The Rehearsal

April 15th, the day of our rehearsal was a beautiful day...a bit chilly, but sunny and rain free! Unfortunately, the day OF our wedding was a completely different story.

If it hadn't rained, we would have gotten married on the patio outside at The Clubs at Quantico. The Wisteria would have been beautifully draped over the pergolas lining both sides of the patio, with the chairs set up in the middle... but instead, we got married on the dance floor inside. I had gotten bio-degradable confetti to line the aisle with, but we didn't get to use it. My mom, on a whim, also purchased an aisle runner from Michael's but the way the ballroom was configured it wouldn't have laid down properly.

Oh.. and WHY are aisle runners SO expensive for something decent looking??? It seems if you attach the word "wedding" to anything, it automatically comes with a 50% markup in price.

Our rehearsal went well... we set up the photo booth in the breezeway, between the patio and the ballroom; quickly decided where things should go should it rain and we needed to get married inside, and of course- rehearsed.



Setting up the photo booth



Zac's brother (who married us) telling Zac's sister (our DOC) what to do. Typical brother and sister interaction. :)



Practicing walking down the aisle.

Can you see the black and white book Zac's brother his holding? I cut down a manila folder to a rectangular size, covered it in scrapbook paper and wrapped a red ribbon around it. I thought it would be nicer to hold the vows in instead of holding a piece of paper...and I didn't want to buy anything. I just printed off our vows, and taped them inside.

Zac and I walking back, to practice one more time.

Waiting with my dad, and our ring bearer to walk again.

And now I will show you a picture I am not proud of... but after watching THIS video.. should at LEAST make you smile or laugh a little... Or watch it below if it works..


It's a little joke between us to make the face randomly... you should see the looks we get..

So without further ado:



Our "face"

Anywhozit.

After the rehearsal we went to a local Mexican restaurant in Stafford called Pancho Villa. I picked a handful of items from the menu, and they made a special menu for us so we could control how much money was spent.


Half of our rehearsal dinner guests.



The other half :)

After we ate, we handed out the gifts to our bridal party and our parents. I don't have a picture of the groomsmen gifts yet, but hopefully the photographer snapped some photos. We bought all of the groomsmen, our ring bearer, ushers and Zac's brother cufflinks off of Etsy. They were silver with a black cabochon with a white skull and crossbones on it. I really liked them! I don't remember which Etsy seller we bought them from otherwise I would link to their store. Zac also ordered his groomsmen  a shot glass for  called a Quaffer.   They took Jager Bombs before the wedding with them. (Gross)

We got Zac's mom a variety of teas because she likes tea, and I put them all in a big flower pot (which broke in the car on the way to the rehearsal *sad face*), gourmet pasta and pasta sauce and some candies, and we got both of our dads fishing stuff. I got my mom a basket full of gourmet stuff. Bertucci's grocery store is AWESOME for gifts (a little pricey but nice). We got both mom's the same sauce and pasta, and a couple other little things from there. They seemed to like their gifts!

After the gift exchange we ate the grooms cake. I was NOT and am still not happy with this cake.

Let me count the ways...
1) Black frosting which made everyone's mouths black (and tasted bad)
2) Sprinkles (what do they have to do with this image??!)
3) The image looks stupid turned this way
4) The cake lady should have turned the image the other way and done it on a chocolate frosting with chocolate piping or white piping.

That would have been a much better idea.. and NO sprinkles. I am not pleased with the woman who did our cakes. She was careless and thoughtless... and this cake tasted like it came from a box!!! I could have made this myself...

*sigh*

So that is the rehearsal!!

After dinner we went back to the hotel and hung out in one of their conference rooms and played games all night. It was fun and relaxing!