Our Destination Key West Wedding Part II

The Reception

***This blog post is a continuation from my other post Our Destination Key West Wedding.

Conveniently, the reception site was located directly across the street from the train station, where our guests were dropped back off. It really worked out great. Here's is us arriving at Two Friends Patio Restaurant:

I had decorated all of the tables inside the restuarant with milk glass vases filled with crepe paper flower stems. I spent close to two years working on the hundreds of flowers that were used in the wedding. My house soon became full of wedding throw up...

As i had mentioned before, a few of my close friends, Ashley, Larry, and Loop, had set up the reception tables for us, but they only had about 45 minutes to do so. I'm pretty sure they wanted to kill me at the time, and I am forever grateful to and for them! I had given them just one picture of how I wanted it all set up, and luckily for me and my smart, crafty, and creative friends, they nailed it! On the left is the example and on the right is at the restaurant. I think I underestimated the amount of doilies I needed, but oh well.

Here are a few more pics of our set up, I basically bought a few lots of doilies on eBay and dyed them using acrylic paint dissolved in water. I just let them soak on the colored water for a few hours then laid them flat to dry. The milkglass bud vases came to me very easily. My mom put a post up on Facebook asking people to be on the lookout for the milkglass vases at the goodwill and within a week we had close to 70 of them! Then I spent months and months making flowers for each one of the vases and VOILA! You have my table decor!

They even got worn as boutonierres!

As our guests started piling in they were greeted by a large moss covered picture frame covered in key tags with each couple/person's name on it.

On the back their table number was written. I have to give my momma 100% credit for this idea. I left it all in her hands and she delivered. Thanks ma!

For my table numbers I took little wood numbers and covered them in moss with a hot glue gun. I also hot glued a stick to it and put the stick in the vase.

"What is that" you ask?? "Is that your face?" ....

YUP! Made into temporary tattoos! The guests seemed to really like them! My favorite part was when they put a face on the inside of each forearm and clapped their arms together, making kissing noises as our tattoo faces hit together. I was excited to see where exactly people would put the tattoos on their bodies. I was definitely expecting a few to end up in unmentionable areas, but as far as I know, people kept it PG. I'm shocked!

Below is my guest sign in table. Since we used Oh, The Places You'll Go in the ceremony, I chose to have the guests just sign a copy of the book. As a small favor, they were encouraged to take an Oh, The Places You'll Go pencil. The pin that was used to sign in with was rather large and very avant garde, just the way I like it!

Here's the pin I made to sign it with:

My good friend Taylor made the picture frame for me, isn't it beautiful?! She's so talented. I made up a poem that was placed inside the frame that reads,

"You may need reminding,

That while you are dining,

The guest book needs signing,

And please take a pencil,

Only one so no whining."

Quick backstory: When my mom first mentioned that the local Publix grocery store apparently had a great bakery and thatI should get our wedding cakes from there, I pretty much laughed and went on with my day. My master cake plan was for my mom, Granny Pat, sister, myself, and a few friends to cook some homemade cakes the thursday and friday before the wedding. My reason for doing this was because I wanted seven different cakes and seven different flavors, and that was gonna be $700 from a bakery. NO SIR! I'm cheap. Plus I've never really had a wedding cake or a grocery store cake that I would write home about. I apologize to all you bakers out there, I'm sure if I tried one of your cakes my tongue would slap my brains out, but I haven't, so my tongue remains still. I wanted our wedding cake to taste like your grandmother's grandmother's favorite cake recipe, or like the really unique recipe you found on Pinterest. I didn't think a bakery could really do that. At least I've never tasted one from a bakery that tasted really unique and homemade. You know what I mean? Maybe I'm just picky. Eventually my mom got a little too nervous about making the cakes when we were down in KW, so being the good daughter I am, I looked up the Publix bakery online that my mom had been telling me about. That's when my whole perception of a grocery store bakery changed forever! Their cake flavors looked AMAZING! And so unique!

Here are the flavors I picked. I amended a few of them to my liking, and Publix was very accommodating:

*Caramel Praline Pecan Sugar Cookie Cake- Marble cake with a filling caramel, crushed sugar cookies, and praline pecans, iced with a smooth dulce de leche whipped topping.

*Hummingbird Delight- Vanilla cake with an icing made by blending cream cheese icing with pineapples, pecans, and banana. Chocolate drizzle.

*Toasted Coconut Treat- Vanilla cake, filled with Bavarian coconut custard, iced with a toasted coconut whipped topping, and topped with fudge drizzle and toasted coconut.

*Ebony and Ivory Cake- Four alternating vanilla and chocolate layers separated with layers of chocolate and vanilla pudding . Topped with vanilla and chocolate whipped topping and chocolate ganache.

Peanut Butter Fudge- Four layers of moist chocolate cake filled with peanut butter cream cheese icing and chocolate chips between layers. Covered with fudge ganache and chocolate curls.

*Strawberry and Peach Sensation- Three layers of vanilla cake, filled with fruit and bavarian cream, topped with vanilla whipped topping, fresh strawberries, kiwis, grapes, and toasted almonds hug the sides.

*Chocolate Raspberry Torte- Layers of chocolate cake, raspberry filling, covered in a rich chocolate ganache and topped with glazed raspberries.

I was able to try most of them and I think my two favs were the caramel sugar cookie crunch and Ebony and Ivory, but they were all soooo good! I wish I could eat them again. And again. And again. So guess how much for all seven of these cakes, including delivery?! $170! I just collected some cake plates and vintage cake toppers to try and make the cakes look cohesive. It worked good enough for me:) A big high five to my momma for that stellar idea.

Now it was time for us to cut the cake!

What's my sis doing over there you ask? Another quick backstory: TONY HATES CIRCUS PEANUTS! So about once a year over the past 5 years I buy a bag of circus peanuts and hide them all around the house. One on his toothbrush, one on the end of his car key, one on the toilet flusher, etc., etc.. So of course I did the right thing when I replaced the piece of wedding cake I was feeding him with his favorite orange candy! Above you can see my sis sneaking it to me:)

As you can see, he was pretty surprised!

My Step Daddy Jim gave us a nice toast, without crying, that ended in an "'ahhhhhhhhhh C-A-T-S CATS! CATS! CATS!" cheer. We always are representing our UK Wildcats everywhere we go. Especially after our #1 ranked basketball team had just crushed #5 Kansas by 32 points a few days earlier.

I'm sure you've heard that UK fans are crazy. It's true. And my hubby is their crazy leader. He's the guy that every goes to when they have a question about UK sports. So we had to wait until January when the UK Football schedule came out to set our date. Yes, you heard me correctly. November 22nd was the by week for Kentucky Football. That's why we picked the date we did. Lord forbid we get married on the same day as a UK Football game...

Next came the food. Everyone was offered the choice of either 12oz NY strip, Crab cakes, or shrimp trio. They were also served conch fritters and fish dip for appetizers and a caesar salad. I was shocked at how many of our guests picked the 12oz strip! You would think, "When in Rome" and that most people would pick the seafood items since we were ON AN ISLAND, but everybody wanted the daggon cow. Which being a vegetarian I was hoping that more people would pick the seafood options instead of the cute furry cow, but whaddoyado?

Let me tell you, the food was fanatastic! Starting with the conch fritters. Conch is the goobery snail that sits inside a giant shell. It's removed and chopped up and mixed into seasoned flour to make something that resembles a hushpuppy. Not being a fan of eating seafood goobers, I've never really had a conch. I once took a bite out of what I thought was a hushpuppy, turned out to be a conch fritter. Tasted like a hushpuppy. But I still refrained from having anymore. There's just something about eating what used to be a slimy blob that turns me off. Conchs are very abundant in Key West, so pretty much every restaurant has them in fritter form. My guests loved the conch fritters, many said that they were the best they had had on the island. Same with the fish dip. Our guests loved it! I heard many people say that it was the best steak they had ever had. My hubby has been craving it ever since! I'm a weird vegetarian because I will have an occasional crab cake, doused in extra sauce. I think I allow myself to eat crab because it's an ugly looking animal ( looks more like a spider than anything), because it doesn't smell seafood-y, it's not slimy, and because it's meat doesn't have a meat-y texture. Does any of that make since? I tell you that because I choose the crab cakes for my wedding meal and they were delish! Covered and smoothered in remoulade and I was a happy girl. The service was fantastic, the food came out hot, and the drinks came out strong. My momma's wealthy friend who lives in KW said she had eaten $100+ per plate meals at different KW weddings she had been there that weren't near as good as ours was. Two Friends had never done a party this large but they completely nailed it. I couldn't be more thankful!

Luckily for us, Two Friends has karaoke every night starting at 8:30. It began right as we finished dinner and cake. So there was really no need for a DJ. The Karaoke guy, Chuck, was so accommodating and completely let us take over the mic several times. Next up, the big toast!

Between my sis and bro-in-law, I knew it was gonna be good! Jessie spoke briefly about us growing up together and how she used to throw hairbrushes at me as we were getting ready in the morning,

and Josh spoke about how Tony used to chase him around with a microwaved cat turd when they were kids, or how Tony would back Josh into a corner with his bare butt in his face. Yes... I know... I'm a lucky girl...

And that's when the four "Joshette's" ran up on stage and the love song medley began. I knew we were in trouble...

It started with Bryan Adam's "Everything I Do",

Then it was "Love Can Keep Us Together" by Captain and Tennille, "Let's Stay Together" by Al Green, And "Shoop" by Salt-n-peppa.

The audience was loving it! All those sitting down at tables in the pic below are not our guests, and they seem to be having just as much fun as I was! You can see a lot of our guest standing up in the back or looking through the large open windows on the outside of the restaurant.

One of my favorite moments and photos from the night was when Josh hit the last big note from Boys II Men's "I'll Make Love To You"

The people lovedit. Restaurant patrons were coming up to us during the reception and thanking us for letting them be a part of our wedding. One couple even commented that it was the most fun they had had in Key west! I'm glad we were able to entertain them:)

Though I was never expecting a mother/son, Father/Daughter dance, my fam was able to unexpectedly squeeze one in. My sister's husband, who also sang as we walked down the aisle, got on stage and did a wonderful rendition of "Fools Rush In" by Elvis. It was the perfect song. I treasure the fact that we were able to share that moment with our parents. It was a great surprise.

Shortly after the first dance my mom grabbed the mic and did her own rendition of The Beatles song "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da", written just for Tony and Me:)

It was a great surprise. Thanks Ma!

After that came more karaoke

Our buddy Lufto played a kids guitar and a skateboard while the boys sang Bohemian Rhapsody

Even the owner of Two Friends sang some Garth Brooks and got my grandmother to sing along as well

We were having so much fun that even the ocean wanted to join

Now it was time to get outta that big dress and get into something I can let loose in!

And, of course, Tony wore this...

Our wedding day was truly the best day of our lives. Having all of our friends and family together on an island, partying, laughing, drinking, bonding, all in the name of love, was an amazingly overwhelming feeling. The best feeling I've ever had.

I often wish I could do it all over again. Maybe a ten year vow renewal in Key West?

We have memories to last a lifetime...

And one more thing, just so you know, if you get married at age 31, you should expect all of your guests to be pregnant

Ok so the mother of the cute little flower girl was not technically pregnant that day, but conceived a week later. I'm counting it!

Oh, and Jim cried a lot...

I love everyone that made this day so special! Epecially all the help from my mom, mother in law, Amanda, and sister. I have some really strong and creative women in my life and a rock by my side for the rest of my life. I am forever blessed.

And finally, a big shout out to my wonderful photographers, Natasha and Morgan Franklin. Thank you for taking the trip to Key West with us, thank you for your great work, and thank you, Morgan, for being my friend since 6th grade!