Weddingbee Blog

I can’t even begin to tell you how good it feels to check this off our list, hive! With one major day in our wedding weekend completely planned, I feel like I’m allowed to start getting excited (because, you know… I wasn’t excited before or anything).

We sat down and hashed out the pre-wedding details last week, starting with the menu for the rehearsal dinner. I was so happy that Sparks decided to take the reins on this particular project. There’s no way I could have narrowed down Gioco’s menu to just a few items! Everything is so tasty! But we did have to pick a few favorites, and here are a few we ended up going with:

Arancini di Riso

Image and recipe via ClosetCooking

Bruschetta a la Gioco

Image and recipe via SimplyRecipes

Pappardelle with Braised Wild Boar

Image via Insatiable Critic

Um. Yum. That’s all I have to say about that.

Next up was securing a time for the ceremony rehearsal. I was a little nervous about this since we had already locked down a time for the dinner. If we couldn’t get into the venue until 6 or 7… we would have a major problem. Thankfully, the coordinator was more than alright with the time we requested, and put it on her calendar. Phew. Crisis averted!

When it came to transportation, I was really hoping to have a trolley cart us around for the evening. So I called around and got a few quotes, and I think we can squeeze it into the budget! If we decide to do it, we’ll have this sweet ride to take everyone from the venue to dinner to the welcome party!

Wohoo! Image via CoachUSA.com

Oh yeah, the welcome party. Remember I talked about that a looong time ago? Well we (obviously) opted to have a small-ish rehearsal dinner, followed by the larger welcome party on the rooftop. This way, we get to have some private time with our close family, AND party with our guests who have come from all over the country.

Rooftop images via Trulia

I saved the best detail for last. Remember that red dress I was pining for? The one that looked so eerily similar to the dress my Mom wore on her wedding day? Well… I got it. Yep! Big shout out to hive member MattLovesLauren for alerting me to the Tory Burch sale! The markdown put the dress into my price range, and I snatched it up quicker than you can say “nowIneedshoes.”

The dress! Via Net-a-Porter

Unfortunately, Tory Burch customer service was a bit of a nightmare. They cancelled my order TWICE and then sent the dress to another customer who had placed their order after me. This wouldn’t have been a big problem, except there was literally only ONE dress left in my size. After going back and forth and even getting Sparks on the phone (I’m not so good with confrontation), they finally located a dress in California and had it shipped to me. Yes, they covered the final shipping charges, but I don’t know if I’ll ever order directly from their website again.

But that’s it! The rehearsal day is planned! I’m hoping there will be some time to relax at the beach or pool before things get busy… but we’ll see. I’m just excited that I’ll be doing all these things with my favorite people in the entire world. It’s really starting to sneak up on us! Less than 80 days!