A couple of months ago, we received an invite to attend the wedding reception for one of Noel's former track runners. The couple had actually gotten married back in May of 2025 but since he's in the Coast Guard and the wedding was only for family, they hosted a wedding reception up north in Dearborn, MI this past weekend. All that we knew about the reception was that cocktail hour would begin at 6:00, so we left our house around 1:00.
Doesn't Noel look so cute (and hip)?
Thankfully our trip north was uneventful and we arrived at the Henry Ford Museum about 40 minutes early. There weren't a lot of cars in the parking lot yet so we sat in our car for quite a while and then around 5:50, we headed inside to see if we could find anyone else that we knew. Neither Noel nor I have ever been to the Henry Ford Museum, but it was really a nice place with over 16 acres of exhibits under one roof.
When cocktail hour was over and we had eaten plenty of hors d'oeuvres, we were invited into the main area for dinner. Noel and I were seated at table #9 with a couple of other couples from our town, but we didn't really know anyone. Thankfully Noel is good at making small talk so he chatted with the two other couples while we ate dinner. Then the father of the bride stood up to give a toast and a couple of announcements and that is when we discovered that each table had a "top secret" envelope on it holding clues to a scavenger hunt. We would all have about 90 minutes after dinner to walk through the exhibits inside the museum and to look for clues. At 10:00 p.m., the answers to the clues would be given and the person(s) with the most correct answers would win a pretty nice gift basket.
The scavenger hunt led us through every area of the museum. One of the sections housed the automobiles that have escorted all of the Presidents over the years. One of the limos was the actual car that JFK was riding in on the day that he was assassinated.
There was also a section in the museum with a variety of planes. We had to find a clue about the explorers who have tried to fly over the Arctic Circle over the years.
Noel and I both took this hunt very seriously and we ended up making it through every area of the museum and finding answers for each question. But did we find the correct answers?
One area in the museum was full of keepsake ornaments from Hallmark stores. (We would later find out that most of the ornaments actually came from the Hallmark store in our town. When the store closed their doors about 10 years ago, the museum offered to buy the entire collection and it was put on display in this museum).
Noel liked the section on bicycles but unfortunately, we were on a tight schedule in order to get through the entire museum before the deadline, so we took a couple of pictures (found the answer to the clue) and then kept going.
Noel was especially fascinated by the ten-man bike.
Anyone else remember these little gems? My sister had the owl calculator and also the Merlin over on the far left. We still have the Original Simon downstairs in our basement.
And then we took a picture of Noel's first video game console so Nolan could see what we had to play with compared to his Switch.
Noel got distracted again when we found the Mathematics display. I think he could have stayed in there for the rest of the night.
The actual chair where Abe Lincoln was sitting when he was assassinated.
And we had one of these Holiday Inn signs in our town until about 20 years ago.
I stopped taking pictures about half-way through but there was just SO much to see. After we finished the scavenger hunt, we went back to the main ballroom and Noel was able to talk to the groom for a few minutes. Then at 10:00, the father of the bride took the mic and read out the answers aloud. Unfortunately, we missed two of the questions - along with three other people - so Noel's name went into a drawing and his name was not chosen. The prizes looked incredible so we were definitely sorry to miss out on those but it didn't really matter because we had so much fun just looking for each and every clue. Dancing was just starting to pick up and I think the bride and groom were trying to mingle with every guest, so I really wish that we could have stayed a little longer but by this point, it was already 11:00 and we knew that we had a 3.5 hour drive back home so unfortunately, we needed to leave.
What a truly great idea for a wedding reception though! I have never attended a reception quite like it, but I'm so glad that we had the opportunity to do that. It was so much fun and a great way to spend an evening celebrating the happy couple.
Congratulations Ross and Bethany! 'May God give you many many many years of happiness as you honor and serve him together!!
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