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Reception
Our reception was held at the Thomas Birkby House, just blocks from the ceremony in historic downtown Leesburg. It started at 5pm and we had a gorgeous day, despite earlier weather forecasts that indicated we should expect otherwise. We really liked the Birkby House because we were able to use the grounds as well as the house itself. The wedding party prepared at the Birkby House before the ceremony, too, which was nice.
The caterers cooked up several family recipes, including Placki (Polish latkes/potato pancakes) and fresh and fried spring rolls in addition to some of their own tasty recipes. And, of course, we had the vegetarians in the crowd covered (since Ryan is also vegetarian). Ryan provided loose tea (thanks to Coffee Caboodle) which included a Silver Needle white tea, a Russian Georgian black tea, Ping Suey green tea, and China Young Hyson green tea.
Our college friend Mariel Alculumbre made the groom's cake for the rehearsal dinner as well as the wedding cake itself. She did an incredible job with the appearance and taste of both cakes.
Ryan's Aunt, Lillian McGraw, provided the flower decorations inside the Birkby House and also designed the unity candle. As usual, she did a great job with both, as she did with the centerpieces at Stacey's wedding.
Our centerpieces were put together by Huyen, her bridesmaids, and several members of our families. The favors were chopsticks purchased in Vietnam and brought back to America by Hieu To. Huyen's mother, Hien, tied the ribbon on all of the chopsticks and Huyen watercolored and labeled the tags (Ryan and Thi cut the heart shapes). Huyen also watercolored the placecards and the table cards.
We managed to get a great deal with two photographers working together. First was the award-winning Sarah Huntington, a very talented photographer from Lincoln, VA whose work is featured on the cover of the premiere issue of Loudoun Magazine. She was accompanied by Mouncey Ferguson who seemed as excited about our wedding as we were! Both of them took hundreds of excellent shots, including some in black and white, and it's proving to be a difficult task picking which ones we want to include in our final wedding album.
DJ Ian Lade provided the entertainment. Hunting down a DJ wasn't very easy, especially since Ryan is pretty picky about that sort of thing. Ian was great because he was willing to play selections from our collection as well as the standard wedding playlist. Surprisingly, one of the major DJ companies in the area actually told us:
However, the question I have for you is, do you want a professional DJ and wedding emcee who has the skills necessary to incorporate your requests, your guests requests, and equally importantly, playing the variety of music necessary? Or, are you looking to pre-determine the music in advance, thus, tying the DJs hands to playing only your music. If this is the case, don't waste your money on an experienced wedding emcee - rent a juke box for your reception.
Needless to say, we were refreshingly surprised by Ian, who realized that having music played that was important to us, was as important as having the standard wedding songs. In addition, Ian also allowed us to hook up a tape deck to his mixing board so that we were able to get some excellent recordings of the day.
One of the most memorable things about our reception, though, was Half Pint. Pint is an extremely well-known reggae singer whose work goes back to the early 1980s. He's a household name in Jamaica and his songs "Greetings," "Sally," and "Level the Vibes" are known throughout the reggae world. His music has been covered by the Rolling Stones, sampled in various rap songs, and his song "Loving" provided the hook for Sublime's huge mid-90s hit, "What I Got." We were fortunate enough to have Half Pint at our reception to sing our first dance for us, a song called "Giving/Sharing," a perfect wedding song that originally appeared on the soundtrack for The Mighty Quinn as well as in the movie, which starred Denzel Washington. Having Pint sing the song for us is a memory we will never forget. Later in the evening, Pint graced us with another favorite, "Have a Little Faith."
A number of people have asked how we know Half Pint and how the heck we got him to perform at our reception. Here's the brief version of the story. In 1996, Ryan started a web site about Half Pint, who was his favorite performer. It was just a fan site with some pictures, a discography, and a few sound clips. In 1997, Half Pint's manager, Loyal Haylett (who was also at the reception), e-mailed Ryan and wanted to make Ryan's Half Pint site the "official" site for the reggae singer. In December of 1997, Ryan got together with Loyal and Pint in New York for dinner. It was at this dinner where Pint casually mentioned that when the time came, he would sing at Ryan's wedding. Of course Ryan kept this in the back of his mind the whole time. They've been friends since then and Ryan considers it an honor to have such a talented and legendary reggae performer at his wedding. We're glad that a number of our guests were able to talk with him and see what a genuinely nice guy he is.
It's funny how people told us that "the reception goes by so quickly, it'll be over before you even know it," because we found ourselves enjoying every minute of it and not feeling like we rushed through it in the least. We had a chance to talk with all of our 130+ guests, dance a little, and even eat a full dinner! From what we could tell, every one seemed to have a really good time at our reception and we sincerely appreciate all the great feedback people have given us. It was a very special event for both of us, and every single one of you helped make it happen. *sniff* Touching, ain't it? :)
This page may change a little more as we add in other memories of the reception as they come to us. Don't forget to see some of the pictures from our reception!
Copyright ©2001
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