Wedding Part One: The Rehearsal

It is finally here! The post(s) you have been waiting for. THE WEDDING! I thought I would break this down in to three posts: the rehearsal, the wedding and the honeymoon; all three have different feelings and emotions and different themes. The rehearsal I do have to apologize in advance. It is mostly just thoughts and feelings. Very few photos were taken. Just a lot of emotional love.

The months leading up to the wedding, I was a sleepless wreck. I tried very hard to stay awake but either nerves or the 100 things swirling around my brain just would not keep me asleep so usually somewhere between 2-4 AM I would be up and on here. Overall, I was usually highly productive but I really started to look like a zombie that last month.

I got a little relief a month before the big day with my bridal shower and bachelorette party thrown by my matron of honor, Katie. My favorite parts of the day/night were spending time chatting catching up with all my closest friends and sister, seeing all the creativity that went into their gifts and the comedy show we went to. Thanks for all the fun ladies!

Myself with my bridesmaids Grace, Erika, Katie and Brittney.

Photo via Erika McKee

Bridal shower attendees along "the pantie line". A very fun gift with new underwear for me and creative gift to go along with.

Photo via Erika McKee

Myself and all the ladies of the bachelorette party at the comedy show "Bye Bye Liver".

The week before the wedding. Max and I spent his 29th birthday with a trip up to Wild Rose to drop off decor, our wedding outfits and miscellaneous things at the cabin. I figured since we would have Turk the following week, I didn't want him stomping all over my wedding gown. Although Max wasn't thrilled about spending his birthday in the car, we ended it with a nice dinner at home and a house less filled with wedding things. Don't worry, Max spend the next day celebrating his birthday and bachelor party in one. I hear paint-balling and a trip to Goodwill were part of the day.

Max with his brother Mitch at paint ball.

Photo via Mitch Anderson

Max and I left for our big day the Thursday before the wedding. We had planned to leave early in the afternoon and have a relaxing evening at the cabin before the hectic weekend began. Our plan got derailed when our last minute stop to FedEx to get our programs printed got derailed and we ended up spending an extra 3 hours there since our card stock kept getting stuck in their copy machine. So much for trying to save time and energy. At this point, my stress level was through the roof and I just wanted shut down.

The rest of the night with the family we tied labels on to favors and tried to get to bed early.

The start of the next day was filled with errands to run and a hall to decorate. While Max and his dad, Mark went off to buy the alcohol for our day, Max's mom, Ellen, and I headed to pick up linens for our tables and pay our catering bill. On the way back, we heard the weather report on the radio. "Tomorrow chance of showers 100%." Have you ever heard of 100% chance of showers. Me neither until now. Of course, also on the day of my wedding no less.

After a quick rendezvous at the cabin to eat lunch and pack up the cars, we were all off to Willow Pond, our venue site, to start with set-up and actually rehearsing.

From the weather report, it was a no brainer that this was going to be an all-indoor wedding. So much for the beautiful outdoor ceremony and photography. That was completely gone. I had to reconfigure the whole event to be placed inside the barn.

This was the raw view of our venue space about mid-afternoon. It really was a gorgeous place to have a wedding and I started to feel a little better that the whole event was going to be inside.

Photo via Kalin LeBrun

When configuring the reception tables, I came up with a snag and the way I had it set up did not fit with the actually venue layout. This was admit-tingly my largest "bridezilla" moment. I with so many adults all trying to help out, there were just too many opinions of how it should turn out. After about three different tries  I screamed and chucked my papers up in the air. I snapped at Max's brother, Mitch, who was just trying to help. Again, I'm so sorry Mitch! Luckily, Max's dad, Mr. Fix-It-Mark, came to the rescue with a layout that was similar to my overall plan. Problem solved.

Here was Mitch's girlfriend, Kalin, and Grandma Anderson sharing a blanket through our cold rehearsal ceremony. Which ran surprisingly very smoothly minus one late groomsman.

Photo via Mitch Anderson

After the rehearsal we headed over to the hotel where the rest of the guests were staying to enjoy a little Mexican food (Max's favorite) at De Fuego in Waupaca. I was so happy to get a drink in and decompress my stress a little. Horray for margaritas! Our party shared their back room. The food was delicious.

Look how excited Max is!

Photo via Tom Werner

This photo shows how stressed I really was.

Photo via Tom Werner

When all was said and done, this how everything turned out. Gorgeous and everything ended up being perfect.

Photo via Kalin LeBrun

What pre-wedding jitters, mishaps and random things went wrong for your special day? How did you deal with them?