After lunch, some of us walked across the street for manicures and pedicures. My pedicure was at the same time as my mom and friend Courtney. It was so fun to chat with them while get some pampering and reveling in the excitement of my wedding weekend!
After our spa services, Amber was kind enough to drive me around because I had indulged in a couple of glasses of wine at lunch and some champagne at the spa. Having Amber as my driver was a Godsend because the hours between the spa and the rehearsal dinner were crazy chaotic. I will spare you the lengthy play-by-play but suffice it to say that we had to go back to my house FOUR TIMES to get things I had forgotten, from my rehearsal dress to our marriage license (!!!). One time we got almost downtown (which was 20+ minutes away) before I realized I had forgotten the marriage license. Amber was cool as a cucumber. I felt bad that I was taking up time that she could have spent with the other bloggers but she repeatedly reminded me that the primary reason she was there was for my wedding. Her and Kyria were such a huge help as they also went to get our flowers on the wedding day and brought my sisters to the church for photos. I don't know what I would have done without them and it was really nice that they said to give them things to do because they wanted to help! That way I did not feel bad or guilty delegating things.
By the time we got back to the hotel after returning to our house four times, I didn't even have time to bring my stuff up to my hotel room (I spent the night before the wedding in our wedding-night suite) so I checked in and Amber and Kyria took care of getting my dress and suitcase in the room! After checking in, I rode with my parents in horrible stress-inducing traffic. It took us 30 minutes to go one freaking mile! But luckily, I made it to the rehearsal on time (without a minute to spare) and once I got there, I told myself to let go of the stressful hours leading up to the rehearsal and just soak in the evening.
Unfortunately, I have no pictures from the rehearsal. I was too busy talking with people and 'being in the moment' to think to take a single picture! Whoops. It was a wonderful evening, though. The rehearsal at the church went super smoothly and the rehearsal dinner was wonderful. We had the rehearsal dinner at a local Eastern European Deli. It was super casual but the perfect way to kick off our wedding weekend. We had a buffet of sausages, cabbage rolls, pierogies, sauerkraut and a cucumber salad. Both Phil and I are of German descent so it made sense to have some German foods at our rehearsal dinner. This is one of our favorite 'whole in the wall' kind of restaurants. It's been open for 50+ years. It was fun to introduce our out-of-town guests to a local institutions with delicious food. We had 40+ guests there as we invited aunts and uncles that had traveled far for the event. Plus my family alone is 19 people with all my nieces and nephews so it was bound to be a big gathering!
I ducked out of the dinner around 8pm, I think, and swung by the hotel restaurant to see my blogger girls.
They gifted me a cool, personalized recipe box full of recipes. Talk about a personal and fun gift!
And then it was time to head to bed for some beauty rest. Several people asked me who was going to stay with me the night before the wedding - I chose to spend the night alone in our wedding-night suite. I know a lot of people spend the night with a sister or friend, but I appreciated having the room to myself. Plus I knew I was going to be tossing and turning so it made sense to not ruin someone else's sleep!
If you are married, did you spend the night before your wedding with someone else? If you aren't married, would you want to stay with someone or sleep by yourself? After many many years of living alone, it just felt right to stay by myself that night! Plus it would have been weird to have another person stay in the bed I was going to be sharing with Phil on our wedding night. Ha.
12 comments:
Love the recipe box gift idea.
The night before our wedding I stayed in David's apartment with an out-of-town bridesmaid who was sleeping on the couch. David stayed at his parents', where he'd been living for the past month (my lease ended a month before our wedding, so I moved into his house, and he moved back with his parents!). This particular bridesmaid is very laid-back and helpful, so I didn't feel the need to entertain or anything, so it was fine having her stay with me.
The recipe box was a great gift from your friends! They were all so, so nice and I enjoyed getting to meet them finally!
I was living at my parent's house in Fargo when I got married as all my roommates had married before me, and I didn't want to get an apartment for a few months, so just slept in my bed and probably with my younger sister, as she wasn't married at that time. It's blurry to me now, actually.
Your rehearsal went so smoothly and the dinner was great! I loved all the food and the dessert cake was super delicious!
It is too bad we didn't get pictures that night! I am so poor at remembering to take pictures even though I had my phone with me!
The recipe box is great. And I would pick by myself, too, at least in the wedding suite.
I love the of your rehearsal dinner. Sounds like my kind of thing. And so fun to be with your blogger buddies! They're the best!
We were all there for you! I'm glad that you were able to delegate! That is so incredibly helpful when you're trying to pull off such a big event! I'm so glad you liked the recipe box, I thought it was such a special idea! I love that you were able to carve out special time with everyone! We have rented the club house in Michael's neighborhood for our rehearsal dinner. We're having pizza and an ice cream sundae bar. The guest list is 65 people so I wanted something fun and laid back and not crazy expensive! Plus you know my love for pizza and ice cream :)
The night before my wedding I have a room at the hotel where I have a block of rooms for our out of town guests. I'm going to have hair and makeup done from my room. I'm going to have the girls who want to join me on Friday for manicures and or pedicures and then we'll put together wedding flowers.
As you know, we had our rehearsal dinner at a brewpub and I loved it. It was just so us. Also, even though I don't think you or I had super fancy wedding, there is something inherently a little fancy about most weddings so I thought it was way more fun to do something more casual the night before.
I don't think I had strong feelings on staying alone or with friends, but the wedding suite wasn't available since there was a wedding the night before. Between that wedding and ours the Inn was completely booked too so I couldn't have gotten another room if I wanted to. I do know some people who stayed with their spouse to be the night before. Truly I have no judgement on that, though I would not have considered it. I do get that it's sort of silly living with your partner and then spending a night apart, but for me there was just something sweet and lovely about building anticipation and saying goodbye to unmarried life by not staying together that night.
I got to have a slumber party with my bestie before her wedding and it was so great to have some time the two of us without the hustle and bustle of the week. And thank goodness for someone driving you around, what a great idea!
Awww... Amber is such a good friend! But I'm sure she relished being able to help you out during a hectic time, and try to help you keep calm! That's what friends are there for. <3
I am not sure if I would want to spend the night with someone or not. I'd probably like to have some one-on-one time with my mom, if I could! Is that weird? Spending the night before my wedding with my mom? Haha. But whatever - she'd keep me calm and collected! But also spending the night alone might be nice!
I had so much fun having the extra time with you and did not mind at all doing the driving around. Plus I hold myself partly responsible because I should have been level headed enough to remember the stuff we forgot :P Can't believe when we went back for the marriage license and other paperwork and then forgot it!!! Doh!!
I spent the night before my wedding with you! I didn't really have a preference for staying alone and it just made sense for us to stay together since my other bridesmaids had partners / families there and my MOH Michele was staying with her mom. I honestly can't remember how I slept the night before our wedding but I think pretty good. It seems SOOOOO long ago now!!
Your day before was a bit stressful! But -- it all worked out. And your rehearsal went smooth and the dinner was delicious!! I remember sleeping very minimally the night before my wedding!!
This sounds like a really fun day before the actual big day.... it's funny, because we don't have rehearsal dinners in Germany, so the day before the wedding is usually filled with last minute errands, but there is no time to have dinner or hang out with friends!
I kinda love it though... and I love that you had German food at the rehearsal dinner. I guess I subconsciously knew (from your new last name) that Phil must also have German heritage, but I didn't put it together until you said it.
That's so awesome that Amber and Kyria were able to do a bunch of stuff for you! I was calm for our rehearsal, but found out my flowers in my bouquet (we did them ourselves) had turned brown over night. Not a great way to start the wedding morning!
It sounds like a very busy wedding eve! I'm glad you were able to make it to the rehearsal just in time, and let go of the stress from the day.
That's great that Amber drove you around, and was totally cool about going back to your place four times - things happen, especially when you've got so much to think about :-)
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