All About the Wedding: Rehearsal Dinner

Hello again! I've been thinking and thinking about what to write and I thought it would be a great idea to write a few recaps about our wedding day! That way we can read this on our anniversaries to come and those who couldn't make it can know all about it!

Starting with the rehearsal dinner, our rehearsal went pretty smoothly. Fr. Mike was really great and got us all organized and even had us practice our vows! We weren't expecting to practice our vows but I was glad that we did so that we were more comfortable the next day. We did get some teary eyes from some of our friends and family as we practiced our vows. The church has a wedding guild and 3 women were assigned to our wedding and helped with all the details and made sure nothing was missed. They were all really nice and were so happy and excited to be apart of our wedding. They really helped make sure that everything went smoothly.

Practicing walking in with my dad!

Practicing our vows and looking pretty.

Pretty church!

We did it! Plus Jonathan wants everyone to know that we're in love haha.

Me with the adorable flower girls, Morgan and Lauren!

Do you notice my rehearsal bouquet? If you're not aware of the tradition (I wasn't until a year or two ago), You are supposed to take all the bows and ribbons from your shower gifts and make a bouquet out of them to use during the rehearsal. Usually that means that the bride holds a make-shift bouquet of a bunch of ribbons messily put together on a plate with a stick. My amazing maid of honor went above and beyond! She actually made a flower out of each ribbon and made it into a bouquet. She even made sure to put a green ribbon on her shower gift to me so that she had an appropriate ribbon for covering the stem. I was amazed and the bouquet was beautiful! We have it in a vase in our living room because it's so pretty! It's a great way to remember our wedding and how blessed we are to have such amazing friends!

After going through the ceremony twice we were off to dinner! One interesting fact that most people didn't hear about was that we left our marriage certificate at the church after the rehearsal! Jonathan and I were on our way driving to the restaurant and I realized that we didn't have it! I freaked out and asked Jonathan where it was and he didn't know. We turned the car around as I called the church hoping that someone was there. Luckily the Deacon answered and had been expecting our call because he found the certificate on the bench where we were sitting on the altar. He assured us that he had put it with out other things for the wedding and it was safe. We both let out a big sigh of relief!

Onto the fun! Our rehearsal dinner was held at a restaurant called Americas. They are owned by a company that has a lot of popular restaurants around town. They serve Latin food so it was nice that a lot of my family got to try some dishes that they had never had before. We had so much fun and the food was great! I especially loved the tres leches for dessert which is definitely a favorite of mine. Jonathan's dad toasted to us and said, "Finally I have a daughter!" Everyone laughed. It was so sweet and I felt so welcomed into their family. Then it was time for gifts! Not for us but for everyone else! I gave my bridesmaids wine glasses with their names engraves on it and a wine kit with a corkscrew that has their initials engraved. Of course I also wrote each of them a long thank note and told them how much I loved them so there were lots of hugs and maybe a few teary eyes. Jonathan gave each of his groomsmen a make your own wine kit. I have to admit, I was a jealous. Can you tell a theme with our gifts? We really like wine haha. Then we gave Jonathan's parents a gift certificate to a painting class and my parents tickets to the Houston symphony. Both parents are looking forward to their fun nights out. They worked hard for our wedding too so they deserved some fun time!

Wedding party!

More wedding party!

My side of the family!

Jonathan's family!

Jonathan's family again and the flower girls!

Sandy and I!

We had a blast at the rehearsal dinner but we didn't stay out too late. We all had important things to do the next day! The girls and I stayed at the hotel where our guests were staying at. I'm really glad we did that because we had so much fun and I didn't want to be by myself the night before the wedding!

I hope you enjoyed reading about the rehearsal! Check back soon to read more about our wedding!

-Chelsey