We rehearse

Most of you have probably fallen off the radar, but I want to finish up this wedding journey.  I am eager to turn this blog into a keepsake, which means I have to create an ending for this story.

So, here’s to the beginning of the end of a wonderful experience.

Photo by Kristen Taylor Photography

I dreamed a little dream when we got engaged that we would have a getaway wedding weekend. I absolutely love the idea of a small group of people getting together and shutting out the rest of the world for a few days. I mean, hey, I usually devote a whole week to celebrating my birthday so I figured I could get away with a whole weekend wedding. Wes and I had big plans. We thought about renting a charter bus and taking people up to Traverse City, a really beautiful town on Lake Michigan. We considered a boat cruise along Detroit for our rehearsal dinner. However, it would have meant spending much more money and not having some really important people there. Those things were impossible and I wrote off the idea of making our wedding larger than just ceremony and reception itself. Well, it turns out - I had my wedding getaway weekend anyway.

It very much helped that we had our wedding at Waldenwoods and so many of our bridal party and friends stayed on site. We rented out rooms for our bridal party and Wes and I stayed in a lodge close by. We checked in after a rather crazy morning (my mom’s dog got very sick the morning of our rehearsal and we almost had to put her down). We drove into Waldenwoods and there was a sign with our names… squeee!

We continued down the unpaved road through the small patch of woods surrounding the lake and I remember the sun was peeking through all the leaves. I was so excited knowing our guests would get to drive up this way on the day of our wedding and hopefully feel a little bit like I did – like the world was just falling away and something beautiful and peaceful lay ahead. We unpacked all of our wedding décor and dropped off some of the items to the ceremony site just a short walk away. Wes and one of his groomsmen, Ice Ice Mike (if you went to the wedding you know which one I am talking about!), went to go get lunch. So, I was in our lodge by myself and it was so amazingly quiet especially after the emotional morning. I soaked up that time and worked on my vows.

Family and friends started arriving and I got to spend some time with some of the people I love before we had to be ready for our rehearsal.

Me with my crazy wedding binder.

 

I'm pretty sure Wes is laughing at his best man rolling his eyes at the event coordinator...

 

I am glad that rehearsals have become common practice. It forced my loved ones to get together the day before. Mostly, I think rehearsing is unnecessary but it is helpful to get everyone on the same page. Our rehearsal ended up being very wet and windy. While we were gathering, the clouds started to roll in and rain was inevitable. I know it was annoying to everyone that is was raining during our rehearsal, but I didn’t care because I wanted to get all the moisture out of the air so it was cool and didn’t rain the next day. Sorry to everyone else in our wedding party that was antsy! The rehearsal was to the point and quick for the most part. Done and done. And, we were off to eat!

Wes and I opted for inviting many of our out-of-town guests to the rehearsal dinner. Wes’s parents made this possible for us and I thank them a million times over because it really set the mood for the whole weekend. Really all those “big” secondary events we were dreaming about was to give people more time together. Using the rehearsal dinner as a pre-party gave us that time… no need to go all the way to Traverse City. J We used the restaurant Black Rock Grill, 0.1 miles away from Waldenwoods. It is  a great place to wine and dine. Wes and I wanted something relaxed (aka: not fancy) and had a fun factor. They have steaks there that each guest cooks on a hot volcanic stone and I think it was an unique experience. Plus, the room had TVs so we were able to broadcast the game that all the guys seemed very concerned about.

Why was I gesturing so wildly to you all?

 

 

Although around 75 people were there (75 seemed like a big number to me and I was worried about it feeling impersonal), I didn’t feel overwhelmed. I had so much fun talking with everyone. I hope the dinner made it more worth the trouble to come all the way to Michigan for some of our guests! We all socialized until 11pm and I felt bad but I had to kick everyone out of the restaurant!

Most of our friends made their way back to the lodge where our bridal party was staying. I loved being able to hang out with people like this. Wes and I made cornhole boards so we set them up outside and I am pretty sure people were playing cornhole until 4am that night.

Jen, the cornhole champion!

 

By 4am, clearly shirts were coming off... Josh, what ARE you doing?

 

I opted for getting at least 6 hours of sleep that night, so I got into bed well before 2am. I remember walking back a long the dirt path that night and thinking that this whole place was so perfect for us. It was Michigan at its best. Maybe it was a selfish, but it was so worth it to have activities for people for three days in a row. It will be years before I see some of you again, so thank you for giving us that time.

Beloved guests, did you enjoy the whole weekend? Has anyone else done something similar?

Pictures (unless otherwise noted) were stolen from Jen, Jeff M. and Kat... thank you!