We ate, we drank, we laughed

Figured that was a fitting title for this post- our wedding food and toasts.

Food is a huge part of my life. I absolutely LOVE good food. I grew up around it- my father is a phenomenal cook; I have two aunt's who went to pastry school; my dad and aunt both do catering. Dinner in our house was always a family affair, with all of us sitting down together to eat. No tv in the dining room; just good music, great food and always good wine.

So when it came time to planning the menu for our wedding, I happily trusted my dad to take care of the details. We knew we were going to be feeding a large number of people (we ended up with about 175) and would have a wide variety of tastes in the room. The main dish was a hog roast- cooked by a good high school friends father- and damn was it good! Normally hog roasts end up with a pulled pork type mean, but we had him slice all of it so it could be eaten as a sandwich or just slices.

To fill out the menu; we decided to do a spread of classic sides and 'fancier' sides. Traditional potato salad; potato salad with blue cheese, bacon and walnuts (recipe coming soon- I promise). Traditional coleslaw; spicy coleslaw with an orange vinaigrette. 3 different kinds of baked beans (none of which I ate because I don't really like baked beans- though they all received rave reviews). Pickled vegetables- red onions, carrots, green beans, asparagus. Homemade BBQ sauce, green chile sauce, and fresh ground horseradish for the pork. Homemade rolls (by my awesome mother).

The food was all made by the cook at the school where my dad used to work. The kitchen staff were all people who my parents knew (I think from my dad working at the golf course).

Now unfortunately, I don't have any food photos- but trust me- it was amazzzing. 

You can see the 4 crock pots of baked beans (Thank you to my Aunt and sister-in-law's mother for making these!)
Oh and LOVED being able to go first (and then cut in line for seconds). I was starving by this point!

After dinner came the toasts. Thanks to my very generous and amazing aunt and uncle, we were able to have a champagne toast for every- and the champagne glasses (very much a labor of love) were our wedding favors. Up first was my dad. I had asked him only like 2 days earlier if he wanted to say something, and without much planning he was amazing!

Love my dad :)

He thanked everyone for coming; made sure to recognize the kitchen staff as well as the man who had actually raised the hog (I told you I was country! Even more fitting was that he was wearing a huge cowboy hat); made sure to recognize those who had traveled the farthest (my aunt from California; my host brother; as well as the other three past exchange students who were there from Vancouver, Wisconsin and West Virginia). Plenty of jokes. Lots of love.

Next came my cousin and Maid of Honor. Now, I knew she was going to blow it out of the park. She is an amazzzing public speaker, and hilarious on top of that. Not to mention the fact that we have been friends our entire lives, and she was there in the beginning days of my relationship with Doug. I don't remember it word for word- and unfortunately didn't think to have anyone record it, but I remember laughing and tearing up all at the same time!

She brought up a card I had sent her when she transferred to Ashland from Ohio U
The front was about how basically we could just look at each other and start laughing
Inside, I apparently wrote a small book about how I really thought Doug was the one

Doug's brother and best man came next. He was insanely nervous- and while he had had a full speech prepared, he had promptly forgot it. But on the fly- he did fabulous! People were laughing incredibly hard; girls were throwing themselves at him afterwards (no, seriously. We had at least 3 different females ask us his relationship status after his speech). And because of all the positive feedback- he has gone on to start doing stand-up and open mic nights in Columbus!

The best was him calling out our deacon for intentionally making Doug mess up during
the homily and our vows! It was hilarious!

Our head table- just the two of us with our Maid of Honor and Best Man