Wedding Recap: Pre-Wedding Events

I've been wanting to do a recap of the wedding for a while now. I'm afraid if I don't do it soon, I'll forget the little details!

I was re-inspired to do a series of posts when my MiL let me borrow her camera to take on our honeymoon and she had pictures  left over from the rehearsal and a few from the wedding day. I love seeing pictures from other perspectives. Some of the guests photos were my favorite of the whole day! 

My stomach starts to churn just thinking of the crazy emotions & anxiety I had leading up to the wedding. Having Seth in school full time at that point made it hard too, I just wanted some time to rest, but that wasn't really possible five days before the wedding! 

Five days before her wedding, a bride should really give up any thoughts of control she might have. I understood that there was nothing more I could do to make things *perfect*, and relinquishing control, or my perceived control rather, made it possible to calm down....a little. 

Because 3 out of my 5 bridesmaids live far away, we decided to leave the bachelorette party until two days before the wedding. In hindsight I probably wouldn't recommend doing that, maybe three or four days before. I didn't want a crazy bachelorette party; I was firm on that, no matter how crazy they all wanted to get, wanted ME to get. Melissa, my MoH, flew in on Wednesday morning -- just hours before the party was set to start! I drove her right to the hotel, at her request, and left to go get my hair done. My only instruction was to wear a white dress, while the rest of the ladies wore black. Oh! And I had to have fun shoes, that was a must. And if you know me at all, I don't really do fun shoes...ever. So I decided that my girlfriends would love if I stepped out of my box a little bit. I strapped on these babies, a decision my feet would surely regret later, but they were fun while they lasted.

My feet look so comfortable...right?

Melissa had a super fun evening planned. It started with some mustaches, my favorite beer selection, and dinner. We went to one of my favorite restaurants, Elephant Bar, where I was thoroughly embarrassed by being the one girl that stuck out in her white dress, pink fuzzy crown, and sash that said "Bride to be!".  

Check out those heart shaped cookies turned butt shape cookies with cute designs!

       

My lovely best friends. I have this photo on my desk at work!

After dinner we came back, played some games, and opened presents. These ladies sure know how to make me feel special. I even got a be-dazzled champagne bottle from Haeley, its waiting in my fridge for a special occasion!

I happily took off my shoes, but when it was time to go out again, there was no way I was putting them back on! I switched to flip flops, and as you can tell, I was pretty excited about it. 

It was Wednesday, so not much happening in general, but we ended up at this awesome little wine bar in Burlingame. To my surprise, it was pretty busy! 

I did my standard creeping in photos...

Let them take one good one without me creeping...

And then we smushed into the car and went home!

My last evening as a "single lady" was super fun. These girls really know how to make me feel special and loved. 

I'm so glad it wasn't any crazier than that. The next day we had to transport all of the wedding stuff up to the Winery -- an hour long journey. And I happened to make/supply all of the wedding decor, so imagine how hard that was to transport!

We had lunch at a local restaurant on the way up, and then got ready for the rehearsal. 

We got there and the arch that my in-laws made was already set up on the lawn. This arch was the brain child of my in-laws and BiL, they took the design from our wedding invitation which had one side of the tree. My in-laws own a machine shop where they cut large pieces of metal for industrial places, or just decorative. My MiL and I painted the arch and they put it all together. I really love how it came out!

 

It was a spectacular day up at the winery. It was super foggy in the morning but it burnt off, I was confident that our wedding day would have beautiful weather! At this point, I was starting to get nervous. I was running on very little sleep, and there was a few last minute things that were really hard to handle emotionally.  

Right before the rehearsal I started to freak out. Cry, shake, get crazy freak out. My two wedding planners literally came to my rescue, bought Seth and I a bottle of wine, and started getting everyone else together and didn't require anything of us until it was my time to walk down the aisle and Seth to stand at the front. I felt bad having a mini-break down...but honestly, everyone involved in the wedding understood and that helped a lot.

My pride and joy that I had been putting together for the last seven months was now in someone elses hands and totally out of my control.  It is a strange feeling to plan the entire wedding, and that not be able to watch the majority of it happen. I had no idea if things were set up the way I imagined, or if my flower girl even managed to walk in a straight line down the aisle.

Those little details that felt monumental when I was planning them, were now something I had to really give over to the planners and hope that they captured my vision. Good thing they did, they really took my crazy, busy vision of our wedding and turned it into pure perfection. 

We did two run throughs of the whole ceremony -- it went pretty smoothly after I had calmed down a bit. 

Hannah, one my good friends and guitarist for the ceremony, her boyfriend was taking some photos during the rehersal. I had no idea that they would turn out so beautifully, especially in black and white!

I love this one with my dad in the background. A good picture of our relationship, letting me do my thing but still watching with a smile from a distance. 

After the rehersal, we got ready to head back down the mountain to the rehearsal dinner. Lucky for me, my MiL left me out of all the planning for that, Lord knows how crazy I would have been if I was in charge of that too!

We took a few last photos as we left, knowing that tomorrow things would look a whole lot different!

My lovely ladies of the wedding! Including Daryn, my precious flower girl. 

There weren't a whole lot of photos taken at the rehearsal dinner. I remember Seth and I literally buzzing from all of the excitement. We got to sit in the corner of the room that looked out over everyone, all the loved ones that were involved in the wedding and some of the family that came from out of town was there too!

Thanks Haeley, for taking the only picture we have from the rehearsal dinner!

The rest of the evening was interesting.

We got to the hotel that I had reserved for me and the girls.

I forgot to pack pants.

Literally forgot to bring pants, who does that?

What organized bride does that?!

Toby came to my rescue with two pairs of yoga pants to wear to bed and one for the next day which was sure to come before I knew it.

And you know what?

I didn't really need pants to sleep in...because I didn't sleep.

I'll save re-capping that emotional night before the wedding for next time. 

Looking back on the few days before the wedding, I am just so thankful for everyone involved. All of my bridesmaids and friends who dealt with my nonsense, my parents and in-laws who were at my hand and foot for anything I needed, and my hubby for making it all worth the crazy. 

I'll be back soon with some of the fun from the hotel the night before the wedding, and the morning of the wedding too!