Our reception was also held at the Discovery Museum in Santa Ana, on the same grounds as the wedding ceremony. This way the guests did not have to travel far from the ceremony to the reception and could be enjoying fruit and cocktails while the joined families took the infamous wedding pictures after the ceremony.

The actual reception was held on the patio behind the Kellogg Mansion. The caterer, florist and everyone involved did an absolutely magnificent job of decorating it exactly as we had envisioned it. Most of the guests received the place seating card before the ceremony with a personalised saying from the bride and groom appropriate to where they were to sit. Once the guests were seated, each place setting had a favour that told of the origin and history of various wedding traditions. Some examples include the following: What does the diamond symbolise? Why does the bride wear white? What was the origin of the honeymoon? These were printed in both French and English to ensure that all guest would be able to read the information given.

Once dinner had been served it was time for the speeches. Elizabeth’s father gave a very touching and eloquent speech and François, Jacques’ brother and best man, also gave his blessing to the newlyweds. Elizabeth had been taking French lessons before the wedding so she also said a few words in French to welcome her new Swiss relatives to the reception.

“What happened? Did I just get married?”

Then the happy couple made their initial rounds to the guests before Elizabeth went to go change dresses for the first dance.

Jacques seemed a bit dazed and in shock at the whole idea of being married but he eventually realised what a wonderful choice in life he had made.

Jacques and Liz during their first dance

As many of you know, shortly after Jacques and Elizabeth met, Jacques joined her in dance classes at a dance studio. Well, as their love blossomed, the dance lessons turned into lessons for their wedding day. Everyone at the studio was very supportive in Jacques’ endeavour to learn a routine for our first dance. With the help of our dance instructor, Leo, and many hours of practising, we were as ready as we could be by our wedding day.

I am very proud of Jacques for taking the time and effort to learn this dance for our special day!

Thank you Leo for putting up with us for so many frustrating hours of dance lessons. One thing is for sure, we can always make you laugh. (Which isn’t necessarily a good thing when it comes to dancing.)

Jacques and Liz danced a Fox Trot/ Swing medley to “I Love You” by Frank Sinatra

Father — Daughter dance

Elizabeth and her dad did their father — daughter dance to “Butterfly Kisses” by Jeff Carson.

Many people at the reception thought they had also rehearsed their father — daughter dance. But contrary to popular belief, that was all dad!

It was a very special part of my wedding day and it touched me so much to have such a special dance with my first true love,

My Daddy!

After the first dance and thefather — daughter dance the evening was filled with all of the usual wedding reception activities. The guests seemed to enjoy putting together their “Kinder egg” toys — a special chocolate egg with a toy inside from Switzerland. The chocolate candy surprise desserts were brought all the way from Switzerland by the groom’s parents, at great trouble and expense. Thank you very much Janine and Roger. We chose this for one of our wedding favours because on the front of the box it had a picture of two hippos getting married and the caption said “The Happy Hippos get married.” We managed to find the toy figurine of the bride, pastor, and flower girl, but the groom was nowhere to be found. This was quite ironic because as some of you know, before the wedding Jacques’ page on this site stated that he was in the witness protection program and could not reveal his life story. He has since been released and you can find his true story there today.

It seems as though the reception had just started when it was time for the cake cutting. The cake turned out even more beautiful than we had imagined. The flavours included lemon, chocolate, and carrot cake. We even had a sugar free cake for the diabetic guests at the wedding.

Shortly after the cake cutting, it was time for the bouquet and garter toss. The statement “Time flies when you’re having fun” certainly proved true for us at our reception.

Both Jacques and Liz had to redo the bouquet and garter toss as it fell short on both of their first attempts.

Eventually Jacques’ family friend Crystal caught the bouquet and another family friend Joshua caught the garter.

(Brittanie, Jacques’ niece and flower girl, also wanted to be part of the picture)

From left to right: Crystal, Brittanie, Jacques, Elizabeth, Joshua