Getting the party started!

Previous recaps: (First Look and Ceremony)

After we officially tied the knot, we took some brief family photos while our friends helped do last minute prep for the reception.  I’ll only bore you with the one awesome whole-family shot!

I absolutely LOVED how our reception decor turned out!  The dip dyed tablecloths and Mexican prayer flags looked awesome with our super amazing floral arrangements made by my friend Melissa.  That girl seriously needs to make a career change!  And just check out that blue Arizona sky!

As guests munched on appetizers, we signed our marriage license with some help from our witnesses.

And another witness watched from inside…

Our wonderful friends helped us heat up all our tasty taco buffet ingredients and brought it out to our rented catering dishes.  For the record, no one seemed to mind that we didn’t serve any meat.  We still had way too much food, a variety of vegetarian taco options and sides, and it was all delicious.  I know because I did make sure to eat!  We had worked too hard not to enjoy it!  While we ate, two friends and two siblings of ours all gave toasts.  Only one was slightly awkward (always prepare your speech, people!).

Then it was time to cut the cake!  I was super excited for this moment!  I know people always have strong feelings about cake smashes and whether or not they are appropriate.  I, for one, think they are hilarious and too once-in-a-lifetime to miss!  What made ours a little more risky, however, was that the cake we decided to cut was all chocolate!  It could’ve been bad but thankfully we had a good splash and I didn’t end up with any chocolate on my dress!

I say I won!

Coming up next: We dance!

All photos courtesy of Bright Fizz Photo

Last minute DIY for the win!

Hey everybody!  Long time no write!  Life is awesome (but busy) here in newlywed-land!  I can’t believe it’s already been four months since Zach and I tied the knot!

A little preview of our wonderful day!

To start off my recaps, I thought I’d update you on how all of our last minute DIY projects turned out!  I was pretty stressed about all we had to do in the week before our wedding.  It was definitely a lot to do, and the process was not without its hiccups.  I’m pretty proud of how everything turned out in the end though!

One of the first things we tackled was our tablecloths!  In order to create the exact hues we wanted, we used this handy Rit Dye Color Formula Calculator.  The hardest part of the process was just figuring out how much dye we needed to make and calculating the amount of each color to use for a huge bucket of dye.  Once we got it figured out though, the dip dyeing was super simple!

Tablecloths in windy action! 

Our next big project was a photobooth!  My “Pinspiration” was this photo booth:

But with a little ingenuity and use of some already-lying-around wood, this is what Zach built:

Suffice to say, it was a HUGE hit and totally worth all of our (mostly Zach’s) hard work!

Inevitably, there were a few projects that fell by the wayside.  We never got around to making an arbor or focal point for our ceremony.  Oh well!

Our biggest project was definitely self-catering our food and desserts!  Thankfully, we had a lot of help from family and friends, and everything came together beautifully and deliciously in the end.  It was definitely a busy week in the kitchen!  We actually ended up with too much food!  Here’s a little peek at the dessert spread my mom, sister, and I slaved away over:

Mmmmm…

Would I recommend saving so much DIY for the week before your wedding?  Definitely not!  Making all this happen and getting along while doing it was not without its challenges!  I’m so happy with how everything turned out in the end!

Did you save lots of DIY for the last minute?  How did it end up for you?

(Special thanks to our photographer Bright Fizz Photo!)