My Wedding Day: The Exit and Aftermath

Catching up? Check out Pre-Ceremony, The Ceremony, The Formal Pictures, and The Reception: First Dances and Cake Cutting, and The Reception: Toasts and More Dancing.

Finally it was time for our grand exit at 6:50!

Taken by Sarah :)

Complete with silly faces by JW :)

Taken by Carly!

We took some selfies in the Bentley on the way to the drop off point to get into our limo, which would take us to the Gaylord Texan.

About 10 minutes later, we were dropped off at our limo! All limo photos taken by our iPhones :)

We were SUPER excited. I love limos!!

We got to the Gaylord around 7:40, where Kelly met up with us to take a few more pictures!

Funny story: we were obviously quite elaborately dressed, and while we were checking in, a woman and her young daughter got in line behind us. I had my back to them, and Kelly told me after we walked away from the check-in table that the little girl asked her mother, "Is that a princess?" and Kelly nodded her head as an answer. Awww!

We got up to the room and wanted to get the iconic "carry the bride over the threshold" picture -

"We ready?"

So fun!

Then we had to take some jumping-on-the-bed pictures, naturally.

The ceiling was a little low for jumping...

Then we took one last picture on our balcony.

Then, Kelly was done! Onto the rest of the night.

We decided to meet a few friends, which ended up being about 25 people, at a place called The Winewood Grill, a fantastic grill in Grapevine, not far from where the Gaylord Texan was. This place was fantastic and extremely accommodating and I couldn't recommend them enough!

Some of our friends wanted to buy us a bottle of nice wine, so my dear friend and college roommate Sarah chose this wine. It just so happened that I had visited Châteauneuf-du-Pape when I studied abroad. The year? 2009. It was so perfect and serendipitous, I was so moved!!

And here's the whole gang!

So much love! So much support! It was truly a wonderful night and I will never, ever forget it.

Next... The Honeymoon!

My Wedding Day: The Reception (Toasts and More Dancing)

All photography copyrighted by Kelly Garsee Photography.

Catching up? Check out Pre-Ceremony, The Ceremony, The Formal Pictures, and The Reception: Part 1.

Then, at 5:07 (literally - I guess it only took us 7 minutes to cut the cake!) it was time for toasts! My dad went first.

The best man Mark made his speech next.

Then, my sister Whitney made her speech.

All three of the speeches were special - so touching, so funny, so sincere. But nothing prepared me for what came next- my best friend, Molly's, speech. Well, performance is more of a better word.

I knew Molly was planning on making a speech, but during Dad, Mark, and Whitney's toasts, I couldn't see her. Whitney and Mark were standing next to my dad while he made his speech, and Whitney stood next to Mark while he made his, so I figured Molly was just standing somewhere else to where I couldn't see her.

After Whitney made her speech, I gave her a hug, as did JW.

I scanned the room to look for Molly, and immediately saw her come out from behind a curtain hiding the kitchen, unsheathing her violin from its hiding place behind her back. I couldn't believe it - she was going to play something! Molly is a professional violinist - she graduated from NYU in Violin Performance - and had played during my sister's ceremony 5 years ago. I desperately wanted her to play during mine, but I couldn't figure out a good way to feature her as my maid of honor and a ceremony musician without stretching her too thin.

Little did I know, she had planned this all along. Both my Mom and my sister knew about it all along! Molly said a few quick words and then started playing "All I Ask of You", from The Phantom of the Opera.

Phantom of the Opera is a special musical for us - we went to see the movie for our first date in 2004, and it was the musical we saw in New York the same night JW proposed.

Say you need me with you here, beside you
Anywhere you go, let me go too

Share each day with me, each night, each morning
Say you love me (You know I do)

Love me, that's all I ask of you

 

The toasts ended around 5:30. Then it was time for 30 more minutes of dancing!

Then it was time to toss the bouquet and garter, at 6pm!

Of course, my girl Molly caught the bouquet :)

Closeup of my tossing bouquet :)

Then, it was JW's turn!

Haha, Rachel's face!!

And wouldn't you know, the Best Man caught the garter!

Then it was time for more dancing!

And finally it was time for our grand exit at 6:50 - coming up in the next post! :)