Weddingbee Blog

The greatest part of our rehearsal dinner was the tremendous amount of love that surrounded us. Though our wedding wasn’t huge, it was hard to spend a lot of time with a lot of people. I think it’s really just impossible to make the rounds as much as you’d like to. Our rehearsal dinner allowed more time for a smaller number of people, and I really appreciated that.

The first thing we did with that quality time (besides eat, of course) was deliver presents to our house party. I had given gifts to my bridesmaids earlier that day at their brunch. Mr. Lion planned to deliver gifts to his groomsmen later that night, as I had kicked him out of our apartment and forced him to stay with his best man. What? We didn’t want to see each other on our wedding day! That meant separate beds. Anyway, even though the bridal party was already accounted for with gifts, we still had some very important friends and family members who deserved some props.

My cousins, who as I’ve mentioned before are very important to me, each had a role in our ceremony.

Two of them performed a song with Sister Lioness, one of them performed a reading, and one of them was actually our officiant. We gave my officiant/cousin a slightly larger gift, since he had a slightly larger job than the others (University of Washington Huskys floor mats for his new car). The girls received a smaller, but very significant, token of our appreciation.

{Evan Hampton Photography}

{Ship Like the Boat Photography}

Surprise! Remember my bridesmaid bouquet charms? Well, I made a few extra.

We also had a few non-cousin VIPs involved in our wedding ceremony: Mr. Lion’s stepsister, and my four closest friends from graduate school. I gave them the same monogrammed mugs that my bridesmaids received.

{Evan Hampton Photography}

But the love didn’t end there. Some of my favorites from the evening include…

Me with Sister Lioness:

Papa Lioness looking proud:

The fact that our moms are friends…here are Mama Lioness, MIL Lion, and MIL Lion’s niece’s family:

My new family…FIL Lion and the Abuelos:

Lots of laughter:

And my cousins just being awesome in general:

{Ship Like the Boat Photography}

The best part of that last goofy picture? My dad and his sister standing in the background. They are either thoroughly entertained by their offspring or completely appalled.

What are you most looking forward to at your rehearsal dinner?