The end of the wedding fun

Last Sunday we had our belated wedding reception in Portland at the beautiful McLean House. I highly recommend it if anyone is looking for a party or meeting venue - inexpensive, all the supplies you need, and beautiful grounds and house.

We had a fantastic time, and we were SO excited about all of the people that came from far and wide to celebrate with us. My Aunt Trish flew out from Atlanta (I hadn't seen her in 5 years), Bryan's Aunt Linda and Uncle Bill flew up from Sacramento (some of the nicest people I have met in a long time), my friend Stacey was visiting from Salt Lake, Bryan's parents were in town, my cousin Kelli came down for the day, and lots of local relatives/friends/neighbors/co-workers came out. I think there were about 50 people there, which was great considering how many people were away on vacation.

The Russell Street BBQ was enjoyed by all, as was the Eye of the Bee wine that we brought back from our favorite vineyard in New York.

Here are a few pictures, although I'm sure more will come as others send them to me. Us with our cake - top layer was carrot cake, bottom layer was chocolate with chocolate and raspberry filling. My favorite part was the blue bow on top, which was entirely made out of chocolate.Theo was dying to eat the bow, so we let him try part of the ribbon. Needless to say, after this no one ate the ribbon. That certainly isn't a natural color! Theo was a cute kid though, and he loved it.

Me with my cousin Kelli and Aunt Trish.
My family. After looking through the wedding pictures our photographer took, we sadly realized we didn't have any pictures with my entire family. This hopefully makes up for it. Note Bryan with his untucked shirt and flip flops. You can take the boy out of Florida, but you can't take the Florida out of the boy. I guess this is considered appropriate reception party attire to him. Sigh...it was a battle that wasn't worth fighting. Well, I guess I did fight it and he agreed to tuck in and change shoes after set-up, but he coyly "forgot." He's lucky I love him anyway :)

So after many months, lots of planning, flying all over, moving, and moving again, the wedding festivities have come to an end. We managed to stretch it out over 3 months! Thanks to my mom for helping make sure the reception went out without a hitch, and thanks to her fantastic co-workers who pitched in and helped us set up.

Now we're on to "real life," whatever that means. For now it means a new job for Bryan (with another one possibly looming on the horizon), tons of fun new things in our apartment, figuring out how to balance work and play, and a trip to Vegas over Labor Day. I think we'd both agree that we love being married (watch for his snarky comment in retort!), and things are going great. Now if only we could figure out how to merge two totally different financial systems.....we're all ears if you have any suggestions!