 Hi, my name is Danny, and welcome to Esoteric Moment. Today I am doing the second part of my wedding series and talking about our reception. But I really wanted to keep the reception as simple and easy and stress-free as possible. So for our wedding reception, we chose a local restaurant downtown that has a separate party room that we rented out for the evening. The nice thing about going to a restaurant was that they already had staff to do a servers, bartenders, they're used to cooking large amounts of food, and they already have tons of alcohol and other drinks. They're just prepared for doing this sort of thing. We have a very small guest list, which we did on purpose because an intimate affair is really what we wanted, so we would have time to hang out with our favorite people and not feel any pressure to just run from table to table to say hi and thank you and not have any time for us to enjoy the event ourselves. The restaurant we chose is the Old Fashion, which is downtown in Madison. It has a surprisingly high minimum purchase amount for the weekend. That's the only kind of downside to doing our reception this way is that it's a little bit more expensive than we really wanted. So there's a room fee and tax and a tip that goes on top of the purchase minimum. But otherwise, in that purchase price, we get to pick up a buffet of food, appetizers, and then we have enough leftover that it'll be an open bar for our guests. In an attempt to make our reception as easy as possible, we are doing just simple decorations. So at our ceremony, the bridesmaids and I are wearing a black watch tartan shawl and the groomsmen and groom all have tartan ties. So out of the same fabric, I made some square yard-sized table cloths that will go kind of on a point where it's like diagonals down the center of the table and that will go in the center of each long column of tables, so four total, and then some evergreens just down the center with candles. Centerpieces that are easily forged this time of year, very simple to put out and easy to take down at the end of the night. We have a couple signs that I just used poster board and Sharpie paint pens to make but tell our guests easy things like what our hashtag is and that we are, you know, what the evening has in store for them. Instead of doing dancing, we're gonna actually have people bring in some board games and we'll play board games during the evening instead. This is one because the space doesn't have a huge amount of room for dancing. We don't have to buy a DJ or a band and it's just easier for people to tell stories and talk if they don't want to do board games. I am also really against that clinking glass thing that people do to make the couple kiss. That noise is just really intense and I don't wanna break dishes. So we're actually rolling a large green D20 dice. If a guest hits 11 through 20, Brad and I will kiss. If they hit a one through 10, they have to kiss someone, which I think is great because consequences happen in life. So if you want us to exhibit PDA, then you have to be willing to do the same. Other traditions that we aren't doing is the garter toss that comes from this tradition of like basically molesting and attacking the bride because of how lucky she was and people would kind of rip her clothes off after a wedding to kind of get a piece of this luck and obviously a garter belt is a tamer version of doing that but it still really squigs me out. So we're not doing that. I also don't think that we'll do a bouquet toss because I don't think everyone has to get married. Like it's awesome that Brad and I found each other and we want to make this commitment but it is not the only way to be satisfied in life. So why pressure all of our single friends into feeling like they have to be next in getting married. Also my bouquet will be made out of pine cones and pine boughs. So that's not the most pleasing element to catch in midair. We're really lucky that a bunch of friends have volunteered to help set up decorations to keep track of our bar tag, play a playlist that we're doing on Spotify for us. So it should be a very smooth and fun night that Brad and I get to enjoy just as much as our guests. In this video, I also want to mention some kind of basic budget things. So weddings are really, really expensive and we spent probably when we're done with the reception, it'll be about $4,000 there and then we have our traditional outfits. Brad bought a suit since he didn't own one already and I bought a fancy traditional dress. So that was about $1,500 total there and we also splurged on some gifts for our wedding party and our parents. So at the end of the night, we're looking at somewhere between $5,500 and $6,000 which is way more than we wanted to spend but all of the costs that we put in meant that there's been less stress in the planning process and the actual day we hope. So I think it will be well worth it in the end. The other DIY task that took more time than I anticipated and I'm still not done is in these shaws that I made, they're like double layered. I wanted to make a fringe. So I just sewed along the bottom and I did some snips and I'm taking off the horizontal piece so there's this nice little fringe. It looks great, it takes forever. So hopefully that will be done. If it's not done by that day, I'll just take more snips to it or something and do it the lazy way. The other DIY project we did was super easy and fast. We purchased some carrot seeds to give away as favors to our guests. I did one of those print at home labels that say like thank you and what it is and then we purchased for like $4 little envelopes that are like made out of wax paper. So we just put a spoonful of seeds in, folded it in a sticker and it's done. That took maybe an hour at the very most because I was particular about how the stickers turned out. We're also doing a guest quilt instead of a guest book. So guests can use fabric markers and sign squares of regular cotton fabric and then I'm gonna sew that into a quilt afterwards. I think when planning a wedding and reception, the biggest things that you can focus on are like what are your goals? Is your goal to do lots of traditions? Is your goal to save money? Is your goal to relax? Or is there a theme you wanna focus on? Whatever your goal is just stick to that as you make decisions. So we wanted things to be simple and a lot of times our decision came down to will this be simple or will it add stress and time? I hope maybe this video gave you some ideas for your own wedding and that if you are planning a wedding or helping a friend with a wedding that you remember to breathe and just enjoy it and make as many decisions and get as many people to help you as we'll make it a stress free and relaxing day for you. Thanks for watching and as always, may you find peace in the sacred grove.