We walked back in a slight drizzle from the ceremony location to the reception. My naturally curly hair that I had straightened and then loosely curled with a curling iron definitely started to frizz out. Darn Charleston humidity AND rain! Luckily, I had come prepared with an umbrella, which I shared with my friend Beth, so it wasn’t a total hair disaster.
We walked down a loooong hallway to the Grand Ballroom. Sounds fancy, no? It was!
We were greeted at the door with lemonade-sweet-tea-vodka cocktails. These, I decided, would be my drink of choice for the night. They were dee-lish! I have got to get me some of that Firefly sweet tea vodka!
We had cocktails in the hall till the ballroom was ready for us.
Inside the ballroom – more gorgeous chandeliers.
Inside was beautiful! I loved the tall flower arrangements and they had some fun lighting that lit up floor-length white curtains with red-green-blue-white lights alternating in color.
I found a table with some of my sorority sisters – we had to pull up two extra chairs but we squeezed together nicely. It was awesome sitting with them, chatting, and just catching up.
There were two meat tables – one for beef tenderloin with assorted sauces and one for pork loin.
There was a table with spinach salad ingredients: baby spinach, tomato wedges, blue cheese, onions, and sweet bacon dressing.
They had a lady cooking fresh crab cakes right next to the serving dish. I forgot to take my camera with me when I went to get food and by the time I headed back, she was gone, so no photo of that…sorry!
I did get a photo of the sign, though!
The shrimp & grits table may have been my favorite. So Southern! I love it!
An area with fresh veggies
You grabbed a mini glass serving dish.
Then, you added a scoop of grits and then some freshly prepared shrimp in a spicy Cajun-style sauce. There was a lady cooking the shrimp just next to the shrimp serving dish. Everything was so fresh!
Just as I was getting my food together, hubby walked in the door! He made it to the reception…yay! I was so happy he decided to come back for the reception.
I had 1 crab cake and some spinach salad w/ 2 tomato wedges and a pinch of blue cheese. I’m not a blue cheese fan but I’m learning to love it one bite at a time. I don’t like closing myself off to foods, so though I’m not naturally attracted to it, I can appreciate it. I also got a mini glass of shrimp and grits with 2 shrimp.
For my second place, I had a multigrain roll, a slice of the beef tenderloin with some demi-glace sauce, and mushroom risotto. Mushrooms are another food item I’m learning to love. I really enjoyed them in the risotto at the wedding, actually!
The wedding cake! I had 1 slice and a couple bites of hubby’s slice, though I don’t have a photo.
The reception featured at least 4 bartenders. (I didn’t count them, so there may have even been 6!)
The bartender closest to my table was my personal fave. I asked him if he had any of the lemonade-sweet-tea-vodka drink and he said they were only passing that out at the beginning of the wedding (which was sort of what I figured). I went to a lady who was working the table areas and asked her if she could find some in the back. She said she didn’t find lemonade or sweet tea, but would be happy to brew me some. So nice! But I’m not going to make someone brew a whole pot of tea for me! I went back to the original bartender to order a cranberry vodka and guess what he had sitting there for me…the lemonade-sweet-tea-vodka drink I had been searching for. Hoorah! This nice bartender made my night! I mean…drinkwise.
In fact, every time I went up to see this bartender, he was already scooping a glass of ice and filling it up with this delicious lemonade-sweet-tea-vodka drink concoction. He was so top-notch! Thank you nice bartender-guy!!
There were plenty of people dancing all night. We had a lively group!
I may have made it out on the dance floor a couple times.
And since this was a wedding for a sorority sister and since there were about 20 of us there, we definitely had some sorority sister time with the bride – our own Southern belle.
We sang a sorority song, did our traditional dance…
…and maybe threw in a fave cheer at the end for old-time sake.
The band was awesome and played some really great music. We all just danced the night away.
And just when you thought things couldn’t get better, around 10:30pm-ish, some waiters brought out trays with cheeseburger and BBQ sliders and skinny French fries. A late night snack…great idea!
I couldn’t resist some French fries.
My drink of choice: lemonade-sweet-tea-vodka drink
Peter thought it was funny that I was taking pictures of my food and drinks and insisted I take a photo with his drink all styled up with crossing straws. If anyone wants to buy this photo, he claims I have to pay him royalties, as well. lol
The bride and groom made it up to the stage towards the end of the night to sing TNT by AC/DC. They looked like they were having so much fun! Everyone was! Their wedding was a blast!
It was so good seeing so many of my good friends that I haven’t seen in awhile. I even learned one lives only a couple miles from my new house…howdy neighbor!
The bride and groom made such a cute couple and they just looked so in love. I’m so happy that they found each other, and I was thrilled to be there for their big day. They had such a beautiful and fun Southern wedding!
Congrats Theresa + Adam!
Hi there! Found your blog through Twitter 🙂 I have ALWAYS wanted to attend a Southern wedding. I don't think I could resist the fries either when they come in that cute shotglass. What a fun night!