Rehearsal Dinner, Preparations & the Morning of the Wedding

The rehearsal dinner was held 2 days before the wedding which made it very nice for me since it gave me that day in-between the rehearsal and wedding to get everything in order for the reception.  Since the wedding was to be held 1 1/2 hours from our place, we packed everything up and headed up the mountain in an entourage of 4 vehicles, 2 trailers and 16 people.

Unfortunately, we left our house at the time we were supposed to be arriving. This caused everything to be thrown off schedule and so we arrived at the church and dropped off our food and headed for the rehearsal hall to set up – skipping rehearsal altogether.

There were a few unexpected surprises.  We walked in to rectangular tables.  I was expecting round and had bought round tablecloths.  Russell talked to the man in charge and was able to go to the casino and pick up round ones.  Whew! Problem solved.

The largest calamity was the lasagna was still frozen.  They were put into the ovens whose temperatures had been hiked up and then we crossed our fingers hoping they would get done in time.

We rushed around getting all the decorations in place and was just finishing when the first guests arrived.

This, of course, is where the love birds sat.  The centerpieces were #10 cans that I spray painted, wrapped a ribbon around and then put a flower that was cut out using my Silhouette.

I had made some sweet & salty nuts and put them at each place setting as a little favor. I told you I was having fun putting things together for the rehearsal!

I made a 3-sided card that stood next to the centerpiece on each table.  I had asked both Zachary & Hannah questions about each other.  Things like “What is Zachary’s favorite car?” or “If Hannah, could meet one famous person in history, who would it be?”

The display table that my sis helped me put together.  I’m glad she got to do some FUN things while she was here!

For a bit of added fun, we had a photo booth.

My sister who flew here from PA to be of help, along with her hubby.

We even got in a shot.

My parents, who humored me and took a turn at the photo booth. 🙂

Zachary and Hannah were making me laugh when it came their time.  They were quite humorous!

Reading the sign with his “magnifying glass”.

Supper was delayed because the lasagna was not ready on time because they were still cold from having to defrost completely. I was busy taking photos but every now and then I would wander into the kitchen checking on progress.  I wasn’t worried about it, but there were about 6 others that were.  They were doing all kinds of things to the lasagna to try to get them hot and ready to serve but I was blissfully unaware of it all. It’s kind of funny to hear what all they were doing now that it’s over.  🙂 Supper was served about 45 minutes late (oops) and then afterwards the tables were rolled away and a little basketball and volleyball were played, which is just what I wanted.  My wish was for everyone to have a relaxing, good time.

The next day was final preparations for the wedding.

Breakfast at the hotel with precious friends who came all the way from Michigan.

The kitchen crew reported to the kitchen (my family as well as my friend, Tina)

Mom presented Hannah and me with a handkerchief she made and embroidered.  Thanks, mom.  That was so, so special!

Hannah carried the handkerchief down the aisle wrapped around her bouquet.

At the close of the day, thoughts were zooming through all of our minds over what details we needed to be sure were taken care of, and trying to remember where we had placed certain items that had been dislocated in the process of having the rehearsal dinner.  We all slept semi-okay.

Then it was the morning of the wedding! Rebekah was running on PA time so she was always awake early in the morning.  So about 5:30 I texted my friend and said, “You awake?”  She was and in about 30 minutes there were about 6 of us gathered in the hotel lobby discussing last-minute details.  All bright-eyed and busy tailed. NOT!

Stay tuned for the wedding pics. 🙂