Ashley and Matthew’s wedding last night was a black and white affair. They requested that the guests wear all black, so Ryan and I obliged, though my dress was covered by a not-so-cute back cardigan most of the night because it was so stinkin’ cold!
Me and My Date
The wedding was at the City Arts Factory in downtown Orlando and was the definition of a beautiful winter wedding.
When we arrived we walked up a decorated staircase into a large loft for the ceremony.
Black and White Entrance
We chatted with some of the people I used to work with at the Orlando Museum of Art for about 10 minutes before the ceremony began.
The Ceremony
Matthew’s face when Ashley walked down the aisle was wonderful to watch. Matt’s the lead singer/guitarist for the heavy metal band Trivium, so seeing him moved by the ceremony and his future wife was especially romantic. Later in the evening he said that when he saw Ashley walking down the aisle, that was the moment when all his nerves went away and he knew everything was right. So sweet!
Ashley Walking Down the Aisle
Ashley looked stunning and definitely added her own personal touch to the wedding. She wore an amazing handmade hat throughout the evening which suited her perfectly.
The Bride and Groom
After the ceremony we went downstairs for a cocktail hour when the ceremony site was flipped into the reception room.
I enjoyed several glasses of Reisling (gotta love wine that tastes like juice!) and a bunch of appetizers. Appetizer favorites were the spinach artichoke dip and the shrimp skewers wrapped in sugar snap peas that were passed around.
Appetizer Table
Enjoying Cocktail Hour
We were then ushered back upstairs for the reception. A delicious buffet of yummy smelling food awaited us.
We hit up the bar one more time and took photos with friends in a photo booth (so fun!) to wait for the food line to die down before filling our dinner plates.
My Plate
I filled my plate with lots of veggies, a small taste of the chicken dish and several thin slices of top round beef. I ate every last bite!
Ryan and I enjoyed dinner time and had fun catching up with our friends Ryan and Ken.
Ken and Ryan
Ryan and Me
As favors for the guests, Ashley and Matt had a neat candy bar set up where guests could fill up a mini to-go container with candies. Ryan and I filled our up and ate it all before we even left! I was addicted to the snow caps and Twizzlers. All the candy was black, white and red which looked really neat.
I really want to do a cookie bar at our wedding. Ryan and I both have a big sweet tooth and love homemade cookies. I think it would be really neat to use family recipes and have little tags on the cookie bins noting that these cookies are “Mimi’s homemade sugar cookies” to add a personal touch.
Here’s a picture (courtsey of Miss Martha) of what I’m thinking:
Cookie Bar
As if our sugar high from the candy bar wasn’t enough, Ryan and I made sure to indulge in wedding cake.
The cake was so elegant.
The Cake
Top Tier
Ashley and Matt were so cute during the cake cutting. No cake was smooshed into anyone’s face. 🙂
If you are married, did you smash cake into your spouse’s face at your wedding?
Cake Cutting
The main wedding cake was chocolate mocha which was delicious! They also had mini cakes on many of the reception tables with chocolate, vanilla and carrot cake flavors.
I ate a thick piece of carrot cake and sampled the others. The carrot cake was my favorite, followed by the chocolate mocha.
Carrot Cake
I love wedding cake! In the future I think I should skip dinner at weddings and eat seven pieces of wedding cake. That’s all I really want anyway.
Maybe we’ll do that at our wedding… no dinner… only dessert. Sounds good to me! 😉
Can you imagine this wedding menu:
Appetizer
Small brownie bites
Salad
A bed of chocolate chip cookie cake served with crumbled cookies pieces and a hot fudge sauce dressing
Entrée
Ice cream sundae, topped with whipped cream, chocolate and caramel sauce, garnished with candied pecans and a cherry
Dessert
Funfetti wedding cake
If I ever saw this menu at a wedding I would think I had just died and gone to heaven!
Today
I don’t have too many things on my to do list today which feels great! I want to clean up the apartment, run a couple errands and plan out some yummy dinners for this week.
I am taking the day off from the gym because I know a day of rest is important…however, I feel pretty energetic so I may attend a yoga class to release some energy. I hate stretching and always feel so antsy in yoga classes, but I want to improve. We’ll see!
Time for breakfast!
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Love the cookie bar idea!!!
Also I love the brides hairpiece. Fits her so well!
I’m a huge Trivium fan! I’m re-sending this post to all of my metal head friends who enjoy their music as well. What a great recap and what a fantastic wedding!
Mark and I cut our wedding cake with a samurai sword. 😉 Nobody got hurt and the sword made the whole cake cutting rather neat.
you are so adorable!!! when is your wedding? i literally am obsessed with weddings and all the planning that goes into them… so excited to follow you on your journey!
funfetti wedding cake sounds GREAT to me 🙂 haha. i would LOVE an all sweets/desserts wedding but i feel like others may not..unless you’re my only guest 😉 you and ryan are seriously one good looking couple!
I seriously considered a dessert reception! I’m not a night person though- I’m up at 6 every morning so I didn’t want to be too sleepy to enjoy the party!
We didn’t do the cake smash- my wedding day makeup application was too expensive to mess up! Plus, it just wasn’t the tone of our wedding. If someone’s having a crazy-party -over- the- top wedding, I think it fits, but we were having a day time, strings for music kinda party. To each their own!
I had 5 different flavors of wedding cake at our reception…and served “cake balls” as favors. People still comment on how good they were!
We had a cookie table at our wedding! We had lots of homeade goodies and then we put out cellophane bags and I had stickers made to seal the bags that had our names and wedding date on them.
Everyone loved it! Wedding planning is so fun!
I love weddings! The cookie bar is such a cute idea. I love cookies…wish I would have done that. My hubby and i didn’t smash cake in each others faces (I paid too much money to get my makeup done…to get it messed up that way :)), But we did play around with frosting on our noses.
I love the bride’s hat! Sounds like a unique wedding and lots of fun!!
That wedding looks sooo great.. you and Ryan look gorgeous btw!
We had a cookie bar at ours and it was a HUGE hit!!
Glad you had fun 🙂
If that’s your menu, can I come?? I’m glad I’m not the only one who wants a funfetti wedding cake!
what a beautiful wedding! you & ryan look so happy & gorgeous. the menu souns really good & that cake is amazing!
xoxo
shelley
http://findinghappinessandhealth.wordpress.com
What a pretty wedding! I love the idea of doing a cookie bar…that is a fun idea! Keith and I went to a wedding a few months ago that was a night wedding. It started at 8:00p.m. and for their reception their entire menu was all desserts! It was awesome!
Unfortunately, there WAS smooshing @ our wedding. Believe it or not, the cake was 5 hours late. Literally. We had planned to cut it as soon as we walked in the ballroom, but since that didn’t happen and it was so late, hubby and I had both had a few drinks and were less classy. .. whoops 🙂
I like the cookie bar idea! I had wanted to do a candy bar, but budget got in the way. Our favors were homemade candy in the shape of bees because I like bees & we are GA Tech fans (even though it’s really supposed to be yellow jackets).
There was no cake smooshing. I wanted to, but I didn’t want the revenge that would come with it. It was the only bite of cake I got anyhow.
that would be SOOOOOOOO FUN!! Beautiful wedding. I love the black idea!!
I did smoosh cake in my hubby’s face. It was staged and we got a big laugh.
Cookie bars are huge in Pittsburgh. In fact I think they are traditional.
We had thought about a dessert reception as well. But decided against it since we couldn’t have our wedding late enough.
I really like you’re cookie bar idea! I did a candy bar for my wedding too (black, white, and pink candy), and the guests loved it! It would be cute if you also printed out the recipes for the cookies, too!!
your black dress is so cute on you!
i shoved cake in my hubby’s face and then threatened to leave him if he did the same…. the good ol double standard.
I love that black dress! If you don’t mind me asking, where did you get it? Also, my bff recently got engaged and I’m the MOH (first timer)! So basically, I’m now OBSESSED with weddings and all the planning that goes into them..can’t wait to follow your journey!
i got it from bebe… but probably 3 years ago! it was actually a christmas present from ryan! 🙂
Sweety!!! Best wish and a better 2010 for dear all!
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best regards!
what a beautiful wedding!!!!