October 27, 2010

Local Celebration - October 23, 2010

This past Saturday was our local reception. When Jason and I decided to have a destination wedding, I really wanted to have a local reception back home so we could celebrate with those who couldn't attend. At that time, I knew my grandma, Jason's grandparent's and a few friends wouldn't attend the wedding but had no idea how few of our friends and family wouldn't be able to go to Mexico. So I am forever grateful to my parents who threw a big bash of a celebration for us back here. We had family and friends join us from as far south as Florida and South Carolina and as far east as Colorado, and of course many from the northwest tip of Iowa including Jason's grandparents, and cousins from all over Illinois!

Originally, my idea of a reception was to have it in my parents backyard on a Saturday, middle of the day with some inflatables for the kids, BBQ food for the adults and just laid back and low-key (but of course with me wearing my wedding dress, Jason in his suit and the wedding party in their attire.) As time went on, we decided the best option would be to have it at Klein Creek Golf Club in Winfield. Without going into any details of how this all transposed and why we decided on Klien Creek, I will tell you that it was more than an answer to prayer in ways that Jason and I never could have asked for!

The day began with me meeting my mom at my grandma's house so Jolene could do our hair. Having my hair done was just as much fun the second time around but not nearly the emotions, which was a plus! Then I went over to Klein Creek to meet my aunts who had done an amazing job setting up. A HUGE thank you to my Aunt Shelby and mom for taking care of all the flower arrangements. They looked just beautiful! Also thank you to my aunts who all drove in early to help my mom and aunt make sure the place was all set up to Aunt Shelby's liking. After visiting the tent, I headed to the hotel where Laura helped with my make-up and got dressed in my beautiful wedding dress all over again. I told Jason maybe I'd start wearing my dress every 5th weekend on a Saturday night...I kinda liked this new tradition I was beginning. ;-) Once we were all dressed we met up with Jason's cousin, Dan and his girlfriend, Stacey, Phil and Laura and were shuttled off to the reception. From the second I got out of the shuttle the night just flew by! There were so many people to see and talk to, so much dancing to do (especially with the kids!), food to be eaten, pictures to be taken and fun to be had! The night began with hors 'd hourves and cocktails while a photo montage played in the background. Then we had a delicious dinner followed by a video of the wedding while everyone munched on cupcakes. After that, we did our (2nd) first dances, followed by more mingling, pictures and dancing. The kids seemed to enjoy the dance floor more than the adults, but by the end of the evening we had a pretty large group out there dancing. All the details of planning the local reception and then all the pressure to talk to everyone while we were there made me even more thankful for having a destination wedding. However, it really made me appreciate the local celebration even more because I realized just how many people didn't make it with us to Mexico and how much I would have missed celebrating with everyone. The intimate destination wedding allowed Jason and I to enjoy every minute of our special day and the local celebration allowed us to celebrate our wedding and marriage with all our family and friends. I am so excited to see the pictures from our local celebration, and can only hope that everyone had as much fun celebrating as we both did. Once again, a huge thank you to everyone who was able to be there with us this past Saturday and we look forward to many more nights of celebrations with you in our future as Mr and Mrs. Jason Lockwood!
This is just a sampling of the pictures, to view all of them, please visit: http://photos.tjarosphotography.com/p295353767






















2 comments:

  1. AWE some!!!!! I love that you have pics of the kids dancing; since all of mine were a blur!

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