Megan's Fairytale Wedding Pt. 2

 Megan and Shane's Fairytale Wedding Part Two: The Reception!

Here are Allie and Eleanor at Allie's house right before we left for the reception at Wadley Farms, which if you can- you should have your reception there. It's unbelievably gorgeous.

 Megan and Jenni (and Shane?) had such great ideas for how the reception should look, the food, the cake, the flowers etc... It all turned out so beautifully! And boy do we know weddings now, give us a call! Here are Hank, Eleanor and Rhett playing Bocce on the lawn. So charming!

 I mentioned those boys are cute. The little boy attendants are Shane's nephews Hank and Rhett (Jordan & Sarah) Abe, Shane's other nephew (Chase & Jessica) Jed (Megan's little cousin) and Winston.

 

 Holy crap, I love this picture. There wasn't an ugly corner to be had there. Everywhere is photo magic. It's kind of like a condensed versions of the gardens at Thanksgiving Point.

 Our little family all dressed up!

 The ladies. So so pretty.

 All the kids!

 And Shane and the little boys. I love how baby Abe is looking up at Shane as he sportingly eats grass fed to him by Jed and Win.

 Winston pointing out the Bocce and Croquet balls all over the lawn. Winston lives for anything to do with balls.

 Tom, Jenni, Shagan, Allie and a special guest appearance by Elder Tommy Howell! They pasted his head to a Mitt Romney cutout. It looks surprisingly real in this shot. Too funny. I also saw some girls taking their picture with his cutout later in the evening. Go Tommy!

 The cake! I originally planned to make the cake, but bowed out after I made one for someone else and it didn't quite turn out like I wanted. I didn't want to ruin Megan's, or be stressed about it the week of the wedding so Jenni hired a gal. She did a wonderful job, but it began to tilt at the reception and so there was some last minute patching and rigging. I did make the cake topper though!

 

 I had so much fun making these for Shagan! I've made quite a few clothespin dolls before, so I just amped these up a bit for the occasion. I made the dress, bouquet, suit etc... to match as closely as possible. I also repainted her hair quite a few times to make it the right mix of highlights. They turned out pretty cute.

 

 Happy couple!

 

 Here are some of the Howell folk at the reception. Abby and Jennifer are seated and standing from left are Josh, Hannah, Kirsten, Rosaline and Cassie.

 My great aunt Kathleen (Megan's great, great aunt and Rosaline's great, great, great aunt!) holding my cousin Stefanie's daughter Sophia.

 Sophie giving an exuberant Eleanor a squeeze.

 Allie with her best neighbor friends Kate and Claire.

 Shagan cutting the cake! Yeah, I don't know how to take night time pictures on my camera. Oh well, that's why you pay someone else to take the real ones.

 

 Throwing the bouquet!

Megan's cousins Abby and Anna manning the cookie decorating table. This is a bit post clean up, before there were the most adorable containers of candy and sprinkles I wish I had taken more pictures of all of the magical touches. Cute Scrabble pieces in bowls for guests to try and spell out Megan's new last name: Van Oostendorp, Amazing food, and assorted cakes to try throughout the night, a sign in book of all of their bridal shots they took in San Diego, games, flowers, candy stick favors in hand stamped little bags... oh man. There were a billion adorable details that added up to one perfect night. All night I kept thinking: "Man, I am so glad I got married 6 years ago, or I would be dying inside!" It was all so perfect.

 The proud parents: Tom & Jenni Howell and Dana & Allen Van Oostendorp.

 

 The getaway car! Off to a honeymoon in St. Thomas.