WFW: That's all folks!

The night had finally come to an end.  It had been an amazing party, but we were ready to hit the road.

We got word that our ride had pulled up outside.

Ross and I shared a few final moments basking in the glow of our new marriage.

I gathered up my shoes and realized that I'd never gotten around to throwing my bouquet.  Ross hadn't wanted to do a garter toss and the bouquet toss wasn't that important to me, so I decided to just forget about it.

The wedding guests gathered outside with handfuls of dried rose petals.  (You can also see that my mom had gone around asking guests to take home the centrepieces.  It ended up being cheaper to purchase the vases, than to pay for the florist to come back the next day and pick them up.)

We were showered with cheers and petals as we ran for the carriage.

Ross helped me into the carriage (no small feat in a giant wedding dress).

And we rode off into the night.  We got lots of hoots, waves, and shouts from people as we rode to The Adolphus.  When we arrived at the hotel, a very drunk gay man insisted on helping me down.  Ross still complains about his husbandly duty being usurped.

We have so many wonderful memories from our wedding day and it couldn't have happened without the love and support of our family and friends, especially my awesome parents.  We can't thank them enough for giving us such a magical way to start our marriage.  As we approach our second wedding anniversary, I can only say that it's gotten better and better.

WFW: The end

After our outdoor interlude, Ross and I headed back inside to wind up the party.  

We said goodbye to some of our guests.  Those with young children and the older ones didn't make it until the end, so we bid them a fond farewell.

By this time my feet were really hurting and I finally switched to my little ivory satin Isotoner slippers.  Ross ended up dancing with my shoes on his hands.  Don't has him why... when we first saw these pictures he said he had no memory of doing such a silly thing.

We ditched the shoes and had some more fun.

And with a final dance, the night was drawing to a close.  We were ready to head out and unwind quietly together.

Next time:  The end.  Seriously.  It's finally time to wrap these suckers up!

WFW: We slip away

At one point during the reception, our photographer came up to us and said "I have an idea.  Can I have your rings?"  This is the photo that resulted from that idea.

King and Queen of the Ducks!

By this point, the party was roaring and I'd gotten a little warm and was ready for a little break.  I grabbed Ross and our photographer and we went outside for a little wander.  We stopped for a kiss out front of our reception venue.  Those of you familiar with this area of Dallas will know that the building is the old West End Marketplace.  The area to the right of our venue used to have lots of shops and an arcade, but now it's empty most of the time.  At the time of our wedding it was hosting the "Bodies" exhibit!

 We walked over to the neon archway that lines this alley.  The alley used to have tons of clubs lining it and was a cool place to hang out, but nowadays it's pretty deserted.  There is some sculptural art lining the alley and you can just see a hobo in the background.

As we turned to go back to the reception, we heard shrieks from a group of teenagers walking in the area.  They called out to us "Cinderella!  Cinderella!"  They came running over to see what was going on.  We told them that we had just gotten married and they were adorably excited.  They asked if they could have a picture taken with us.

They posed nicely and then handed over an iPhone to our photographer to capture the moment.  The two girls were very sweet and asked what our names were.  It turned out that one of the girls was also named Meg.  She yelled out "My compatible name is Ross!"

It was a slightly surreal moment of the wedding, that only Ross and I (well, and the photographer) witnessed.  It is actually one of our favorite memories of the night.

Next, we went back inside and the night winds down.

Did you have any fun and unexpected moments at your wedding?

WFW: Let's boogie!

Now that all of the formalities were out of the way, we got down to the serious business of cutting loose.  Our band was seriously rocking and our guests did not disappoint with their dancin' skillz.  Everyone was chatting and dancing and having a wonderful time.  We really wanted our reception to be a fun party and I think we accomplished just that.

I'll let the pictures do the talking from here:

We loved the atmosphere at our reception and hope our guests had as much fan as we did.  We owe huge props to our band Steve Lallier's Tuxedo Junction and the staff at Jim Lee Events/ The Starlight Room for making it one kick butt party!

As always, all pictures in this post courtesy of Shari Hunt Photography.