How did I personalized my wedding reception?

When planning my own wedding in 2006, there were lots of ideas I wanted to do for my wedding. But I only had 2 wedding receptions and most of these ideas I couldn't do for the one in Vietnam, one reason was because I didn't have much time in Vietnam to plan and do it. Therefore, I tried to stuff so many things into our reception in the US, but everything had its limit. Hence, I still have many ideas I do want to do so I hope I may be able to do them for my sisters' weddings later.

Here are list of what I did in a hope to make our wedding has lots of fun and memorable to our family and guests as much as possible.

-I chose a Fall theme for our November wedding in the US. I used only white and orange color for all our decorations, from the invitation, flowers, to cake, backdrop, etc. The logo for this reception was a Maple Leaf.








-As for the one in Vietnam, which was taken place in January 2007, I had white and red as the color scheme and the Dendrobrium orchids as our logo for it.








-Every guest arrived at our wedding reception here in the US would receive a wedding newsletter. Guests could spend some time before the dinner to learn about our love stories, quick introduction about our families, our wedding party, our things (like movie, music, ...) and explanation of why I used this and that for our wedding.

-Our tables were named after the places we have been and traveled together in Vietnam, United States, and Canada. Under each name, I had included a love quote (for the US reception) and the words "I love you" in different language (for the one in Vietnam).

-I had my sister's fishes and Hershey's Kisses chocolate for our centerpieces.








-Over a hundred of persimmons from our garden were used as the table cards for our guests. Its bright orange color was also our color scheme. After the party, I didn't find any one was left behind.

-I chose all the songs for our Catholic wedding ceremony. I typed, chose the layout style, images, and printed our wedding program. It included the names, readings, lyrics, and our thankful message to our parents. I also inserted quotes and lovely images now and then through out this booklet. I love what I did! :D

-I did the same for our menu cards. I typed and designed it to my like, then I printed it on the autumn designed card stock paper that I purchased at a Kinko/FedEx copy center. It cost me less than $20 to have about 120 menu cards for our reception in the US, can't find any deal better than this.

-Our thank you message was printed on a Maple Leave shape card, which I personally think it's fresh and nice. I also had the reading/poem "What is Love" on this card.








-At each dinner setting, besides the menu card that was wrapped into a white towel, our guests were also greeted by a white dedrobrium (our flower).








-I typed and printed all the table cards on a regular A4 paper and displayed them into a mini silver metal frames.

-Silk maple leaves were scattered here and there around our reception area.

-Our guests wrote their congratulations on the "Share a Wish" card, which we collected after the party for our keepsakes.