Sunday evening, October 25th - the day AFTER the wedding.
While I'll try to re-cap as brief as possible, for those that would rather saw wood, wash the car, plan the next Disney trip ect, this is probably more of a 'girl' thing.
The wedding was beautiful. Nearly perfect in every way. The weather could have cooperated a little better though. Skies were overcast, air was cool and we had some light rain on and off throughout the day.
As expected, we had nearly 300 in attendance. Fortunately as the mother of the bride, I was guaranteed a seat. We had a church reception to include everyone that would attend. 'It takes a village to raise a child', well, it took a church family to host this reception! We utilized the church fellowship hall with seating for 102, the church gymnasium seating 100, the chapel seating 38 and perimeter seating in the gym for an additional 40 guests. Our church family acted as ushers, car parkers, kitchen staff, servers, custodians. We could never have accomplished this without their help.
The table decorations in the halls were duplicated, as were the buffet, cookie towers and fountain. Fountains served apple cider. Hot and cold buffet items included meatballs, chicken, various breads with croissants, olive and pickle tray, mixed fresh vegetables with dip, cubed mixed cheese tray, crustless sandwiches of cheese spread or ham salad, and mixed fresh fruit. Pies of the season; apple, cherry, pumpkin or pecan were served. The 5-tier wedding cake was located in the fellowship hall.
Some pages back, DH made comments about the mints. I had purchased buttermints individually foil wrapped in the wedding colors. They were cheaper to buy in quantity...... however, 3000 was just a little more than was necessary. At this time next year, we'll probably STILL have mints left. We left a box of nearly 1000 for church use, DH has a huge bag filled to take to work and I kept all of the Andes that were left; probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 to 700.
Thanks to the posting from
Disney Loving Iowan DH had a picture of our son glued to a stick. DS had written a letter to his sister to be read at her wedding. At the time of the reading, DH had DS's lifelong friend stand and hold up the picture. There wasn't a dry eye in the house! What a great suggestion - thanks for sharing it. This is something that we would never have thought to do and really put a 'face' behind the words. If I'm successful, I'll post a photo.
Toward the end of the evening, most of the guests had returned to their homes and only family remained. The photographer took the couple outside for some departing shots. There was the most magnificent rainbow in the sky! It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.
The newlyweds are headed to WDW. They're driving and expect to arrive at VWL early Tuesday morning. DD forgot her shoes! We met them this afternoon with shoes in hand. Poor groom... the day after his wedding and he's already seeing the in-laws!
As for me, I'll be working this week to return rented linens, towers and fountains. Rented tables and chairs were picked-up today. Cake display has to be back by Wednesday. DH and I took the table centerpieces apart today and packed for storage - something tells me DS may need these in the near future..... Life for us will take on a new chapter. Time to finalize plans for our December trip and get caught up on the thread.
Thanks groupies for the support and well-wishes!
Di
Arrived about 2 PM Friday.
Unbelievably I learned yesterday there may be more to come..........
Love the pics with Stan the Man. He is going to be missed.
In the past, we've usually stayed at Fort Wilderness (either cabins or tenting due to the size and ages in our party). This trip has been a year in the planning; has morphed through several iterations; but finally came together as a grown-ups only, girl trip to reward ourselves for making it through a "character-building" 
year. 
