...wedding reception: how we brought the outdoors inside...

In case you need to catch up...we talked about settling on our reception venue  here, here, and here.

All along, DG and I really loved the idea of an outdoor reception, but we did NOT love the risk.  Considering the 500-year flood happened ON OUR WEDDING DAY…we are really glad we came up with this lovely plan B. In the end...though we were  inside and still dry...we still achieved the feel of a late-night outdoor dinner party...or something.  (Yard games and all.)

We basically dreamed up this space in our heads, called in  A LOT of favors, lit the place up and got what you’ll see here.  Let’s start at the beginning….

This is what the arena at Belmont’s Curb Event Center looks like on a normal day.

And here’s an average dinner setup.

And here’s what we did...

Day one of setup was mostly just building the space. The floor was covered and the frame of truss to hang the curtain was flown.  Lighting and sound were hung...you know...normal wedding stuff. :)

I wish I had been more diligent about taking pictures of the progression because, well, Mom's photography....not that great.  (Sorry Mom! But it's true!)  But maybe you'll get the idea...

Here the curtain is being tied on to the frame, but we haven't flown it yet.  

Dad's working hard on putting our lanterns together...looking thrilled to be doing so.  (We'll get to exactly how we made them in a post coming soon!)

Here Dad and I are working on making four GIANT pseudo-lanterns out of these 55-gallon oil drums.  We're pretty hardcore if you haven't noticed.  (Also, this was pretty much my standard uniform for that entire week. Yoga pants all the way.)

In this one you can see we've hung everything where it belongs and our lanterns are suspended over an empty room...

Soon we put the brother and sisters-in-law to work covering our tables in kraft paper.  We owe them big.  They were awesome!

Obviously there are a lot of details that I'll show you in coming posts...but here's the basic finished product!! It was a lot of work, but oh-so worth it!  Will is one talented guy, but I really just don't think a photo can do it justice.

More details to come!  Big thanks to Will at Will Knowles Weddings for all the real pictures!