WBW: rehearsal edition

Why hello, Wednesday. You seem to come so quickly and frequently these days.

Guess what??!! It's June 29th. ANNIVERSARY EVE, you could say. Which means that four years ago today, it was my wedding rehearsal day!! I bet you can't guess what the theme of Way Back When-sday is going to be, can ya? A tricky one I am.

I don't remember being super nervous on my rehearsal day. The rehearsal was in the morning, maybe 11ish? Prior to the rehearsal, we had a little bridesmaids' brunch thing.

This is the only group shot I have, although there's an extra (non-bridesmaid, non-mom) person and one bridesmaid (Amy, where are you?) is missing. (L-R: Elizabeth, me, my mom, my sister's friend Katie (non-bridesmaid), my sister Sarah, Kristina, Catherine, Laura).

After brunch, we headed to the rehearsal. Because the venue where my wedding and rehearsal was held is booked up all weekend long, the rehearsal had to be in the morning (there would be a wedding there that evening). Weird, but whatever.

The rehearsal went well, as I recall. I'm sure it was efficient: I had a very efficient wedding planner/director and also it was pretty much my wedding which made me the boss and I like things to run smoothly and not waste time. Thus, I'm pretty sure we ran a tight ship. I hate wedding rehearsals that drag on forever because no one knows what's going on. Pet peeve.

After the rehearsal the boys and girls split up. The ladies headed to grab lunch en route to mani/pedis.

As I recall, my dad kept bugging me with "funny" phone calls telling me such and such had gone awry/wasn't gonna happen/lame crap like that. NOT THE TIME FOR JOKES, DAD. He eventually caught on. This should explain the non-wedding-like expression on my face.

After this we moved on to the nail salon. And then I don't remember what happened after that. There couldn't have been too much time in between nails and when we needed to get ready for the dinner, which was at 7 or something. What I do know is that during all that time when we were getting lunch/nails, my groom-to-be and his groomsman Tom (future brother-in-law...who knew?? At that time he was just Matt's good friend!) spent THEIR afternoon painting our future master bedroom. It was a project we'd started and ran out of time for, but Matt and Tom really wanted it to be finished so that when we came home from our honeymoon, we wouldn't have to paint. When I came home from nails, I was SO touched by that. I'll never forget. They were up to their ears in ocean-blue paint.

Incidentally, this caused us to run late for our own dinner. Since it was due to such a good reason, I tried to not be completely stressed out about being late. While we waited for Matt to finish getting ready, my sister and I had time for a photo shoot (note: we always have time for a photo shoot).

Finally we made it to our dinner. The dinner was EXACTLY what I wanted. It was at the East-West Bistro in downtown Athens. We had a private room upstairs that overlooked North Campus. It was absolutely perfect and if I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have changed a thing (I say this now with 4 other family rehearsal dinners under my belt. They all reaffirmed that mine was PERFECT FOR ME.). We enjoyed eating delicious food, mingling with family members who had all arrived from their various points on the globe, and watching a slideshow of ourselves. Since you know what a huge fan of pictures of myself as a child I am, you KNOW I loved that slideshow!

Here we are from afar. Matt's mom is looking on.

And I know I showed this picture last week, but seriously. How much do I love this picture??! The flowers! The smiles! It's perfection.

After the dinner, it was off to bed...we had an EARLY wake-up call the next morning. Extensions don't just sew themselves in, you know. My sister and I shared my bed and got absolutely no sleep. How could we?? I was about to get MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since tomorrow is our actual anniversary, it's safe to say that this tale is to be continued...