Palmettos and Pearls: Wedding Post #5- the Reception!

If you are anything like me, you may be thinking, oh gracious, when will this wedding series be over?! And wanting to tell me to please stop blogging about the past and move on to current endeavors. Well, my friends, this is it...the last of the wedding posts.

So what's a wedding without a great party?! Richard and I knew we wanted just three things...good food, good band, and lots of dancing! We decided on the Piedmont Club in Spartanburg because of its incredible food, the close proximity to the church, and because it's just so darn pretty. And Wanda, the catering manager, was absolutely wonderful! This is the front of the Piedmont Club, the reception was held in the ballroom in the back.

Piedmont Club

We wanted the menu to consist of some of our favorite southern foods- shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese, ham and cheddar biscuits, calabash chicken (what's a wedding without fried chicken?), carved pork tenderloin, baked brie, fruit and fondue, and marinated vegetables. I do wish we'd be able to enjoy more of it!

buffet...unfortunately don't have too many food pictures

When we came in, our sweet contact at the Piedmont Club was attending to other things and was missing in action! Granted, we were about an hour later than we'd intended. I would definitely advise any brides-to-be to hire a day-of coordinator. I panicked a bit when we walked in and couldn't get the band's attention to be announced. Fortunately a good samaritan intervened, and it all worked out.

the long walk in...so excited!

Richard and I love to shag (dance), so we chose "With this Ring" for our first dance. The weekend before we wedding, we had the best time "rehearsing" using my ipod on the living room hardwood floors of our new Maryland house after we'd moved furniture all day. I'm sure our neighbors looking through our bay windows must have thought we were crazy!

After we finished, my father was nowhere to be found. I stood on the dance floor by myself while he ate and hung out with his brothers on the terrace. Richard and his mom stepped in to dance to "The Way You Look Tonight", and finally my dad was located to dance with me to "Sugar Pie Honey Bun," one of his favorites.

shagging our first dance

mother-son dance

asking my dad where he was!

Darla Bernath of Creative Confections in Spartanburg did our cake, and it was incredible! For some reason I had a tough time with the design of the cake, and the fleur de lis on it were not added until the Thursday before the wedding. The inside flavors were easy though- three layers of vanilla, then chocolate, then vanilla, with layers of buttercream frosting in between. And chocolate ganache around the outside, with fresh raspberry filling in two of the four layers. Cannot wait for the anniversary cake!

We actually had the cake runner made, and I looked high and low for the fabric on the banding. I loved how it turned out! (But I did not want flower petals on the table...that was creative license on the part of our cake designer and florist).

beautiful, tasty cake

we didn't know where to cut at first!

We decided to cut the cake early in the evening so we could spend a decent amount of time on the dance floor. Our band was Anita, and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a wedding band! They are named for the lead singer, Anita, who is super fun and gets the whole crowd involved. We LOVED them! And there was LOTS of dancing!

Anita with Mrs. Nancy

some of my favorite girls getting down

being sung to by the ladies of Kappa Alpha Theta

Richard commandeered the mike to announce group pictures (another time when a day-of coordinator would have come in handy!)

slow dancing- so incredibly happy (I changed earrings when I took off my veil to ones purchased from same designer who did my bridesmaid's earrings- loved them!)

We stuck with the traditions of the bouquet toss and the garter toss. Suzanne, my MOH and sister-in-law, caught the veil, and Richard's friend Kelly caught the garter! After the bouquet and garter toss, we had hot pizza served on silver platters from one of our favorite Spartanburg pizza places, Venus Pie. Yum!

a Clemson toss garter of course!

And then...more dancing! When I think about our reception, I just repeatedly think about how much fun it was! I didn't want it to end and tried not to look at Richard's watch so as to not accept the fact that time was quickly passing by. We all just laughed and laughed and sang along to the sounds of Anita. I still wish that I could go back to those few hours of pure bliss!

conga line

Don't Stop Believin'

We were so sad when it was time to leave, yet excited about the honeymoon and a week in Anguilla. Our guests picked up their Krispy Kreme doughnuts at the door (complete with an adorable Beth and Richard label designed by Miss Drew France),

and lined up to see us off. We were supposed to have orange rose petals tossed in homage to Clemson, but somehow ended up with pink. Not a big deal though! They matched. :) The perfect end to a most perfect wedding day.