Weddingbee Blog

You may or may not know this about me, but I’m a planner.

I mean, obviously. I spent months blogging about our wedding down to the most minor detail, and I started planning our wedding about 6 seconds after we got engaged.

However.

I did not do any planning at all when it came to our rehearsal. I don’t know if most people do, but I feel like I should have. I put absolutely zero thought into the rehearsal and figured that it would all come together in the end.

A few minutes before our rehearsal started, Daddy Cardigan came up to me and asked what the plan for the rehearsal was (hah!). He was a bit confused because at most rehearsals the officiant is the one who runs the show, but our officiant was BIL Cardigan, who has never done a wedding before!

I assured him that we’d figure it out, and then started panicking a bit on the inside because I suddenly realized I had absolutely no idea what I should have planned for the rehearsal.

Luckily, we had a venue coordinator to walk us all through it—seriously, if we hadn’t had her it would have been complete and utter chaos. We also had our awesome Day-Of Coordinator, who I plan to talk about in detail later, but her car broke down on the way to the venue and she missed most of the rehearsal.

Yeah, that’s how we looked most of the time when our venue coordinator wasn’t bossing us around. Confused.

The rehearsal was pretty straightforward, although I don’t know that our venue coordinator had ever seen a group quite as rowdy as we were. We were all a bit chatty and giggly, and I think she might have gotten slightly annoyed with us (I totally don’t blame her! We were annoying!) but she hid it very well. We ran through the ceremony a few times to give BIL Cardigan a chance to get familiar with how it would all go the next day. I think he was pretty nervous about having such a big job!

Practicing the ceremony a few times also gave the kiddos in our wedding party a chance to feel comfortable with their job for the next day. They were all a bit nervous about their moment in the spotlight, so it was good for them to get to practice it a couple of times. But seriously, no one was going to even notice if they tripped came out at the wrong time—they’re so damn cute that you can’t focus on anything else!

Junior BM Madison and Junior GM Jeffrey

Flower Girl Morgan and Ring Bearer Ryan

I die. They’re adorable, no? Another person who need a bit of practice walking down the aisle was me! I never realized how awkward it is to have to focus on walking slowly, with good posture, holding your dad’s arm in one hand and your bouquet in the other. Seriously, it’s not as easy as it looks!

I managed to figure the pacing out, and we figured we were all good to go. That is, of course, until BIL Cardy let it be known that he was uncomfortable asking Mr. Cardigan to “kiss the bride.” He claimed that I was his baby sister and it was just “wrong,” and I’m pretty sure the word “icky” was involved. Oh, brothers.

Mr. Cardigan and I came up with an alternative that seemed to placate BIL Cardy.

My nieces were very concerned about this change of events, and managed to convince their dad that a high-five was not sufficient and that nothing but a kiss would do. He relented, after much pleading from the two girls.

Once my nieces were convinced that their dad was not going to make us high-five one another at our wedding the next day, we declared the rehearsal was over and headed off to dinner!

One mistake I think we made in the planning of our rehearsal dinner was choosing a restaurant that had never hosted a rehearsal dinner before. The service was extremely disappointing—my mother received her food almost 20 minutes after everyone else, and my MIL resorted to clearing some of the tables herself because none of the waiters were doing it. It was irritating, but we were all in good spirits and didn’t let it get us down (plus, it probably helped that they kept the margaritas flowing!)

The Cardigans and The Sockses!

Friend/reader Matt, GM Kyle, and BM Audrey

We ate until we were stuffed, chatted, and then ate a little more (can’t pass up the sopaipillas!) and then it was time to head back to the hotel to get rested up for the next day. Our bridal party and some of our friends hung out in the suite with me and my bridesmaids for a little while longer, and we drank some wine and played games. It was the perfect way to get out all of that extra excited energy I had, and soon enough I found myself kicking everyone out so my bridesmaids and I could get some much needed sleep.

I thought I would have a hard time going to sleep since, you know, it was the night before our wedding and all, but I was absolutely exhausted. I took a quick shower and was passed out within a few minutes of getting into bed. The next thing I knew, I was waking up and it was my wedding day!

Did you plan at all for your rehearsal? Do you wish you would have?

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Need to catch up?

• The Week Before
• The Day Before