WEDDING RECAP // REHEARSAL DINNER

Guess what I got on Fridddayyyy?!?! WEDDING PICTURES!

SO, super brief weekend recap since I took no photos: Friday night M and I went to my high school's football game (which came about as a result of a certain type of coffee I drank). It was at St. Thomas (where we got married :)) and my high school won handily. Per usual. ;-). We went to Davanni's before for a fabulous dinner. I could live solely off their hoagies. It's probably one of the only foods I eat dangerously fast because I honestly can't get enough.

Saturday I cleaned, lounged while M tailgated, and then we dropped an absurd amount of wedding money at Target and essentially redid our entire living room: rug, 2 end tables, 2 lamps, frames to do a gallery wall, new tray, 3 new throw pillows. But- I am now 100% obsessed with the room. With the addition of our third, and FINAL couch, the room is now complete. When I get my act together I'll try to find some before photos (I was too excited to take any Saturday as we were setting stuff up) and show you!

Sunday was actually pretty exciting: Leah asked me to be a bridesmaid! Wee! She's getting married next year at the historic courthouse in Stillwater. I'm pretty pumped about it. The card was adorable and she's got some great ideas for the wedding, so I'm looking forward to be a part of it! We went to the bridal consignment store in town since it was the grand opening. Let's just say I'm glad I never went while I was wedding planning because I would've changed my mind 100 times- they had SO MUCH STUFF. My favorites were the chargers (actually nice plastic chargers for like, $1.50)- all the mason jars, and the wood candle holders. All very rustic! Leah tried on a few dresses (none of which were "the one") and we called it a day!

NOW- onto wedding stuffs:) The rehearsal dinner!

Friday night October 4th M and I picked up my MOH and headed to the chapel to rehearse. 

We were running late, (sadly, per usual) and were the last ones there, and we walked in to the back of the church to cheers and claps, which if we're being totally honest, totally unnerved me. It was the start of a weekend of focus on us, an idea that made me uncomfortable, but it was also really special. 

 We ran through all the Catholic-basics of the stand-sit-repeat-after-me's.

After rehearsal, we drove over to Uptown (in Minneapolis) and had dinner at Amore Victoria. We had a semi-private room tucked near the back of the restaurant, with our own little bar, and it was perfect! We had 5 ridiculously tasty entrees to choose from, and everybody seemed to have a great time. It really helped to kick off the weekend on a good note, and got me super excited for Saturday (as if I wasn't already, haha). We handed out wedding party gifts, and both M's dad and M's mom gave a short speech thanking and welcoming everyone to the weekend.

Mom & pops (blurry, womp):

Outrageous tirimisu: 

My "little" brother:

Grandma and I:

(Lol, when my mom leans back in her chair, the tips of her glasses "catch" and pop up like you see in these photos.) My grandma, aunt, and mom: 

Family, minus brother bear:

I drove home with my MOH and Dana met us at the house for a slumber party. I couldn't sleep a wink Thursday night-Friday, which is So unlike me ... I rarely have trouble sleeping. The good news was it made me EXTRA tired Friday, so I was actually able to sleep from about 11-6 a.m., when I woke up, rolled over, and just couldn't fall back asleep.

Up next: getting ready

A short story about a buzzed blogger and a salvaged rehearsal dinner

Lazy busy summer weeks mean minimal posting, woops, but this story is too good not to share quick.

Well, you all remember my minor tirade about the rehearsal dinner saga of 2013, right? Basically we had emailed this place for information, got a quick response, and then once we decided we wanted to book? Crickets. We emailed multiple times, called, and every time we were met with crickets. We'd slowly started to research other options, and still weren't really liking a lot of what we were coming up with.

One day, our favorite blogger buddy Lauren (most of you know her I think, and if not, you're missing out) was getting buzzed on some early-afternoon beverages at the very same establishment. She mentioned it, and I may have responded with something along the lines to "fiery death to them."

No less than an hour later I'm getting a text from Lauren that went something like this, "don't be mad at me, buuuuttt I may have stopped a manager here and told her what happened with you guys and she said she'd be calling within the hour." Bam, getting shit done.

Sure enough, 30 minutes later, I was on the phone with the new events manager. Some of you may be wondering why I so badly still wanted to go with a venue that didn't get back to me for so long. Well, a) they're affordable but still higher-end, b) knowing that the woman who contacted me is now exclusively in charge of events and things of that nature, made me feel better. The previous contact was the owner, who was ridiculously busy and got hundreds of emails a day.

SO, we went and peeked at the space Tuesday, and loved it. Booked it yesterday via email and are mailing the deposit check today. WOOT!

It's in Uptown, and although it has a parking lot... parking is still a slight concern. We'll just encourage carpooling.

That's a short story of how Lauren saved the rehearsal dinner.

The end.