Weddingbee Blog

Our rehearsal really flew up on us! To tell the whole truth, a bunch of us had too much Jack Daniels the night before, so we were off to a rough start on Friday. I woke up to MOH Michelle texting me that she was leaving Ottawa and would be there soon. Whoops.

After eating three breakfast sandwiches (seriously!) I finally started to peel myself off the deck chairs and get in gear. My mom’s friends had been helping her get her yard ready for the wedding for ages, and I really can’t thank them enough. They showed up on Thursday and Friday, started setting up chairs, stringing lights, hanging decorations, clearing pathways, and cleaning the house, and for the most part, all the family/friends/wedding party people who showed up to help really had nothing left to do. They were a phenomenal team.

Early on in the day, GM Jesse and GM Sheldon had the arduous task of taking down a hornets’ nest from the front of the house. They had, in groomsmenly fashion, agreed to do a task the night before without knowing what it was, and still stayed true to their word the next day, even when they found out there were stingers involved.

Screencaps from a video Mr. Dragon took

In truth, it was just Sheldon, with a big long stick, up against the nest while the rest of us stood back at a safe distance with our video cameras and drinks. Lucky for everyone, it was a totally empty nest.

As the hours got later, we had a bit of a mix-up where my mom didn’t think she was supposed to be at the rehearsal and I wasn’t sure if she wanted to be there, so we got off to a late start, but it actually went very smoothly other than that.

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I had enough time to slap on some makeup and my rehearsal dress before walking down the aisle with my dad, though I suppose I could have taken more than five minutes to get ready. For some reason I was impervious to the cold and felt perfectly temperate even though everyone else was chilly.

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I kept it really classy with a can of Bud Light Lime as my bouquet—I had just started feeling good enough that I could handle having beer.

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As you can see, though, I wasn’t the only one with a drink in hand!

We practiced the girls walking down the aisle to make sure the music was long enough, with Mom Dragon standing in for Sister/Bridesmaid Kay, then ran through the actual ceremony. We only did it one time, because it worked so well!

However, we didn’t practice the seating of the moms, and we started walking from the middle of the yard instead of the house, where we actually processed from the next day, so that came back to bite us on the wedding day (which was really funny, and you’ll hear about it soon!).

As soon as we were done rehearsing I started to get hangry, so there was a mad dash for pizza. We set up the food under the tent and had a really informal meal, along with some impromptu speeches, featuring a really lovely thank you and congratulations from my aunt. After eating, we handed out all of our gifts! Mr. Dragon ended up getting the groomsmen mini barbecues, along with a personalized flask or multi-tool for each guy.

Toward the end of dinner I snuck a glance at my phone and was elated to see the forecast go from 90% chance of precipitation the next day to 60%—still not awesome, but better. Everyone sitting under the tent cheered when I shared the news.

And then, my mom and aunt stood up and kicked the guys out unceremoniously (which you will hear more about, soon.) They take girls’ night very seriously! Mr. Dragon still had to get his stuff packed into a separate bag and into the car, and they harassed him the whole time to hurry up and get out of the house.

The first order of business, as soon as the guys left, was baking our wedding cake. Now, through the whole setup process I literally couldn’t do anything. I wasn’t allowed to stand on chairs to hang decorations—someone would take what I was hanging away from me and do it for me. I couldn’t walk by with an armful of wedding stuff without someone grabbing it and setting it up for me. So naturally, I didn’t end up baking my own carrot cake. Bridesmaid Ashley chopped the carrots, my aunt shredded them, I told my mom what to do step by step, and she did it for me, then directed me into the hot tub, stat.

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This was AWESOME. We had drinks, we had cushy towels, we had warmth, and some of us even had cigars—I declined, because something about the cold air and hot water was making my throat hurt again. Everyone started to fade one by one, and eventually the melatonin my mom slipped into my drink (again, seriously!) started to kick in. I crawled into the guest bed with BM Ashley around 1:00 AM and, for the first time in a week, fell right asleep and stayed that way until 6:00 the next morning.

Was your rehearsal smooth or stressful? Was it formal or casual?

Did you miss a recap?

• Our journey begins with a bit of reflection on our wedding.
• We road tripped down Highway 11 to Brockville.
• Sadness came before our joy when we found out a family member passed away.

All images not marked otherwise are by Rozy Seitz; those marked with an asterisk were edited, with permission, by me.