After the ceremony we all filed into line to "receive" everyone, and thank them for coming. Actually, it was more like the "listen to people tell how lovely you/him/they/ceremony itself/decorations/etc was" line.

We even got tears! Tears! Can you imagine?

Then we piled into our cars (2000 Firebird convertible and '68 Cadillac - of course we got in the 'Bird. In fact, Hubby insisted on driving!) for the traditional "drive around town and honk like mad" part...

But you see, the town we were in only has 6000 people, and since it was dinner time, most of the residents were in their houses feeding their faces... so the first time around town no one really got to appreciate our little parade.

The second time around though - well, by then people had started to get curious and decided to poke their heads out of their houses (or restaurants) to get a glimpse of just who these annoying drivers were.

When they saw that it was us... they lightened up and clapped like good sports should.

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After twenty minutes of that, we drove back to the hall, shared a bottle of champagne, and make our grand entrance. By then the hall had been transformed from Ceremony site to Reception site - thanks to the help of my siblings and friends.

There we were herded like happy little sheep into another back room, where we waited until the MC was ready to announce us.

Now, you must understand something - I only found an MC that morning, so any mistakes that he made concerning pronounciation of names was completely forgivable. I hadn't had a chance to go over the list with him.

But apart from a few slips, he did a wonderful job - even if he did enjoy teasing me as much as possible throughout the rest of the night.

The MC, by the way, was one of my dad's best friends - the same one who presented me with my father's gift later in the evening.

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Finally, after being announced, clapped at, congratulated and seated, we could EAT!