Katie's Reception

We had Katie's reception at the house in the basement and backyard. It was SO lovely! I think the nice painted wall was helpful, but we also were better at this the second time (mine being the first). This time, everyone had a job to do. And no one was allowed to shirk their responsibilities. Haha! Basically, anyone that showed up to the house that day got put right to work, and amazingly, we had FANTASTIC helpers! Thanks to everyone who pitched in on behalf of my sister and my parents. It was superb!

Erin helped with flowers and did the table centerpieces.


Grandma and Grandmary helped cut fruit and prepare other food.


Granddad did his part...


Trish was the photographer and spent lots of time getting pictures ready to display.


Dad cooked meat - remember this is August in humid Kansas so this job was much worse than it looks.


Mom was the overseer and the boys were in charge of setting stage. They got the tables gathered from the neighbors and set in place, and pounded in all the tiki torches in the yard.


Sharon was the head florist and did the bridal bouquets, boutonnieres and the cake display. She's pretty much amazing with flowers!


Jenny headed up the car decorations by filling balloons with confetti. We were sure to help her of course, because you can't have just one culprit.


Elizabeth (Mom's cousin) and her husband drove up from Texas to help. And they were some serious help! They brought their own aprons, knives, cake stands and everything. It worked out so perfectly because they filled a hole I didn't realize existed. Maybe Mom had it all worked out, but when I looked around at who could have manned the buffet table after it was all said and done, I couldn't think of anyone better! She did an absolutely marvelous job!


Here's the gift/sign in corner. It was very lovely! Wondering what I was in charge of? I made the guest sign in book beforehand and then the day of, I was Mom's gopher. That's an incredibly important (and stressful) job. I basically stayed by her side and every few minutes she'd say, "Oh, go check..." or "Oh, go get..." or "Figure something out for..." or "Call... and ask for..." or "Go tell... to do..." Yeah, that was my job. It eventually evolved into me being the shower police. I'm not sure how many times we had to tell Mom to go shower and get herself ready before people showed up. Haha! I also found time to sneak around and get these pictures.


Here is a centerpiece. We had like 10 or 12 of these. I can't remember now. But this was entertaining, let me tell you! Katie's whole wedding reception started with one solid detail - she wanted goldfish in the centerpieces. I got to go to Kansas two weeks early, so I got to witness the buying of the goldfish, the consequent death of a few, and the mad scramble back to Wal-Mart (45 miles away) to buy some more. But, they were pretty cool I have to admit. And so like Katie and Shane.


Here is the cake table. It was beautiful! Except, again remember, this is August in Kansas and it started to melt - I kid you not! So about an hour and a half into the reception, someone realized the cake was slowing caving in on one side (kind of like the cake in Sleeping Beauty) and so we quickly did the traditional cake cut and served it up. Also, we hung her Dooley doily (say that five times fast) above the cake. Mary Jane is so good to us!


Do these pictures not make you extremely hungry? I think I only got one of these! We have to have these again at Jake's reception (in like six years). Just for me.




And the drinks! I think Kelly was in charge of making the drinks, but now I can't really remember. I know Kelly helped dad cook the meat, too. Hm. Kelly! I don't have a picture of you! Now we don't have proof you actually helped! Haha! How did you elude all my photos?