The Ultimate Wedding Week ~ The Reception

Welcome to Day 5 of The Ultimate Wedding Week Link Party!  I am very excited to share pictures of our Reception with ya'll today.  It was really a labor of love.  I loved seeing all our months of planning come together to create a beautiful evening.  It was very important to me that our wedding be glamorous, yet still have memorable personal touches throughout.  I am a details girl, so this was very fun for me.  Today, I'm going to share an overview of the reception, but on Friday when I host "The Details" here on my blog...I'll get into all the fun personal touches that made our day unique!

I knew I wanted an evening wedding, and I loved that our venue had this courtyard to host a Cocktail Hour in between the Ceremony and the Reception.   We had twinkle lights hung to give this outdoor area a romantic feeling.  You can also see the small chandeliers we hung in the archways.  Since our main colors were blue and silver, we added pink to serve as a great pop of color throghout the decor.  Having the pink linens out here really separated the feel of Cocktail Hour and the Reception.  You'll notice that "bling" is a common theme throughout the night!

We had a seated dinner, and I wanted a really cool display to arrange the seating cards.  I had my grandfather build this pyramid, and I painted it silver.  We filled the layers with crystals, and I love how it turned out.  Our stationary designer, Amy Owens of Amo-Ink really knocked it out of the park with the seating cards and table numbers.  It was a great focal point as guests walked in, before going into the ballroom for the reception.

Welcome to the Reception!  I loved working with my sister Dora Manuel of Viva Bella Events  and Kim Kinney of Timeless Elegance Weddings, to design the look of the reception.  We didn't want everything to be to matchy, so we incorporated 4 different styles and colors of linens with different centerpieces to keep things interesting.  Some tables had large flower arrangements, some with crystal trees, and others with a really cool candle display.  I loved that everything blended, but still stayed interesting.

We decided to have a head table with seating on all sides for the wedding party.  These centerpieces were the most extravagant and served as the focal point for the reception.  I loved these silver branches with hanging crystals, orchids, and candles.  The two vases are also filled with crystals.

Here is a view of the whole room!  Lot's of blue and bling!

Instead of a traditional wedding cake, we decided to serve our favorite desserts instead.  For the wedding cake, we brought in my favorite Red Velvet cake from Bonnie Ruth's here in Dallas!  We had them displayed on vases that were filled with floating orchids.  It was such a cool look!  Instead of a traditional groom's cake (since my husband doesn't like cake), we served RoRo's Cinn-A-Rolls!  They were a hit!

Arriving at the Reception!  So excited to celebrate with all of our friends and family.

We immediately went into our first dance as husband and wife :)

...followed by the Father/Daughter & Mother/Son dances.

I love my Dad's face in this picture...it's probably one of my favorite pictures of him...so happy!

Lauren and his mom decided livin' it up and dance to "Last Dance".  They were so cute together!

I have alot of amazing musical talent in my family and circle of friends.  So, during dinner and while people were mingling, we we thought it would be cool to have some live music performed by some special people in our life.  I loved this part of the reception, and so did our guests.  Here is my brother in law and sister singing "Ain't No Mountain High Enough". They were precious :)

Dinner is served!

I love this picture of my husband and his brothers :)

Time to cut the cake!  

This is me with the TLC bride's of Four Weddings!  A little friendly competition...they were all so sweet and I loved having my little reality tv experience.

Then, the dancing began!  We hired DJ Toad all the way from Cincinnati...because he is just that good...seriously!  We had a ball and danced for hours!

Towards the end of the night we did the bouquet and garter tosses...these pictures crack me up!

Followed by streamers and more dancing...yes streamers...it was so fun!

As a final personal touch, my grandmother made individual pans of cinnamon rolls for each of our guests to take home as our wedding favors.  Amo-Ink made these cute lables that said "Sweet Dreams".  They were perfect.

And we're off to Punta Cana!  It was truly one of the best nights of my life, and I will never forget it!

Thanks so much for stopping by to see my reception!  All of our photos are by the amazing Kortnee Kate Photography!  

Be sure to link up with Natasha of Hello! Happiness today.  I am looking forward to seeing all of your receptions too!

ALSO, Friday will be the last day of our Ultimate Wedding Week.  The Party will be HERE at Fresh & Fancy.  I'm hosting "The Details"!  So get your posts ready to show us all the fun details that made your day unique!  Have a great day!