One by one, as our guests made their way through the receiving line, they headed up to the Penthouse Ballroom for cocktail hour.
Well, almost everybody – Stallion and I skipped it and had a private cocktail hour in our suite (Katlyn, wedding coordinator extraordinaire, arranged for a huge spread of our cocktail hour food to be set up in the suite for us. There were no leftovers.). We gave our wedding party and family the option of going to cocktail hour or hanging out with us; the wedding party beelined it for our suite, my parents said, “See ya later!” and went to cocktail hour, and Stallion’s parents went back and forth between the two parties.
In hindsight, even though it looks like our cocktail hour was a lot of fun, I’m glad I skipped it for a few reasons. My sisters were able to take their time bustling my dress, we were able to remove my veil easily and put it in a safe place, and I was able to touch up my hair (which was mostly okay) and my makeup (I’d lost a strip of my fake eyelashes in all the receiving line hugging). Want some more Filly wedding advice? Have extra eyelash glue. I didn’t, so I ditched the fake lashes and piled on extra mascara. Apologies for looking like Ol’ Stumpy Lashes in all forthcoming photos.
And, most importantly, I got to have a little private time with Stallion in relative peace and quiet for us to bask in the “holy crap, we’re married!” feeling. It was good, after all the commotion of the day, to have some downtime to relax and unwind and enjoy each other’s company.
So, all in all, no regrets. We missed an hour of time with our guests, but a) we got to spend that time with each other, and b) we still had four hours to mingle with everybody. But I will show you what we missed out on!
(via The Grand Hotel)
In case you don’t remember, here’s our cocktail hour space pre-setup. I love the long wooden bar and the gorgeous beach views. As sunset approached, the view was absolutely breathtaking.
All additional photos courtesy of Aleksey Photography.
We had and fruit and crackers and crudités on offer …
… As well as lots and lots of seafood! You can see the mussels marinara and steamed clams here; we also had fried calamari and a raw bar featuring chilled shrimp, crab claws, and oysters.
No more food porn, but in case all those weren’t enough for you, we had a selection of passed h’ors d’oeuvres going around the room: mini crab cakes, spicy tuna rolls, scallops wrapped with bacon, and beef tenderloin/wild mushroom skewers. (Up in our suite, I HOUSED the spicy tuna rolls. So good.)
We had a guestbook of sorts for everyone to sign – Weddingbee’s own Mrs. Ladyfingers (who runs Franny & Franky Designs on Etsy) designed this print for us. It may look like a weird blobby shape, but it’s actually a map of Cape May. We absolutely love how it turned out.
We had one of our engagement photos on display along with a ton of old family wedding photos, and (this was 100% Katlyn’s idea, although I wish I could take credit for it!) our escort cards were set up in sandboxes with seashells scattered around them.
A close up of our escort card sandbox display. My sister, B, has gorgeous cursive handwriting, so she wrote these out for me.
We had plenty of seating for anyone who wanted to get comfy.
Naturally, the bar was where the action was. (This picture slays me – my friend L’s husband looks so suave and fancy here.)
A curtain separated cocktail hour from the ballroom. I’m assuming that when the curtain was opened, it was like picking the best door on Let’s Make A Deal.
I can’t speak for my guests, but for Stallion and I, the time flew by and before we knew it, we were hustling to the ballroom to make our big entrance. After relaxing for a while, we were ready to get the party started.
Did you attend your cocktail hour or give it a miss?
Missed one? Catch up on the fun!
- I humblebrag about how awesome our wedding day was.
- We rehearse and dine.
- A minor marriage license snafu means there might not be a wedding after all.
- The girls get glam.
- The guys escape to the beach.
- We have our first look.
- We take a trolley tour of Cape May.
- The processional begins.
- I walk down the aisle with my parents by my side.
- We make it official.
- Our receiving line was a great idea.
sparkle friday 