Just Keep Loving: Some Toasts, A Cake, and Dancing

After the dinner hour, with our bellies full of yummy breakfast foods, it was time for the toasts. Both of my MOH's and Mr. C's best men gave incredible speeches, all of them leaving us in tears - from both laughing and crying! Silly memories brought back to life, and heartfelt words about the impact of our friendship had us both feeling so thankful and appreciative to have these wonderful people in our lives. Although the speeches lasted a bit longer than we had anticipated, we still had plenty of time to get through our cake cutting before it was time to open up the dance floor.

After speeches came time to cut the cake! I had posted during the planning stage that Mr. C and I would be serving donuts in lieu of the traditional wedding cake - and we did indeed serve Fractured Prune donuts! Tragic side note: four months prior to our wedding, the Fractured Prune in Lancaster decided to close it's doors for business. Yes, we were devastated. RIP Fractured Prune.

Being the heroic, wonderful person she is, my MOH and older sister volunteered to have her boyfriend drive 3 hours round-trip the morning of the wedding to the closest open Fractured Prune in Towson, MD just so we could still have the donuts our hearts desired. But you know what? We never even got to eat a donut. Still pissed about it, six months later. Okay, back to the cake story...

Mr. C and I decided we still wanted a tiny wedding cake for us to cut, for traditions sake. Plus, I had a vision of a cute, two-tier cake and had found the perfect cake topper for it. We were able to find an up-and-coming baker in Lancaster, The Flour Child, to supply us with our perfect tiny cake, at an awesome price. The flavor we ended up going with was a traditional vanilla cake with mocha frosting filling. YUM. 

One big "surprise" we had for our guests was our custom-built outdoor dance floor. As soon as we had booked the Firehouse at Landis Valley, Mr. C and I both knew there was no way we could have our dance floor inside - too many tables, a guest list at almost maximum capacity, and no where to dance. So, we had to come up with another plan. The idea for the outdoor dance floor came to me when I saw the Firehouse doors swing open for the first time. I had envisioned a dance floor being placed right against the edge of the Firehouse floor, with the outside perimeter strung with globe lights. The dance floor would be assembled during the dinner hour, when the doors were still shut. Then, when it was time to dance, the doors would be swing open, and voila! A dance floor.

The problem with this vision was that 1) We had no skills to build a dance floor. 2) We had absolutely no room to build a dance floor. 3) Who would assemble it during dinner? 4) How would we possibly get it there/take it back home?

All of these worries and more were put to rest when MOH Schmo's dad (a carpenter!) stepped up to the plate and offered to help build us our dance floor. While I wasn't sure what it would end up looking like, I put full trust in him to help us make this crazy vision a reality. It ended up looking even better than we could have imaged! A romantic, cozy, outdoor space to dance our faces off - we were thrilled. While it could have been made even bigger (the dance floor was packed the entire night!) it was great to have that separate space outside of the Firehouse. We absolutely could not have done it without his help, and we could not be more appreciative.

The rest of the reception consisted of dancing 'til our feet hurt, sweating through multiple layers of clothing (in Mr. C's case), deciding your extra layer of crinoline under your dress absolutely must come off (in my case), and partying the night away with our favorite people, some who had traveled from as far as Florida just to celebrate with us. To say we felt loved was an understatement.

The amount of joy we felt that day couldn't be explained, even if I tried. The day we both had been waiting for for SO long was here, and we both tried so very hard to soak up all of the moments before it was all over.

Before we knew it, the last song was played, Mr. C had a bucket of ice water dumped on his head (couldn't make this up if I tried), and I changed out of my wedding dress and into a more casual "exit" dress.We didn't have any sort of formal exit planned, so we stayed behind long after our guests started leaving and helped our families and friends clean up - before we were both shooed away to our hotel.

So there it is...our wedding day. The most beautiful day we could have imagined, come and gone so incredibly fast. All the months of planning, surmounted to a day better than either of us could ever have dreamed. It was truly the most perfect day, and I got to end the day with my husband. My husband. I still don't get tired of saying those two words, as cheesy as it sounds.

While our wedding day recaps may be over (in picture form, at least!), you can't get rid of Mrs. Clownfish quite yet. I still have a few posts up my sleeve, and I can't wait to share my next post with you -- our wedding day video!