Our Cran-Lemon Wedding: Rehersal Preparations

By the time our wedding weekend arrived, we were basically done with all of our planning, but I still needed to prepare a few things for the rehearsal dinner. Steve and I decided to have our rehearsal and dinner on Saturday night (even though we were getting married on Monday) because we wanted to have them at one of our favorite Brooklyn restaurants, Scottadito. On Sunday night, we were going to need to be at the hotel next to our venue on Long Island.

On Saturday afternoon, I went to one of the corner stores near our apartment and picked out a bouquet of flowers to use as a centerpiece. I knew I wanted to use sunflowers because they are so happy and perfect for fall. I found a mixed bouquet that included sunflowers, arranged it in a vase I had on hand and tied a white ribbon around it. I also got some mini pumpkins. Here's the centerpiece set-up I came up with:


Pretty, right?


Then I finished wrapping the bridal party gifts. I had gotten the girls Vera Bradley cosmetic bags in their favorite colors, embellished purse mirrors from Red Envelope, hand lotion from The Body Shop, and authentic NYC pashminas (i.e. faux pashminas) in ivory, for them to wear on our wedding day if it got chilly. (Turns out they didn't need them!) I forgot to take pictures of the gifts before wrapping them, but here they are in their bags. I had a little too much fun in Paper Presentation one day (best store ever!) and bought white gift bags, alphabet stickers, dahlia stickers, and tissue paper to match our wedding colors. Necessary? Not at all. Fun? Yes!

I whited them out, but each bag had the bridesmaid's name on it.

AND! I was ridiculously excited to find these thank you cards at Paper Presentation. Look! Our colors on a card! In letterpress! They were too perfect to pass up.

I don't have pictures of the groomsmen gifts, but Steve kept it traditional and got two of them a kit with a monogrammed flask, money clip and business card holder, plus another personal gift for each of them. He got his underage younger brother a few things he'd wanted, including new Timberland boots. I didn't incorporate stickers on their gift bags, and went for black bags with gold tissue paper instead. :)

After finishing printing out place cards and menus (I kept both extremely simple), I put on the Nine West dress I'd bought months earlier for the occasion. I couldn't believe it was already time for our first wedding weekend event! Then my mom and two of my bridesmaids met Steve and I at our apartment and we brought everything over to the restaurant.

We had reserved the private wine cellar room. I loved how we sat at one large table so everyone could see one another. The dinner was intimate, and we had only invited immediate family, our bridal party and officiant, and their significant others.


Here's a shot of my lovely bridesmaids. I've been friends with MOH L since the 8th grade, Miss M since elementary school and Miss D and I were in the same preschool class! I was so excited to have them part of our wedding.

MOH L, Miss M and Miss D

Here's a shot of me with my beautiful mom. I loved the wine bottles lining the walls behind us.

Once our officiant and bridal party arrived, it was time to start the rehearsal! Our DOC, Lisa from Anderson Green Events, was there to make sure everything went smoothly.

Lisa and me

Next: we rehearse and chow down...

*All photos in this post are personal photos