Our Wedding: Part II

Thank you so much for all your support, enthusiasm and love on our first blog post sharing our wedding day. I loved sharing our moments getting ready, our Roman Catholic ceremony and wedding portraits with you.

Today I’m so excited to share our Portland, Maine wedding reception at the Harborview Hotel!

COCKTAIL HOUR
After our ceremony, our guests headed to the Harborview Hotel for cocktail hour. We had our cocktail hour in the room right across from the Grand Ballroom which was really convenient. Right when guests walked in, they were welcomed with a gigantic, statement mirror that we had hand calligraphied. This was one of my favorite details because it really set the tone for the evening!

Under the welcome sign were our pretty escort cards laid out on a romantic grey chiffon runner. Our escort cards were marble geometric tiles that we had calligraphied in god ink with each guests name and table number. They were were absolutely beautiful and really pulled in the modern feel we were going for. We received a lot of compliments on them throughout the evening and even though we had something fun in store for favors, they doubled as a little momento guests took home.

Though the cocktail hour, guests enjoyed passed hors d’oeuvres along with our signature cocktail, which was The Cheeseball! We wanted to pull in a detail of our baby Muenster, so we served a classic, orange screwdriver. Guests also enjoyed the open bar from cocktail hour, all the way through the night.

To get the conversations going between our guests, we sprinkled pictures of us throughout our childhood and years together. How adorable is S?! I can’t wait to him mini me’s of him 😀

One area we chose to save on was our day-of stationary. I’m well versed in Photoshop, so I hand created our ceremony programs, menus and signage in Photoshop from scratch. While it took many hours to slice and dice them all, it was so worth it since we saved thousands and everything was just how we wanted them!

THE RECEPTION
We chose the Harborview Hotel for many reasons, but one being that is fit our modern personal style. When we viewed venues on golf courses and in barns, they just didn’t feel like “us”. I remember the moment when we walked into The Grand Ballroom during our tour, we just knew it was the one! The aesthetic of the Grand Ballroom was really a modern, clean slate.

 

For table numbers, I knew I wanted to pull in the marble detailing to bounce off the escort cards. I found something I loved off Etsy, but decided to save a chunk of money by creating them myself! Each six inch tile leaned on a cute mini gold easel.

Throughout the space, we used gold chiavari chairs and crisp white linens. We had a huge color selection for both details and loved the end result of what we chose. Each table had a gorgeous floral arrangement that there were two varying heights to add dimension to the room. The tall vases were clear glass so that they didn’t disrupt guests views and the short arrangements were housed in funky, gold geometric vases. We also had arrangements made for the entry way, gift table, sweetheart table and head table.

From the get-go I knew I wanted a long, romantic wreath for the head table. Autumn from Flour! Flower and Sweets nailed our vision and made everything even more gorgeous than I could have dreamed! Each tabletop also had a spew of gold votives that really made for an intimate setting.

During wedding planning, S and I went back and forth on whether we wanted to sit at the head table with our bridal party or have a sweetheart table. We were both so happy that we chose the sweetheart table route because it allowed us to have a few moments to ourselves before making our rounds to each table. We enjoyed listening to the toasts together in this cute little spot as well!

The cake table and sweetheart table both had gold sequin cloths that I loved! The lighting just sparkled and popped right off of them. It was such a little detail that made such a huge difference. I love, love, loved our little sweetheart table and the moments we shared just between us two at the beginning of dinner.

For the last thirty minutes of the cocktail hour, our bridal party and immediate family hopped into the hospitality room. We met them there after taking our portraits by the ocean and taking a peek at the Grand Ballroom. We had yummy hors d’oeuvres, charcuterie boards full of fresh fruit and cheese and a bunch of glasses full of champagne. We were all so excited planning what we would do when we walked out! From there, we started right in on our first dance!

For our first dance, we didn’t just want to be spinning in a circle and wanted something put together so we took dance lessons! The parents of S’ best man [Hayden – videoing us above] are both professional dancers so we took dance lessons from his dad during the summer. S ended up getting so into it. We would practice our routine on nights after work for months leading up to our wedding. Once we thought we had it nailed, we even did a dry run for our besties, Hayden and Taryn. This was such a great reminder to learn new things together. It was an adventure and brought us even closer together! Plus, our first dance was so pretty!!

#TeamWork!

After toasts, I danced with my dad and S with his mom. Later in the night, we had a slow song play for me to also dance with my Grampy Thompson. You’ll see some pictures of his dance moves later. He’s 87 and the life of the party!

Our cake was a four tier lemon cake. Two tiers had fresh Main blueberry filling and two others had raspberry! You can see a montage below of my handsome husband trying to be slick. I was many glasses of champagne deep at this point, but still had cat-like reflexes hehe.

And our besties thought it was funny. Glad I dodged that cake smush, lol.

For favors, we wanted to provide something that really was a treat!  We had a personal touch of donuts from our favorite Portland spot, the Holy Donut. You may recognize them from our engagement photos! The Holy Donut makes their donuts out of Maine state potatoes so they are out of this world and are a treat S and I always enjoy together while visiting the Old Port. We had this in the works for our entire engagement, but didn’t tell a sole in order to make it a huge surprise. We loved sharing something local from the Portland community that are special to us, with our guests. And what’s so funny is that many of our guests told us they had plans to sneak in a Holy Donut visit the next morning since they had heard it’s a must-try spot!

We featured the donuts on an AMAZING donut wall made by my awesome dad. He’s so talented with carpentry, so it was a no brainer that he could take what I envisioned and make it even better. Having my dad involved in this project was so fun and will always be one of my most cherished wedding memories!

I created custom stickers in Photoshop that had a donut and said “A Sweet Ending to a New Beginning. Mindy &Sergio 9.9.17” that were stuck on bags for guests to enjoy the treat later. S parents actually hosted a breakfast the next morning for all our guests and we served even more Holy Donuts then!

For our guestbook, we opted for a fun polaroid one! We had originally thought of having a photobooth for our guests, but then when we thought of this idea it was even better! It was a great way to incorporate something fun for our guests to do while also getting sweet momentos in not only words, but photos. Looking through the book after our wedding was so fun and now we have even more moments caught on camera! Once people had a few drinks,

For other personal touches, we had cute cocktail napkins that said “best day ever.” and coozies that had an image of Maine with our wedding date.

From here, the party really started! We danced with our family and friends until midnight and the party continued to the roof of the Harborview to Top of the East which is a rooftop lounge. Below are some of the highlights of the best party of our lives! We have some awesome dancers on our hands 😉

Sharing this entire experience with you, from our engagement, my bridal shower and more, has been so special and this bog serves as a little diary for such a special chapter in our lives! Xo Mindy

WEDDING BLOG POSTS
OUR WEDDING PART I I OUR ENGAGEMENT STORY I OUR ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS I MY BRIDAL BRUNCH I 5 STEPS FOR NAILING YOUR WEDDING THEME I WHAT TO GIFT OUR BRIDESMAIDS I 6 THINGS I’VE LEARNED FROM MARRIAGE IN 6 MONTHS I 2 MARRIAGE PREP TAKEAWAYS WE ACTUALLY USE

 VENDORS
[one-half-first]Ceremony: Cathedral of the Immaculate Concepetion
Reception: Harborview Hotel
Planning: Back Bay Bride
Photography: Peter Greeno Weddings
Florals: Flour! Flower & Sweets
Trolley: Portland Discovery
Beauty: Bei Cappeli
Bridal Dress: Hayley Paige from Flair!
Heels: Valentino Rockstuds
Earrings: Kalina Earrings Kendra Scott c/o[/one-half-first][one-half]
Bracelet: Cole Bracelet Kendra Scott c/o
Lipgloss: Tom Ford in ‘Sahara Pink’
Perfume: Tom Ford Soleil Blanc
Tuxedos: The Black Tux
Bridesmaids Gowns: Adrianna Papell in Taupe
Bridesmaids Earrings: Ellie Stud Kendra Scott c/o
Bridal Robes: Here’s to Love c/o
Letterpress Invitation Suites: Minted c/o
Wedding bands: Long’s Jewelers [ask for Judd!][/one-half]