Wedding Pictures Part 23: Dancing, and the end of the day...

And until the time our photographers left at least, people visited with each other, and danced...

 

And when everything was over, we went back to the hotel and met up with our out-of-town guests who were staying the night in Seattle for one last visit together. Nothing formal, just aunts and uncles, parents and siblings, and friends that flew in for the weekend, meeting for happy hour at the hotel bar. (No pictures--sad!) After the group started breaking up, we walked down the street for ice-cream with my Californian friends, but before we left, we got one of the hotel guys to take a group photo...

And with that, we left to get Haagan Daaz, then went our separate ways. I'm not sure what S & her husband M did--- we didn't see them the next day since they flew out right after church. From what I understand, M, C, T, & J had quite the night out at some bars though, since when we met up with them for breakfast the next morning they were hung-over. Ha. And all they would say was "wow, J is such a crazy guy." I'm still not sure what to make of that. 

(One more wedding picture post to go! ALMOST done!)

Wedding Pictures Part 22: Tosses

Kenneth and I weren't wild about the idea of doing bouquet/garter tosses. Most of Kenneth's friends are married at this point, so there would be a total of 3 men around for the garter toss, assuming they would all be willing to get on the dance floor... not to mention, I'm too much of a prude to have Kenneth rustling under my skirts in public--- especially when my parents and grandmother and Kenneth's grandparents were in the crowd. Then, since the bouquet toss would require a bouquet that I didn't have, that didn't make sense either. Plus, we just didn't think most of our friends would be into it. Solution: gift cards, and a co-ed crowd! I think one was for Jamba Juice and the other was for Amazon.com, and Mom tied ribbons around them to make them a little prettier.

And now, the most hilarious pictures from the day...

Sara's feet are planted firmly, ready to leap the moment the cards flew... Margarett has positioned her hands to push people out of the way... Alexis has taken prime real estate directly behind us...

 Notice my friend Nicole, who is soooo too cool for this. So cool, she's doing a hipster fingers-through-the-hair pose while everyone (ok, at least my sisters) are diving for the gift cards... hilarious! (She's doing it in the other photos too...)

Sara DIVING for the cards. Not surprising... at the last wedding Sara and I went to together, Sara actually stomped on my foot wearing those same stiletto heels during the bouquet toss. *Not joking.* We should all be thankful no blood was spilled this time.

I think Sara and James got them, but I'm not sure. Let me know if I have that wrong. 

Wedding Pictures Part 21: The Anniversary Dance

Just a few more posts on the wedding left, and then goodness knows when I'll write about... But, until then, pictures from the anniversary dance (or whatever you call the dance that starts out with all married couples on the dance floor, and then starts asking couples to leave...first if they've been married for less than a day, then if they have been married less than 1 year, then less than 5 years, and so on...)

As the song went on, couples left the dance floor...

And finally, the only couple still dancing was Phil & Lil--- who I think have been married 58 or 59 years. 

Here's hoping we're still dancing at weddings in 58 or 59 years.

Wedding Pictures Part 20: Let's Dance

In the end, we picked "You Are the Best Thing" for our first dance. It's fun, easy to dance to, and appealed to both of us. "Can't Take my Eyes Off of You" is still "our" song, and it would've been great to have our first dance to our song, but it would have required more dance lessons than we could afford or even had time for. (Did I mention we started our dance lessons less than a month before the wedding, which we hadn't budgeted for... and they turned out to be way more expensive than we thought they would be? Oops. We only ended up making it to 2 lessons.) We didn't do "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" because it was too long and the music didn't allow for any creativity in dancing. I think we had the most fun with what we picked, anyway.

I really, really love the above 2 photos. Definitely in my top 10 of all 2000 of our wedding photos. LOVE them.

And then it was time for my Dad and I to dance. In efforts to simplify where possible, I asked Dad to pick the song we would dance to. His choice-- "Have I told You Lately that I Love You"-- was a good one, even more so because my dad doesn't say "I love you," often.  He's not the kind to vocalize his emotions, so choosing that song was his way of doing it, and it made dancing with him more special than it might have been with other songs he considered ("Unforgettable," and "Landslide")

I'm probably laughing because Dad's telling a lame joke or some ridiculous one-liner. 

The song was a great choice, but it's over 4 minutes long. That's a long time to have people watch you dance! So about mid-way through, I decided it was time to make things more interesting, and asked the rest of my Dad's daughters to join in...

And finally, it was time for Kenneth and his mom to do their dance. Kenneth and his mom chose Celine Dion's "You Raise Me Up." 

Kenneth's mom looks soooooooo happy in these pictures. Honestly, part of me didn't want to do any formal dances, (more spotlight on us was not what I wanted), but to get a picture like this, and make Kenneth's mom this happy, I'd say it was worth it in the end.

Love that picture. Doesn't it make you want to go hug your mom?