Our Wedding Welcome Dinner
Our wedding weekend began in earnest on the Friday night before our wedding, with our welcome dinner. It was a dreamy celebration, filled with laughter, speeches, and a few tears. It’s traditional to have a rehearsal dinner, with close family and the wedding party. But since so many of our family and friends were traveling from afar, it felt right to do a bigger celebration with everyone included!
Our Welcome Dinner at Portage Point Resort
The day before our wedding was a misty, drizzly, moody affair. We began the day with a group hike on the Baldy Trail of Arcadia Dunes. I was honestly surprised that so many people joined us (even with all-terrain strollers in tow!) considering the weather. Luckily any downpours held off and we got stunning views over Lake Michigan, even spotting a few Bald Eagles. It was a joy introducing our British guests, especially, to the wonder of the Great Lakes.
After our (rather cold, wet, and windy) wedding rehearsal that evening, Dan and I headed out to the docks on Portage Lake with Sarah, our wedding photographer, for some photos before the welcome dinner. A rainbow even showed up for us!
We tried to incorporate lots of special details throughout the welcome dinner, while still keeping it low key (we didn’t have a planner or coordinator for our welcome dinner, instead organizing it ourselves and setting it up with the assistance of a few extremely helpful groomsmen and bridesmaids!).
Some of my favorite touches were:
- Our welcome sign, featuring our watercolor wedding crest painted by Dan’s mum!
- Flowers from a local farm, arranged by my mom and her friend in vintage parfait glasses
- No assigned seating, but I did make table numbers with our childhood photos which was a hoot
- Personalized drink tickets, made with our home printer
- A table with the wedding photos of our parents and grandparents (and even the cake topper from my parents’ wedding!)
- An extremely detailed and challenging crossword, created by my maid of honor Mary (this one still blows my mind)
- Fun fact napkins from For Your Party
- Personalized paper table runner (“pizza & wine before you’re mine”) from Etsy
- A huge circular wedding-themed coloring paper that kept the kids busy, from Etsy
Dinner was low-key: a pizza and salad buffet catered by our venue. We had gluten free frozen pizzas on a separate table for myself and the other gluten free guests, so I can’t comment personally, but I’m told the flavors were good!
After dinner, Dan and I gave out gifts to some special people, like our parents, maids of honor, best man, and my cousin and Dan’s friend who spoke during our ceremony. Then, we gave a short speech thanking and welcoming our guests, naming all the places they’d come from (I realized, days later, that we actually forgot to mention everyone from MICHIGAN, ha – sorry about that!).
My dad and Dan’s mum also gave lovely speeches that had me tearing up a few times.
And finally, it was time for dessert! We wanted to do something unique (and not repetitive of the following day’s wedding cake) and ended up renting a coolbox from Ice Box Brand Ice Cream Bars, based near Grand Rapids. My friend Liz, and her boyfriend, kindly picked it up for us on their drive up to the venue (thank goodness for massive Michigan trucks, is all I can say!).
We chose lots of funky flavors, ranging from key lime to s’mores, and I think these were a huge hit.
At the last minute, we also ordered some fruit pies from the nearby farm that provided our flowers. It turns out, fruit pie is really not a thing in England, so it was fun introducing this very American food to our Brits.
Vendors
Dress – Rime Arodaky
Photography – Lyra & Moth
Venue – Portage Point Resort
Catering and bar – Lahey’s Pub & Pizzeria
Dessert – Ice cream coolbox from Ice Box Brand Ice Creams & fruit pies from Three Maidens Farm
Florals – Three Maidens Farm, arranged by my mom and her friend Ilona
Linens and rentals – Grand Rental Station Manistee
Crossword – my amazing maid of honor Mary!
Our welcome dinner ended up going rather late into the night, with drinks flowing and a few rounds of the game perudo popping up (IYKYK). I felt so relaxed at the end of it, and ready for the wedding day!
P.S. I’m limiting the photos of family and friends in these blog posts, for their privacy, but if you were our wedding guest and want to see more photos of yourself, just let Dan know!
