Photo by Leah Flores Designs. Graphic by Becca Morrow.
|
When my brother Joey told us he and Kristen were engaged, everyone in my family became so excited for them. They have such a beautiful relationship, and I knew right away that Kristen belonged in our family. The two people who were the most excited, perhaps, were my parents. They knew he would be happy with her for the rest of his life, something that every parent wishes for their children.
But, one aspect that heightened the excitement even more so was my parents’ one and only opportunity to host a rehearsal dinner. I come from a family full of event planners. Every family get-together, no matter how small (or how large), is carefully thought about, brandishing every unique detail right down to the adorable cocktail napkins. |
I grew up surrounded by this warm, welcoming, hospitable family and they are a big part of who I am. There is a reason why I feel a need to take care of people, love having appetizers for dinner, and get excited when unwrapping serving dishes or cheese knives on Christmas. Being a good host is in my blood, and I learned from the absolute best; my mom, her five sisters, and my grandmother. Joey was the first of my parents' kids to get married. It was an event my mom had been looking forward to planning since before he could walk.
So, once their engagement was announced, my mom didn’t waste any time and began writing out lists and thinking out details. Now, normally a rehearsal dinner wouldn’t be the biggest thing to plan. Most of them consist of 20-30 guests and are usually catered. However, both my brother and his new wife have a huge extended family. The wedding wasn’t local, either, and many people were traveling in town a day or two early. So, because we love a good party and know how to entertain a large number of people, my parents welcomed anyone who was in town to come to the rehearsal dinner. It ended up being a guest list of about 100 people! It took three full SUVs to take all of the things for the weekend up to our cabin in North Carolina. It almost looked like we were moving in! My mom rented a large tent and some tables and chairs, but everything else we brought with us. Including a keg, three massive coolers full of food, and plenty of boxes and bins full of decorations. Loading and unloading the cars was a total workout, to say the least. My mom had picked the perfect location. Our cabin was spacious and it sat on a huge property, with a large open field for the rehearsal dinner. Perfect for playing yard games, including ultimate frisbee (my brother’s favorite!).
|
Because of the size of the crowd, my mom planned the menu very carefully. My parents looked into catering options but decided that it just made more sense for us to feed everyone ourselves. My dad is famous (to our neighbors, at least) for his lasagna recipe, so he planned out 14 varieties of lasagna to serve for dinner. This was a great choice because it was easy to customize gluten-free and vegetarian options. My mom planned a delicious summer salad to go on the side. She also bought a giant chalkboard that she wanted the menu written on. I offered to write it, and I think it came out great! To read all the yummy things we served, take a peek at the photo on the right. And, check out my post if you want to make your own customized hand-scripted chalkboard project! Below are some pictures of all of the great food and drinks from the rehearsal dinner.
|
|
|
My cousin Sarah and I spent the whole day before the rehearsal dinner making lasagnas, but good company and good music made the time fly by. It wasn’t supposed to be our job to make them, but my dad ended up having his hands full all day. In my family, if someone needs your help, you help them. No matter what. Even if they don’t ask you. Even if you’re hungover from the bachelorette party the night before. Even if you’d rather be playing at the lake with your cousins. If we hadn’t helped, I don’t think it would have gotten done in time. I’ve always had a ‘get things done’ attitude and I know it’s because I’m part of this amazing and hardworking family.
|
|
We had a ton of help with every aspect of preparing and setting up for the party. Aunts helped with plating the desserts and appetizers, uncles helped fill coolers, cousins helped with setting up the chairs and tables, and friends helped cut and place lasagnas out for serving. It’s amazing how many people helped make this rehearsal dinner a success. I can’t express how thankful my parents and I are for that. Planning a huge party can be really stressful, especially when you have a big guest list and a ton of details to worry about. Having so many helpers who were willing to jump in wherever they were needed was amazing, and after dinner we were able to fully relax and help everyone else make the keg float! The gallery below is full of pictures of people helping out! If you were one of them, thank you again for helping make that night a total success!
While the food is a close second, my favorite thing about any party is the decorations. There were so many great details and decorations for the rehearsal dinner, I just had to mention them. One of my favorites were the centerpieces my mom put together for each of the tables. It was a simple glass jar filled with colored river rocks and a votive candle. The top was wrapped in twine, and at the center of each one she glued a heart stone. Heart stones are special stones my brother collects for my mom (sometimes I’ll find some too!). Throughout his whole life, almost every time he’s gone to the beach, he’s found a stone in the shape of a heart to give to her. She didn’t use up all of them on the centerpieces, trust me, but they added a very special touch (I was lucky enough to keep one!). Some of the other cute details were all of the mini chalkboards full of cute sayings. At the drinks station, we put out over 100 different pint glasses for people to use (greener than plastic!), and at the end of the night everyone got to keep one as a party favor. My parents have quite the pint glass collection, so they had no problem parting with some of their duplicates and older glasses. Check out the gallery below for some pictures of the little details!
|
And of course, we had one of the best crowds that night. Plenty of neighbors, old family friends, cousins, aunts and uncles, and of course Joey and Kristen’s wonderful friends who are just some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. It was fun getting to know some of Kristen’s family, too! I was happy I wasn’t too busy running around helping to actually relax and have some fun. Everyone looked like they had an awesome time, which is really the only thing a host could ever ask for! Oh, and plenty of people were dancing too. I’ll chalk that up to my DJ skills, thanks to the Spotify playlist Joey and I made for the party. That night was a full blue moon, so my playlist had a lot of moon songs. Check out some of the photos below of everyone celebrating the fact that Joey and Kristen were getting #MarriedToMorrow.
|
|
It was such a beautiful night, and I had an absolute blast! Joey and Kristen picked an amazing wedding photographer, Leah Flores, who came to the rehearsal dinner. You may have noticed some of their gorgeous pictures mixed in with the ones my Aunt Eileen and I took. I’m so happy for the people who documented this special evening so we can all look back and appreciate the fun times we had! Joey, Vinnie, my sister’s fiance Chad and I stayed up talking, drinking, and watching YouTube music videos until after 4 in the morning! That’s when Joey realized he was getting married in 12 hours, so we called it a night. Not before my mom came out and hissed at us to keep it down, though (oops). We went to bed right after that, because after all, there was a wedding to go to the next day! Check out the related posts below, and if you were at the party, comment below with your favorite moment from Friday night!
RELATED POSTS
|
|
|
RSS Feed
