How NOT to have a Wedding Rehearsal
/I should have reviewed the ceremony with Chris prior to getting up there. I should have made LB sit down with me to go through everything with the ceremony and walk it out in the backyard of our house. I should have given everyone a list of 5 things that they were responsible for setting up. Shoulda, woulda, coulda (One of the best Sex in the City episodes ever).
Everyone, welcome to Dry Gulch Placer in Breckenridge, Colorado. This place is just stunning. It's remote, hard to find, difficult to drive to, but man. It is beautiful. On Friday, the wedding party and the families went up to the site to rehearse the whole wedding shindig. It was only 70 degrees, but at 10,000 feet it was toasty.
The most killer bridal party and my mom. Look how perfectly spaced out we all are. My sister was climbing up to the top of a hill at this point.
LB and I did not see each other before the wedding. I wanted our first look to be me coming down the aisle because tears. Mission accomplished. Here's how we made that happen.
There is a higher up cabin that the bride and bridesmaids would hide out in. The bridesmaids would go down, followed by the flower girls, and then LB would turn around and face the mountains. Esther then walked me down the stairs, hugged me and then went to LB to tell him he could turn around. It went swimmingly on the day, but this part... the getting everyone on the same page as my years long vision... was straight up annoying. I was going to say stressful, but nope, just annoying. :)
Also, isn't the Uhaul on the back of our truck super romantic? That thing was full with vintage rentals and the entire living room full of stuff that Katie and I had made for about a year before the wedding.
Practising that bridal walk in my adorable Kate Spade dress from Aubyn. HAVE I MENTIONED that this dress has built-in bra clasps to hide your bra straps? Oh, I haven't? Well, consider your life changed and all your money gone to Kate Spade forever and ever Amen.
We look super thrilled to be married in this one. Frankly, we weren't married at this point and things were getting tense. Everyone was hot and confused and didn't want to listen to directions and didn't want to listen to Karen and I. It was annoying. (Have I said that already?)
The gurls.
Now I have to say, that if there were MVP awards, they would go to Sophie, Aurora, and Cozette. Those little peanuts just rocked being adorable and helpful.
The annoyance up to this point was one thing, but when people started unloading the Uhaul before we were done practising... Chaos ensued. Things were moved like 4 times. There were 20 people asking Katie and I where things should go. I was stressed and near tears when 4 different people were like we are not going to be able to do the string lights with the mirrors. They are all knotted up, it's not happening. I literally looked at Lawren, grabbed Aurora, and walked outside without saying a word. 15 minutes later, at the insistence of my mom (who saw my face and knew I was about to lose it) and spearheaded by Ashley, this was happening.
Some called untangling these the best wedding team building exercise ever. It actually was and I was SO SO SO happy that we got to use the lights that a LOT of people had spent time hot gluing to fishing wire. After three hours of chaos, the tent looked somewhat like this:
That night, Katie had a list of about 20 things to do on Saturday morning before the wedding and I could see the stress on her face. My mom volunteered to go up early with her to finish setting up and Katie mentioned that without her everything would not have gotten done. I was worried for Katie-- not that it wouldn't get done-- but that she wouldn't have a fun time on our wedding day. She had worked so hard with me that I really wanted her to be able to enjoy her work too. And ladies and gents, I am proud to say that she did!
After this drama filled and stressful day of setting up everything, our wedding day was perfect. I would not have changed a thing... not a single detail... Except I wouldn't have bought the freeze-dried petals that didn't get used or the string lights that we weren't able to get up in time. All in all, my people are pretty great. :)
I have been updating the wedding page as I add wedding posts. There's even a sneak peek of a wedding picture there right now!
