Tying the Knot: Dinner & Toasts

After our first dance J and I took the time to quickly welcome our guests, tell them all how happy we were to have them all there, thank them for coming, and start the night of celebration. Then it was time for dinner!

To help save on cost, we opted for a buffet style dinner for our guests. We had a pasta station where guests could customize their meals, half-orders of Asiago chicken, fresh garden salads, roasted veggies and warm breads. Overall, all our guests loved the food choices we made and many went back for seconds. One of the things that I loved most about our catering company is that they personally brought food to J and I before anyone else was allowed to visit the buffet. One big piece of advice I kept getting for the wedding was to make sure we both ate and drink enough so this gave us both a chance to actually eat our meals (even though feeling under the weather kept us both from eating very much) without having to get up and chat with guests first. The staff then "released" the rest of the tables to go up to the buffet and it really went a lot smoother than I thought it would.

After all the tables had gotten through the buffet and we had eaten all we felt like, we had a chance to walk around to each individual table and personally talk to each guest. I loved that we had the time to do this and that our guest list was small enough to be able to see everyone. I would have hated it if we hadn't gotten to see everyone that took the time to attend our wedding.

Then the night seamlessly flowed into the toasts portion of the evening and I loved every part of it!

J's Best Man was up first and had us both pretty nervous at first when he and another groomsmen both walked up to the mic. I immediately looked to J and said "Uh oh, do you know what's going on?!" and got even more unsure when a homemade guitar emerged from a black trash bag!  These guys are quite the hoot, let me tell you. Thankfully the guitar was just a joke, he strummed it a few times before putting it away and starting into his real speech.

Next up was my Maid of Honor. She has been my best friend for so many years and spoke wonderfully about our friendship and all the adventures we'd been through together throughout the years. She talked about J and my relationship and how happy she was for the both of us for finding one another. On accident she ended up going to the stage without a drink but played it off well, borrowing a glass of water from a nearby table.

My mom, the Mother of the Bride, followed my MOH and did a fantastic job! This was also one of the parts of the night that threw in another tricky situation without having my Dad there but my mom handled it so well. She read one of my Dad's favorite quotes about love, by Katharine Hepburn and it was absolutely perfect, bringing many of our guests as well as myself to tears.

Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - 

Only with what you are expecting to give -

Which is everything.

And finally, J's mom, the Mother of the Groom, spoke to us and our guests. She had some wonderful things to say about us as a couple and definitely made us all laugh a few times. She spoke about always telling J when he was growing up that it takes a good man to know how to dance. Such a funny and unique piece of advice and quite frankly, something J took to heart and one of the reasons I love him. Our first date was actually line dancing and in the years since he's definitely showed me his moves!

All photos courtesy of Ignite Images.

Next up: Dancing with our Moms

Need to catch up?

First we got ready

Then it was time for The Dress

Lovely bridesmaid photos

Our sweet Ollie pup

Handsome groomsmen photos

The Bride & Groom portraits

Our First Touch before the ceremony

Small wedding details

The start of our Ceremony (Readings & Ring Warming)

We're finally Husband & Wife

Formal family & wedding party photos

How we remembered missing family

Our pictures as Mr & Mrs

Our First Dance