Molly & Arturo Throw A Party

Wedding day continued...

When I left off yesterday, Molly and Arturo had just officially tied the knot, pictures were taken, and we were ready to party. So let's get to the reception, shall we?

As I mentioned, the reception was held on the grassy area right behind the ceremony location. It was really lovely - they had paper lanterns in the trees, tables set up in the grass with candles in the centerpieces, purple leis hung festively on each chair, a bar boasting all the margaritas you could drink, and a canoe filled with cervesas and agua. What more could you want?

Canoe o' beer and water

Centerpieces

Newlyweds at their sweetheart table

First things first, we got right down to business with the toasts. Molly had asked me to say something, and I recruited Heather to help because it just didn't feel right for me to do it alone. She and I talked it through and figured out what we wanted to say, and wrote it together. We included a couple of lines translated into Spanish (thanks to Eric's friend Jose for the translation!), which were a big hit! Heather was nice enough to say those lines, because my inability to roll my R's makes my Spanish "accent" less than lilting and frankly, rather sub par. Heather did a great job, though! I was very nervous but I think the whole thing went great.

Last minute look at my notecards before toast time

Here we go!

Heather's turn

(Photo by Bryce)

The happy couple

(Photo by Bryce)

VIDEO: Our toast!

After our toast, Arturo's friend Omar gave his toast. It was in Spanish, of course, so I didn't understand it, but if any of you are Spanish-speakers and want to hear what he said, you can see Omar's toast here.

When Omar finished his toast, Arturo took over the mic and explained that he realized it had been hard to hear his vows during the ceremony, so he repeated them so everyone could hear. He repeated them first in Spanish, then translated them to English so we could understand. I know I mentioned it yesterday, but he said some wonderful things about Molly, and I have included the video below (I only linked to it yesterday). It really is wonderful to watch. Molly was moved to tears, as were many of us - especially Aunt Debbie, who ran to hug her new son-in-law at the end. It was all so sweet.

"I will cherish her, love her and take care of her every single day of my life..." 

(Photo by Bryce)

Another photo by Bryce, and one of my most favorites. Such love!

VIDEO: Arturo's vows

After all the speeches, it was time to eat. The meal was delicious! We started with a ceviche appetizer, followed by mahi-mahi with mustard dijon sauce, boiled potatoes and broccoli. For dessert Eric and I both chose the profiterole (over the poached pear), which was two round pastry puffs filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce. Delicious!

Ceviche, mahi mahi and profiterole

As dinner was winding down, the dancing starting. Of course, Molly and Arturo had their dance first, after Molly explained the song to all of us who would not be able to understand the lyrics (you can hear her explanation here).

First dance

So happy.

After their first dance, Molly danced with her dad, complete with a lovely twirl at the end that was oh-so-sweet. Arturo then danced with his mom, and then Molly danced with Arturo's dad while Arturo danced with Molly's mom.

Clockwise from top left: Molly and her dad; Molly and Arturo's dad; Arturo and his mom; Arturo and Aunt Debbie

(All photos by Bryce)

And then, the dancing officially started!

Let's dance! Aunt Debbie with Arturo's dad, Molly and my mom, Jacob and Zita, Heather and Chris

Dancing was interrupted for the first tequila shot of the night...

¡Salud!

...followed by fun with that piñata I mentioned yesterday! Molly got things started, then Arturo's nephew Diego took over. Arturo got a turn at it, and then Diego finished it off. It was so fun! It made me think of my Nana, who always put together a piñata for us kids to break open at our family reunions. Of course, we were never blindfolded and the whole thing was very orderly (I think each kid got two hits, starting with the youngest and going in age order), but she sure would have loved to see one of us with a piñata at our wedding! (See video of the piñata fun here.)

Go, Molly!

Nice hit!

Arturo means business!

Diego will finish it off!

And then the dancing resumed!

My mom and her friend on the staff (more on that in a bit); Heather, Molly and me; Jacob and Heather; Molly & Arturo in the circle!

Go, Arturo!

How handsome did Eric look?

Poker faces!

VIDEO: Arturo and the boys break it down to "Billy Jean"

Even Eric got in on the action, which led to some of my most favorite dancing pictures of the night. Let me tell you what, apparently at a Mexican wedding reception, they are big on a dance circle. Dance circles popped up left and right all night long. And once Eric got going, he even did the "shopping cart" in the circle. Clearly, I thought that was so awesome it deserved a mention on this year's list of things I love about my husband.

Love. (Click to enlarge)

Happy dancers

We took another dancing break for the bouquet toss, garter removal and garter toss. Lydia (Arturo's friend Omar's girlfriend) caught the bouquet, and Chris caught the garter! (See video of the bouquet/garter toss here.)

Heather is all, "No way. Keep that thing away from me."

Ooh la la!

Throw it!

Chris is victorious!

Another thing that must be mentioned about the reception is "Single Ladies." My mother is ALL ABOUT "Single Ladies." She loved that episode of Glee, and she learned the "Single Ladies" dance at a line-dancing class on a cruise she took in October. When that song came on during the night, she went into full-on Jazzercise Instructor Mode (she actually is a Jazzercise instructor, for those who don't know) and taught the entire dance floor the "Single Ladies" dance. When it came back on during/after the bouquet toss, everyone picked right up where we left off. It was fabulous.

There she goes!

(Photo by Bryce)

Back to it after the bouquet toss!

VIDEO: "Single Ladies" after the bouquet toss. Heather cracks me up.

When Molly and Arturo stopped throwing things at their friends, the dancing once again resumed.

This is an entire Bryce Photo collage! He got some great shots! (Click to enlarge)

From then on, we only stopped dancing to take a tequila shot when they came around. My mom was the most victimized, as she had made friends with a gentleman on the wait staff while she helped with the setup that afternoon and he felt it was fun to seek out his friend Becky for dancing (see video here) and to bring her shots. She quickly recruited Chris as her "shot buddy" to help her (a wise decision, I'm sure), and although she did get singled out quite a bit, I would be lying if I said there weren't occasions where we all joined in.

Awesome photo by Bryce of my mom with her tequila! I wonder what number shot this is?

We're all getting ready!

Love this one. Heather's face is AWESOME, and my mom is all, "oh, another one? Whatevs, I got this."

Arriba...abajo...al centro...PA' DENTRO!

(Not entirely sure what that means, but that's what we said!)

At that point, Heather and I decided all that merriment meant it was time for heart-shaped sunglasses on the dance floor. I tell you, heart-shaped sunglasses just make every party that much better. (Even the groom agrees.)

Eric sees the appeal of the heart-shaped sunglasses.

The bride TOTALLY gets it.

How can you not have fun when wearing fun glasses?

Get the groom in on the action!

Real men wear heart sunglasses.

Best picture ever.

Around that point, I started hearing rumblings of The Plan. You see, Molly bought Arturo a very nice new watch as a wedding gift, and I started hearing talk of, "how do we get that nice watch off Arturo before we throw him in the pool?" FUN! I was on board with this plan immediately. You see, an item on my bucket list is to jump into a pool fully clothed. Months ago, I had the idea that Molly's wedding might be a fun time to cross this item off my list. I've seen awesome pictures of wedding parties jumping into pools at the end of the night, but when I brought this up to Molly she basically told me (in so many words) that I was insane. So, I figured it wouldn't happen, and that was fine. I could find another opportunity to cross of my bucket list item. But now, if we threw Arturo in...

Next thing I knew, there was a commotion and off we went. A bunch of the boys grabbed him (I was video-taping it), made sure to remove his wallet/shoes/etc., and then SPLASH! Groom in the pool!

I'm not sure what they said to him, but he started walking up towards the pool willingly.

Got him!

Splash!

Love the floating tie.

Arturo was quickly joined by Jacob, Chris and Arasp!

Boys in the pool!

Molly had been up in the suite when all this happened, and she came down just in time to see me taking off my foot jewelry so that Zita and I could be the first girls in. Zita had been itching to change out of her dress, and we all know my stance on this pool-jumping idea, so it didn't take long for us to establish an "I'll do it if you do it" agreement. And in we went! Cross that bad boy off the list!

Love Molly's face!

The splash on the left is Zita, and the splash on the right is me!

And then, we got her! Molly and Heather struck an "I will if you will" deal of their own, and then it was just 1-2-3-JUMP!

Heather, Molly and Arturo's cousin Sergio making the jump, while I cheer from the pool!

We're all in!

And then we were just a bunch of crazy, happy people in a pool.

Cousins!

This shot just makes me smile!

L to R: Arasp, Heather, Molly, Arturo, Sergio, me, Zita and Jacob

We all climbed out for one team jump, which is now one of my most favorite pictures from the wedding. How fun is this???

There we all go! Great picture, Eric!

L to R: Chris, Arasp, Sergio, Arturo, Molly, Jacob, Zita, me and Heather

VIDEO: The Big Finish! You can't see much, but you get the idea!

After our swim - Heather and I are looking a hot mess, but somehow, Molly and Arturo still look perfect. It's a Wedding Day Miracle!

Unfortunately, our plan had been to change out of our wet dresses and back into our "bridesmaid" tanks for more dancing and partying, but by the time we got out of the pool, the staff had torn down the whole reception! So, our pool jump really was our end of the night. We did go up to Molly & Arturo's suite for a bit, where we looked at pictures and hung out a little, but we were all so beat we didn't last very long before calling it a night. And what a night it was!

Molly, me, Zita, Jacob and Chris looking at pictures of the evening

That was definitely a party to remember! It was so much fun celebrating the new Mr. and Mrs. I hope that night was just the first of many wonderful, unforgettable evenings for the newlyweds. We loved every minute of it! Congrats again to Molly and Arturo!

In case you didn't get your fill of wedding pictures in these two ridiculously long wedding-related posts, I uploaded all of our pictures to my photo share site!

Coming up tomorrow: Our last days. Do we really have to leave?