Whidbey Reception

After a nice week of weather we all knew it was going to rain. I kept saying we used all the good weather in Spain since it was 85+ and sunny the day of our wedding and Asturias is like Seattle weather. 85 and sunny in May would be weird in Seattle right? Same deal in Asturias. So after a perfect weather day in Spain we got rain and more rain in Seattle.

I knew it was coming so I didn't stress too much and just said whatever I'm going to get wet so spray the hair with as much hair spray as possible. Our plans for fun outdoor seating areas and fire pits were scratched. But luckily we had a tent, a house and a garage for the guests to take cover and being only 60 of us it was plenty of space. The good point was it wasn't freezing. I was running around in my dress, soaking wet and wasn't really cold, it might have been adrenaline though!

Tapping the keg

My cousin, Alashia, was kind enough to do my hair for me and we had some quiet girl time in the crab shack with champagne, curling irons and makeup. I wanted to get ready early so I wasn't rushed like I was in Spain and it was all very relaxed and calm.

Doing my hair

last minute fixes

I had all the family arrive an hour early to get all the family photos done and out of the way. They were good sports and stood out in the rain to take the pictures and our photographer was great to put with the rain and get good shots even when it was quite wet. Then I put them to work setting up the final details since we waited until the last minute waiting to see if the rain would let up....it didn't.

Family shots

Freimuth Family

The guests started to arrive around 4 and were so good about the rain too. I showed them the 3 main bases of cover. The boat house (garage) turned into the beer garden. We had some cocktail tables in there with flowers and lights and the keg was up and running. I had typical plastic cups and a sharpie pen to remind us of our college days!

The crab shack was the civilized place where we had the wine bar setup (with our photos on the bottles- thanks dad), slideshow playing of the wedding in Spain that I had made, two poster size photos my dad and Jeanne made (a little weird seeing yourself so big but it was a nice detail), guest book and food.

Wine Bar

Under the tent we put the round tables and rest of the cocktail tables and once the food was put out people migrated over to the tent.

Under the Tent

After food and cupcakes the rain let up for a brief period for the speeches, which was nice. We had great speeches from my dad, my sister and my uncle Fred, who if famous for his speeches/poems. After the presentation we started our first dances. My dj- aka itunes- had had a little too much rain and didn't sound so great- speakers were wet- but my sister and helpers fixed it up eventually! (don't worries the speakers/computer are still alive today).

Our cake

Dad's Speech

Uncle Fred's speech

After our first dances we flipped the music to my dance mix, dad whipped out the cigars and the people started up the dance party. All the guests are from the Pacific Northwest, so they are troopers and know how to handle the rain. People changed into comfy clothes and the crazy party began (I was staying in my dress for as long as I could!)

Our first dance in America

Dance Floor

As I was bouncing all around, dancing and talking, I realized our beer garden turned into a frat party. Not sure how this happened but we all started doing keg stands. I was like hell yeah, I can't swallow the beer but I'll do one in my wedding dress. We had to show the Spanish how we Americans party around here. I had my sorority sisters and their husbands to help get it started and next thing I know everyone is gathering in the boat house, whole family is doing keg stands, shot gunning bud light, people are soaking wet from the rain and now wetter from the beer. We finish off the keg and started searching the compound for my dad's hidden bud light.

The married couple

Boat House Party

After we killed the keg and had a few more bud lights we headed back out to the dance floor for more dancing. I'm not sure who came up with the grand idea but people started taking our battery operated tea lights from the candle holders and started dancing around with them. We had about 30 that we got at costco and we all thought in the dark they looked really cool dancing around, so everyone started grabbing them off the tables and dancing. It was actually really cool and one of my favorite parts of the evening. We were in the rain with our tea lights dancing to the music and having a great time. Fred even brought over one of the tiki torches that we had lit from the beach and was dancing around.

Dance Floor

Tea Light Dance Floor

At 1am, for some reason, I thought the neighbors would get really mad at us so I shut the music down but I should have just kept it going and screw the neighbors! ha ha! We headed back to the boat house for more beer. After awhile all the bud light was gone and knowing my dad he has never run out of alcohol at a party and it wasn't going to this time. So he brings in the the mini Heineken keg that he had in the crab shack. We finish off the first one and luckily he had a second one in reserve and we didn't finish that one off before the party ended. It was a crazy time in the end and now looking at the pictures it was quite a show.
It was so wonderful to see everyone there and I was so very lucky everyone made the long and difficult trip to the island to celebrate with us. I was running all around talking to everyone but after everything was over I felt like I had very little time with everyone. It has been so long since I have seen the majority of the guests that I wanted like dates with them all after!