After our night of partying, no one was in a huge hurry to get up early that Friday morning and we didn't have a whole lot left to do, so we took our time and got a late start. Mr. Star headed off to work for a bit and Momma Star, my MOH and I all headed off to pick up my dress at the salon. Because Mr. Star was going to be around until the night before the wedding, I had put off picking it up for as long as possible and even two days before the wedding, I still couldn't take it back to our place.
My MOH's family generously offered to serve as protectors of my dress in their hotel room until the next day, when Mr. Star would be skedaddling. It was a surreal feeling to be walking into the bridal salon for the last time and walking out (finally!) with my dress, my actual wedding dress, in my arms. Well, in both my arms and my MOH's arms. It was waaaay too much dress for me to carry on my own. We made it downstairs and hopped in a cab, with what my MOH joked was a white bodybag. Man, that dress is heavy! Who knew sparkle was so heavy? I sure didn't. We got it back to her family's hotel room and opened the bag up so the train wouldn't wrinkle and spread it across their TV. You guys didn't need that, right? Didn't think so...
After the dress pickup adventure was through, I went to afternoon tea with several of my family members, which was a lovely way to spend some time with people I wanted to really get to see before all the craziness of the weekend REALLY picked up. That night, we had a bunch of our bridal party over and some out-of-town friends who had just gotten into the city. Everyone hung out at our place and we had a really nice and relaxing evening with friends. Well, it was mostly relaxing. I had one more task to get done -- writing out seating chart on the mirror I had purchased for the project. I'll show you pictures later, I promise.
The next day was when pretty much everyone else showed up. It was so wonderful to be surrounded and supported by so many people who were thrilled to see us, although our small Manhattan-sized apartment did start to get a bit crowded! From that point on, I pretty much had to give up on keeping it tidy! There was stuff and people everywhere:
But everyone was so happy and willing to pitch in. Sassy Bridesmaid and her beau even played Play-doh with my sisters for a bit:
I was so happy to be literally covered in (little sister) love, haha:
It got to be early afternoon before I knew it, and it was time for everyone to change for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner and go hail a fleet of cabs to take us all downtown to the theatre! There's nothing like a bride hailing a cab, in my opinion. But there are much better pictures of that to follow ;)
Little Sister Star was so happy that my MOH was letting her pay for the cab! I was a little less than happy because our cab driver was less-than-ideal and even though we were among the first ones to leave, our cab was the last to show up! Late for my own wedding rehearsal!
We couldn't rehearse without our ringbearer! And Mr. Star's little brother was in charge of him -- he did a great job:
By the time we got to the theatre, everyone else was already there goofing off and taking pictures!
My fiance was no exception, of course.
But it wasn't too late for us to join in on a little bit of the action!
Of course, because we were late starting (due to cab issues) and we only had an hour, I felt a lot of pressure to get things going, and very efficiently! My wonderful DOC, Danielle, offered to run the rehearsal or let me run it and while I very sincerely wanted to let her run it, I knew I had to be the man for the job because I had written the whole ceremony and was the only one who knew what was going on at this point.
Momma Star made her practice coming in a bunch of times so she could work out her nerves and just walk like the pretty little girl that she is. You'll note the purple, overly-loved looking bunny stuffed animal in her hands and probably assume that she's carrying it for security. Not true. That is actually MY childhood stuffed animal that I decided I wanted her to carry down the aisle in lieu of a flowergirl basket or pomander or anything. I opted for sentimentality over flower petals. Cute, right? The cuter part was that Little Sister Star kept transferring her feelings to Bunny all weekend saying things like, "Bunny is nervous to be in the wedding" and "Bunny needs somethin' to drink." Precious.
The grown-ups, of course, did pretty well with that whole walking thing first try. Check out Sassy Bridesmaid and Brother Star doin' it up:
Puppy Star even got his turn, with some coaching from Mr. Star:
I made it down the aisle with my lovely bouquet, crafted lovingly by Fairy Bridesmaid from my shower ribbons and bows, and reminded my Dad to walk slow the next day because I knew after carrying that dress out of the bridal salon how much it was going to slow me down wearing it!
I was trying to be calm and organized and keep the rehearsal moving without anyone getting annoyed with me:
It was a little hard with some of the groomsmen talking over me (bad boys!):
And I can't say that I was entirely successful at keeping calm. I later apologized for a couple of times when my tone was less-than-sweetly-bridal, but the rehearsal was by far the most stressful part of the whole weekend for me. We had a lot of non-traditional parts of the ceremony to coordinate and, being the true theatre kids that we (and a lot of our friends and family) are, we all wanted to get it right!
We practiced how we would move off-stage and down into the aisle for one part -- details to come in the ceremony post!
And Momma Star helped us practice how to guide all of our wedding guests up onstage at the end of the ceremony for our big group picture:
And with that, I was very glad to be done rehearsing. Big hugs to celebrate!
We were done, and only five minutes late. Luckily, no one from the theatre noticed and kicked us out right on time! Whew, now we could get to the good part of the evening: food. And I was all the more thankful that I didn't have to run anything the next day. Have I mentioned that I think everyone should have a DOC??
Was your wedding rehearsal fun and exciting or a tad bit stressful like mine?
*Thank you to my bridal party for capturing these moments for me to share with you*
The Star Wedding Recaps:
Your dress looks so grand, I can't wait to see more pictures of it!
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, everyone should have a DOC! It should be mandatory!!