After the ballroom closed, the entire party headed down to a bar in the basement of the hotel. Here's everyone drunkenly welcoming the second arrival of the bride and groom!
Although Meredith wasn't feeling well (having most likely picked up any number of airborne illnesses on her eight-hour Greyhound bus ride), she wisely managed to hold out for some cake! As soon as she'd finished her slice, she announced her retirement and headed up to the room.
I shot too early (story of my life), and managed to capture the bouquet way up in the air by the chandelier, but not the actual catching of the bouquet. Bah!
The crowd wasn't having that and they pushed him back out there to cut some more rug! Look! There's Anna (the bride!) on the left! (Glad to see I at least managed to get a few pics of at least one of the two people who just got married!)
They hotel closed down the reception room at 1am and I'm happy to announce that Meredith and I were among the very last guests. Here's Meredith and Tara jumping for joy on the dance floor at the end of the night. Take one!
Congrats, Greg and Tara! Thanks for inviting us to the wedding! Here's wishing you wonderful and happy life together! (Now come visit us in New York!).
After the cake-smashing was over, Tara's dad Mike gave a speech. Beyond all the usual wonderful, heartwarming things that a father would normally say on his daughter's wedding day, Mike also managed to include a story about how back when he and Donna were first married, they had a cat that Mike named Poontang. Donna didn't learn that the cat was named after a slang word for vagina until one day when it got loose and she ran all over the neighborhood calling out "Pooon-tang! Pooooon-tang!" and some of the neighbor's kindly filled her in. Whooopsie! It was a really funny story made even funnier by the fact that he was telling it AT A WEDDING! Hahahaha.
Sometimes when you go to a wedding, you're not sure if the bride and groom are going to feed each other the cake nicely, or whether they're going to smash it into each other's faces. In Tara and Greg's case, I had no doubt in my mind that there was going to be...
Awwwwww! I didn't take any other pics of the actual ceremony because the room was really big and we were all the way in the back! (But don't worry, I more than made up for it during the reception).
Pianos is pretty crowded on a Friday night, but right around 2am, they cleared out the big room where bands usually play (Wedding Guests Only)! Here's the father of the bride walking Kate down the aisle...
