Kelly Olson Creative

Before the wedding, I read so many wedding articles and blogs about the dreaded gap.  That time between the ceremony and reception. Today, most people advise against having a long gap.  I totally get it.  As a guest, it is tough to have down time in between.  Do I wear the same outfit? Do I eat in between? When do I check in to the hotel?  So many logistical questions.  I had so much anxiety over this.  Our wedding was at 2:30pm.  That was the latest we could have our ceremony at the church I was baptized in, something that was important to me.  Since it was New Years Eve, we didn’t want to have a reception start too early since we knew our reception would likely run into the wee hours of the morning.  So alas, we had a gap on our hands.  I felt so uneasy about that for our guests, but after some time and planning, we totally embraced it.

My mom and dad offered a hospitality suite at the hotel for guests to enjoy some light snacks and drinks before the reception.  We then organized transportation for all of the guests to and from the reception back to the hotel.  We didn’t want anyone driving, and from what I’ve heard, people had a blast riding the school buses together!  The guests were taken care of…but what about the wedding party?

Us and the bridal party had enough time to grab some photos outside, but still more time before we would arrive at our reception.  We toyed with some ideas on how to fill the time.  Should we go back to our high school and take some pictures?  But will we have enough time to grab a snack?  It was hard to creatively fill the time while being practical.

We ended up booking some tables at an Irish pub near the reception.  As we were planning, we realized we would be there for their Irish New Year celebration at 6pm, how exciting!  So, us and the bridal party and their significant others arrived.  We all ordered drinks and had snacks served to hold us over until our big dinner.  A number of talented young girls offered to play us some Irish music and Dill and I danced and watched in awe of these talented young ladies.  The bartender and owner actually came up to us and told us that he was going to do an Irish pour.  He said it was good luck for the bride and groom to pour a proper Guinness together.  So D and I made our way around the bar, poured our Guinness and toasted to the entire place! We then prepared to countdown for the Irish New Year.  They toasted us and our marriage and we rang in the first new year of the night.

This ended up being one of the most enjoyable parts of our wedding day.  It was unexpected and it fell into place perfectly.  We can’t thank the owners enough for being so flexible and welcoming to us and our friends! Truly, I cannot say how much fun we had.  It was the perfect way to spend that pesky gap.

So, embrace the gap, there’s fun to be had.