We had a reception/party.

When David and I talked about getting married one of the things we both agreed that we wanted was not to be rushed on the big day.  We wanted to enjoy every moment, person, decoration, look, feeling, hug that we could...after all we'd waited awhile for this.  That meant on a Friday night we'd have our "wedding celebration" (aka reception) and then we'd get married the following day on Saturday.  I know sounds crazy, but it worked out perrrr-fectly! 

Here's how it all went down.  Family and friends arrived on Wednesday and I finally got to meet David's parents and brother Keith.  Thursday we had a big Pelton/Shepro family dinner and all got acquainted.  David met my brother Rob.  Friday we took Pelton family pictures.  David had a day-of Bachelor Party driving go carts.

I leisurely got ready on my own (everyone else was setting up for the reception), Lauren picked me up and we went to the Bellevue Botanical Garden where I met David for some bridal photos. He was a good sport and endured all the "boring" poses and even got in a few classic David poses too. 

The reception was perfect.  We had some of our favorite foods courtesy of my mom, danced to our favorite songs (well mostly David danced), took pictures in the photobooth, talked with our friends and family and overall felt a tremendous amount of gratitude for all the love and support that was shown to us.  

When the last guests had left, David and I changed into comfy clothes and hung out in the kitchen eating leftovers and talking about how great everything went.  Soooooooo glad we had the reception first.