Snippets of our Wedding Dinner Celebration

First, I’ll admit it – I was never one of those “have a line/throw a bouquet/reception kind of girls. As a teenager, I absolutely dreaded going to receptions and standing in line to shake six+ hands, of whom only one I was familiar with. The poor bride always looked ornery from standing still for three hours and bored from saying the same, monotone, “thank you for coming,” over and over. So, when it came time to plan a celebration for Gavin and me, I had big dreams in mind. My poor mother.
I had been offered an internship in Lille, France for the summer so this meant that my mom and I would have to do as much planning as possible before I left and then she would be on her own once I was gone. I must say, she did a spectacular job. We had our dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in the Empire Room. The second we walked in there we knew it was the perfect setting. It was in true European style: dark wood, ornate paintings on the walls and ceilings, beautiful molding. This was it. Once I’d chosen my colors-eggplant, moss green, and orange-they showed us options for flowers, decorations, etc. The color scheme was amazing and I’m glad that for once, one of my ideas came out stunningly. I fell in love with the eggplant calla lilies in the sample book and from there, my mom helped me pick bright orange roses and fun greenery to match. Then, I told her I didn’t want a traditional cake, I wanted a croquembouche/pièce montée – a French cream puff tower. This is common at French weddings and often they build a base of ice cream and then use a crème brulée torch to attach each puff. However, they did a perfect imitation with mine and used a praline sauce and chocolate to hold it together as well as adding flowers to dress it up. On a funny note however, when our photographers asked us to feed each other a cream puff for a picture, Gavin bit into his and the cream squirted out all over his tux! He laughed it off though and it made for a good picture.
We had a social hour before our actual program began and there was a beautiful array of shrimp, vegetable torte, and fruit. Then, the program started with introductions by my dad. Both he and Jim shared kind remarks, as well as Dallin and Hillary sharing some of their favorite memories. Then, Gavin and I sang “You’re Still the One,” by Shania Twain, and Phil Sykes sang a song he wrote called, “On Your Wedding Day.” It was a beautiful presentation! Being able to go around and visit the family members and friends that I love was wonderful. No line, no bouquet toss, and everything just as I hoped it would be. Again, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves since there are several. Enjoy! I hope to eventually catch up on the previous eight great months since we’ve been married. :) Ciao for now-