Down the Yellow Brick Road Part XVII: Details - Reception

Here it is, folks! The reception hall at The Moon & Sixpence, all gussied up for a night out at Mr and Mrs Ruby Slippers' wedding.


The main table. Loving my damask runners! I hung this one forward so it was more noticeable:


A close-up of the main table. Because we couldn't decide on a classic actor or actress to name the main table after, we used one of our classic engagement shots.


A close-up of the candle bling I created to dress up the main table a bit:


Another angle. I also love that the petals spilled over onto the floor:

The table flowers. I'm posting a LOT of these because I love how they came out. Granted, the vases were much bigger than I'd wanted, and created quite a mission at the end of the evening to disassemble, but they looked gorgeous:




Our Oscar favours!


Table views! Yup, posting a lot of these too.

Charlie Chaplin:

Cary (deliciousness) Grant:


Getting creative through the chair with the fabulous Judy Garland:


The iconic Katharine Hepburn:


The fabulous Ginger Rogers:


Ok, I'll stop now. The other tables were Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis.


Oh look, more flowers:

Hanging table-listings just outside the entrance. I'm so pleased with how these came out. I worked on them for bloody ages! As you can see, I used the same photos as the ones on the tables on the one side, and had the list in a damask border on the other.



We used a different shot from our engagement shoot for the head table listing, though:



The menu, with the same damask border:

I love the mirror bases I rented!

This is the guest book table. We decided to use our baby pics for the heck of it! How cute were we??? (Yes, I had red hair).


A nighttime shot (all the others were taken right after the set up, before the ceremony, but this is what the hall actually looked like to us):


Our starter! The rest of the food was buffet, so it didn't look to exciting on a plate, which is why, I guess, there are no pictures of it! This was a biltong and peppadew tartlet (sounds bizarre, but it was actually the yummiest starter we tried). The vegetarians got versions sans biltong.


The flowers lit for the night. I'm glad the staff at M & S organised this sort of thing!


The outside of the hall. I'm glad we had extra candles to line the steps - it looked so romantic!


I'm actually very pleased with how it all turned out! Hard work paying off, etc etc. :-)

Previously:
Part I: The Night Before
Part II: Salon, Supermarket & Judy Garland
Part III: Setting Up
Part IV: Prettifying
Part V: All Bridalled Up
Part VI: For the Boys
Part VII: Going to the Chapel and We're...
Part VIII: Meanwhile, Back at the Chapel...
Part IX: Down the Aisle
Part X: Readings, Vows & Tasty Treats
Part XI: Man and Wife
Part XII: Cake and Family
Part XIII: Boys & Girls
Part XIV: Couple Shoot the first
Part XV: Couple Shoot the second
Part XVI: Details - Programs

And more wedding goodness arrives at my house...

...which is beginning to look like a disaster zone. Luckily (?) my house is always in a mess, which makes the epic pile-up of wedding goodness not as noticeable. Silver lining here, people!

So aside from the eight boxes I've been purloining from work over the past few weeks (eh, they usually get thrown out, anyway), and which are full of random paraphernalia like the crystalised hanging table cards, the cake toppers, the confetti cones (those I've actually done so far), the blinged-up candles, my shoes, garter, the guestbook, and so on and so fifth, there are also three green supermarket bags full of extra candles which a work colleague gifted me from her daughter's wedding; the wooden cardbox, which is too big to fit in these boxes; a big plastic bag of photo frames for the table names; the clapperboards which were such a good idea until we decided on the classic actor table names instead, which means we have to find another way to use them because I abhor waste; twelve ice-cream tubs full of golden Oscars; and a big kitbag which I'm going to use for my emergency kit, jewellery and general "don't forget this" items on the day. Then lying on the shelf near my bed are the two BM dresses (which I can't hang up because they're strapless AND stretchy), and my veil is hiding in a cupboard so Mr Ruby Slippers doesn't see it, together with the GM ties. Then on the door to the computer room I've hung the damask table runners (they were too long for the cupboard). On top of this the computer room itself (known to us as the Spare Oom) has test-run printouts scattered everywhere, of everything from the menus to the programs to the placecards, as well as lists with headings like "don't forget this" and "parents to take to venue". Aaargh, so many teeny details to organise! It's frightening.

So the actual point of this post was that last night my seamstress dropped off the BM dresses, veil and ties at my house. I promptly had a mini dress-up in my veil (which would have been a full-blown dress-up if my dress wasn't off enjoying its last few weeks of freedom at the alterations place (probably boozing it up with the other gowns) and tried to recreate some flying veil shots (note: this doesn't work inside). I didn't get any photos, because it was impossible by myself to hold the camera whilst my veil covers my entire body, but this is pretty much what it's going to look like:


This is Mrs Jelly Beans from Weddingbee. My veil even has scattered rhinestones like hers, to give that extra dash of sparkle without being too blingy, but while hers was long in front and cathedralesque at the back, mine is just above ankle-length all the way around, if I keep it even. The beauty of a drop veil is that it can be adjusted to be any length! It also looks really pretty with the front at waist-length and the back trailing on the floor, but I *think* I've decided against this in case it covers and detracts from my beautiful train.

Here is a picture of the bridesmaids' dress. Again, I don't have one of them in their actual dresses (this is from the net somewhere), but I love the fabric we chose and the colour matches my Ruby Slippers perfectly! Oh, the serendipity of it all - because I didn't take the shoes along when we bought the dress fabric. It just happened!

The only thing is we didn't get brooches to put at the side where the dress gathers up, and I think it's necessary for a bit of dressy sparkle. So now I'm going to have to find two costume brooches from somewhere easy and close (I really don't feel like travelling somewhere just for brooches at this point..)

Oh, and one more piece of wedding goodness - I finally found white parasols! Which means we can take scrumptious photos like these:

John & Joseph Photography

Tanja Vogt

I've lost the source of this one, but isn't it yummy? It even matches my colours and everything! Only my girls are going to be a little less - ahem - free with their womanly assets.

Is wedding stuff taking over your home?