Our fourth and final installment of wedding photographs, ending with our reception. To see more about our retro wedding click here! 



Nothing says festivities like a parade! Since we chose to do our photographs before the wedding, we were able to go directly from the ceremony to the reception hall. With only a block between the two locations, we all paraded down the street.




Our LOVE sign is actually made of foam core and poster board using the tutorial found here. Our cake was Strawberry and "Italian Creme" from Harper and Madison. Isn't the retro topper adorable? Since it was an afternoon reception, cake was the main foodie attraction, but we also served mini hamburgers and had a bar for more sustenance, catered by The Geyser Brewing Co.

For those of you who didn't realize, The Husband and I have been taking dance lessons since we started dating, and chose the "retro" theme based in part on this fact. As you can image, we were pretty excited to cut a rug as man and wife. We chose the upbeat "Take My Heart" by Chris Isaak, doing the country two-step before segueing into the Single Lindy. Showing off? Maybe, but our dance instructors and fellow classmates (those behind us in the below photo) seemed to like it! We also each danced with a parent (father-daughter dance followed by mother-son). Doesn't The Boy and his mom look so cute? Gwen is adorable; I'm very lucky to have them in my life now.


Decorations were my favorite part of planning. It was very DIY and a community effort. We used our postcard centerpieces and coke-bottles-turned-vases with balloons and tulips to decorate the tables. Guests were then able to take the flower/bottle/balloon combo home with them as a token of our thanks. We also used painted ice cream parlour chairs at the head table, and similar furniture throughout. The gift table was darling with vintage suitcases (lovingly supplied by a friend! Thanks Shannon!) for keeping any cards in, a Red Rocket wagon held a DIY String Heart (made by my father-in-law), and the guestbook was this matted image of the portrait we commissioned from Rachel and framed by friends. Rachel's artwork showed up several other places in the wedding too, including on our programs and an instruction poster. We also had a Casablanca poster on display. It was Amos' first gift to me, but it had another purpose too. We'd chosen to go low-key with the reception hall, and had booked the local auditorium. It had a fifties feel to it, so rather than stress us, it added to the ambiance. The large stage felt a bit barren though, so we projected the movie Casablanca onto its back wall, and it played silently throughout. Its always been my favorite film, but it holds special meaning to us;  the first film we showed as a movie in the park (when The Boy threw me a surprise birthday party shortly after we had started dating) was Casablanca. He's such a sweetie, right?

Besides dancing and a movie, the other big entertainment for our guests was this fantastic photo booth, built by The Boy from scratch! It was actually being built as something work-related, but its inaugural use was right here. It worked by touchscreen and the photos popped out the back!

I think it's safe to say everyone had a blast, but the pictures speak for themselves on that account. Instead, I'll just close saying a huge thank you to all of you who helped make this day so special, and who were celebrating with us whether in spirit or in person. Thank you.