And the PARTAY continues . . .

Continuing on with my road trip posts, this one is all about the PARTAY! (aka wedding reception for Michele & Will). Ill start with the decorations. I have to give some major props to Michele. See the bride and groom both live by us in south Florida, but the bride is originally from Connecticut. She managed to get everything organized for such a large wedding in a completely different state. And on top of that, all the decorations were not only perfect, but so meaningful too! (oh and total photographer fail, i forgot to get a pic of the ballroom all decorated before anyone went it. oops)

And because they were all so meaningful, I have to explain these pics to you.

1. birdcage envelope box - no special meaning that I know of, but it looks cute

2 & 3. little lollipop favors that are supposed to look like flowers in pots (so cute) that have tags used as place cards for which table your supposed to sit at.

4. the groom used to play on the Rutgers football team in college, so instead of a guest book they had a helmet for everyone to sign with their picture on it ( i know clever huh?)

5. picture frames with collages used for the table numbers. The table number corresponded with the a seperate picture of each of them at that age. We sat at table 15 (right next to the dance floor was perfect) and the pics were of them each at age 15.

6. (Now this is my favorite and it is the story I promised in this post) Ill start off with the story of how the lovely bride and groom met. Michele, as originally stated, is from Connecticut. Which means she doesn't really have the knowledge of all the neighborhoods in south Florida. After living several years with different roommates in apartments, she decided it was time to purchase a place of her own. Us native south Floridians tried to warn Michele of certain areas to not buy in. But Michele refused to listen to us and bought a beautiful townhouse in a gated community right smack in the middle of Lauderdhill, ahem "ghetto" for those of you who arent familiar. Because she did have 2 extra rooms she offered 2 friends to move in with her. So boxes, beds, tv's, and lots of makeup were brought into this "bad" neighborhood. Well fellow inhabitants of the area must have been steaking out the place seeing that it was 3 beautiful young women who had moved in. Ill give you 3 guess on what happens next, and the first 2 dont count. A few days later one of the roomates comes home to the door wide open. No one else was home, so she immediately called Michele who quickly left work to go home and call the police. Insert Knight in Shinning Armour, Officer Will. As Will pulls up in his Lauderdhill police car, the 2 girls immediately notice the attractive man in uniform. Needless to say the rest is kind of history as the two exchanged numbers and quickly started dating. Turns out Will just happen to grow up in the same neighbor hood as the rest of us so we already knew him. Ok back to the point, so this little decoration (#6 scroll up again so you can see) was a surprise from Will's Police Department back home who sent this up to the wedding. Its a figurine of Will in his uniform carrying his princess Michele, who also happens to be holding a football. Now you might ask what is that plastic bag with a brick in it behind the figurines? well that my friends, that is the evidence bag from the station with the brick that had went through the window to break into Micheles house. Now do you see why I love the story? :)

7. At last, but certainly not least, the bride and groom decided to honor the brides brother who battled cancer, with a donation to the Make a Wish foundation as their favors for the wedding. (i know my heart melted a little too)

Some things you may see here: the beautiful bride. First Dance. One of the bridesmaids actually sang the song for their first dance. It was absolutely beautiful. Father Daughter Dance. Mother Son Dance. And the last 2 pictures are absolutely epic. The MOH (aka brides sister) had been joking the previous couple of months that she was going to rap at her sisters wedding. Michele thought she was kidding. This was not the case. She told a bunch of us (bridesmaids, groomsmen, close friends, etc) that she was going to do this and she would queue us all when it was time. She literally made up this entire song of Michele leaving CT, partying in SoFL, moving to the ghetto, getting her house broken into, meeting will, getting engaged,.... i think you get the point. The best part was it went along with the background music to Fresh Prince of Bel Air. It was absolutely hilarious. I believe there was a video camcorder, so when someone finally shares the video of it I will def share it with you all. 

And then of course the infamous cake smashing in the face cutting. Not Surpirsingly it was the bride who started this little mess. I love how I captured the actual moment she smashed it on his face. 

PRICELESS!!!

Next came the bouquet and garter toss. It was actually kinda weird for me and hubs. It was the first wedding we had been to that we were "allowed" to go out on the dance floor for this part.

The rest of the night went by pretty fast. But I guess thats what happens when you combine friends + liquor + music + family + liquor + dancing = good times :)  Unfortunately I didnt get alot of said dancing pics, well, because I was dancing :D

All in all, the night was beautiful, everyone had fun, and we couldnt have asked for two better people to begin their happily ever after together.......

p.s. I think the bride enjoyed the night too, she was totally exhausted by time it was over ;)