So, we woke up early-ish on Friday- we had lots to do! We were having the rehearsal dinner at our house and (thank goodness) were having the bulk of the food catered in, but had decided to make a few things ourselves. So we spent some time putting that stuff together- taco dip, beans, etc.
We were still waiting to hear when my brother and Julie were getting to town. We finally heard that they arrived safely and the company they were renting the accessible van from was meeting them with he van at the airport and would lead them to the hotel so they could get some rest.
Around 9 am, the flowers that I had ordered from Sams Club arrived. I was so excited, they were so pretty! I had been having irrational nightmares the the flower order was somehow screwed up and that they were not going to arrive on time (or at all!) so I was very happy when fed ex was ringing my doorbell. I was also happy when the lady delivery driver complimented me on the Asiatic lily's we have growing in our flower beds. She said they were the nicest once she had ever seen! Anyway, Sam's ship the flowers dry, so we had to take them out of the boxes, remove all of the shipping material and then put them in 5 gallon buckets so that they could "drink" and hydrate themselves. Overall, they were in great shape and well worth the money we paid. It think it was something like $70 for 80 stems and we got 1 box of each color, so 240 flowers.
We spent most of the morning/early afternoon getting the flowers ready and making up the bouquets for the bridesmaids. I also made all of the bout's for the guys. I have to say, they turned out pretty good (if I do say so myself!) We could have had the bout's made by the florist, but she said it would be $10 each. I figured that was a little steep.
Josh did some running around that morning- he got the cars washed and then went to walmart to pick up ice and get me some more vases. I had definitely underestimated how many we would need to decorate the reception space with.
My Dad arrived on his Harley around noonish and we had some lunch. He and Josh got to work setting up the tables and such in the backyard for the party later. Our friends Kenny, Josh and Kari came over to help out as well. Before I knew it it was 3:30 and I was a hot mess. I needed to get everything put away and then go and get dressed as we were supposed to leave the house at 4:30 to get to our rehearsal on time.
I'm kind of bummed that nobody was taking any pictures during the rehearsal and the dinner. It didn't even occur to me to do so, so I guess I will just have to remember as much as I can and document it now!
The rehearsal went according to plan and then the whole crew was back at our house for the party! Josh's dad had gone and picked up the food at the caterer while we were at the rehearsal. Thankfully I was one of the first people back to the house so I got to work setting it all up. Soon more and more people started to arrive. I have NEVER entertained so many people before, but it was so fun! The food from the caterer was great- I was sooooo glad that we had decided to go that route. Thanks to my Dad for basically insisting that we do that. My Mom and I had been toying with the idea of doing the food ourselves to save money, but we never would have had time and would have had way less fun. The night went by so quickly and I felt like I didn't have enough time to greet everybody like I wanted to. It's fun being the center of attention, but I don't think I could handle it all of the time!
In the end it turned out to be a great party. We had basically everybody that was in town that night at the dinner so it was more than just the usual bridal party and it was great. It was the first time I had met some of Josh's family so it was nice to be able to spend a bit more time with them. The party broke up around 10 pm, and then I headed back to the Hilton with my amfam friends to spend the night there with them. We stayed up chatting for a bit, and I had to re-do my manicure since it was pretty much ruined from dealing with all of the flowers, but were all asleep pretty early, probably around 11 or so. I was actually pretty surprised to be very calm... it didn't take me long to relax and fall asleep at all.
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