Wedding Recap: Part the Are You Getting Sick of These By Now?

(Yes, I’ve been sitting on this post for quite some time. I’ve been working on it off and on, but there’s a lot of ground to cover.)

First things first, my sister pointed out to me that Kristian did, indeed, take a picture of me purchasing our wedding songs whilst lurking in the woods next to our ceremony site.

I’m so proud of him.

So, this is the part of my recap where my memory gets a bit fuzzy. Not only has it been a month since the wedding, we’re also entering party territory. And, while I drank all of half a glass of champagne at the reception (OMG! Lush!), the very nature of parties tends to make the details run together. So, I’m going to give you the highlights. And I apologize for anything that I might have mis-remembered. And for the fact that this is going to be completely out of chronological order.

(Let’s just say that I’m very happy that Melissa told me to take some time in the days after the wedding to make some notes about the weekend).

I didn’t want to keep our guests waiting while we took a million photos, so we had passed appetizers and the bar opened pretty much the second the ceremony was over. Seriously, Kristian and I walked back down the aisle, wandered into the tent and our wedding planner handed me a soda. We also powered through the formal portraits, although I did make sure to get lots of family photos. This whole blended family business makes possible portrait combinations endless.

If the people in the portraits look especially amused, it’s because my sister Allison was standing behind the photographer making faces and pretending to pick her nose.

When we first started taking photos and I stepped aside for a few moments to let Kristian take pictures with his family, I noticed that there was a giant semi-circle of open space around me. Apparently, people are afraid to get in the way of the photos. Or they worried that I was going to charge them like an angry bull (“don’t make eye contact with the bridezilla! it will view that as a sign of aggression!”). Or I smelled bad. Or all of the above. I yelled, “It’s OK, I’m not contagious!” and people headed in closer to offer their congratulations.

(Jokes on them! I was totally contagious! Enjoy your cooties, wedding guests!).

I can see why they tell you to write out what photos you want ahead of time. Because taking photos during a wedding reception is a bit like herding cats. Well dressed cats who would much rather be partaking of your open bar.

We ran around greeting people, hugging people, hugging each other and at one point I think I found the time to share some appetizers with my niece, Ruby. (She ate all my meatballs, but she’s not even two yet, so I forgive her). Our guests made their way into the tent and then the DJ announced us as Hope Roth and Kristian Sanchez.

(If my sisters attempted to bribe him into introducing me as Esperanza Sanchez, he didn’t take them up on it).

We went straight into our first dance, because Kristian was really nervous about a) dancing and 2) dancing in front of 140 people. I wouldn’t let him subcontract out the first dance, so he wanted to get it over and done with. So, the DJ cranked up David Wax Museum’s Beekeeper and we made our way awkwardly across the dance floor.

Accent on the awkward.

I would like to state for the record that I wanted to practice ahead of time.

I thought that we looked incredibly uneasy and silly, but all of the photos make us look all happy and in love and all that nice stuff. So, to our wedding guests, I’m sorry that we forced you to watch us stagger around the dance floor like nervous kids at a junior high dance (we even did the stiff arm, I’m not touching you any more than I have to, pose for a few moments as a joke). But I did enjoy the fact that my husband actually danced with me instead of hiding under a table like I suspect he wanted to.

Also, I encouraged other people to come out and join us on the dance floor. And nobody did. So,  you only have yourselves to blame.

After the first dance, it was time for… dinner? Let’s say dinner. Which was OMG delicious. If you’re ever getting married and you want to eat a-MAH-zing BBQ, I would highly recommend that you hire Tupelo to be your caterer. Or, if you’re in Cambridge, stop by their restaurant. I know that Kristian and I are planning to eat there every year on our anniversary. And on many days in between.

(They didn’t pay me or encourage me to say any of this. I’m just a girl who loves jalapeno mac and cheese).

Towards the end of dinner, we had toasts from my Dad, from Beans, from Kristian’s brother Andre, from my step-brother Jeremy and from Kristian’s sister Nina. A partridge might have squawked out some words from a pear tree as well. I’m not entirely sure. I know that sounds like an awful lot of toasts, but they were short and awfully sweet. This is one of those parts of the wedding where everything went so much better than I ever thought that it would. Usually, when you provide access to a microphone, there’s at least one person who gives a boring or slightly uncomfortable  speech. I know that I’m biased, what with everyone talking about me and all, but I thought that the toasts were all incredible. My Dad gives the same toast at all of our weddings (“What matters to me is that you find someone nice, who treats you well. Well done, you.”), but he was in the zone for this one. Beans’ toast made me cry (which I was pretty much prepared for, after watching my sisters cry while proof-reading it for her earlier in the day). Andre announced to everyone that he was the younger, more handsome brother (lies! all lies!) and then said some very, very sweet things about both of us. I could go on and on. But I won’t.

(I promise).

I can’t really remember everything that happened at the reception, but here are some highlights.

The Bridal Pinata:
We didn’t want a bouquet or garter toss, so we decided to wail on a pinata instead. I had so much fun finding all sorts of silly stuff to put in the pinata that we ended up needing two. And, even then, they were packed. I bought all sorts of rubber duckies, some parachuting gnomes, mardis gras beads in our wedding colors, little bottles of alcohol and a bunch of candy. And then I got to wield a bat while wearing my wedding dress. So that was fun.

Singing with my Band:
The guys in my band were nice enough to haul all of their gear out to Bourne so that we could play all of three songs. And I didn’t even give them a cut from the door! I looked out at our guests during the first couple of songs and I couldn’t quite tell if people were into the music. So, before the last song, I asked if folks wanted one more. Cue the resounding applause. It just might have been one of my more successful moments as a musician. And all I had to do was invite 150 of our closest friends and relatives to a party! At one point, I looked out and my five-year-old nephew and another little boy were lying on the dance floor with their heads resting in their hands, totally entranced. Best. Audience. Ever.

Dancing my Tuchus Off:

While we were planning the wedding, I decided to extend the reception by an extra hour so that we could have more dancing. We had to pay the DJ a little extra, but I figured that it would be well worth it. And I was not disappointed in my choice. The dance floor was… epic. From my friend Adrianne shouting, “You have to pump your fist so that everyone knows you mean it!” to two family friends rolling around on the ground making air pincers to Rock Lobster to a woman who’s known me since I was a baby throwing up her hands and yelling “I LOVE THIS SONG!” when Firework came on… the dancing was just incredible.

I think I only sat out a few songs.

And I was wearing like 8,000 pounds of dress.

I am so glad that I was wearing cowboy boots and not heels.

A bunch of people asked me how I managed to boogie the night away in such a giant dress and all I can say is: adrenaline. And the crazy workout routine that I did all Summer. But mostly adrenaline.

I feel like most of the craziness is of the variety that you had to have been there to appreciate, but I will attempt to do it justice.

• I used my brand new husband’s leg as an air guitar.
• My friend Erin and I shook it like a Polaroid picture for about a minute straight.
• My new brother-in-law yelled, “I got all the dancing genes!” before bounding back onto the dance floor.
• All of my friends who love the Red Sox surrounding my Dad (the Yankees lover) and serenading him with Sweet Caroline before he threw his hands over his ears and ran away.
• I missed this, but apparently the catering staff all started dancing to one particularly fun and fast song.
• My Grandparents danced with each other and it was such a sweet moment, my Aunt and I both got a little teary. My Grandfather doesn’t walk much these days, but he led my Grandmother around the dance floor like a man who was twenty years younger. And very much in love.
• We closed out the night by singing Don’t Stop Believing and the lights didn’t go out immediately afterwards. And nobody got gunned down in a restaurant.

The last song was “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds and I still get choked up every time it comes up on my iPhone. I’m used to seeing a bunch of couples on the dance floor for that last song at weddings, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a dance floor as full as ours was. As I leaned into my husband, I looked out and saw so many of our favorite people right there with us. And from the look on some of their faces, they were really into the moment. Perhaps this sounds conceited (and as I’m typing it out, I’m realizing that it probably is), but I really feel that our wedding was a day of love and celebration, and that people took that happy feeling and ran with it.

(And here’s where I sound like a total hippie).

When you put love out into the world, people pick up on that. Our wedding was a fun party, it was a chance for me to unleash my inner Martha Stewart and it was a great excuse to get all dressed up and take pictures. But above all else, it was a celebration of the love that Kristian and I share. Watching dozens of happy couples cozy up to each other on the dance floor, I felt like a success. Not only did all sorts of people stick around to the bitter end, they were all clearly feeling the love.

Like all good things, our wedding eventually had to come to an end. We said our goodbyes, thanked everyone for coming and then I went back to our room and very happily exchanged a heavy wedding dress for a tshirt and jeans. I left my dress sitting on the floor. With all of the boning in the top, it pretty much stood up on its own.

Part the maybe-I’ll-write-another-one-of-these: Photos!