Weddingbee Blog

[Because "baci e abbracci" means "kisses and hugs" in Italian, and we had our rehearsal dinner at an Italian restaurant with Bocce courts, I figured "bocce e abbracci" would be appropriate. Get it? Get it!?!? I never get tired of puns.]

After making a splash at our mid-day rehearsal BBQ, we hurried back to the hotel to get ready for our welcome dinner at Campo di Bocce. Where we kept our rehearsal BBQ intimate by inviting mostly family and bridal party members, we invited all of our out-of-town guests to the welcome dinner—we ended up with 73 guests!!

We set it up so that the first hour and a half was bocce play time and court-side appetizers, followed by an hour and a half of seated dinner in the outside courtyard. I had been worried that not a lot of people would play bocce, but to my happy surprise, everyone got really into it!

Papa Jelly and FIL Jelly tearing it up on the bocce court.

While many of our guests played bocce, Mr. Jelly and I caught up with some of our out-of-town guests.

Guest photo

From the looks of this photo, juicy gossip is being told.

After an hour and a half of delicious appetizers and bocce ball, our guests lined up for a buffet-style Italian feast:

I forget exactly what was on our menu (MIL Jelly was in charge of the welcome dinner), but I do remember the food being delicious!

At some point during dinner, Mr. Jelly’s brother and sister-in-law presented us with a very special wedding gift. They had bought us a star! I especially liked the meaning behind it—they said that because we have to spend a lot of time apart, we now have a star to look at whenever we can’t be together.

The second part of their wedding gift has to do with the adorable little boy in the above photo, Mr. Jelly’s nephew. When he was baptized in 2007, his parents made Mr. Jelly the godfather. Since we weren’t married yet, I was only the unofficial godmother, but at our welcome dinner it was announced that I was now his official godmother—a very special honor, indeed.

Next, we thanked Mr. Jelly’s parents for hosting the welcome dinner and our guests for coming from afar to be with us on our special day. I remember feeling so overwhelmed with love and gratitude—another one of those “wow, these people are all here for us?!” moments. I’m glad I spoke up during the toast, because I ended up chickening out and letting Mr. Jelly do the entire wedding toast by himself the next day.

With Mr. Jelly’s parents (guest photo)

Though I had initially been hesitant about having such a large welcome dinner, it ended up working out really well. It gave us yet another chance to hang out with our friends and family on a more intimate level and in a relaxed atmosphere. As our rehearsal dinner drew to an end, I remember thinking that it was only the beginning…

*Photos in this post courtesy of our talented and awesome friend Andy of Ax2D Photography, unless otherwise noted.