Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Wedding Wednesday: The After Party

Well, the dancing was done and we were married, but it was only 7:30 the party was far from over!  We chose to have a noon wedding for a lot of reasons: I'm not good at waiting around for things, the groomsmen didn't have enough time to get drunk before the ceremony (only half kidding), I love natural light and think daytime weddings have the best photos, and almost everyone was coming from 1-2 hours away, so it meant that they could make it a day trip (if they wanted) and not be forced to pay for a hotel room or leave early.  Well, that might have been my plan, but we were thrilled to see that not many people did that.  This brings me to our after party!

Since the wedding took place an hour and a half from Mike's and my hometown (think of it like a triangle), we decided to stay in a hotel the night before to get ready there as well as the night after the wedding before we left for our mini-moon the next day.  For me, there were two really important things in finding that hotel: 1. It needed to be big enough so that we could block tons of rooms and everyone attending could stay at the same place (I hate weddings where people are all spread out!), and 2. There needed to be a big bar area for the after party.  Well, Embassy Suites had both of those, and over 30 rooms were booked by our guests.  By the time we got back from the reception, it was about 8:00, but obviously no one was ready to call it a night yet.  We basically took over the hotel bar with 50-60 of our guests and got to spend quality time with so many of the people who had traveled to be at our wedding.  It was fantastic!  

Here's our "we did it" photo and our beautiful cake topper all packed up to freeze for our first anniversary... can't wait to see what flavor it is!


The hotel staff left us champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries - my favorite!


All of my college friends!

I think it was after that Holy Cross photo above, but at some point, my phone disappeared and (because everyone I possibly knew was there) I never realized it.  The following chaos ensued...
The next morning, I got my phone back and we hosted a small brunch in one of the conference rooms at the hotel.  The hotel staff had even stored a bunch of our flowers for us and decorated the room with them - how nice is that?  We loved getting to see everyone one last time and say goodbye and thank you to everyone.  So, moral of the story: have an early wedding.

Now, it's your turn - share your own engagement/ wedding/ honeymoon/ anniversary post with me and Macy below.  Please link back to one of our pages so that others can find us and join in the Wedding Wednesday fun!

16 comments:

birdie to be said...

Sounds kinda nice to have a day wedding. Then you have the rest of the evening to hang out, relax, party, or spend time with everyone outside of the wedding. Love your afterparty pics.

Veronica-VeroSays! said...

We opted for an early wedding as well. Ours ended at 9pm. We did not have an after party because we knew we would just want to be together. Although after seeing and reason. About your after party, that doesn't sound like a bad idea!

Christina Lea Loves said...

I'm nodding along and laughing because this is almost exactly the same as what we did except we did get married later in the day but the after party was key to us too! My favorite similarity is that the hotel staff did the same thing with our flowers for brunch the next day for us too, ha!

BLovedBoston said...

After party is so fun - even though we didn't really have one because we didn't leave our reception until 1:00 AM so maybe that counts as the after party!! xo, Biana -BlovedBoston

Jen said...

The after party sounds like it was a lot of fun! So glad you got to spend more quality time with people. :)

Rebecca Jo said...

Good for you having a early wedding - I think those are the best for so many reasons!

Megan @ Chicago Girl said...

That looks like so much fun! I had an early wedding, but we did an "in between party". My in laws had their side/family at a bar, while we took photos. My family and friends bar hopped. Luckily no one was hammered for the reception!

Andrea H. said...

Now that's the way to have an after party! It's almost like a second reception! I love it!

Mary said...

That after party looks like a blast!

Kate at Green Fashionista said...

LOL at the groomsmen didn't have too much time to get drunk! I was proud of our guys that they seemed to have a light buzz going, but no one was sloppy beforehand :)

Carrie said...

Fun that you got to party with everyone after! Most of our guests headed out to the bars after our reception around midnight but I was so exhausted that we didn't join, haha!

Anonymous said...

I am not good at waiting for things, either. It gives me more time to think about what could possibly go wrong. We got married at four o' clock in the afternoon. Your after party looks like so much fun!

Anonymous said...

Y'all know how to keep the party going hah. How fun! And can't wait to see what flavor that gorgeous cake topper is.

Ashley @ A Cute Angle said...

You looks so gorgeous!! I loooooove you flowers!

~Ashley @ A Cute Angle
acutelifestyle.blogspot.com

Julie said...

How fun that the party kept going - the only time I'v ebeen to an early type wedding was when they didn't have alcohol and that ended the party fast ;)

Kelsey @ The Peacock Roost said...

How fun that you had an after party! Looks like lots of fun :)
Kelsey
www.thepeacockroost.com

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