Do we get to eat?

Oh boy, I hope so.

The first thing you should know is that our invite design has been done for quite some time now thanks to a super awesome friendor.. I think we had the final product done by Christmas of 2010ish? Booya. I know it's pretty far in advance, but hey, it was one less thing that needed to be worried about!

On the bright side, I still love the design and am super excited to get them all assembled and DIY'd up in the next month. On the not so bright side, I realized that I left out a possible key bit of information: reception deets. As in, there is no mention of it on the invite whatsoever.

I fretted about this for a while but eventually had to let it go - the invites were done and there was not much I could do about it at that point. Not to mention the fact that I plan on including a website card with our invites, so I can just put the reception info on the website, right? Here's hoping people actually go to it.


Anyway, the answer is yes: there is indeed a reception and we will get to eat. Huzzah!

Personal photo. Nom.

And what, exactly, will we be eating? Well I don't really know yet, but I can tell you that we are planning on having an extended-cocktail-hour-style reception. Our whole evening will probably be equivalent to most people's cocktail hours, but that's kind of the point. Foxy and I always enjoy cocktail hour better anyway, and always manage to fill ourselves up and not have room for whatever dinner is later served. So there's that.

It's a bit interesting the way everything will be set up, but I'm kind of excited for it. There will be a "typical" cocktail hour immediately following the ceremony, but it will only consist of drinks and three passed hors d'oeuvres (and possibly a cheese and veggie tray.. Foxy won't quite give in on that yet. Tell him we need one, k?).

Food stations will then come into play during the actual reception. We will likely have one for pasta, one for meat, one for crepes (good for dinner AND dessert!), and a separate soup and salad bar. And before you ask, yes. There will be enough food. Just because we won't have piles and piles of every food you could ever imagine does not mean you will go hungry (and I say that because people have doubted us). It means that you will be able to munch and nosh on some delicious treats all evening long and not be confined to scheduled eating times.


Mmmm. I'm getting hungry now.

The other thing that might come as a surprise to some guests is that we won't technically have a table and chairs for everyone. We'll have four large rounds that can each hold about 10 people, and these will be reserved for family, older peeps, people with kids, etc. Maybe a bridal party table, as well. Then, pending we have beautiful weather (which we will), there will be tall cocktail tables spread throughout the pavilion and the area outside of it.

Personal photo

Personal photo

Images via Vandiver Inn

Extra chairs and seating areas will be aplenty, for sure, but there won't be "official" places to sit. Which I love, actually. It will ideally (hopefully) encourage people to mingle and shake their groove thang on the dance floor a bit more. Because if I want one thing, I want people to dance!

Now, if the weather happens to be craptastic, we do have a backup plan. We ditch all this stuff I just told you about and do a buffet (to save space in the pavilion, since those stations take up a lot of it), or stick with it and just use a combo of the pavilion and the inside of the inn itself, which is actually where cocktail hour will be. It's not my top choice, but hey. What will happen, will happen.

Are you going a bit nontraditional with your reception? Any tips for hosting a cocktail style one?