka & tonics). Of course, the drinks went along with our teal and green color palette.


Last, but certainly not least in the list of details I obsessed over, were the fun fact napkins that I had screen-printed with my trusty Gocco. It was so fun hearing people talk about the different facts that we had come up with, and it was great knowing that they were conversation starters for our guests. (Even if some of the conversations probably sounded like, "did she REALLY screen-print NAPKINS?!?")


Enough of the details — let's get to the people! There was no shortage of clinking glasses, smiling faces, animated conversation and boisterous laughter during the cocktail hour.



Somebody likes his little blank book place card!


The photo booth started seeing action from the moment guests arrived...


... and the early evening sun shone through the skylight as guests caught up with one another.

{ photo by Mr. Cupcake's cousin, Evan }

{ photo by Mr. Cupcake's cousin, Evan }

Soon after the cocktail hour began at 6:00, my ladies helped me bustle my dress and Mr. Cupcake and I made our way to start celebrating with our guests.

{ photo by SIL Cupcake }

We thought we'd just walk in and begin mingling with our guests, but we were instead greeted with a lovely and rousing round of applause when our guests saw us! I'm not gonna lie: it was pretty awesome :-)

I was, apparently, excited to see people. See?


The photo booth continued to be the main attraction as our guests piled in and made their best smiley/goofy/scary/silly/mad/sad/angry/kissy faces.



And lots of people were caught exiting the photo booth looking not-so-innocent.




We heard that the food was great... unfortunately, we were too busy chatting with our guests to get more than one or two samples! I had intended to ask the catering manager to put aside a plate of one or two of each hors d'oeuvre for Mr. C and I to sample at some point, but amidst all the other details, this was one that I forgot. Oh well!


Despite the lack of munchies, we shared lots of laughs with our guests, and witnessed some reunions of old friends and family members who hadn't seen each other in a while.

{ guest photo }

In addition to being quite excited, I also, apparently, tell stories in an animated, typical Italian fashion :-)


Some guests studied our fun-fact napkins...


... while others had some laughs and intense discussions.









As guests retrieved their photo booth photos, it was not an uncommon sight to see people showing off their best shots.




Meanwhile, I had a bit of a paparazzi moment as my girlfriends demanded that I pose for them.



Soon enough, Mr. Cupcake saved me and joined in on the fun as I hammed it up.



We clinked our (beer) glasses and got one last shot together before being whisked away for a sneak peek at our reception space. (Yes, I'm the bride who drank beer at her wedding... but wine gives me a headache, and at least it was in a glass! What can I say... I'll always be a beer girl.)

{ guest photo }

Up next: we see the candle-lit ballroom before our guests make their way inside for first dances, toasts, dinner, and dancing!

Previously in our wedding recaps:
The Eve of Our Big Day: The Rehearsal Dinner
Love is All About "We": Getting Gorgeous
Love is All About "We": The Dress!
Love is All About "We": The Guys Get Sexy
Love is All About "We": The First Look
Love is All About "We": Our Entourage
Love is All About "We": Almost Time
Love is All About "We": We Do!
Love is All About "We": Ready for Our Close-Up