Previous wedding day posts: Hair & Makeup // My Wedding Dress // Our Wedding Ceremony // Our Wedding Pictures // DIY Wedding Decor // The Food & Cake
It’s time for the final wedding day recap! Today I’m talking about what we did after the wedding, as our reception ended at 4:30. Each of our families–E’s family, my mom’s side and my dad’s side–hosted their own family reunion dinner of sorts. However, we opted for a more casual after-party with our college friends. Originally, we were going to try to hit all three family gatherings, but that seemed like a crazy and not very relaxing evening.
(I’m including a few more casual wedding portraits in this post that we took as the reception was ending. As you know, I try not to share pictures of friends on here and we didn’t take many after-party photos anyway!)
After we’d finished taking pictures, and our friends and family had taken down the decorations, everyone headed home to change into casual clothes. What a relief, oh my goodness. My dress was comfy, but constantly having to worry about staining a pure ivory dress or catching my hairstyle on things was stressful.
Earlier that week, I’d arranged to have some pizzas delivered to my mom’s house at 5:45. We ordered from Pizza Lucé, which has several branches around the Twin Cities and offers gluten-free and dairy-free options. They’ve got all sorts of creative pizzas and they’re so tasty! I also tossed a couple of green salads and had stocked up on beer, lemonade, and ice cream earlier in the week. (We didn’t ended up touching the ice cream, though. Everyone wanted leftover wedding cake! More proof that gluten-free cake can be amazing.)
Everyone arrived around six and we munched pizza and chatted for a while. We had about a dozen people for dinner, with a couple folks leaving to go out on the town after pizza.
You’re going to laugh at what we did for the rest of the night. E and one of his best men, M, put up the volleyball net and pumped up the volleyballs on Friday. But as soon as everyone sat down with their pizza, it started pouring rain! So volleyball wasn’t an option.
Instead, we pulled out the Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit board game, teamed up, and played for hours. It’s my favorite board game ever! And almost everyone at the after-party had actually seen the movies, so they were into it. It was the perfect way to cap off the day 🙂
Around 9:30, my sister and her boyfriend got back from my mom’s family’s dinner and took over for us. Then, we we left for our hotel downtown. (The Nicollet Island Inn, on the Mississippi. Swoon. I’d been there several times for brunch previously and always wanted to stay there, so E indulged me.) And that was the end of our wedding day!
Vendors Mentioned
Photographers: Studio 220 Photography
Food: Pizza Lucé
But tell me, if you’re married, did you do anything fun after your wedding? A post-wedding party, brunch, or something else? And if not, what’s your ideal party with friends?