Back to Cali {part 6}

Wrapping Up Pre-Wedding Events

I've already told you about the fantastic Bridal Shower Chriss & I threw for my little sister. During the week leading up to the wedding there was also her bridal tea, the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, pink pajama party and getting ready the morning of. I'll sum up the rest of these events so I can finally post about the wedding day itself. I know you all have been on the edge of your seats refreshing my page waiting to see the pictures and hear all about it. Oh, you haven't? Well, that's good - that means you have a life and I don't have so much pressure on me. ;)
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The Bridal Tea

My grandmother threw Rachelle a Bridal Tea at Thirty Six Oaks. Before the tea started there was time for facials and everyone except Chriss & I took the opportunity. {We would have loved to but her schedule & having to drive so far and my schedule with Lydia didn't allow it.} The tea itself was great fun. It started out with a light dinner & beverages served, followed by a tasty spread of desserts and tea - or coffee per the request of my sister. There was great conversation of course and some catching up with family & old friends. All four of us bridesmaids, our stepmom, her future mother & nana 'in law', two of our grandmothers and a great grandmother were there & of course the bride herself. Quite the party. It was a fun way to honor Rachelle as the bride to be and take some time to relax from all the wedding planning and busy-ness. The first photo is of Rachelle drinking coffee at her tea, made me laugh. The second is a group shot of all of us minus one grandma - the one who put this together, she's taking the picture.

The Rehearsal & Dinner

These two events were the same day & though at differing locations served the same purpose, practice the ceremony and get to know the new in laws. So starting with the rehearsal. It was pretty standard as far as rehearsals go. Someone telling all of us when, where & with whom to walk down the aisle and where to stand at the altar. The one thing that wasn't so typical {or maybe it was} was the flower girl. My little sister Hannah who is 3½ did not want to cooperate. She wanted to walk down the aisle with daddy & of course the bride would have nothing to do with that! We all were crossing our fingers, hoping & praying that the flower girl would have a change of heart the next day. Dad tried to get her to walk down with me or in front of me but I'm not her most favorite so that wasn't happening either. So unsure of how the next day would go we went to the rehearsal dinner. Well, Shawn & I had to drop off Michael and Hannah with the grandparents first and Shawn had to change because he was all itchy from the grass. So by the time we got there the only seats open were at the end of the table, across from each other. So there are no photos of the two of us. It was still a good time. The food was delicious and the bridal party got presents. All of us girls got pink pajamas to wear that night.

The Pajama Party & Morning Of

So after the rehearsal quick errands were done - like Rachelle packing for her honeymoon {I'm not the only procrastinator in my family} and then we all got together at Jake's grandparents house where the wedding was held. All the girls were staying over, except for me, I was spending the night with my hubby at a friends house. This was the first day we'd spent together since he left for training about 3 weeks prior so I hung out with the girls for a little over an hour, talked wedding stuff and took some photos. Then I went back and hung out with my hubby. The pajama party was fun though. We all had very cute jammies and had fun taking pictures. The next morning I got up at the butt crack of dawn, showered, dressed and headed back over to the house to get ready for the wedding. With 5 girls and 2 hairdressers {1 devoted solely to the bride} we were running late - isn't that always the case though? It was still fun. As maid of honor I took Rachelle's phone away, handled any worries she had, took down notes and was given a few duties to take care of at the reception like handing out thank yous & last payments to vendors. Oh and I was taking photos of preparations before the photographers arrived. While we were later in being ready than planned we were ready in time for the ceremony, which still started a few minutes late I think. But it was a beautiful day and we all looked great, especially my sister!

Oh and with all this I forgot about another 'event'. Chriss took Rachelle & I to get pedicures for our birthdays. The pedicure was so relaxing & our toes looked so pretty. Of course we all forgot to get pictures of this. Afterwards we had brunch at a local diner. Again, forgot to take pictures. A couple days later at the tea we did get a snapshot of our cute toes. It was an exciting & busy week.