The Illinois Reception

Just when you thought we were done with all of the wedding posts... Nathan and I went off to Illinois for our "Southern" reception! Nathan's parents hosted a wonderful picnic at their house so that all of Nathan's friends and family who couldn't make the January wedding could celebrate with us.

It was a really beautiful event, attended by about 100 people. My parents came down for it as well, and it was really fun to show them the house where Nathan grew up.

(Thanks to Jake Hajek and Amanda Dominick for the photos!)

The food was FANTASTIC! My mother-in-law did it pretty much all herself (with some help from her nieces with the set-up and frosting).

There were some pretty awesome decorations, including several signs painted by my father-in-law (such as the one above).

Since there were a ton of kids at the event, my mother-in-law asked us to bring down our pirate costumes for the scavenger hunt.

Nathan and I ended up writing and leading the hunt as well, which was pretty fun!

People seemed to enjoy our costumes ;)

My dear friend Amanda and her family live pretty close to where Nathan grew up - so I get to see them pretty much every time we go down there. SUCH a blessing!

As you may have noticed, we had quite a few costume changes that day. Actually, I was supposed to wear my wedding dress as well, but in the seven months since the wedding I'd gained a pound too many and breathing was not going to be an option. But I put on my veil and wedding sash for the dance, and got to wear my specially designed dress even longer. (If you've followed me on Instagram for any amount of time, you'll know I had completed this dress before the original reception date in June.)

We got a special message on how marriage points to Christ by Nathan's pastor.

Then, after 7 months of waiting... our first dance!

Our song was "All I Ask of You" from "The Phantom of the Opera" which has been pretty much my favorite romantic duet since I first heard it at the age of 16.

Of course I had to have a special dance with my dad as well!

My father is quite sentimental and insisted we dance to something upbeat - Frank Sinatra's "The Way You Look Tonight."

Definitely the most fun I've ever had dancing with my dad - and we've danced a bit over the years! :)

Nathan and his mother chose to have their mother-son dance to "Sunrise, Sunset" from "The Fiddler on the Roof."

They invited any other mother-son duos to come out and join them. I dragged my father out as well. ;)

So we finally got our reception, our dances, and a pirate scavenger hunt to boot! It was a beautiful day and I am immensely grateful to my in-laws for working so hard to provide it for us.