Rehearsal Dinner

Sorry for the delay in photos. I've been working at a Hospice camp every morning this week, so my department frowned upon me using the afternoons to update my blog. Jerks!

We had our rehearsal dinner on the rooftop of the Holiday Inn in downtown Charlotte. It was a great place for the event. We actually considered having the reception there, but it was a little too small. The space was perfect for the rehearsal dinner though and I think everyone had a great time. She also chose some very lovely flowers, though I was quite surprised to find they were purple since she had kindly offered, and we accepted, to let us use them for the reception. When I saw them, I decided they might be better for the day after brunch, seeing as how our colors were pink and green and all...



My in-laws were kind enough to provide an open bar and a dj, so it was like a mini reception. The alcohol was flowing, so we had a lot of dancers. In fact, my family took over the dance floor and showed Freddie's clan. My mom and her sisters are notorious hams. They grew up performing novelty songs like "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth", "I Want a Hippopotomus for Christmas", and "I'm Gettin' Nothin' For Christmas" at my Grandpa's work Christmas parties, and still revived those productions on Christmas Eve well into my teens, so they are not shy. Here are a few shots of my kin getting down



Even the little ones got into the action. Sorry, I haven't been able to locate a picture of the my little cousins, the ring bearers, doing the worm, but believe me, it happened.










Freddie wasn't ready to break it down until later in the evening. He danced with my mom at the end and gave me one final twirl around the dance floor before the night ended. If you look around us you'll see why he probably resisted. EVERYONE is watching.



Can't you just hear them saying, "aaaawwwww!"
One of my favorite people in the world co-officiated our wedding. He and I have become good friends and one of his little boys was born on my birthday. I spent many summers at the beach with their family and grad school friends, which I'm sure played some part in me choosing this profession-all of those Mojitos they force fed me got me drunk enough to do something crazy!




I was really excited because my sister was my maid of honor. I haven't really written much, if anything, about my long history with my dad, but it's not sunshine and roses. My dad had three more children after he married my step mom and while I don't like him very much, I do love them. My sister and I have grown pretty close over the years, but distance and the fact that my brothers are 18 year old twin boys, have made it more difficult for us to bond. Freddie met them for the first time at their graduation in May and we all had so much fun (the siblings, that is, the rest of the weekend was pretty traumatic for me, but I try to keep things positive 'round here.) Here's a shot of the four of us, and another with our new "brother".






It's really too bad I don't have video of Freddie's dad asking my brothers if they were actually supposed to be at the party because of their casual attire because that would have been a good one. To be fair, we did have crashers, and my dad did not do a good job of coaching them on the proper wardrobe for such an event.
Here's a cute one of me and my sister.




Not sure if you can tell from these pictures, but my brothers and sister are GIANTS. We have the same father, but different mothers and their mom has about 6 inches on mine. The boys are still just 18, but already 6'3" and 6'5". At 20, I think my sister is finally finished growing, she grew 5 inches while she was 12, but she stands at about 5' 10 or 11".

Here's a shot of me and my lovely bridesmaids looking a little windblown, but still having fun.





I'll wrap it up with shots of the happy couple and the groom's cake. We decided to serve it at the rehearsal dinner, since that was thrown by Freddie's parents and we wanted to have an opportunity to show it off. Freddie's parents and our wedding cake baker designed it. Freddie's dad came up with the general idea. In addition to his love for fashion, he's also got a thing for fishin'








I can't believe I made it through an entire post about the rehearsal dinner without mentioning how I almost killed my FIL while he tried to screen our slide show. I wonder if that means I'm almost over it? I will not recap the event, but let's just say, I really fought to get someone else to take over that task when we aired it again at the wedding.
That's all for today. Tomorrow I'll share a few details and the pre wedding slumber party. I promise to put the actual wedding photos up Monday. I know you're not waiting with bated breath or anything, but I have gotten requests. I actually don't have many shots though, so I'm hoping the weekend will give me a chance to round up some good ones. I know you don't want me to drag it out, so I'm only giving myself one chance to put up wedding shots (well, and maybe one more from the actual photog.) But, no promises that I won't include some showers I forgot and, of course, the bachelorette party!