Heaven's Prelude: Without Further Ado: The reception

We arrived at the reception hall and the lobby, I guess you would call it, was absolutely beautiful. It was large with large cozy furniture and a fire was roaring in the fireplace. VERY nice, indeed!

David and Haley

Me and David

Oh, and this was also in the lobby. I thought this was the cutest idea. They had a
"Candy Bar"! Four different kinds of candy in neat glass containers, each with a silver scoop. You know those little draw string bags that lots of wedding receptions have filled with bird seed for tossing at the newlyweds? Well, they had those little bags laid out on the table amongst the different containers of candy. There were Reese Pieces, Peanut M&M's, Hot Tamales and Skittles. I thought it was a neat parting gift.

Then we went inside the reception hall. Abby's cake was beautiful. Each layer was a different flavor. The bottom layer was white, the middle was strawberry and the top layer was set aside, obviously for the bride and groom to keep so I don't know what flavor it was.

This was Jason's cake. Jason is an avid hunter, so of course it makes perfect sense. His cake was chocolate. It was wonderful.

OK, now let me back up. While we were checking out everything in the reception hall the bridal party finally arrived from taking a million photos. They collected in the lobby as they reassembled for their grand entrance. These are candid shots I took as I watched them prepare for their introductions.

Jody and Becky Beale - Jason's parents

The bridesmaids

Maid of honor to the rescue. Just one of her many loving duties.

Then it was time to cut the cake

Then her next duty arrived and she delivered her toast to the newlyweds. It was so sweet. She told a story about how she and Abby had been friends since nursery school and how in middle school they had "boyfriend contracts". She said that Abby had picked Jason in the 7th grade and "vowed" to marry him. Guess she really did know, huh!? Now, you can't tell me that's not the sweetest thing ever!!!

Abby thought it was hilarious. Check out Jason's red cheeks! How funny.

Cheers!

Then, Jason's best man, his dad, took the mic for his toast. He had something "prepared", but chucked it at the last moment, as he realized "it" just wasn't going to happen. What had been prepared was just a little too deep and he knew he probably would have never made it through it. His toast was warm and heartfelt just the same even though it was "off the cuff"

To Jason and Abby

Cheers!

Yeah, Jason and David have been buds their whole life and have lots of good "growing up" memories. In fact, David was featured more than once in Jason's portion of the power point presentation of he and Abby through the years. Oh, and be sure to notice my silly brother in the background! Yes, this is the true nature of my family!