The Bride Claire

A few days ago I catered a wedding at the Grand Hall at the Gateway. Must I say, it was absolutely gorgeous in every way. If you haven't been to the Grand Hall, it's just breath-taking. It almost reminds me of a mini old school strain station. Ya know, with the huge domed ceiling? Well everything is trimmed with gold, so it's like a palace in there.

The colors of the wedding were gold, red, and orange. Her lace was lace {of course} and the boys had black tuxes and the groom had a grey tux {of course}. The groom had classy, brown thick framed, old school glasses and he looked absolutely splendid. {Of course not more than my Chad. But you get the picture. } The center pieces were surrounded by pine tree branches with oranges and glass containers of cranberries and candles among them. Oh good golly. It was beautiful!

SIDE NOTE: Sorry. Sometimes I just have to spill on what I see when I'm catering. It's one of the reasons I absolutely love my job because I get to see everyone's creative ideas at their own weddings. :) You better believe I had my whole wedding planned before I was 17 for that reason alone. A compilation of lots of others ideas mixed in with my own creations = perfection.

Anyway. Back to the wedding.

The bride has a lady come in with vinage furniture. The lady actually does this for a living. She'll bring any furniture you want to your wedding {that she has of course}. The stuff she brought was gorgeous. Vintage {like what you would see in a palace} deep yellow/gold couches, red chairs, old doors, gold trim mirror, cream bed frame to set gifts in, cream birdcage with ribbons hanging from the top, brown old doors to go behind the bride and groom-perfect! And there was a massive self portrait of the bride, PAINTED. And it looked EXACTLY like her. To the T. Amazing artist right there.

So the point of my post, besides ranting on how amazing this wedding was.

What grabbed me the most was when the dancing started. Having seen a lot of receptions, I've seen a lot of different brides when it comes to dancing. The ones where they inch, back and forth, because their dress is restricting them {I feel ya, girls}, the ones who obviously just did dancing because someone in the family wanted it and they'll sway back and forth to get a smile on the face, the "I feel awkward" bride, the half-rock out bride {which is understandable with how dog-gone tired you are at the end of the day as a bride, or the THIS IS MY WEDDING AND I'M GONNA PARTY! bride.

This girl was the I'M GONNA PARTY chick.

I loved it! She was in her dress and everything and not once did I look over and see her NOT dancing. It was inspiring, actually. You could tell what kind of day it has been when she danced. Splendid. Her new husband definitely didn't commend dancing as his forte, but she was wonderful about including him and making him NOT feel out of place or uncomfortable. Talk about loving. By the end, he seemed totally relaxed and basking in the glow of his over-joyous and beautiful bride.

Having been a bride, I understand how exhausted you are by that point. I was. I was ready for some shut eye, but for Chad and I, dancing was important! We loved to go to dances together in high school. We loved to go to stake dances. We love to groove and enjoy some good dancin! So for us, dancing had to happen. I was so serious about it that I changed out of my dress into another, more casual Sunday dress so that I didn't have restrictions from my dress. And we had a blast dancing with everyone.

Anyway. Sorry for the tangent there.

I just loved watching her have the time of her life on her wedding day. It reminded me of my wedding reception and the dancing we had there. It was so so fun and we were greatly supported by so many friends and family. I was deeply touched. This bride was a reminder to me to remember the good times we've had, and the good times to follow.

So, thank you, Bride Claire for your inspiration to me to keep going and enjoy the journey, not just to trek it. You were beautiful and I hope you enjoy all the blessings that come from marriage.

Loves,
Ally J