"Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same."
-Oscar Wilde

WEDDING WORK ALL WORTHWHILE PT 3 (THE PARTY AT STUBB'S) + DATE 14, 2011

This was no mere wedding, so do not get sentimental-- This was a throwdown of the highest order and it was HIGH fun. I would advise everyone to be married this way.

Slade and I outside Stubb's on Saturday afternoon

We dropped by Stubb's after the brunch to drop off flowers, flags and whatnot and then were back to the house to finish painting pinatas and stuffing favors (thank you to Slade's mama) and finally to the hotel to quickly shower and dress.

I had grabbed an adorable little Robert Rodriguez dress at the end of last Summer for a steal that was plain enough to be comfortable, but flourish-y enough to read "wedding." I also wore a great vintage necklace that I found and a cute pair of turquoise Marc Jacobs espadrilles that I will have no problem re-using at all.

Oh man! I LOVE my wedding ring and am so thankful that Slade bought me just what I had wanted. It's to die for and looks gorgeous with my little engagement band.
We bought Slade's ring at James Avery as it is such an easy solution and will always be easy to replace. I am already counting on him losing it at least once or twice when he is fishing.

OK OK OK so this is the only thing that I am really still bummed about-- the fact that the programs that I had killed myself to have printed on time were missing and never found. Such a bummer, as I had wanted people to know about their dinner and the schedule. But nonetheless, gone gone gone.
And so here they are below, just as big as I could make them on this page, because I'm still so sad about it:

Aren't they cute?? More forgotten items were the monograms that we had gotten for all of our chairs, but they have been divvied up among us with instructions to use in the middle of Christmas wreaths, which will be cute.

We did of course use one for the front of the guestbook that was filled with tiny envelopes and slips of paper.

And so regardless of lost, forgotten items and us all running a smidge late, the party had to begin because very soon the place would be swamped. And believe me, I was really the only one to know that things were MIA.

our flowers in milkcrates; crowded upstairs bar

Years ago, my mother and I were shopping in Snider Plaza, right about the time that I had started to know that the deal with Slade was serious. WE went into a store that specialized in gorgeous ball skirts, ballgown etc and we both fell in love with this amazing plaid skirt. My mother said "Should I buy it to wear at your wedding?" and it had been waiting for us ever since. Isn't that precious?? Though a bit difficult to decipher with all of the pink light here, it is brilliant orange and pale pink, pale yellow & khaki. To die for. She looked like a queen.

We waited quite awhile after everyone's arrival at Stubb's to start the ceremony. This ensured that everyone was comfortable & lubricated and smiling, giddy, happy when we did the deed. It was a great idea to have Arnold Palmers as well- they were delicious.

Our close friend, Adam Pruitt, married us, which turned out to be the most awesome idea ever. The ceremony was as short as it could be possibly made and it was fun and funny and sweet.
Adam was of course brilliant (and thoughtful) enough to set up a camera to record all of the love. Wouldn't have changed a single thing about it. And it kind of made him our family forever.

video courtesy of Mr Adam Pruitt

Slade jumped off of the stage, very proud of himself and dinner was served, we made our rounds & spread the love amongst all of our cute family & friends.

happy as clams

We had Jesse Dayton play our party much to our excitement and amazement. He is a very very impressive guy, having just finished playing Kinky Friedman in a play in Houston and directing & acting in his own film, Zombex. He's played guitar on Waylon records and is apparently pretty tight with Rob Zombie. How cool is he??

We had a ton of food and a lot of variety, which is just what I had wanted. Don't you hate a wedding with some slim pickins?? So rude. Apparently the serrano spinach was knocking people out left and right, but it's Texas and spicy is good for you.

My mother, who rules, made about four million rum cakes (my grandmother's recipe) for our dessert. They were incredible and so so so much tastier than any fondant-cover wedding cake. And boozy cake is kind of right up our alley.

This is where I would like to add that Stubb's owns the finest piece of artwork that I have ever known. I very much wish that I had more information on it, but she's so fabulous and the lightswitch is brilliant.
And how gorgeous are the cakes?? In case you need a better view, I include them again below.

Amazing. Yay, Mommy!

YES YES YES. Once everyone was nice and liquored up it was time for the pinatas. I declare that pinatas + drunk people = best idea ever. It was hilarious. And worth every single moment of trouble.

Let me begin by saying that your last memory of pinata making was probably in elementary school art class and I give that art teacher props because pinatas are hard to make, so many things can go wrong. (I have a shame pile on top of the garage fridge that consists of about seven or eight deformed pinata tests/attempts.) But in the end I successfully made three of them and then very quickly (and after a few bloody marys) painted them like us and one that was two-sided with the dogs' faces.

They were stuffed with a crazy assortment of things: hard candies, candy cigarettes, candy necklaces, gummy bears, gummy chicken feet, sheriff badges, western-themed rubber ducks, glow necklaces, silly sunglasses, Pop Rocks, chocolate coins, confetti poppers, plastic cowboys & indians, goofy lip whistles, pig noses, tiny airplane bottle of rum & vodka, and last but not least fake mustaches.
I cannot stress enough the importance of the mustaches.

Grown-ups diving to the ground for candy and plastic toys

One of these gentlemen really has a mustache, the rest are drunks

Hockaday girls! I think that we had fifteen of us there, one not pictured...

While Slade and I had already made our stealthy escape around 11:15 or so, we were unfortunate to miss my cousin, Edward, singing Redneck Mother as my father says, "like he wrote it." Enjoy.

It really was a miraculous night and I think that everyone had a great time. I was so happy and Slade was so happy and I think that we made our parents proud and happy to be able to share this night with people that they love too.  

On the way out of the door at Stubb's were all of our adorable favors, dressed exactly like the welcome bags and containing a whole assortment of stuff! Each held a CD of country music, a small jar of Stubb's BBQ, a small jar of jalapeno jelly (my mother made all of that as well!), two of our monogrammed cups with a book of monogrammed matches, a couple of Tweety cookies, and three little Easter eggs. Bravo and see y'all later!

Up Next: Our Party Wrap-Up and Our Honeymoon in SC...

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