Together at Last: Rehearsal Dinner

This is my “Please hurry, I’m freezing and I’m hungry” smile.

And then we were on our way. 

The food at Season’s was delicious and the staff stayed on hand for anything we needed. I wish I took a picture of everyone’s meal, because we heard nothing but rave reviews from everyone, but the only evidence I have is this picture of me with mashed potatoes and vino. It was THAT good. I remember looking around and not seeing food left on anyone’s plate. This was our menu for anyone in the Albuquerque area who may be curious:

My mother and father-in-law hosted our rehearsal dinner and did a fabulous job at picking the place and making sure everything was set up and ready to go.

We’re getting MARRIED!

I lied, I did take more pictures of food. I decided to have the surprise groom’s cake at our rehearsal dinner instead of at the wedding reception for a few reasons. The first being that the actual shape of the groom’s cake is unique and several members of our bridal party would “get it” and appreciate it more. Kenny had no idea what his cake would look like, but once he saw it he LOVED it!

This is a Battlestar Galactica Cylon Raider Ship. Battlestar is our favorite TV show and I knew Kenny would appreciate it!

The second reason is that I really wanted the cakes to get the recognition they deserved—my sister-in-law, Amanda, made both the groom’s cake and an absolutely delicious chocolate ganache cake with raspberry filling…nom nom nom! 

We spent the rehearsal dinner taking tons of pictures with all of our friends and family. Having our closest loved ones all under one roof was a heartwarming experience. I felt so blessed to have so many people who cared about us.

Bryan was a groomsman and their daughter was one of our flower girls!

Nate, Kenny’s college roommate

Once things started winding down—and before our guests went into a food coma from the yummy food, we gave our bridal party some gifts we picked out for them. 

For the girls, I wanted to get them something they could (hopefully) use again, but also something they could also wear at the wedding. I ordered necklaces from Etsy seller KYM Jewelry and they turned out so great that I wish I bought one for myself. I really searched high and low for necklaces I liked and these went above and beyond what I was looking for. They were even sent in a cute little pouch for safe keeping. 

I ordered theirs in the pink (second from the left) and I’ve heard from two of the girls that they get compliments whenever they wear them!

When I was in the United Kingdom last year I also found light pink shawls I knew would be perfect for our winter wedding, so I bought each girl a shawl (and one for myself!). You’ll see more pictures of the shawls in the next few weeks…

And I’m sure you’d like to see what we got the guys, right? Well..umm…I don’t exactly have any photos of them and I don’t know what website he found them on. While we’re talking about “them,” I don’t honestly remember what “they” are. Yeah, I kinda threw in the towel and made Kenny get and find his own gifts for the groomsmen. I do know that part of their gifts involved the ties they wore, but you’ll see those in some upcoming photos. 

After things finished up at the rehearsal dinner, the bridal party headed back to the hotel and went to the bar to hang out a little bit longer.

My best friend, Jeff. He was an usher!

This is Meghan, Jeff’s girlfriend and one of my best friends, and these are the photos I stole from her Facebook 🙂

Best friend Laura, me, Andrea (I’ve known her since middle school), and the lovely Meghan!

Same as above, but Emily and Natalie joined in the fun!

Haha, Andrea and my hubby!

Kenny and his best friend Nate. I took this picture and found it hilarious that they didn’t plan on posing with the exact same look.

I, personally didn’t stay out too late. If there was ever a time to use the line, “I need to go to sleep and get some beauty rest,” this was it. So I did just that. I went to sleep in the bridal suite several floors up from the bar. I was worried about not being able to sleep because of my nerves, but I slept through the entire night! 

Up Next…A Fortune Cookie Surprise