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.