Wedding Recap Part 1: Reahersal and Prep

I've tried several times to do a text only wedding recap but every time, I get half way through and decide it's way too boring. So I'm going to use the awesome photos that my dad and cousin, Ciera, took. I'm also going to break it down into four parts: 1. Rehearsal and Prep 2. Getting Pretty and Portraits 3. the Ceremony and 4. Reception and Photobooth pictures. I uploaded all my favorite photos from each of these categories onto Photobucket, so if you want to see all my favorite pictures, not just what I decided to blog about, you can click here.

So rehearsal day does get a narrative because I wrote it before the wedding.

I spent the morning of the rehearsal with Lawrence, cleaning up our car; car wash, interior detailing, replacing burn out tail light, fixing some broken things. Dropped him at home and headed to my parents'. There, I put together treat plates for helpers, copy down our vows onto notecards and did a couple more last minute prep things.

My aunt working on cupcakes

 My aunt came over and frosted my cupcakes (and OMG were they awesome).

About midafternoon, my cousin and bridesmaid came over which was so nice cause I haven't seen her since Christmas since before a week ago, she lived in MA. Thankfully she decided to come home. Also, at some point, my sister showed up and we all hung out and chatted in my parents' backyard while my mom painted my nails.

Getting the grand tour

 Eventually, we loaded up my and my mom's car with decorations, supplies and sound equipment and Mom, Dad and I headed to the venue. After unloading and saying hi to the lovely woman who's letting us use her home as a wedding venue, the rest of the wedding party showed up and we gave them the grand tour.

Me giving instructions

We had to wait a bit to get the rehearsal started because Lawrence's mom and our two mini attendants were late but once they got there, we ran through the processional a couple of times, did a quick run through of the ceremony, and practiced the recessional. One of my bridesmaids couldn't make it to the rehearsal because of work so I had one of my other cousins (who passed out programs on w-day) be her stand in.

Everyone listening

All rehearsed, we headed to back to my parents' house for dinner. We had samiches, a yummy Cobb salad brought by my mother in law and an excellent pasta salad brought by my sister. Interestingly, there seemed to be two groups eating separately, my family (which is where most of my bridal party came from) and Lawrence's friends, but eventually people mingled. Turned out that one of the groomsdudes didn't have anything to wear the next day (hurray money problems), so Lawrence and his friends took off to go shopping.

At the end of the night, my parents, my sister, my aunt Michelle and cousins Olivia, Allegra, Victor and Sarah and I rehearsed the flash mob planned for the next day. By some wonderful coincidence, that little rehearsal morphed into a dance party. This is one of the many reasons I love these people. All those people listed above love dancing and don't worry about being silly pr anything. I knew then, that dancing at the reception the next day wasn't going to be a complete disaster. Once I finally realized that I was exhausted, having been up at 5, I attempted to leave only to find my car gone. After that initial panic that my car had been stolen, I called Lawrence to confirm that he had in fact taken the car (stupid communication). Luckily, my mom offered to ferry me home, so off I went to attempt to sleep, which took a little longer than I would like to happen but, excitement, you know.

The next day, my aunt, three cousins, immediate family and nearly mother in law came to help decorate the venue.

Everyone, hard at work

Blowing up the massive amount of balloons we had

Aunt and two cousins putting up those balloons