Reception...

After the ceremony, I run to the kitchen to begin warming up the pot stickers, Cheryl and Glenda start putting out the food...then Chris arrives, uhmmm, there's a problem. DD is in the backroom in tears. She is feeling like the ceremony was a complete failure... so I go back there and reassure her, yes, it was chaotic, it had funny moments, but, Babe, it was beautiful where it really needed to be.

Chris is assuring her, she had her 'aww' moment with him... so she dries her tears, I tell her don't worry, that she had been crying will add 'extra sparkle' for the pictures.

(last clothing crisis) We go to move her train to a bustle and guess what, somehow, during either the cleaning or altering, the hook that keeps the bustle up is missing. We use a safety pin. But this does not work well, everytime she moves or is bumped into, the bustle comes down. Right after dd's first dance and daddy dance, we run into the back room, Jenn and I are using 5 safety pins, and Caroline is quickly sewing it on.

Now, at this time, the groomsmen are tearing down the wedding seating and putting down the dance floor and some tables for the reception. We have 3 big circle tables, but we have other seating areas for guests, also. So its not a formal meal, but works out very well.

The kids are ready, Chris's dad announce them, and they enter the reception greeting their guests...Tyler takes tons of pictures, it all looks good.

We don't have quite enough food, but I hope that we have enough that people aren't left hungry. We run out, first mom's CA rolls and then pot stickers..

The dance floor is like flat legos, on grass. Yes, it was not flat. We were all joking that nobody better get down and 'boogie'...or dance with heels, dh joked that the Oklahoma guests will think that its a CA earthquake. DD takes one look and has the groomsmen take it down.

The dances are beautiful. The music stops during their first dance, it was the Open Road...but still beutiful. The Daddy dance was to Tim Magraw's 'My Little Girl" but the music stops at the last refrain...disappointing, but okay.

The toasts by Dh, Chris's mom and then the maid of honor and best man are wonderful!
Jenn's was touching and funny and Tyler's (best man) had us all rolling.
Cake cutting went well, no nasty pushing into the faces, just a little smear.

So, I went to serve the guest cake, and as I walk behind the table, I knock over the unicorn statuette next to a potted plant. I go to the homeowners and they both have the same response, "Thank you!!"...they say it was the wedding gift they did not know what to do with. Yikes!!

Guests start leaving and we are down to time to clean up and put away and pack up the vehicles. I walk in to dd crying as a group of college friends are leaving,
"What's wrong?" "We are leaving" "Well, you can't leave if it makes my baby cry"
Then ds and dil walk in, and dd starts to bawl. They go in to the laundry room, ds helps her to put things in perspective. According to dil, they calm her down, until she sees Cheryl...and the tears start again. (don't worry by the next morning, dd is seeing the beauty in the day, its just at this moment, she is feeling like its all a failure, cuz she is seeing the crazy details of the past 4 days or so)


I go outside and one of the flower girls is playing with the water hose, next to the gift table...no wet gifts, but mud soaked table cloth and flower girl baskets need cleaning.

Dd and sil (now official) leave , they did not have a chance to eat at the reception and are going to 'In n Out'.

Somehow we get it all done, and we are waiting, one of the groomsmen and his wife can not be found...now, dh knows where they are, because when he went to make sure the casita was clean, he 'heard' them. But it is Chris's mom, Jeanne, who takes action.

Yes, they are in the casita, having an afternoon tryst.

Jeanne is livid, dh is amused and me, I just feel like it is the 'just figures' end to the craziest wedding EVER!!!