Peas & carrots! pork & beans! david & courtney! Our wedding reception

We celebrated our July wedding in September in my hometown of Wickenburg, AZ!

The theme was a grand mix of Retro/Americana/Picnic/County Fair Kitsch. Got all of that?

It was a low key reception with lots of quirky decor, lawn games, a lemonade stand, a picnic area, candy and caramel apples and lots and lots of Nothing Bundt wedding cake. Mmmmm, that confetti wedding cake, BE STILL MY HEART.

We had the reception in my parent’s backyard, the honorable guest being The Pink Lady, my glamper, who for the occasion was re-named to the Blushing Bride.

Nothing too fancy schmancy, that’s just not my style in general. Sometimes I try to have more “taste” and I always resort back to my penchant for kitsch and quirk. I am what I am, said in a low, prophetic voice. Okay, awkward, ba ha ha. Moving on!

May I confess? I personally find most weddings to be rather stuffy and boring? Please, don’t shoot. But I really am not one for the regimented routine of the typical wedding reception i.e. the grand entrance, first dance, best man/maid of honor speech with the toast. I’m ALL about traditions but … just not super into formality, honestly. Just not my vibe at all. Shoot, people! Corn dogs were on our menu LOL. So when planning the reception, I wanted a quirky/cute laid back affair with lawn games, dinner, and cake. I wanted people to feel free to move around instead of sitting at a table waiting for the next event to happen. I’m usually the guest who is like, damn it, can you just the cake already? LOL. I think the only traditional thing we did was throw the bouquet and cut the cake.

It was fun to see people playing games and mingling, and having all of our nieces and nephews running around, playing games, getting lemonade, and playing in the Pink Lady.

Alas! Our wedding shindig!

My wedding flamingos! I bought the flamingo bowtie and flamingo veil off Etsy. I seriously adore them.

And if that wasn’t kitschy enough for you, our wedding banner, ta-da!

Peas & Carrots! Pork and Beans! David & Courtney!

Our gift table!

Although we had a smaller wedding in July, I still wanted “flower girls” so to speak. Little girls dressed in pretty dresses at weddings are one of my favorite things about weddings so I used my “It’s my wedding damn it” authority and still had our nieces Ava and Maggie be our flower girls. I bought the most adorable yellow pinafore dresses from an Etsy shop, and gave them lollipops instead of flowers to carry around the reception with one rule: no licking until after pictures:)

I just adore these photos our photographer took of my niece Ava. She was just enjoying her lemonade and lollipop in her pretty yellow dress. So utterly sweet.

It was so cute to watch Ava and Maggie, who never met before the reception, become fast friends and play together in their matching dresses.

These two little ladies. Crossing their legs and ankles and wearing little heels and frilly socks. Be still my HEART.

I didn’t realize that my wedding dress was a tad wrinkled…oops! A thousand pardons LOL.

Our sweetheart table! Of course, one of David’s THINGS photobombed the picture again LOL. First his phone then his damn sunglasses LOL.

Behold, our wedding porta-potty, LOL. My parents required porta potties if we had the reception in their backyard. I was a total bridezilla and fought them hard on not having gross/tacky PORTA POTTIES. My dad tried to reason with me, “Courtney, you said your theme was county fair–county fairs have porta potties!” Good one, Dad, on keeping the theme.

So yeah, we had porta potties!

I still wanted to “wedding-fy” them so we put them under this canopy and put up red gingham tablecloths around them as a kind of curtain. I know this is going to come out weird…but it came out cute? LOL. Okay, moving on!

Throwing the bouquet! Our niece, Maggie, caught it. It was utterly adorable how excited this made her, she even told her mom she wanted “to keep it forever.”

Her face is just so sweet here…I also love how my nephew Jason is strolling on by without any shoes on LOL.

David, he’s the favorite of all the kids which is totally adorable and one of the things I really love about him. Kids instantly gravitate to him.

My hilarious nephew Mason who is famous for loving his SWEETS.

Both of our families. Don’t look too closely at my nephew in the left pic….he’s the tall blonde on the left. He always sneaks in The Bird into all of our family photos and the butthead FLIPPED THE BIRD for our wedding photo. OMG. I knew instantly when we received the album from our photographer to look for his hand and yep, the tiger didn’t change his stripes, the BUTTHEAD.

Muah!

Mr. and Mrs. Claridge