Burning River Wedding: We Eat (Well, Some of Us)...and Drink...

In my "stuff that went wrong" post, I alluded to the fact that I had a wee bit too much to drink and not enough to eat at my rehearsal dinner. I can laugh at it now, but seriously gals (and guys) don't let this happen to you. Today's tip is going to come at the beginning of this post (and in bold) because it's just that important:


Burning River Bride Tip #4: EAT at your rehearsal dinner!!!

I got so caught up in talking and entertaining (I kind of love being the center of attention) that I kept refilling my wine glass and hardly sat down to eat a damn thing. I insisted that I wasn't hungry (probably nerves) but luckily my MIL forced a few bites of chicken parmesan, potatoes and green beans on me.

Due to my drunkenness, I decided to grab Tyrone for one of our typical bathroom photoshoots. On a similar note, we use the same bathroom...got a problem with that?

There are more...but I'll spare you.

While we were busy vamping it up in the bathroom, the rest of our group was busy mingling and getting to know one another:

I told all of our rehearsal dinner guests that we would leave some time for anyone interested to take the floor and give a speech/toast. I limited the wedding day toasts to Josh's Best Man, and 2 of my BMs (Claire and my SIL Bree), but I wanted to give anyone else an opportunity to talk as well. This worked out so well!!

Josh's parents kicked things off with an incredibly emotional and heartfelt (with a few good-natured jabs thrown in) toast. I don't remember what was said probably because I was crying pretty hard. This is a great picture of the toast:

Love all of our expressions: Brian is saying something smart-ass-y, Nancy is loving it, my mom is shocked, I'm giving Brian my "I'm warning you" look, and Josh is tickled to death. Such a good representation of the family.

*Photo courtesy of BM Claire*

BM Nikki and GM Mike also said a few words that made all of us laugh and of course, cry. I was so happy that our family and friends spoke. It was probably the highlight of our rehearsal for me. 

Since my the tip at the beginning of this post was fairly doom and gloom, here is another one: Try to carve out some time during your rehearsal for speeches/toasts. People might feel more comfortable speaking in front of a smaller, more intimate crowd.

Not only are our ceremony space and rehearsal dinner restaurant housed in the same building, but there is also super-fun piano bar in it! Have you ever heard of Howl at the Moon? It's a dueling piano/sing-a-long bar with locations throughout the country. After dinner, we headed here for some more drinks and a bunch of singing. Some family that didn't attend the RD came and it was a blast! I'll let the photos do the talking:

L-R: Josh's Florida cousins Sarah and Steph, me, SIL Bree

 Josh got on stage and sang "Ice, Ice Baby." He knows every.single.word.

The performers learned that I was a bride-to-be and serenaded me with some raunchy song. 

Also, why the EFF am I drinking a Corona?!?! Some one should have cut me off by then!

*Picture courtesy of BM Nikki*

By 11ish it was time to go...for me and my mom, at least. The rest of the party stayed out til lord only knows when. Josh met some famous baseball team manager (Dusty Baker of the Cincinnati Reds...anyone know who that is?) I heard that SIL Bree gave her brother a stern talking to around 1am. Thanks for having my back, gal!

So clearly our rehearsal dinner wasn't a low-key affair. That's just not how we roll. Tell me about yours or your plans for it!

Next up: wake up in the mornin' feelin' like...Ke$ha.

Burning River Wedding: Let's Rehearse!

We were miraculously still on time after our nail appointment. My mom and I arrived at the Marriott a bit after 3pm, checked in, and got ready for the rehearsal. My bridal suite (which I took zero pictures of) was awesome and huge and totally perfect...but of course I didn't have time to enjoy it because we had a rehearsal to get to!

A couple weeks before the wedding I called Windows to see if it might be possible to have the chairs and stage set up for the rehearsal. Because our ceremony space was a bit nontraditional I felt it was really important for it to be set up for the rehearsal. Well, the venue coordinator told me that unfortunately the space couldn't be set up because a prom was being held in our room that night.

SCREEEEEEEEECH.

Say what? A prom? Well that's just fantastic. That meant there would be a bunch of tables and chairs set up where my ceremony (and subsequent rehearsal) was to take place. The venue coordinator was less than accommodating in helping me find a solution for this little conundrum but luckily I had Brenda, my amazing DOC, to save the day.

When we arrived at Windows the tables were moved out of the way and Brenda had taped off where the aisle and stage would be. It wasn't perfect, but it would do.

Once everyone arrived it was time to get started. I told myself that I had to give up control of the rehearsal to Brenda and our officiant Peter or else it wouldn't be pretty. I'm so proud of myself that I was able to stick to this! I let Brenda and Peter run the show and it went *so* well.

Ok I know all anyone really cares about are pictures so here are a few from the rehearsal. I'm better at writing captions, anyway.

Peter had us stand in the order we would be in the next day.

You can see the tables and chairs on either side of the picture, as well as the tape marking where the stage would be.

Wheeee! Look who figured out how to make collages! 

After lining up, we recessed and made our way up the stairs.

Then we practiced the processional and realized that the song I'd chosen for the Bridal Party to walk to was the PERFECT length. Hell yes, Emily :)

Dad and Mom, so uncomfortable. In that 2nd pic I'm smiling up at my savior, Brenda. 
Also, I apparently don't know how to link arms correctly.

All in all we had a super-smooth rehearsal with zero tears, stress, or yelling! Ok, maybe a few tears of "Omg this is it!!" but no drama :)

Burning River Bride Tip #3: If you can, give up control at your rehearsal. Hand over those reins and sit back. I'm a total control freak in most instances, but this time I knew I had to let it go so I didn't have a bunch of people hating me. 

**My fabulous mother-in-law took all of these photos and I'm so incredibly thankful to her for doing that. I basically handed my camera over to her and told her to take pictures of everything. That's Tip #3.5, I guess: Give some one a camera and tell them to shoot!

How was your rehearsal? If you have a doozey of a tale to share, please do!

Next up: We eat! And drink...

If after the party is the after-party...

Then is before the party the...pre-party party? Just sayin'.

 (Source)

We've had our rehearsal dinner venue booked forEVER but I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. Whoopsie!

We really lucked out when it came to the RD venue because the building that houses our wedding venue also houses a restaurant (along with a dueling piano bar and a comedy club). Our rehearsal guests will literally have to walk only a few hundred feet from the place where we're rehearsing to get to the restaurant. We didn't even bother looking anywhere else because of the incredible convenience (and reasonable price) this restaurant provided.

So without further ado, our rehearsal dinner spot:

(Source)

Rock Bottom Brewery! Yummy food and beer brewed on-site...doesn't get much better than that! Of course, for those who aren't the beer type, we'll be offering an open bar as well. I just hope no one wakes up hungover the next morning.

The food is super simple: buffet-style chicken parmesan, Italian sausage w/ onions and peppers, potatoes, green beans, and salad. And to top it all off...chocolate fondue!! Mmmm that's what I'm looking forward to the most. 

Although the restaurant is fairly casual, I asked everyone to dress up a bit. Girls in dressy-casual dresses, boys in nice pants and a button down shirt. I've had my dress for quite some time (it's not even available online anymore) but lucky for all of you I grabbed a pic of it back when I bought it:

(The dress is from Nordstrom)

I think this is a weird pic of it, but it looks SUPER cute on (if I do say so myself). Because I'm totally psycho (hey, at least I can admit it) I asked Josh to buy a green shirt so we match our wedding colors. Again, I know how ridiculous that makes me sound, but oh well. 

After dinner I think we'll head down to the dueling piano bar Howl At The Moon to let loose a bit. But I've instructed numerous people not to let me stay out past 11. This bride needs her SLEEP, yo!

What are you doing for your rehearsal?