Welcome!

Since everyone who came to the wedding would have to travel, we wanted to be able to do something for them on Friday night. I had originally wanted to have the wedding itself at Biltmore's River Bend Barn, but Mike vetoed it as being too casual. We decided it would make the perfect location to have a Friday night Welcome Party, instead! I asked our wedding photographer if he would come out for a few hours to take some pictures, and he did an amazing job. This isn't even half of the pictures I love from the event. I think the best part about Eric is his ability to take candid portraits. You may not know my family and friends, but I promise that his images capture them perfectly.

All the food and drinks were served in the stalls of the old barn!

Since we had fewer people attend than our minimum for the wedding, Biltmore catering made up these welcome bags for us with Biltmore water and a frosted cookie in the shape of the house! They were a big hit.

I will explain: Mike's love of penguins + work on construction sites + Clemson Univeristy (orange) = a groom's cake! I thought it made more sense to have it at the Welcome Night party that at the wedding, where there would already be a cake. There were a lot of raised eyebrows, but Mike loved it, so it was worth it.

I am not going to go into a lengthy explanation here, but know that there was a custom musical number (courtesy of my step-mom and little sister) that called for audience participation. 'Nuff said.

It was a great night.

PS: You might notice there aren't a lot of pictures of me. Apparently, I made some poor wardrobe, hair, and visible-tan -line decisions, so I hate all of the pictures of myself from the party. Fortunately, the next day I had professional hair and make-up, so I was much more presentable.

(note: Eric sent me all raw files, so these have minimal processing. I can't manage much more than cropping and Some color adjustment!)