Little Ms. Bossy: Bossy Wedding: The Reception, Part 1

In searching for the right spot to hold our wedding reception, we considered dozens of options including but not limited to: museums, parks, cafés, our living room (truly), and the opera house. Once other details were solidified and we realized what a small, intimate group we would have, it seemed like the best option for us might be to hold the reception in a restaurant—no need to deal with rentals, or catering, or much in the way of decorations. Having been in the country a scant few months when we were planning, our local knowledge was pretty much non-existent, so I cannot believe how lucky we got with Kontrapunkt, a restaurant just around the corner from our apartment. We had been there for dinner and loved the atmosphere—cozy and casual with simple, fresh, delicious food. The restaurant had recently hired a young, innovative chef devoted to the Slow Food movement who was cooking the most exquisite multi-course menus. It's the kind of restaurant where you say, “Bring us three courses. We eat everything,” and the incredible parade of beautiful dishes is so delightful that you end up ordering more and more.

In the front window. Roughly translated: Sex, champagne, good food. We can take care of 2 out of 3.

We rented the whole restaurant for the evening for our party, and I have never been so well taken care of in my life. While I had some anxieties about giving up control (shocker, I know) during the planning process, we ended up leaving almost every decision in the capable hands of the chef and manager, and as a result the pressure to host the party was lifted. I can truly say we enjoyed ourselves as much as our guests did, and when I hear tales of other weddings where the bride and groom never got to taste the food they had so carefully chosen I have to laugh. We ate every single course (and there were so very many of them) with gusto.

When we arrived there was prosecco and canapés and mingling.

CM and I headed across the street for a little photo shoot. Looking at these pictures makes me so happy that we held our celebration in our neighborhood, on a street we walked down every single day of our Vienna adventure.

When we came back inside, I had planned a little surprise for CM. Unbeknownst to him, Legs McGee and I had been practicing, and I sang Ingrid Michaelson's “The Way I Am” to him with Legs at the piano. Mama Bossy even wrote new lyrics to the last verse:

To be with you, I'd cross an ocean,

Each time you get a new promotion.

It's been approximately five gabillion years since I sang in public, and I was incredibly nervous—I almost didn't go through with it at all. It was not a great demonstration of singing prowess or anything like it, but I loved being able to sing to CM and see his face while he listened.

Afterwards, our dads each gave a toast. Poor Papa Bossy had been very ill almost the entire week leading up to the wedding, and whenever I asked him about his speech he said something vague, like he had been “thinking about it some.” He's a pretty soft-spoken guy in general, so I was floored when he gave the most eloquent, articulate, moving toast I could possibly imagine, obviously carefully planned but delivered in a completely natural way. In a day full of memorable moments, his toast stands out as something I will never forget.

CM's dad's toast was lovely, and he even learned a phrase in German and had one of our German friends tutor him in pronunciation so that he could welcome my German relatives to the family. Amazing.