A Sunday Kind of Love: Family Moments

During one of the food courses, we had some special parent dances that took place while our guests enjoyed their meal.  My parents decided before the traditional father-daughter dance, they would say a few words to Mr. Ly and myself - not a toast per se... maybe more of a roast? See, at this point my dad is enjoying himself at the party, and he gets pretty silly (read: somewhat inappropriate) after a few drinks (although I think he would have said the exact same things if he were 100% sober). But as my parents were the very generous hosts of the evening, they had free reign to say/do what they wanted, right? They thanked all the guests for coming, talked about the joining of our families, and how pleased they were to be gaining Mr. Ly and his family as in-laws.  Not bad... yet.

Photos by Mike Landis Photographer

Well, it wasn't a "planned" speech, and we haven't seen the video yet, so there's no real telling what was said exactly. But my dad can't just thank everyone nicely and lead into our father-daughter dance. No. There has to be some fun had, at our expense.  I know Mr. Ly was teased for tearing up during the ceremony, and I was teased for just about everything I did as a teenager/young adult probably up through the week of the wedding, because that's just how my family is.  It's all meant with lots of love and while I used to be easily embarrassed, I know now to just roll with the punches.

This is a very typical "very funny" face that I give my parents as I'm sure I was being teased about something... 

Don't think my dad had all the fun, my mom threw some of her own jabs in there too. 

After my parents' speech, my dad invited me up to the dance floor for our father-daughter dance.  Now, I love my father and we have a very good relationship. But a serious relationship, it is not.  These photos perfectly capture our relationship, which is built on a lot of fun and humor.  As you may recall, we chose to dance to "Daughter" by Loudon Wainwright. 

I wouldn't normally post an ugly-laughing face picture, but really it captures us so well! 

Seriously, not one single picture that we were not laughing. Not one. 

Mr. Ly and his mom had a much more serious dance.  They danced to "Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole & Natalie Cole.

Halfway through the dance, the DJ invited all the mothers and sons who were there at the wedding to join Mr. Ly and his mom on the dance floor.  It was a really nice move to get more people involved in the special dances. And it gave Mr. Ly's brother a chance to join him and his mom for a moment as well.

This concluded our parent dances, but we still had one more special dance planned.  In Jewish tradition, when the last of your children gets married, the parents get "crowned."  This usually includes a wreath of some sort placed on one or both of the parents heads, and a circling dance, similar to the Hora.  However, we didn't really know what to do, so my sister, brother, our spouses, and I did some fairly awkward dancing around my parents while Fiddler on the Roof played in the background.

I crowned my mom, my dad opted against a crown.

Then we all looked at each other, pretty unsure what to do now...

Let's just go in a circle around my parents

As always, we are laughing - mostly at ourselves. 

A good family shot and then we called it quits on the crowning. My mom rocked that crown the rest of the night though.

That concluded our special dances of the evening.  I promise the rest of the time the DJ was keeping the dance floor packed with our guests, and they didn't have to watch my family dance awkwardly or laugh at each other for too long.  I'm glad my parents got to have a special moment at our wedding, as they really did deserve it for all they generously gifted us to make the day possible.

I pre-capped our recaps with a big announcement!
Recaps began with our Same Day Edit video.
I needed to get some perspective the week of the wedding.
Personally brewed beers gave our rehearsal lunch a special touch!
I spent a fantastic last day as a Miss.
I shared some gifts for my bridesmaids. 
The girls spend an easy and relaxing morning getting made up.
The guys spent the morning building a chuppah and doing guy things.

I panicked when the morning went by too fast.

We exchanged lovely notes and gifts on the wedding morning.

I put on my dress and became a Blissful Bride.

Bridal details and my "somethings" rounded out the wedding morning.

We had our not-so-private first look.

We took some silly pictures, just the two of us.

Broad Street gave us gorgeous shots, but we nearly lost some of bridal party in traffic.

The Lyres and their huge bridal party storm the art museum, Rocky style.

I shed tears of pain at our final photo stop in Olde City

The ceremony space and details took our breath away when we arrived for a quick rehearsal.

We were officially married under Jewish law when we signed our Ketubah.

Guests were seated and the bridal party got our ceremony started.

I got a little emotional for my walk down the aisle.

We did not take our eyes off each other in our traditional Jewish ceremony.

Post-ceremony photos were taken with some special gender pictures for our surprise!

Our extra-long cocktail hour was full of delicious food and drinks, and a controversial ice-sculpture.

Our ceremony space was flipped into an elegant reception space with gorgeous details.

The bridal party made their entrance to some very viral video tunes. 

We danced our first dance as husband and wife.
I was lifted (briefly) in a chair during the Hora.
Our very special guests toasted us with well wishes, love, and happiness.
The food at our reception was hands down the best wedding food ever.

A Sunday Kind of Love: Food, Glorious Food

After the toasts, our first course of the evening was served. The three courses were spread out throughout parent dances & guest dancing, but I'm going to combine all of our food into one post - if there's one thing our venue does better than any other venue in Philadelphia - it's food.  There was nothing that wasn't included in our price per head cost, and anything we could have asked for - or changed - or added, they would have fulfilled any of our wishes.

At each seat, our guests were greeted with their menu for the evening:

(my mom had requested some special photos during the meal time, and our photographer didn't get the food detail shots - a special thank you to the bees at the wedding who got these shots so I could share them!)

 Menu / Photo by Mrs. Fox

First Course - Cescaphe Salad - Fresh spring mix wrapped in a thinly sliced English cucumber, served with fresh mozzarella, tomato, fire roasted red pepper, olive tapenade, and a crispy crostini with balsamic vinaigrette.

Photo by Mrs. Pain au Chocolat

The Intermezzo course was a mixed berry sorbet: 

Photo by Mrs. Pain au Chocolat 

For their main course, each guest had a choice of three entrees, each served with vegetables and herbed risotto. 

The most popular was by far the bacon wrapped filet mignon: 

Photo by Mrs. Coyote 

 The following was my favorite, the Orange Muscovy Duck Breast:

Photo by Mrs. Pain au Chocolat

 Our non-meat option was a pistachio encrusted Chilean Sea Bass:

Photo by Mrs. Pain au Chocolat

There were also a vegetarian (non-fish) option and a gluten free option that guests with special dietary needs could order specially.  

We were served our food first, and got a chance to sample everything before we started making our rounds around the room. 

Photos by Mike Landis Photographer: 

Proof that we sat and ate! 

One of everything - it was delicious! 

Our dinner left people feeling full (as if they didn't have enough to eat during the massive cocktail hour!) and satisfied.  When we see friends and family,  the food at our wedding always comes up.  We always believed that they ceremony was for us, and the reception is for our guests.  We might not have gotten to eat all we wanted, but our guests did, and it was worth every penny! We know it was better-than-average wedding food, and we are so pleased that our guests were able to have such a wonderful meal while celebrating with us! 

I pre-capped our recaps with a big announcement!
Recaps began with our Same Day Edit video.
I needed to get some perspective the week of the wedding.
Personally brewed beers gave our rehearsal lunch a special touch!
I spent a fantastic last day as a Miss.
I shared some gifts for my bridesmaids. 
The girls spend an easy and relaxing morning getting made up.
The guys spent the morning building a chuppah and doing guy things.

I panicked when the morning went by too fast.

We exchanged lovely notes and gifts on the wedding morning.

I put on my dress and became a Blissful Bride.

Bridal details and my "somethings" rounded out the wedding morning.

We had our not-so-private first look.

We took some silly pictures, just the two of us.

Broad Street gave us gorgeous shots, but we nearly lost some of bridal party in traffic.

The Lyres and their huge bridal party storm the art museum, Rocky style.

I shed tears of pain at our final photo stop in Olde City

The ceremony space and details took our breath away when we arrived for a quick rehearsal.

We were officially married under Jewish law when we signed our Ketubah.

Guests were seated and the bridal party got our ceremony started.

I got a little emotional for my walk down the aisle.

We did not take our eyes off each other in our traditional Jewish ceremony.

Post-ceremony photos were taken with some special gender pictures for our surprise!

Our extra-long cocktail hour was full of delicious food and drinks, and a controversial ice-sculpture.

Our ceremony space was flipped into an elegant reception space with gorgeous details.

The bridal party made their entrance to some very viral video tunes. 

We danced our first dance as husband and wife.
I was lifted (briefly) in a chair during the Hora.
Our very special guests toasted us with well wishes, love, and happiness. 

A Sunday Kind of Love: Raise your glasses

When our guests returned to their seats, my brother and uncle did the blessing over the wine and  bread.

All photos by Mike Landis Photographer

 

Then my MOH (who had recovered well enough from her brief sickness during the ceremony) was called to make the first toast of the night.  Unfortunately I don't have the exact text from her toast, but she made a lot of jokes about our friendship (we didn't exactly like each other when we first met), my dating history and blog (I used to bring my dates to the bar where she bartended when we were both living in NYC), and finally how happy she was that Mr. Ly and I found each other - and how well matched we are.  She wanted to mention the pregnancy, since she and I have the exact same due date - but since not all our guests knew, I didn't want people to find out through a wedding toast. (Better to find out through our thank you note!)

It was short and sweet, and full of laughter and heartfelt moments - all in all, the perfect toast.

Then our Best Man made his speech.  I'll be honest, before the wedding I was a little nervous about the Best Man's speech.  Mr. Ly and I have sat through some horrendous best man speeches - too long, filled with jokes no one really gets, or just wildly inappropriate.  Not that I thought our best man would do this, but I did have some concerns.  Thankfully, he also kept it short and sweet.  He said some touching things about his friendship with Mr. Ly and how he knew from the beginning of our relationship that Mr. Ly and I were meant to be. He provoked some tears from our guests, and didn't talk for too long.

Overall, both of our toasts were not too long or embarrassing, but meaningful and touching. They were both great tributes to our relationship and how it grew from the beginning - from each side's perspective.  We laughed, shed a few tears, and toasted the start of a beautiful marriage!

Did anyone else have any unfounded (or founded) fears about their toasts before they were given??

I pre-capped our recaps with a big announcement!
Recaps began with our Same Day Edit video.
I needed to get some perspective the week of the wedding.
Personally brewed beers gave our rehearsal lunch a special touch!
I spent a fantastic last day as a Miss.
I shared some gifts for my bridesmaids. 
The girls spend an easy and relaxing morning getting made up.
The guys spent the morning building a chuppah and doing guy things.

I panicked when the morning went by too fast.

We exchanged lovely notes and gifts on the wedding morning.

I put on my dress and became a Blissful Bride.

Bridal details and my "somethings" rounded out the wedding morning.

We had our not-so-private first look.

We took some silly pictures, just the two of us.

Broad Street gave us gorgeous shots, but we nearly lost some of bridal party in traffic.

The Lyres and their huge bridal party storm the art museum, Rocky style.

I shed tears of pain at our final photo stop in Olde City

The ceremony space and details took our breath away when we arrived for a quick rehearsal.

We were officially married under Jewish law when we signed our Ketubah.

Guests were seated and the bridal party got our ceremony started.

I got a little emotional for my walk down the aisle.

We did not take our eyes off each other in our traditional Jewish ceremony.

Post-ceremony photos were taken with some special gender pictures for our surprise!

Our extra-long cocktail hour was full of delicious food and drinks, and a controversial ice-sculpture.

Our ceremony space was flipped into an elegant reception space with gorgeous details.

The bridal party made their entrance to some very viral video tunes. 

We danced our first dance as husband and wife.
I was lifted (briefly) in a chair during the Hora.

A Sunday Kind of Love: Lift Me Up

(I feel like I'm always apologizing for the gap in my postings, hopefully this is the last apology.  Sorry I've been slacking on recap posts, prepping for Baby Lyre has taken over our lives with 4 weeks (maybe more, maybe less - let's hope for MORE!) until he arrives. My goal is to have these done before he gets here!) 

Mr. Ly and I had just finished our first dance, and the DJ seamlessly transitioned into the Horah.  Our bridal party, my side of the family and my friends immediately rushed up and circled around us, Mr. Ly's side of the family maybe had never done the Hora before or were a bit more hesitant, but they eventually joined the circle and kicked off our party in the traditional Jewish style.

All photos by Mike Landis Photographer

I am going to be 100% honest here.  I had some serious anxiety going into the horah.  Besides being a plus-sized bride to begin with (would they even be able to lift me??) I was now 3.5 months pregnant, and being jostled in a chair just didn't seem like the best idea.  I had kind of gotten over my fear of the plus sized issue, although I think it's a valid one.  I've seen some pretty beefy guys get lifted in their chairs, but still I was nervous about the weight being too much.  I tried to arrange it so that I had the strongest guys on my chair, and I tried to work that out with Mr. Ly before hand, but he didn't really seem to think it was a big deal and kept brushing it off.  Turns out it wasn't even an issue because I didn't last that long anyway!

Once I spoke to my DOC about it the week of our wedding, she reassured me that it was my call, we could do the chair or not, and no one would even notice it was missing. I felt a little better and was leaning more towards not doing it, but Mr. Ly REALLY wanted to do the chair. It was one of the things he was most looking forward to, and how could I deprive my new husband of that?  So I agreed, very hesitantly, to do the chair lifts.  I gave specific instructions to all the groomsmen that if they were on my chair, I was not to be bounced up and down, but just held up, and not too high (have I mentioned that besides my other worries, I also have a terrible fear of heights??), and when I say, "Put me down." they PUT ME DOWN.   As soon as my chair started to tip forward (which was maybe 30 seconds into it), I was done. Mr. Ly was up for a bit longer than me,  so the pictures are a bit uneven! I'm glad he got to experience it, and I'm glad I never have to again.

I was literally up and down in less than 30 seconds.  

The rest of the horah was great, and in hindsight, if we hadn't done the chair, I probably would have felt like we missed out on something.  No one got hurt and I managed to put aside my weighty-fears for just a moment (or a few seconds) to enjoy it.

 It was a great way to kick off the party, get our guests up and out of their seats, and having some fun.  

Anyone else suffer from "horah fears"  or any other traditions that maybe made you a little nervous??

I pre-capped our recaps with a big announcement!
Recaps began with our Same Day Edit video.
I needed to get some perspective the week of the wedding.
Personally brewed beers gave our rehearsal lunch a special touch!
I spent a fantastic last day as a Miss.
I shared some gifts for my bridesmaids. 
The girls spend an easy and relaxing morning getting made up.
The guys spent the morning building a chuppah and doing guy things.

I panicked when the morning went by too fast.

We exchanged lovely notes and gifts on the wedding morning.

I put on my dress and became a Blissful Bride.

Bridal details and my "somethings" rounded out the wedding morning.

We had our not-so-private first look.

We took some silly pictures, just the two of us.

Broad Street gave us gorgeous shots, but we nearly lost some of bridal party in traffic.

The Lyres and their huge bridal party storm the art museum, Rocky style.

I shed tears of pain at our final photo stop in Olde City

The ceremony space and details took our breath away when we arrived for a quick rehearsal.

We were officially married under Jewish law when we signed our Ketubah.

Guests were seated and the bridal party got our ceremony started.

I got a little emotional for my walk down the aisle.

We did not take our eyes off each other in our traditional Jewish ceremony.

Post-ceremony photos were taken with some special gender pictures for our surprise!

Our extra-long cocktail hour was full of delicious food and drinks, and a controversial ice-sculpture.

Our ceremony space was flipped into an elegant reception space with gorgeous details.

The bridal party made their entrance to some very viral video tunes. 

We danced our first dance as husband and wife.