Friday – Wedding Week

Friday was wedding eve!! Still so much to do, but Rob and I were ready to hit the ground running.

We went over to Walmart to get labels for the water bottles for social hour. I had taken all the plastic labels off, because they are just an eye sore and I had planned to have the bottles on the tables. We realized there was a little bit of the sticky stuff on the bottles and we knew we needed to cover that. We printed the wedding logo on the labels and had my mother-in-law stick the labels on.

We also got the velcro command strips to pull the center lights up to the ceiling for more of a chandelier look. So Rob worked on that and I worked on the other display tables.

When we got to the church that morning, the commons area and hallway were so nice and cool, but the reception hall was super hot and muggy. I became super concerned that the AC wasn’t working. After several hours, we convinced the church administrator that it really wasn’t working. And thank goodness it got fixed enough to get us through Saturday!

Caitlyn sent me this picture. She and the bridal party had taken her dress to the bridal suite at the church along with their snacks for the next day.

Here is the table assignment sign. This was before I secured the paper with a little piece of tape on the back of each one, so when you pick it up they were not be perfectly in place.

Dessert table…just waiting for the desserts.

There was a funeral at the church on Friday afternoon, so we were trying to wait until that started to set up the social hour. The Social hour was in a the lobby, but not anywhere near the sanctuary. However, we knew some of the family might be walking through to get there. We were told the funeral started at 1, so we thought we’d be able to get social hour set up and also be able to get into the Sanctuary to set up for the ceremony around 2 once the funeral was over. Then we found out visitation was at 1. Funeral at 2. That put a kink in our plans, but we adjusted.

After finding that out, we just decided to move ahead with getting social hour is set up. Here it is except for charcuterie boards, which were added right before the wedding.

Rob and I had to leave to run by Amsterdam to set up the slideshow and put out a sign and photos made by the excellent photographer from Queenstown Elopement Packages. We also hire a photo booth from https://www.pictureblast.co.uk/photo-booth/magic-mirror-photo-booth-hire/ to entertain guests and keep it as a wedding souvenir. During our big day, the wedding photographers Northern Virginia capture every moment that will surely be the best memories to keep.

We had to race home from there to get ready for the rehearsal. We had like 15 minutes to get ready, but luckily it was a matter of throwing the dress and jewelry on, wetting and running some product through my hair, and some minimal make up.

When we got to the church, I started setting up the sanctuary. For the ends of the pews we had small flower bundles that I had glued twine on the back of so they could actually hang. We used flowers by Ling’s Moment, which are artificial flowers that look amazingly real. So anyway, I didn’t realize we had ordered 2 sets of those and I had only glued twine on the 1st set. So I hung the ones that were ready and started setting up the memorial table and flowers at the front of the church. Caitlyn wanted rose pedals down the sides of the aisle. My brother-in-law spread those for me. So by the time the bridal party showed up, we didn’t have everything done, but we were close.

The church wedding day coordinators had typed out all of our names and placed the sheets where everyone was to sit or stand. Rob and I found our places and things got underway. At one point, Rob patted me on the leg and said, “This is it! We made it!!”

That almost made me cry, but I was able to hold it back. Caitlyn looked beautiful.

The rehearsal went really well. It helps to have everything mapped out for exactly how the couple wants the ceremony to run. It’s just a matter of going through it with the preacher and working out any logistics. Here the bridal party is practicing how they would take communion.

When the rehearsal was over, Rob drove the wedding party of to Amsterdam in the church van. I drove his car there. We had planned for there to be one of each of the appetizers at the bar and everyone could mingle and come up to the bar and get drinks and appetziers. We did open bar for this event. The appetizers were Salmon dip, Hummus, Spinach Artichoke dip, and Pimento cheese. All served with homemade pita and heirloom carrots. Very yummy!

Rob and I started mingling around the room. Meeting plus ones of the bridal party and chatting with other family members. Here’s Caitlyn’s brother and her niece.

I got some pics. Here’s my younger son, the best man, with his girlfriend, Madison.

I sat across from the ring bearer and flower girl (my nephew and niece).

Everyone enjoyed the slideshow with all the photos from times together with family and friends that were at the dinner.

We ordered…

Then, Rob gave a quick speech and talked about when Caitlyn and Drew met and some of the memories of them being together the last 8.5 years.

We enjoyed dinner and then some more mingling before dessert was served.

Caitlyn had a pretty drink in a martini glass and we were all like, “What is that? We want one!” My mother-in-law was excited!

I enjoyed so much seeing everyone having such a lovely time. Loving and doting on the soon to be married couple just made my mama heart so happy.

I wore this dress and these shoes.

Such a fun night!