And the wedding saga continues… LOL.
I warned you guys I had a lot to say. I mean seriously, the wedding took 18 months to plan so I might as well take my time presenting all the little facts and details to you.
I really hope my story helps your future planning. 🙂
Well we’ve made it through our travel in Rome, our week in Positano, why we chose Positano, our ceremony and all of our pre wedding preparation and pictures. Now I think it’s definitely cocktail hour, phew!
Btw I barely drank until wayyy past dinner on our wedding night. I was just too busy talking to family and friends and seriously worried I would be too tipsy if I did haha.
I did however, make time for a few sips of my favorite Veuve Clicquot champagne.
I’m an American giril with French tastes, blogging the effortless chic French way of life, remember? 🙂
My goal for our cocktail reception was to have a few yummy, healthy Italian hors d’oeuvres and light beverages for our friends. We had the champagne, Italian wines, mint and lemon water and hors d’oeuvres ranging from fresh tomato mozzarella balls to hamachi tuna and caviar.
(A meat free, pescetarian and vegan menu of course!)
Honestly, I didn’t want an open bar at this point because I didn’t want people to start drinking heavily. Control freak much maybe, but we had a mix of people who drink and don’t drink and I wanted everyone to meet, mingle and get to know one another before the tequila and vodka shots started.
You know what I mean?
Oh yes, and definitely serve your nicer wines, liqueurs and champagnes during the first part of the evening. People tend to lose their taste buds and recognition after a few glasses hahaha… don’t waste the money especially if you’re on a budget!
We set a little over an hour in our schedule for people to enjoy their drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Just enough time for everyone to sip a drink or two to take the “shyness” away from meeting new people. You know how parties can be awkward when you don’t know everyone? Well, in my mind, a glass of wine or two always helps! And mini bites of food also “rev” up your metabolism and tastebuds so you get extra excited for the wedding dinner and in this case, Positano’s delicious food.
The hour also gave Anton and I some time to take a lot of photos… serious photos plus a lot of silly ones obviously! Oh and totally take as many silly, in the moment, don’t care photos as you can. Those are the real keepers I assure you!
With food, wine and photos out of the way now (btw now I’m hungry just remembering the hamachi and tuna tartare), let’s chat about how I decided to decorate the cocktail reception venue.
If you recall from my ceremony details, I wanted everything to be simple and elegant, using our ocean view villa’s gorgeous flowers as a focal point. We had our ceremony in the back of the garden overlooking the ocean where no one had ever previously married. It made the ceremony feel even more special and unique to us if you ask me. Now what made this arrangement perfect was the fact that we could move directly and without hesitation into the main part of the garden, with an even more expansive view of the ocean, for our cocktail reception!
My flowers were very simple. Baby’s breath in clear mason jars with lemons were placed on tables, around the bar, and up and down the stairs where people would come and go. (Oh and just FYI, baby’s breath is not only symbolic and beautiful, but it really does save you some money on your flowers!)
The white baby’s breath simplicity was perfect for the look we were trying to acheive AND we didn’t even break the bank. Why buy sooo many flowers when they’re all going to be thrown out the next day anyways?
Always trying to be environmentally friendly and budget aware, that’s me.
Oh and then there’s the simplicity in decorating a pool with a sea view. We used large white hydrangeas and floated them. Later on the pool ambience would change as we transitioned into our next chapter of the evening.
I wanted to transition and “peak” into our fancy dinner, so we kept the cocktail reception simple and elegant casual. I even let the babies roam around during this hour (kidless me, imagine that haha)! We used white outdoor sofas, chairs and furniture to create a comfortable feel where people could sit and chat, stand and chat or walk around to enjoy the villa view from every angle.
Oh and let’s not forget the music! I couldn’t have a party without music. I am not a fan of loud music when people are just getting to know one another. So we hired a beautiful harpist to play bossanova and light French music while everyone enjoyed the reception.
It was the first time I’ve used a solo harpist for a party and I must say I LOVED IT. The French songs and bossanova beats sounded amazing. It was a very unique musical experience. I’m so happy we didn’t use a band… it would have been way too much for this magical hour!
So see, not everything need be sooo complicated and fancy at a chic, elegant wedding, RIGHT?! I did my best to stay within a healthy budget and not be wasteful. I wanted to utilize every part of the villa, its flowers and view without complicating things or making it feel overly crowded with decorations.
I didn’t want any part of our wedding to look well, you know, overly done and as the French would say, gauche’!
I also did not want to waste money!
The end result? Exactly what we wanted! It was so worth the effort and time I spent working on every little detail.
So remember, you don’t have to go over the top for everything. Stay focused on what’s most important to you so that you create the vibe and feel you desire for each part of your wedding.
I really loved working with my coordinator Mirna because she without a doubt saw my vision and helped me create a piece by piece story with a different setting in every part of our evening. From our pre ceremony to post ceremony moments, dinner and late night dancing, each “chapter” of our wedding night was just part of one big fairytale!
Off to think up some new workouts for you guys and as GoT fans would say, “WINTER IS COMING”… and so is the holiday food! 🙂
xx Shanna