ACT IV: THE RECEPTION
My biggest tip for anyone planning their reception is to think of your reception as a show. For every good show or performance the run of it needs to be ORGANIZED! We took months making sure we strategically planned everything out not only to make sure we got to do everything we wanted to do, but also not over scheduling with the allotted time we were given for our venue. For example, here is the final “run of show” from our reception:
- Grand Entrance (Bridal Party then Newlyweds)
- First Dance
- Grandfather/Granddaughter Dance
- Father Daughter Dance
- Mother Son Dance
- Prayer (Over the Food)
- Dinner
- Toasts (from whomever you select from your Bridal Party)
- Thank You Speech from the Newlyweds
- Cutting of the Cake (took time directly after this to run and take a few pics at our photobooth before we had to change clothes)
- AKA Hymn
- Alpha Hymn
- Bouquet/Garter Toss
- Bride/Groom Outfit Change
- Open The Dance Floor for Guests
- Hooey Hump Night (for all my Greeks who want to do roll call!)
We also got in touch with an av hire company for the event months before the wedding. You can click here if you need one for yours. Now that we got that out of the way, let’s give a play by play of everything that happened during the 2nd half of our wedding – THE RECEPTION!
GRAND ENTRANCE – It just couldn’t be a Hooey Wedding without some Drake in there to get us and our guest turnt all the way up! When selecting music a few months in advance, we immediately felt that Life Is Good by Drake & Future would be so fitting for our grand entrance to our reception because I mean life is good when you’re finally married! We were the center of attention coming in at the top of the grand staircase. We were up there hitting the whoa until we finally came down to dance with our wedding party which then led us into our first dance as husband and wife.
FIRST DANCE – Our first dance was much like our vows to the point that we completely forgot that anyone else was even in the room as we danced the night away to Get You by Daniel Caesar. We felt like this song was special to us because not only was it playing when David proposed but its truly our song. Every time it plays we sing our hearts out (especially when we saw Daniel Caesar in concert years back) and we knew that we always get a special feeling/lock eyes when it plays. This time was no different and as you can tell by the picture we had a great time (in this shot we got to “and when we’re making love” part of the song lol).
SPECIAL DANCES – More moments we will cherish forever. Being that my Dad and reconnected a few years back I struggled and wondered if/how I would share a special moment with him on my wedding day. I, of course, could not deny my Papa of a special dance, but once David and I got engaged and my Dad and I’s relationship only grew stronger I knew that we could at least do a dance and split the time between him and my Papa. Since my Papa and I planned to slow danced to Dance With my Father by Luther Vandross, I knew that I wanted to do something different and more up beat with my Dad. We ended up doing a mash up of Started From The Bottom by Drake and Mo City Don by Z-Ro. We had the crowd jumping, dancing and singing along with us! I’m so grateful to have been able to create these moments with both men in my life that I will forever cherish. Of course, David also got to share a dance with his mom to A Song for Mama by Boyz II Men.
Dinner/Toasts/Thank You Speech – David and I, along with my Mom and Nana, had a great time at our food tasting back in September of 2020 selecting what we wanted on our menu. We landed on Grilled Salmon with a Champagne Dill Cream, Chicken Parmesan with Pasta & Marinara Sauce, Southern Styled Green Beans, and Roasted Garlic Mash Potatoes. After doing the food tasting we felt that it would be best to have a fish and chicken option to appease all of our guests. We did not get food selections beforehand because we did have a buffet style wedding, which honestly made our lives a lot easier! Everyone was able to get as much as they wanted and honestly enjoyed the food! During our dinner portion of our reception, we scheduled for our toasts/speeches to be done by my two Matrons of Honor, Maid of Honor, David’s siblings and his Best Man. So we had a total of 6 speeches all asked to be around 2-3 minutes each so that we could keep the show moving. After the official toast was made by David’s Best Man, David and I got up to do a thank you speech to all of our guests. We felt that this was so necessary! Any married couple can attest that at your wedding you will be pulled in a MILLION directions, and honestly won’t get a chance to talk to every single guest at your wedding. Having this time carved out to make sure everyone knew how much we appreciation them for coming near and far to celebrate with us as well as all of the amazing gifts. This can be a great idea if you want to save money on not doing thank you cards (did some for my Bridal Shower, but we decided not doing it for after the wedding because we technically thanked everyone and didn’t want to waste money) and we also did not do any wedding favors (the photobooth was the favor lol). Once we finished our thank yous, we ran over to cut the cake and make our way over to our amazing black and white photobooth provided by Paradigm Photobooths (@paradigmphotobooths on IG) that you guys saw all of our IGs.
AKA/ALPHA HYMNS – David and I are proud members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. respectfully. It is a tradition in our organizations to sing our hymns at special events such as weddings, so of course we wanted to add both to our reception. The bonds we share in our respective organizations are unmatched and we were both so ecstatic to share this moment with our lines and prophytes.
BOUQUET/GARTER TOSSES – We loved doing the traditional bouquet and garter tosses! A lot of laughs of everyone trying to be next in line of catching the bouquet (I did a fake toss and as you can see my little sister got played pretty bad, but the actual bouquet was caught by David’s best friend Adreana) and David acting a fool trying to retrieve my garter (caught by David’s line brother Jarrid). Such a classic moment at every single wedding and such a great way to get your guests up on their feet and involved.
PARTY TIME – Then it was time to party! As David and I changed our DJ opened the floor up for all of our guests and as you can tell they had a great time. I highly suggest doing this for anyone that is thinking about changing during their reception because your guests will be up and moving, having a great time, and forget that you guys are even gone. For the ladies, I also took this time to get my make-up touched up and to let my hair down. Once we were all done and ready, we came back into our reception room were able to dance with our family and friends and start our Hooey Hump Night. Since we both went to Prairie View A&M University, Hump Day & Night were always a big deal on campus! For those that don’t know, at most HBCUs, Hump Day is an event that takes place on Wednesdays for Greeks to stroll, do roll call and even possibly step. Since David pledged a Graduate Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, he never got to experience this during our undergraduate years so I felt this would be a special gift/memory for him to have on our wedding day. Our guests absolutely loved it and for all of our PV Family it was great to have a blast in the past and relive our college days! We also snuck away again after this to get some shots with our getaway car in the front of the venue before we did our official exit. If you’re looking for a great PA system for your wedding or event, we highly recommend checking out this site at https://audiovisualhire.uk/pa-system-hire/, for more information on how to make your event memorable.
ACT V: THE FINALE
A sparklers exit was an absolute must-have for me! Being that we were getting married 4th of July Weekend, I felt that it was only right to include them as the finale for our special day. Having all of our friends and family lined up with the sparklers going truly felt as if we were floating on a cloud heading towards our getaway car. From the beautiful sparklers to the cheers and great send off from our family and friends I couldn’t have imagine a better ending to the night. Thank you so much again to all of our friends and family that stayed the entire night to give us a proper send off to start our new chapter and honeymoon in Cabo!
Catch our entire wedding video below and come back this Wednesday for all the details behind our “Hooeymoon”!
