All About the Wedding: The Reception

Sorry I've been away for so long! We've been crazy busy going to lots of fun events all around Houston that I'll have to catch you up on very soon! Here's the last installment all about our wedding!

Our wedding reception was held at the Houston Racquet Club. It was really convenient because it was only about 10 minutes from the church and everything was included from hor' douerves, salad, entree, coffee bar, etc. Plus, it was really convenient for a lot of last minute things like table numbers, stands for frames, things you don't even think about until the week before the wedding!

The reception started with a cocktail hour and hor' douerves. Jonathan and I didn't get to partake in this part since we were busy taking pictures but we heard good things about it. The rest of the reception was upstairs in the ballroom. The room looked beautiful. Everyone table had a blue hydrangea center piece. I didn't really care about the flowers except that they were blue but they came out amazing! The ceiling was lit blue and all of the chairs had a blue sash on them. If you know me I love blue so of course I loved it, but I thought it was so elegant and simple. We had our own sweetheart table which was great because we actually got to eat dinner and cake and drink our champagne. We were so paranoid about that from other people's horror stories about how the bride and groom never gets to eat because they're too busy. All the food was amazing but I'll get to that in a second.

To start off the party, each member of the wedding party was introduced before introducing Jonathan and I as husband and wife for the first time! Everyone gave us a standing ovation which was not expected and really sweet. Once we sat down it was time for my dad's speech to welcome everyone. He told a really cute story about when I was around 4 years old and my parents were talking about how I was going to get married some day and he's probably older than me so you know what that means, he's out there! It was a cute story and it made everyone laugh. He also passed on some advice that was the same advice that my Great Grandfather said to my Grandfather when grandparents were getting married which was "Be good to her." So my father's advice to us was to be good to eachother which I think is really sweet and kind of sums up what a successful marriage is. Then Fr. Mike blessed the food and it was on to dinner! We started with a salad and freshly made rolls. Apparently, some members of the wedding party were really obsessed with the rolls and kept ordering more haha. Everything was delicious! The main course was chicken provencal. It was a pretty hearty dish: saffron risotto, a huge chicken breast, with a tomato and olive sauce. I only got through about half of mine but it was so good. I was a little anxious to finish dinner because after that we got to go from table to table and chat with everyone and take pictures with each table. We decided to do this instead of a receiving line to make things go a lot faster and to make sure that we got a picture with everyone. It was so great actually getting to talk to all of our guests and seeing how happy and excited they were for us.

Next it was onto the toasts! Rachel started and gave a funny little summary of how awesome our friendship is even though no one will ever really know except for us! We have our own secret sign language! It was a really sweet toast. Michael was next and, funny story, Jonathan didn't give Michael a head's up that he was going to give a toast! I guess Jonathan had told him that he could give a toast if he liked or not. Nevermind sharing that information with me or the wedding planner lol! Michael gave an amazing toast nonetheless and almost made me cry! He said that I was the best thing that ever happened to Jonathan and that you can tell that Jonathan's so much happier since I came along. How sweet! And then he continued to talk about boy things and their college days and video games...lol. It was a great toast though.

After that, Jonathan and I got to have our first dance as husband and wife. We danced to 'At Last' by Etta James. We picked this song really early on in our engagement. It was actually Jonathan's idea. We didn't really have 1 song to make our first dance. We've had a lot of songs that we've like over the years but none seemed first dance material. We both thought that At Last was the perfect choice because it such a beautiful song and it was kind of funnily true in our case. (Yes funnily is a word. I just made it up!) On the day that we got married, we had been together for 5 and a half years. You can imagine that pretty much everyone we knew was like, What is the problem? Why aren't you married yet??? So we got a few chuckles when the song started. Sadly, a few months before our wedding Etta James passed away, but we thought that the song would still be nice as a tribute to her. Jonathan sang pretty much the entire song to me as we danced. It was really cute. I thought I'd be all nervous with everyone watching us and be embarrassed but I really didn't pay any attention except for the two of us dancing. It was a really nice moment.

Next was the father daughter dance. My dad wanted to explain the song beforehand which I had no idea what he was going to talk about. He picked "Once, Twice, Three Times a Lady" because it was the song that my mom and dad danced to on their first date, which, coincidentally, was exactly 7 years before I was born to the day. That part got a big "awwww." It was a very cute story.

And of course the mother son dance! Jonathan helped his mom pick out the song. She was having a hard time picking a song because she was trying to think of all the traditional mother son dance songs but couldn't find one that she liked. Jonathan suggested she picked a song from a Venezuelan group that she has always liked. He said that when him and his brothers were young, one of those songs would come on the radio and she'd want to dance with them. Of course they didn't want to dance so she would chase them around the kitchen and finally catch them and be able to dance for the last bit of the song. Jonathan told his mom, I can't run away from you this time so why don't you pick one of those songs? She was really touched that he thought of that so that's what they danced to. Of course all of the Venezuelans started clapping and screaming/singing along with the song. It was really fun and that got everyone else to clap along.

Then it was time for everyone to join in. Let me tell you, I was afraid that the dance floor would be empty at our wedding. Jonathan and I don't really dance so I didn't know how much our friends would dance. Everyone was on the dance floor though! We had so many people dancing that the floor actually started bouncing. I found out the next day that we even made our cake topper topple off and smash into the ground. People were a little afraid to tell me because they thought I'd be upset, but I just thought it was hilarious and impressive that we danced so much. (The cake topper was inexpensive and easily replaceable.) What a great story to tell our kids! Jonathan and I have never danced as much as we did at our wedding haha.

Of course we had cake too! Jonathan made me promise not to get any cake in his face.... Party pooper!

And the traditional bouquet and garter toss!

We also had board games available in case people didn't want to dance. I think everyone was too busy to notice though haha!

We also had 3 different guest books: one normal guest book, a puzzle of one of our engagement photos that everyone signed, and quilt squares that everyone signed. My mom quilts and is currently making us a quilt with all of the squares! I can't wait!!!

For our last dance we danced to "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White T's. It's kind of a weird song to dance to but it's been a special song during our relationship. It related to us a lot when we were long distance for three years and Jonathan would sing it to me over the phone when we missed each other. We thought it was the perfect song for our last dance.

Then it was time to our big exit! All of our guests got bubbles for our grand exit. Everyone had a blast and made sure there were tons of bubbles for our big exit!

I did it! An entire recap of our wedding! Tomorrow we'll be spending Thanksgiving with my parents and then  we're heading off to New Orleans for the weekend! It's our first trip since the honeymoon. I'll be sure to post about our trip when we get back! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

-Chelsey

All About the Wedding: The Ceremony

This past Sunday, Jonathan and I have been married for 6 months! It's hard to believe because it feels like the wedding was a few weeks ago. Jonathan took me out on Saturday to a restaurant called Artisans and we had a great meal and celebrated 6 months of marriage. We're half way to our first anniversary!

So it's seems appropriate to continue the wedding recap and post about the ceremony...

We got married at St. Michael Catholic Church which is in the Galleria area in Houston. We had been going to church there for a few years since it was kind of in between our two places. It's a beautiful church and I don't think we realized how beautiful it was until our wedding day. Guests told us that it was the perfect time for a wedding in that church because the sunlight shone through the stained glass beautifully.

Look at all that stained glass!

Fr. Michael Grey C.S.Sp. married us who Jonathan knew from the Catholic Center at his college. When we asked Fr. Mike if he would marry us he said that he doesn't do weddings often but he would be honored to. We felt so blessed! He met with us often to see how the marriage preparation was going and made sure that we were ready. He was a huge support for us and it was great to have someone close to us perform our wedding.

Fr. Mike marrying us!

Of course my father walked me down the aisle but first both of our mothers lit a candle that we would use to light our unity candle signifying our two families coming together. It was a very special way to have our families involved in the ceremony. The procession in was a very excited time and the photographer caught everything so beautifully.

Hiding before we process in.

Walking me down the aisle!

Almost there!

We made it!

We had a full mass for our wedding which meant two readings from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament and Communion. The first reading was read by my Aunt Jolene.

Song of Songs 2:8-10, 14, 16a; 8:6-7a

Jolene walking up to the altar

Hark! my lover-here he comes
springing across the mountains,
leaping across the hills.
My lover is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Here he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattices.
My lover speaks; he says to me,
"Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come!
"O my dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the secret recesses of the cliff,
Let me see you,
let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet,
and you are lovely."
My lover belongs to me and I to him.
He says to me:
"Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm;
For stern as death is love,
relentless as the nether world is devotion;
its flames are a blazing fire.
Deep waters cannot quench love,
nor floods sweep it away."

This is reading sounds a little crazy because it sounds so lovey-dovey. A lot of people think it's cheesy to use as a reading in a wedding because they think it's meant to reflect the love between the couple. However, I felt that this passage is actually about God's love for us and how He loves us. We wanted this as one of the readings because it shows us how passionately God loves us and that we are called to love each other the same way.

The psalm was "Taste and see the goodness of the Lord" and it was sung beautifully by our cantor Laura.

Laura leading everyone in the psalm

Then my Uncle Tom read the second reading:

Colossians 3:12-17

Tom reading from the New Testament

Brothers and sisters:
Put on, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved,
heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
bearing with one another and forgiving one another,
if one has a grievance against another;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.
And over all these put on love,
that is, the bond of perfection.
And let the peace of Christ control your hearts,
the peace into which you were also called in one Body.
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another,
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.

We both loved this reading because we thought it was kind of a guideline for how we should act in our marriage. There will be times when we have to have compassion, kindness, humility, patience, etc in our marriage and there will definitely be times when we will have to forgive each other. This reading is essentially a how-to for that and reminds us that God is what is important and we need to remember to turn to Him for peace in our marriage.

The Gospel was of course read by Fr. Mike:

Matthew 5:13-16

Fr. Mike giving his amazing homily after the gospel!

You are the salt of the earth,
but if salt has lost its taste,
how shall its saltiness be restored?
It is no longer good for anything
except to be thrown out
and trampled under people's feet.
You are the light of the world.
A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Nor do people light a lamp
and put it under a basket, but on a stand,
and it gives light to all in the house.
In the same way,
let your light shine before others,
so that they may see your good works
and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Jonathan and I pretty quickly agreed that we wanted this reading to be the Gospel at our wedding. We both feel that we are called to use our marriage as a light to the world. We have to use our marriage to bring more of Christ into the world. What Matthew means about "salt" is that we always have to strive to do God's will and never forget it. It's not easy and it will take work but that is what God has called us to. Sometimes it's hard to remember what's important in life so it's great to have a reminder.

We really wanted the readings in our wedding to be applicable to everyone attending our wedding and not just about us. All of these readings can be applicable to everyone's life and situation. Not just ours. I'm really happy with the ones we chose and now that they're posted on our blog we can come back and be reminded of these messages through the years.

After the readings it was time for us to get married!!! We decided to do the traditional vows because we both love them so much and thought that they say exactly what we wanted to express to each other. It was such a special moment. Neither of us cried but we were definitely grinning from ear to ear. After the vows it was on to the rings which Michael took very good care of. Following the rings we lit the unity candle while Laura sang "Set me as a Seal" (Clausen), and then we were married!

Getting hitched!

Time for the vows!

Lighting the unity candle

My Aunt Sandra read the prayer petitions

Next was communion where the gifts were brought forth by Jonathan's cousins Daniel Armando and Luis Ricardo Nassar. Poor Fr. Mike had to run back and forth from the sacristy because the church hadn't already been set up for communion. He was really on the ball though and a great sport about it. Right before communion was distributed Fr. Mike gave us the Nuptial Blessing. After we received communion we remained kneeling while everyone else received communion. It was a special moment for us since we got some alone time to pray together and look at each other and mouth "We're married!" Oh, and show each other our new bling haha.

Fr. Mike preparing to receive the gifts

Daniel Armando and Luis Ricardo bringing up the gifts

Our friends Robert and Mercedes served as Eucharistic Ministers

After we finished communion was the big finale! Fr. Mike said the final blessings, announced us as husband and wife, and said "You may now kiss the bride!" We were grinning from ear to ear and it was amazing as we processed out of the church seeing all of our friends and family clapping and cheering for us. Once we got to the back of the church everyone in the wedding party and our parents congratulated us and hugged us. It was a really special moment that the photographer caught on camera which we hadn't expected. It's not a moment you often think about before the wedding so we were glad that the photographer caught it on camera.

Hey look everyone, we're married!

The kiss!

Processing out!

Lots of congratulations!

The ceremony went beautifully and was exactly what we wanted. We felt extremely loved and supported from everyone who attended. It was very special to have so many friends and family there and so many who couldn't make it but were thinking of us.

The wedding party with the flower girls.

The wedding party including the greeters Katie and Allison.

My family!

Jonathan's family!

So I realize that this post is super long and has tons of pictures but it's about our wedding so I couldn't resist! I'll be posting one more post on the reception so I hope you'll come back and check that out.

-Chelsey