This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own.
We had our reception in a wonderful family friend’s backyard. Their beautiful backyard made our reception truly magical and made it look like the reception of my dreams! As the guests arrived you could tell where to enter from a specific side of the yard because of a lantern (I got these from IKEA in 2015 and they are no longer available. HERE is a great white option, and HERE is a light pink option!) lined walkway. I also love the look of candle sticks, if you’re able to swing pink THESE are fun or GOLD for a classic color you could use again and again!
I wouldn’t change a thing about my reception venue! I remember being so thrilled that our friends who also happened to be our caterer, offered to let us have the reception in their backyard. Their backyard is SO perfect!
After you walked past the lanterns you found our version of a sign in book. I thought it would be cute to do a poster with everyone’s signature! Since then I don’t think a poster is the best idea but I think THIS would be SO fun along with THIS book! On this table we also had a bouquet of flowers and a bird cage that I used for cards. I put ribbon on everything and anything I could! I got mine through my florists but, here are some online ribbon options that have amazing reviews and lots of colors. I think it really pulled everything together! Then you’d be able to see our looped video of bridals at the temple as well as baby pictures of Dallin and I on a TV, I love the small marquee letters that spell our last name on a rosette table cloth and more flowers on the sides of the TV. I also loved this little Love Story chalkboard sign by the archway with ribbons, so dreamy! We wrote the timeline of our love story on a longer chalkboard. I love that it gave a little back story of our relationship for everyone.
After guests went through the ribbon archway you could place your present on the present table under the deck, that was a little tucked away. I used lots of chalkboards and chalkboard details in the decor. My sister Brittany and I (mostly Brittany, but I helped haha) wrote on them to make them look fabulous. HERE is a round up of some of my favorite chalkboard finds that remind me of my wedding reception!
I was honestly in awe by how many friends and family came! It made me so happy!! Friends from my childhood, work, singles ward/church, family ward, my parents friends, Dallin’s parents friends, his family and friends there were so many great people there! The line I feel is a necessary evil. Not ideal but even if you don’t have one at a wedding it happens so you might as well have one. So we had one and had to cut it off when dancing came or we would have been talking all night. Our DJ was so helpful with this. He helped us work up the line and greet everyone quickly then get headed to the dance floor.
I love how weddings are all about the couple and can be tailored to what you both like. So we made it exactly that! We loved donuts, soda and candy! Check, check, check! We also didn’t love the idea of having loads of people watch us cut the cake, or a garter toss (like they are really kinda weird…) so we opted out of the garter toss and to cut our cake before guests arrived! Dallin and I stood in front of a cute gazebo in the backyard of our cute friends that we added lots of ribbon to. We folded each ribbon strand in half lengthwise creating a small loop at the top, then place it over the top of the bar or strand of ribbon you are hanging it from, grab the two cut ends of the ribbon from the back and pull them through the loop! If you do this over and over with various sizes of ribbon it will look so beautiful and make such a pretty backdrop! I had ribbon all over our reception! The more ribbon the better! IMO After the line guests could see the cake table and some of my cute cake stands on display! We had Nothing Bundt Cakes in various flavors and we cut a bundtlet that was the perfect size for us-my favorite flavor is still white chocolate raspberry-it’s delicious!! After that guests were able to enjoy a Soda Bar, a Donut Bar, and a Candy Bar! Dallin and I went on many dates to get fun soda combinations at a small local soda shop that is now out of business, and one of our first dates (Dallin doesn’t call it a date but I do) Dallin took me to get free donuts at Krispy Kreme all the way in Provo for National Donut Day (we lived close to SLC) just because I wanted one. I’ve got to share more on how we celebrate National Donut Day now with our sweet girls! I’ll talk more about all the food in a separate post but the donuts were inspired by my favorite donut bakery at the time, Beyond Glaze! They no longer have a store front but have all their delicious recipes in a cookbook you can find HERE!
Guests could then relax at various tables and chairs throughout the backyard, that had a rosette table runner, framed engagement pictures of Dallin and I, candles, lanterns and floral arrangements some in a wreath with a candle in the middle and a charger under.
We had to make sure to take pictures with some of our favorite ladies our grandmas! I love these pictures of some of the guests and how crowded the backyard was at just one time of the night. We got most of the decorations at IKEA, I haven’t seen them in store in years, but I did find some on Amazon HERE.
My mother in law knew it would be hot and bought a bunch of pink fans. They were the perfect thing for a hot summer night. It wasn’t too bad though really! Even in my big ball gown I felt completely fine all night! I did love how the fans turned out!! We rented some big LOVE marquee letters (I found a fun online option that isn’t too pricey HERE!) that were a fun photo backdrop, except for during our first dance haha Then we had the bouquet toss and my little sister caught it!
My favorite picture of my Dad and I! I’ll never forgot how special my Father/Daughter dance was and how my Dad talked with me about how he use to compete in ballroom dancing and how much he loved it. I like to think he’s dusting off those dancing shoes again in heaven right now. Miss him so much. I liked how our DJ did the Mother/Son and Father/Daughter dance together, then invited everyone on the dance floor, it was such a smooth and seamless transition! Loved Dallin and my first dance too, to I Choose You by Andy Grammer!
We had so much fun dancing at our reception! We got a good sized dance floor and really hoped we would fill it. We ended up really needing the bigger/biggest size, we were shocked! So many people were dancing! We loved it! All the credit goes to our DJ! How cute was my mom and grandma (her mom) dancing! Like mother, like daughter!
Dallin LOVES dancing! He even had a little impromptu solo dance to Gangnam Style and roped me into it! haha While we were finishing dancing Dallin’s family decorated our car in the most adorable way EVER! We had large and normal sparkles for a sparkler send off because it was so close to 4th of July we also did a few larger fireworks too. I always wanted fireworks at my reception! Even though it wasn’t as grand as I envisioned it was still really cute and fun! I loved changing too into a cute little outfit that coordinated with our wedding colors. Such a fun day that I will remember forever!
While we were taking family pictures before the reception I wanted to make sure we took a picture for our Thank You postcards! We used a chalkboard pennant banner strung with ribbon then got them printed so we could address them send out Thank You cards after our big day! I love sending Thank You cards out so this was a favorite of mine!
I have a bunch of links throughout this post! If you’d like more links and all in one place you can find them HERE and HERE!
Next up will be the FOOD at our reception!
