The Week Before

I know it's a cliche, but the last few days leading up do the wedding were honestly a blur.  My parents were in town all week to help with the final wedding details.  It was my sister and brother-in-law's anniversary.  I worked a full forty-hour week because I was taking so much time off for the honeymoon.  I had projects to finish and contracts to go over.  You get the picture.

The first big event of the week was the rehearsal.  We had to have it on Thursday--3 full days before the wedding--due to officiant and venue scheduling conflicts.  Our rehearsal took an hour and sadly I don't have any pictures of it.  But really, it's nothing terribly new or exciting: we stood at the altar, we walked up the aisle, we walked down the aisle, we practiced handing off the rings.  Repeat.

By the time we got to the rehearsal dinner, we were all excited about the wedding and, more importantly, we were STARVING.  We headed to BJs pizza (keepin it classy, y'all) for delish deep-dish pizza and pizookies.  Our wedding party is so small--just 2 attendants on each side--and we didn't have any out-of-towners to entertain yet, so we were able to simply make a reservation for a large table and have everyone order what they wanted.  And let me tell you: it.was.awesome.

Seriously, dinner was so relaxed and it was so nice to finally--finally!--have a chance to chat with all these people who are closest to us.  I had been so busy with wedding-planning that I had seriously neglected some of these relationships, and I was thrilled to get to spend quality time with all my favorite people.

Some of my favorite pics from the night:

Soon-to-Be Bride & Groom

Jeff's Parents

 Jeff's Sisters

My sister (and MOH) & her husband

Jeff's groomsmen

My bridesmaid & flower girl

Not pictured: my parents.  We somehow didn't get any pictures of them that night, but I promise they were there, and they were looking good!

I demanded that everyone get pizookies for dessert.  If you've never had one I demand that you get one too: they're warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies topped with ice cream.  It sounds simple, but trust me it's soooo good.

After we had stuffed ourselves silly, laughed until our sides hurt, and discussed every imaginable wedding detail it was time to call it a night.  For the girls, that is.  The boys all got together afterward and went to the pub/restaurant/microbrewery down the street from my apartment.  To my immense surprise, my dad joined them, and stayed out until midnight.  My mom and I waited up for them, and I was FEELING IT at work the next day.  But there was no time to complain, because our biggest project was up next: the favors!