Weddingbee Blog

I was super excited about the rehearsal dinner. We chose our favorite college date spot, Sardella’s, a cute Italian Restaurant with delicious food. It was fun to share one of our favorite places with our closest family and friends.

The Starfish families had both been there before during our college years. We used to go when they came to visit for parents’ weekends and special events like graduation weekend.

Pre-dinner, the girls took a few photos.

I got a picture with my best friends from childhood.

I also got a photo with my Salve bridesmaids. As you’ll notice. Bridesmaid M is in both groups. We are actually cousins, and have gone to school together most of our lives.

After we got a couple photos in, everyone started sitting down and chatting. We had family at one end,

and bidesmaids at the other.

And Mr. S and I were in the middle with my siblings and Groomsman C.

After sitting down we started discussing Mr. Starfish’s speech. I had wanted to help with it, but he wanted to “wing it.” Here I am asking him when he’s going to do it.

Then he got up and gave his speech. He started off by telling everyone I was “yelling at him about it”…thanks Mr. S! (This wasn’t true, it was more of a nag…if that’s any better?) Then he got on to the thank yous. He thanked our friends and family for all their help and being a special part of our wedding day.

After his well thought out speech, it was time for presents. I got something on my camera, so there aren’t many photos of this part.

We did personalized gifts for each person, so everyone got something different. Little Starfish helped Sister Starfish open her thank you gift, a pair of nautical-esque knot earrings from Tiffany. I wanted to give her something extra special to thank her for being my MOH, so I found something that would remind her of our nautical-ish theme and combined it with her love for Tiffany.

Don’t you love how little S dressed in theme for the occasion?

We also gave presents to the bridesmaids, other groomsmen, and parents, but I have no photo evidence. Little Starfish got a gift too, but found it when she stopped by to say hi before dinner, so she got her gift a little early.

After presents, dinner came out. We did “family style” serving. We chose three main courses and sides. I added my favorite raviolis to the menu. I was worried people wouldn’t like them, so we went with basics for the other two options—steak and chicken parmigana. The raviolis were a huge hit and were the first item gone!

This dinner was tough for me. It is one of my favorite restaurants ever and the raviolis are amazing, but they are also super fattening. You may remember I was worried about fitting into my dress, so the meal was torture! I got a couple bites of ravioli, a couple bites of steak and some asparagus, while everyone else got to eat my favorite meal.

To be honest though, I hardly ate anything just so I could indulge in dessert. As much as I love the raviolis there, the chocolate decadence cake is to die for, so I split one with Mr. Starfish.

Mr. Starfish ended the night with a nightcap and we were ready to go back to the hotel and get some beauty rest for the big day…or were we?

You’ll have to stay tuned to see what happened next!