Our Nebraska Wedding: We Rehearse! …well sorta.

Guess what EAD friends?  It’s recap time! What better place to begin than the night before the Big Day!

If you recall, we booked Lazlo’s as our rehearsal dinner spot way in advance…and for many reasons!  If you don’t remember, go refresh yourself quick!

But before I get into the nitty gritty of our rehearsal-ish dinner… I want to show you our super fun invites!

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The invite itself (on the left) was designed by KimsCustomGifts on Etsy…and I made the menus (on the right) for our guests to pick their entree/dessert choices!  I decided to go completely different than our wedding colors (purples, greens, and grey) and went with a fun teal/orange color theme.

Our rehearsal dinner was un-like most traditional rehearsal dinners…because well…we didn’t exactly rehearse before it.  With Friday weddings being all the rage these days, it came as no suprise that our fabulous venue was booked for a wedding the day before ours!  So we were left with a decision to make – attempt to rehearse really early the morning of the wedding, or just scratch the formal rehearsal all together!

We chose the latter option.  Why?  Well for several reasons really…but mainly because I knew our wedding party had been around the block a few times and knew how weddings went, so I was pretty confident they could handle walking up and down the aisle.  Another big reason is that I didn’t want to be rushing the morning of the wedding trying to squeeze it in before our hair appointments at 9…why add stress?!

So what did we do instead?  We stood around in a circle about an hour before the dinner started and went over the ceremony logistics with our pastor.

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Based on these pics you might think it was all very confusing and I was a nervous wreck, but actually it worked out great!  We even had a few laughs!  I think everyone appreciated how quick and laid back it was.   We were also lucky to have a good chunk of time between our formal portraits and the start of the ceremony on the day of so our pastor was able to show everyone where to stand and walk from quick.  Easy-Peasy!  Of course I would be lying if I said everything went smooth as butter during the ceremony…but I’ll leave those tid-bits for later :)

After everyone knew their roles it was time to eat!

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the desserts were huge…and delicious!

Then Lance and I thanked everyone for coming, and for being such amazing friends/family throughout this long (and exciting!) planning process.  Lance’s mom surprised us with a poem she had written that was all about Lance and when he met me, and then our life together thus far!  It was really neat and such a special treat.

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Then we watched the slideshow I had put together, filled with pics from our younger days and then pictures of us together as a couple.

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My bridesmaids and I slipped out for a bit and took some fun pics around the Haymarket!  Much to my suprise my sister had them printed and framed as a gift for me the next day!  All the girls signed their names too.  Neat huh?!

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Then we just spent the rest of the evening catching up with family and friends.  We had the upstairs reserved until close so we were able to invite our out-of-town guests to join us after dinner.  It worked out perfectly as we didn’t have to try and find another bar or restaurant to go meet everyone at.

It was a great dinner/evening to kick off our wedding weekend festivities.  I remember feeling like the night just flew by and suddenly it was time to head back to the hotel, say goodnight to Lance, and get some much needed sleep before the big day!

* all pics courtesy of our family and friends

**curious about my outfit?

I found the cute white dress at Nordstrom…and my purple heels at Payless!