Wedding Recaps- Rehearsal

Our nephew, junior usher, escorting my mom down the aisle

After our picnic, Tom and I gathered everyone together and headed into the fort so that we could practice the ceremony. Tom and I wrote our ceremony ourselves, and we did hire anyone to be in charge of the ceremony, so we ran the rehearsal ourselves. It went smoothly, I mean, how hard is it to walk down the aisle?

We practiced the procession, ran through the ceremony, and the recession. Short, sweet, and to the point. I opted not to practice my vows, just the thought was making me tear up. I'm such a girl...

Following rehearsal, we let lose and hit the beach. Normally, September is a bit chilly to be jumping into the ocean in Maine, but the weather was warm and kids are numb.

Laura and I explored the tide pools. Sadly, the only things we could find were seaweed and drift wood.

All in all, rehearsal was exactly what Tom and I were looking for. We wanted a relaxing day with our friends and family. With the exception of some horseflies that insisted on making a meal out of us, we could not have asked for a more perfect day.

After the beach, everyone went their separate ways for the evening. Tom and I, along with my mother, step-father, and our wedding party went to a German restaurant for beer and schnitzel. Then, Tom and I bid each other fair well, until tomorrow, under the arch, at 4 o'clock.

Wedding Recaps- Rehearsal Picnic

The food table was a popular hang out

In place of more traditional rehearsal dinner, Tom and I opted to have a much more budget friendly rehearsal picnic. It was an absolute snap to plan, we called our favorite Italian sandwich shop and ordered two trays of Italians, finger sandwiches, whoopie pies, and garden salad. Tom picked up some soda on the way there. I provided paper plates, cups, napkins, and plastic forks, and we met everyone at the fort for an afternoon of enjoying the view, good food, and each other's company.

Our parents loved their gifts

The food was perfect, and we ordered just enough. When people that are not from Maine think of "Maine food" they think of seafood and blueberries. It was nice to give everyone some real local fare. Our family and wedding party appreciated it too.

Once everyone was done eating, we handed out gifts. I gave Tom his jersey and he gave me a set of pearls, which you will see in the wedding pictures. We gave our ring bearer and pageboys Transformer walkie talkies, which were a huge hit. The boys immediately ran into the fort and began playing with them. We gave our parents engraved silver picture frames that said "Your daughter always" or "Your son always" the frames have a place for our baby pictures and our wedding picture. Our bridesmaid's received personalized totes and photo cubes with a personalized quote on the top. Our groomsmen received "magic d20's of destiny" which is a magic 8 ball in the form of a 20 sided dice. Everyone really seemed to enjoy their gifts.

After eating, we relaxed some more, before heading into the fort to rehearse the ceremony.

Wedding Recaps- My Gift to my Groom

Tom is a Chicago Bears fan. Big time.

So when the time came to pick a wedding gift that would be appropriate for my soon-to-be husband, I knew immediately what to get him. A custom jersey. The number "13" is his high school football number, it's also our lucky number. On the back, it is personalized with his last name.

It was absolutely adorable when he opened it. I folded the jersey really small in a gift bag, so he had no idea. First, he got all giddy when he realized it was a Bears jersey. Then, I asked him to read the back. At that point, he whipped off his shirt, put the jersey on, and ran over to his mother to show her. It was like a little kid at Christmas. The smile in the picture did not come off his face for a week.

DIY "The Little White Dress"

A couple of weeks ago, I teased everyone with some pictures of a DIY project that I was working on. Well, I've finished that project. As you can probably gather from my post title, I made my "little white dress."

The "little white dress" is a current trend in the wedding industry, I don't think the dress has any specific definition; I've seen various designers offer them as party dresses for the reception, travel-friendly dresses for destination weddings, and as rehearsal dinner dresses. I thought the idea was cute, and I was looking for a new sewing project, so I decided to make my own. My "little white dress" will have two uses, as my rehearsal dinner dress, and again during our mini-moon as a dinner dress.

Without further ado, here is my "little white dress."

It still needs the bottom hem, which means that I need to figure out how long I want it to be. It currently hits right below my knee, I might hem it to knee length. Hemming is a pain, so it can wait. The picture only does the dress limited justice. It's made of ivory crepe, and it's fully lined. It's an A-line style halter dress, and the purple sash is meant to go around the waist. I love it. 

I also made a bolero jacket to go with it. September can be breezy, so I want to have an option that would cover my shoulders. This is likely how I will wear it for dinner during our mini-moon. 

Either way I wear it, I'll be rocking my purple shoes.   

Rehearsal Dinner, err Picnic

I think Tom and I have changed our minds about the rehearsal dinner more times than we have about the wedding. It's definitely been more of a pain in the rear end to plan. Our initial plan was to have a barbecue in my mother's backyard. Then reality struck, and Tom and I decided we did not want to spend the evening before our wedding doing dishes and cleaning up my mother's house. Then we started looking at restaurants, but reality struck again. Our wedding party is made up of a slew of picky eaters, and we struggled to find a restaurant that would satisfy everyone. To add, who exactly was invited to the rehearsal dinner? Just the wedding party? What about their immediate families that would be stuck in a hotel room without a car? What about other out-of-town guests that were traveling/staying with members of the wedding party? Cue the headache. 

Then, one day, while thinking of our ceremony venue, Tom and I had an epiphany.

We'll have our rehearsal dinner on the beach! A picnic! Our entire wedding party is coming from out-of-state and will be in town a couple of days before the wedding (their choice, not ours). Tom and I were trying to think of activities to do with everyone that would allow us to show them around Maine. Why not spend a day on the ocean? 

We decided to hold the ceremony rehearsal around 2 in the afternoon, followed by a rehearsal picnic on the beach. The wedding party is invited, of course, along with their significant others and children. If a couple of out-of-town guests want to show up, that's cool too. The entire point is we want to have a nice, relaxing afternoon before the hustle and bustle of the wedding the next day. 

So, we figured out the venue, what are we going to feed everyone? 

Source

Italians! Italians are a Maine thing, it's essentially a sub sandwich (just don't say that to a local), it's deli meat, cheese, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and pickles on Italian bread with a little oil. We are looking to give our wedding party the "Maine experience," there is nothing more Maine than a good Italian sandwich, except maybe whoopie pies, and we are serving those for dessert. I spent my day on Monday calling a local sandwich shop and, with the exception of paper plates and stuff, our rehearsal picnic is set.

Our menu: 

Italian sandwiches; choice of roast beef, turkey, ham, or salami

Finger sandwiches; choice of chicken salad, ham salad, egg salad, or seafood salad

Garden salad

Chips

Soda/Juice

Whoopie Pie

Have you planned your rehearsal dinner?