Virginia Reception!

Still having issues with my blurry photos. Hopefully the next post will be better! I'll do a lot of writing first, then tons of photos. We hired our friend Lori to take photos at the reception so there are a lot!  

Thankfully my sister Deb came out to help with flowers for the reception. She put up some fun floral things for the entry table and also by the big wedding poster. I was so grateful she was here!  For the reception we rented our friend's barn for a great price and could use the decorations they had on hand.  Cal, Elden and Hyrum hung tulle from the rafters and it looked so good. It was a lot of work and they didn't really enjoy it. But I'm so glad they hung it!  For a treat for everyone we went to Buc-ee's for lunch. I got Deb and Matt t-shirts at Buc-ee's too for their help. Matt and I ironed tablecloths....that was taking forever. Ugh! Becky McIntyre helped us a lot too with setting up for the reception. 

I rented chairs for the event and I'm so glad I did.  Added such a beautiful touch, without anyone really noticing. It just looked good!  We catered the food from Crossroads Cafe and it was stunning!  Wow!  I ordered too much and wanted to cut back, but went with what they said---ish.  My friend Carmin gave some some amounts to go by and I should have stuck with that. I need to take notes for next time!  I should have lowered the number of people coming so they wouldn't be so concerned about the amount of food. I think the caterers thought with 100+ people coming I needed a certain amount. We had so much leftover. 

As you saw earlier Shanna and I made the pies for the night. I bought two Costco cakes and cut one smaller and re-frosted it with the same frosting. Haley did a fun job decorating it. I'm glad I scrapped off the same frosting and saved it because it already matched.  Haley also made amazing cupcakes. They looked incredible!  

Decorating day! We went back that night at 10:30pm to finish up decorating and ironing table cloths. I ran to Richmond to get kids. Cal came too with Hyrum and Elden to bring Clark and Chloe home. Nate's sister Emma was in the hospital because her appendix burst in Virginia on their vacation here before the reception. Poor girl!  She's only 9!  She and her mom had to miss a lot of the fun things they did as they were in the hospital. I was going to take Shanna and Nate to Fairfax to see Emma with a gift bag. But then Nate told me at the airport that they had left the hospital and weren't even there. Chloe left her phone on the plane and needed to get it from the attendant. So Cal went ahead and drove back home with Elden and Hyrum. The rest of us waiting for Chloe and then we all went home together.  

The next day Lee and Haley did a bike ride before the chaos!  It was fun having a lot of people in town, but so busy too. And providing lunch and dinner for everyone. Deb, Darrell, Daniel, Sam, Lena, Lois and Steph were here plus my parents. So fun Lois was here from Guam!  She had taken Reed down to Georgia for him to move in and start college at Georgia Southern. Thankfully everything was pretty ready for the reception. People made a sack lunch and went to the park and we hung out there for a little bit. We came home and started on dinner. It was ready at 4:15. We were trying to leave at 5:00. But then my dad needed help changing and in the bathroom. We should have just left and let someone else help.  So the we ended up leavning late and Shanna and Nate did too. We got there before the reception started, but I wanted everyone to be there at 5:30 (my family) so Nate and Shanna could eat and also get some pictures. The Stayners came late too for dinner and I felt bad that we had to rush off and that it was so crowded at my house.  They were very gracious guests. Thankfully Deb left early to get some battery candles up and running so she was there when the caterers came. We also had to cchange out the entry table with a different one, because the other one that was there was sagging. It didn't look so good. 

The reception went really well though. Haley was amazing and got the cupcakes and cake all set up. We got the pies out and ready too. We really should have left earlier. Ugh. But again, we got stuff done before 6:30, so that was good. Thanks to Haley and the caterers the food looked amazing. We had fun visiting with people. At the end we had sparklers as a send off. Lee couldn't get them lit with our little hand lighters. Thankfully Dan Whiting had a blow torch and got them started. He also had a cord for Elden's big speaker. His speaker was dead and needed some power. It had been raining, but the rain stopped and was perfect for the send off. Nate got to drive away on this one because they drove our truck home--not a manual! Over all it turned out really well. We really loved how the food and venue turned out. Others commented on how they liked it too which was fun to hear. Clean up was pretty easy as well. I was grateful to get most everything done that night. We didn't have to take down the tulle because another couple was going to use it in about a month for a wedding--bonus for us! I had some stuff to put away at home, but did that on Monday. I also had to pick up some flowers and bring them and some decor back to my friend. I got that done right away too on Monday I think...or soon thereafter!  It was just nice to get everything put away and get the borrowed things returned. We did go boating the very next morning which was a lot!  But fun to go with everyone. Now for all the pictures. I think I wrote everything I wanted..... Congrats to the couple!  Oh and it was SO fun having the Stayners here, even though we didn't get to spend much time with them. I hope it wasn't too akward being at the reception and not knowing very many people. They were going to stay at our basement rental, but then switched plans because of Emma, which was understandable. We were going to hang out Friday morning before the reception. But so glad Emma is okay and was able to get her appendix removed! Okay, NOW the pictures! 

Cal with baby Caleb!