March 25, 2010

A Harborside Wedding - A Piano Man Ending


Mr. Swan didn't make too many demands during the planning process except for one: "Piano Man." You mean the Billy Joel song, Mr. Swan? Yepper doo. Can I just say that I was happy to even know this song 'cause sometimes Mr. Swan whips out names of songs, and I give him a blank stare? Mr. Swan lucked out this time because I am very familiar with and like Billy Joel. Besides Billy is a New Yorker. :)

For those who aren't familiar with the song, here's a clip from 1975 of Billy Joel singing "Piano Man." I'm happy to say that this clip is older than me. :)



I'm sure you asking, "'Piano Man', but why?" Well, apparently during Mr. Swan's college days this song signified the end to one of the many basement frat parties that occupied Mr. Swan's weekend evenings. (That's a nice way of saying he partied a lot. I doubt I need to give you more evidence.) Don't front, you've all been to at least one of those kind of parties too. :) Apparently, this song has some significance to Mr. Swan's childhood friends too, so it was a no-brainer to have our DJ, Rob, play this song as we came towards the end of the reception. Besides, who am I to deny a group of grown men a moment to get a little sappy and sing at the top of their lungs? After graduating, playing "Piano Man" became a wedding tradition at many of the weddings of his fraternity brothers, so we continued the tradition.

As the bride, my job was to stand in the middle of the group while they sang, arms linked and all.




Then I was told I was supposed to start dancing with everyone, so I did! I think I must have danced with each man in that circle. I totally enjoyed connecting, talking and dancing with them all, especially since some of the guys hadn't been on the dance floor yet for the day.


I figured I should have some fun with this. I'm glad my partner did too.

I even got a chance to dance a little more with Mr. Swan.


After a few minutes, MIL Swan and Mommmy Swan joined in.


Check out MIL Swan & BIL dancing.

We weren't done yet with our reception. We still had a bit more partying to do...

Will you be incorporating any traditions into your wedding that have developed among your friends?

Well, this it it! My final wedding recap post! Don't worry. You haven't gotten rid of me yet. :) I still have a few wedding-related posts still left in me, and I'll roll those out before bowing out officially on Weddingbee.

Thanks for reading my recaps and allowing me to relive this day with you.

All Images by our great photographer, Dante Williams

Here's the rest of our wedding day journey:
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March 19, 2010

A Harborside Wedding - The Swan Guest Experience


Luckily, our reception wasn't all about Mr. Swan and me dancing. I think our guests had a good time too because I think everyone managed to find a way to entertain themselves even if they weren't dancing.

With a relatively intimate wedding, we were able to talk to many of guests throughout the reception.

I got to meet a new friend, Baby L.

Mr. Swan and I ended up using the "Divide & Conquer" strategy for greeting our guests. Apparently you're supposed to do this together? Oops...

Our guests also took a look at BIL Swan's pictorial spread of Mr. Swan's greatest "dress up" hits. Remember that?


I liked the fact that many of our guests enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect with friends and acquaintances they had not seen in years because they came to our wedding.

Also don't be fooled. My guests can get down on the dance floor too!
The woman in the yellow dress is BFF Swan. I'm excited for her December wedding! Her dance partner is another friend from college.

There was lots of picture taking too. What's a wedding without pictures? Of course I haven't seen most of these. Bad move on my part. :( Definitely do a Flickr-like set up if you can a la Mrs. Lemon, Mrs. Cream Puff, and Miss Cheeseburger. Smart ladies!


One of the reasons I picked Battery Gardens was not only for the lightness and airiness in the room, but also for the fact that our guests would be able to spend some time outside enjoying the summer day...and they did! Our reception room had two balconies for our guests to enjoy.


We also made sure we to take group shots with our guests.

Here's Mr. Swan and me with my family.

So that's a taste of what our guests experienced during our wedding. Our guests got to have a low-key or a more active experience all in one reception.

Swan Tip #19 - Think about how your reception will be experienced from your guests' perspective.

All Images by Dante Williams

We're almost done. :( Here are other Swan recaps:

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March 11, 2010

A Harborside Wedding - The Swans Shake a Tail Feather


We danced...and danced...and danced some more.

I will say that I was a little worried about the dancing portion of our reception. I'mma be real and say that I wasn't worried about my friends and family not getting down just some of our other guests. Then I just consoled myself by saying that at that point in the wedding it was going to be my job to make sure that I enjoyed myself and to not worry about whether other people would get out of their seats. I was going to make sure that I got my money's worth out of our DJ, Rob, who we met through DJ Gaza. Rob did a great job mixing much of the music that we (okay, I) requested with some of his own choices. I had given him a detailed document of "suggestions" of the genres and types of songs we wanted to have played (really they were "suggestions" not "must plays" although a few of those were thrown in). I was really glad to hear the things we wanted. I think everyone danced at some point during our wedding even if it was just for one song.

I thought I would post some pictures of Mr. Swan and me as we danced with each other and our guests.

I loved dancing with my family and friends.




This lovely lady I'm dancing with here is one of the reasons I'm married to Mr. Swan. We met at her wedding. We've been friends since we were 10 years old. If you can believe it, she's pregnant here wearing heels no less. Her son is the cutest little baby!


Do the Robot!

Heeeeyyyyyyy!


This looks like I was recreating one of the moves from my African dance class. Hmm...

This is one of my favorite pictures from the wedding. I wish I could remember the song that was playing at this moment.

Don't worry. Mr. Swan got down too.

Here he is with MIL Swan.

Mr. Swan also decided he needed a solo.




If you can't tell by now, I've married a ham :)

We even found a few moments to dance together.




Yep. We had fun, but our guests did too (more shots of them later). I hope that this post calms the fears of daytime brides who are hoping for dancing at their wedding. As with all things, it comes down to the people there and YOU, which leads me to Swan Tip #18 (Wow! That many!):

Swan Tip #18 - If you're sourpuss, then everyone else will be a sourpuss. The focus, whether you want it to or not, will be on you that day, and YOU will set the tone of your reception. Get out there and enjoy yourself! Your guests will follow suit.

All Images by the ever-talented, Dante Williams

It's okay if you missed something. Here's the rest:


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March 1, 2010

A Harborside Wedding - Sure, We'll Eat Cake!


Yep, we surely ate cake, but definitely more of the miniature variety. As I mentioned before, we had a local baker, Keavy Landreth's Kumquat Cupcakery, provide a variety of lovely mini-cupcakes for the reception. Here's a look at the set-up:



More signs!

I figure the cupcakes should get their own close-up too.

I now stalk these cupcakes. If any of you NYers out there care to try some, Kumquat Cupcakery is usually at the Brooklyn Flea during the weekends. Let's just say I've been multiple times already...it's too close to my apartment for me to resist. Luckily, the gym is close by too. :)

We had our DJ, Rob (more about him later), play one of Mr. Swan's favorite songs, Beyonce's "Single Ladies" while we exchanged cupcakes (Of course Mr. Swan will never admit to liking this song). Mr. Swan and I had to pick one of our favorites cupcakes to feed each other, which I will say was REALLY hard. Having tasted all of them before, I love them all.


Eeny meeny miney moe....

We did a little dance 'cause who doesn't want to dance to Beyonce?

Then we fed each other.


So remember when I mentioned it was sort of odd getting stared at walking down the aisle? Well, this was another time that I felt that way. After feeding each other, I looked over and saw a wall of people looking at us. Whoa! I guess I was just in my own world and forgot the whole center of attention part of the moment.

Plus, we wanted our guests to come over and have a taste for themselves, but no one wanted to budge. We waved them over and everything. Um, hello?! CUP-CAKES!!! You wouldn't have had to tell me twice. Since our guests wouldn't come to us, we went to them.


It was one of those unplanned moments during the wedding where we just improvised. Mr. Swan and I were handing out cupcakes to everyone. It was fun serving our guests for a minute.

After awhile I think they finally got the hint. ;)

Also we had some Coconut Passionfruit Mousse and petit fours just in case folks weren't into cake.

Swan Tip #17 - Savor the unplanned and spontaneous moments of the wedding!

All Images by Dante Williams, who got great details shots. Thanks, D!

We did other things besides eat cake. Check it out!
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