Hornaday/Gibson reception at The Stockroom on January 11th, 2014

Jennifer & Whitfield chose the urban feel of The Stockroom at 230 in downtown Raleigh with exposed beams in the ceiling, hardwood floors and painted brick walls for their reception with fabulous wedding planner Erin McLean and beautiful floral arrangements by Tre Bella.  The ceremony was held at Fairmont Methodist Church earlier during a tornado that made the power go out, so the guests lite the room with cellphones.  So great!!  The cocktail hour was held next door to The Stockroom in The Mahler Fine Art Gallery.

There were so many unique and fun things about this reception that I don’t really know where to begin.  When guests arrived I had a mix of country and soft rock playing.  There were 2 bars in the room.  At the top of that stairs was a regular bar with wine, beer and mixed drinks.  At the bottom of the 3 stairs was a champagne bar complete with flavored mixers, juices and fruits.  Guests patiently awaited the arrival of the wedding party and Jennifer & Whitfield and they shared drinks and laughs.  They wedding party arrived and I lined them up with a lot of help from Erin and her assistant Sarah.  The wedding party entered to Capital Cities summer hit “Safe & Sound” and Jennifer & Whit had their first dance to Darius Rucker’s “History In The Making”.  About halfway thru the song the wedding party joined them on the floor.  After the song guests made their way to their tables and Whit made a great speech to the guests and very touching speech to Jennifer.  Great job Whit!  After a blessing by Anna Fischel (their officiant) the salads and entrées came out and I continued a mix of country and soft rock.

 

After dinner we had the toasts by the best man and maid of honor and the Ashley’s cake cutting to “Better Together”.  I then invited all the married couples to the floor to share the first dance with Jennifer and Whit.  This was actually a longest married couple dance to Sinatra’s “The Way You Look Tonight”.  After that I opened the floor with some beach music and Motown that filled the floor with young and old.  Shortly after, they had a fresh popped popcorn station opened with flavors for the popcorn and small bags to put it in and the dessert bar opened.

After about an hour of dancing they had a surprise “snow dance”.  I played the ballad “Lost In This Moment” and invited everyone on the floor to dance with Jennifer and Whit and the snow machines started flurrying inside The Stockroom.  It was so awesome!  I’m sure photographer Megan Kime got some fantastic shots!  The night ended with a packed floor and the last song of Angels and Airwaves “The Adventure”.  The guests made a circle around Jennifer and Whit and we started the snow machine again.  What a fun reception!!!!  I had a blast.  Thank you Jennifer and Whitefield!