Wed Recap: The little ones

One thing we knew for sure was that there would be lots of kids at our wedding.  Out of a guest list of about 190 people in attendance, at least 15 to 20 of those were kids ranging from 6 months to 16 years in age. 

Our 2 little nephew ring bearers hanging out pre-ceremony

By Grant Sharp

Now everyone knows how hard it is to keep kids entertained at a wedding, at least during the ceremony portion.  So I had lots of ideas to keep them busy and active.  And it had to start with our four ring bearers (3 of which were Mr Fix It's nephews and 1 was my nephew) and our flower girl (my little cousin). 

Our Junior Groomsmen (nephew) keeping some of the ring bearers entertained

Besides the favor boxes that were specific to the younger aged children that I blogged about here, and the little kids corner area that we set up with portable DVD players, lollipops, craft kits, coloring books and two paid babysitters, we had a few things that I didn't share previously.  Oh, and that kids corner with the babysitters?   Yeah, there were at least a couple kids in that room the entire night!  So it was definitely a good idea and money well spent!

Of course, the kids had fun with the ribbon wands that we left on the ceremony chairs for all the guests to wave as we walked back down the aisle:

By Kathleen Wolsfeld

And they loved the flashing sunglasses and mouthguards that we gave them for the reception (though the flashing didn't really show up well in these pictures)

By Kathleen Wolsfeld

By Chad Beever

A big hit were the table top bowling pin sets.  And the older ones danced the night away.

You can imagine how many fun shots the younger ones took in the photobooth (there were at least SIXTY photo strips of my flower girl, junior groomsmen and younger cousins alone in the booth!).

They adored the chocolate fountain...Yum!

By Heather Hughes

And these two would not stop bothering our magician...he was so great with them!

My sister said my little 3 year old nephew is still playing with his favor box toys even today four months later!  But probably the best investment I made for the ring bearers was for the ceremony portion of our day.  When they made their way to the end of the aisle as seen here:

A little bribery goes a long way:

I told their mothers that they could just gather them in the front row to sit down so they didn't have to stand on the altar for a good 45 minutes to an hour.  And waiting on their chairs in the front row, I had these little goodies:

Silent and yummy and entertaining!

I got these little mini travel sized magna doodles at Target for like $10 each and they kept the boys busy during the ceremony.  And you can't go wrong with a sucker!  Especially the ones that last for hours.

By Grant Sharp

But for some reason, my sister's in-laws felt the need to also have a bag of Reese's Pieces waiting for my little nephew.  That was something we had not planned on and right at the beginning of the ceremony he dropped the bag and the little candies spilled everywhere in the front and into the aisle.   Now I did not see them as they tried to quickly pick them up but apparently several of the wedding party and family members at the front of the altar saw all this go down and started laughing thinking it was just hilarious.  Good thing I had the sucker there for him so that he wasn't in tears about losing all of his candies!

And for added convenience for the guests with the youngest kids...these precious babies:

I even had our rental company swap out 4 of the chivari chairs for highchairs....which my family profusely thanked us for!  And as a special treat for these super young ones who can't really play with toys, we gifted them these fun little personalized bibs:

By Heather Hughes

By Chad Beever

Unless otherwise noted, all photos by Robert Mullins Photography
All raw video footage provided courtesty Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills

Wed Recap: Surprises for the groom and the guests

I really wanted our wedding to be full of surprises for our guests and especially my groom - as much as he would let me surprise him.  :)  I wanted the guests to feel like they were at a sentimental and emotional wedding but also a really fun and entertaining one unlike your typical 'processed' weddings where it's the same expected thing after the same expected thing.

Some of the ways I tried to infuse this uniqueness and creative surprises were with little extra elements that didn't cost much at all and yet added something fun or different to the event.  So here they are:

I'm going to start off with the video today because believe me, you just have to see this first little surprise for my groom *LIVE* :)  Then after you can read about each thing and see the pics :)

1)  Of course, you all know about the one main thing I did at our ceremony that truly set our processional apart from anything else the guests had seen.  I incorporated a spoof of the E! THS as a video to precede my walk down the aisle.  I loved playing it at the ceremony instead of the reception as most montages are now played because it kept the guests all looking in the same place and gave them something to laugh at during what is typically a traditional and sometimes mundane part of the wedding celebration. 

2)  There was a great surprise for Mr Fix It during the processional as well.  I have eluded to the $14 sign I had created in our wedding colors from VistaPrint.com in the past.  Well, I saw a version of this idea on a blog while browsing for parasols for my bridesmaids and just had to do it!  We had our eldest ring bearer carry this fabulous little sign down the aisle.

By Robert Mullins

By Jeff Ezell

By Kristin Jepson

Unfortunately, the two ring bearers in front of him didn't walk quite as fast so he ended up getting real close to them to where it took a minute for Mr Fix It to truly be able to see what the sign said.  But once he and all the other guests got a glimpse of it, they had some great laughs as seen in these photos:

By Robert Mullins

Check out Mr Fix It's face when he sees the sign his nephew is carrying:

Photo courtesy Janet Campbell

I love all the guests laughing in this one :)

By Tanya Beever

By Robert Mullins

3)  For our recessional, I loved the photos I have seen of guests tossing flower petals at the bride and groom.  The shots are just gorgeous.  But I really wanted *ALL* of our guests to get in on the action and so when I saw this idea of 'ribbon wands' on another web site, I just had to incorporate it.  It was sort of inexpensive to make the wands.  I think it was $70 for about 100 of them.  I made one for every other guest and we placed them on the chairs at the ceremony.  Here you can see the guests holding them and playing with them pre-ceremony.

By Robert Mullins

By Robert Mullins

This little one was so in love with them that she collected a bunch during the cocktail hour and made them into pom poms :)  (By Kathleen Wolsfeld)

I was kind of bummed about how this was executed.  I wish I would have made enough for every single guest to have one.  And I should have actually attached a little tag on them letting them know when and how they should wave them because most of the guests either didn't wave them very high or out the aisle at us or they only waived them for a brief moment.  Therefore, we didn't get the great shot I was anticipating of us kissing at the end of the aisle with all these little ribbons flying over the guests heads :(  This was a fail type of idea...but had I done it better (listed it in the program or used tags), I think the guests would have gotten into it more.  Instead, here are the shots we got of a few of them waving around (as you can see, the video footage looked way better than these photos):

By Robert Mullins

By Roseanne Rivoli

 

By Robert Mullins

At least somebody had fun with them :)  Mr Fix It's little niece

By Robert Mullins

4)  And my favorite surprise for Mr Fix It and the guests at the reception was definitely the chocolate fountain.  When we first contacted our caterer, he let us know that they included a chocolate fountain with dippers like strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, pretzels, etc during your reception after dinner.  Well of course, I was not happy with just your typical chocolate fountain.  So I found a site online called http://fondue4you.com/   This place lets you buy different colored chocolate for your fountains.  And they had a wonderful Tiffany Blue color to match our wedding colors!

I mentioned to our caterer that I found the site and asked him to check and see if the cost of their chocolate was comparable to what he normally paid.  He said he would handle it no problem and didn't end up charging us anything extra.  Steve from La Finestra catering was very accommodating throughout the process and we loved working with him.  And look at all he put out (there's actually a lot more on the other side of the fountain)

Though when Mr Fix It heard me confirm the 'blue chocolate' order, he flipped out!  He was pissed that I had yet another 'stupid little detail' that was probably extra money and thought I was going way over on the wedding details.  Plus he kept insisting that colored chocolate was going to taste *horrible*!  Well, come wedding day when that chocolate fountain was all set up, he was eating his words...and the chocolate!  It was the most yummy-licious freaking chocolate I have ever tried before!  I didn't notice it was set up until the very end of the night and as soon as I made my way over there I was all over that thing...as were all the guests.  They raved about it!  I highly encourage you to order this stuff...soooo good!

Photos by Robert Mullins

We made sure all the guests knew about it by including it on the little place card notes we tucked into each guests' napkins.  We also had our DJ announce it after our first dance to let everyone know to go check it out.  It was set up right on the other side of the fire place in the alcove just off the dance floor so lots of people made there way over there.

All in all, these little extra details which didn't really cost much extra truly gave our guests some memorable things to be entertained by that they didn't see at just every other wedding.  Oh, and of course there were the other things like the magician, photobooth, and flip flops that they loved as well.  Lots of fun surprises.