I decided to start the recap here at rehearsal and this goes through the rest of the whole night before:
We got to the venue for rehearsal and waited on everyone to get there. We were all late. It still didn’t seem that real to me.
I met our sound and lighting designer from the venue. He was awesome and just as nice as he had been on the phone with me last week. We ran through the ceremony twice. It was pretty easy. A whole lot easier and less painless than I thought it
would be. I don’t know what I was expecting. LOL
I was nervous about remembering all the things I had to do tomorrow. I was really nervous about the wine ceremony. And I was afraid of the stairs with my stilettos and long dress. We practiced with the music and it made some of the girls start
to cry. Our officiant suggested that when I came down the aisle, Dan should meet me and help me up the stairs. It was apparently pretty moving because it made some of the girls cry again. “This is only rehearsal!” Dan said. LOL But it was
SO cool hearing the music that I picked out, over the speakers all loud and official sounding. It confirmed for me that I made the right choices.
I did not cry like I thought I would. It was kind of surreal, just like my DOC said it would be. And then rehearsal was over! Already.
We were supposed to be at the restaurant by 7:00. We would be late. Again. I did not like this trend. But “whatever, it’s fine”.
My BM Ebby (Ebony) rode with me and Dan. She told us her mom’s husband would not be able to come with her mom and she wanted to know if her new BF could take his seat. Sure, no problem.
She also told us a friend was coming and bringing a date. “He’s WHAT?!” I snapped at her. We hadn’t given him a plus one and he never mentioned anything to us about wanting it. “He’s going to mess up my
tables!” Dan said it wasn’t something for us to worry about the day before the wedding and that it would work itself out. So I said “yeah, whatever, it’s fine.” Le sigh.
We went into the restaurant and up to the 2nd floor that we had reserved. It looked very pretty. Most people were already there. Maybe everybody. Everyone was drinking but I didn’t want to get drunk or even buzzed so I nursed my
beer. They had Smithwicks! Yay for last night’s discovery at the bar (our last night out as BF & GF).
The food was awesome. Everyone looked really nice. I took pics. I did a horrible thank you speech because I can't speak in public for anything. (So glad DH would be doing the speech for us at the reception tomorrow!) LOL We passed out our gifts
to everyone and everyone loved them. My mom said hers was perfect. MIL loved hers. My BM Drea hugged me and cried. The boys loved their unicorn ties and pocket squares. The girls loved their mirrors and jewelry. Yay!!!
Then it was back to the hotel. It was a little too exciting and rowdy. The GMs' room just 2 doors down was crazy. They were drinking and wanted to get more booze so they did. There was a liquor store right next door. GM Kyle was actually on the
same page as me, trying to get them to settle down. Sort of. I was seriously impressed with his responsibility and how seriously he was taking everything. He promised me that he would take care of Dan tomorrow and that everything would be fine. But
then he said “it’s fine, it’s fine!” and everyone else chimed in the same. It had become a running joke by now with the whole wedding party because Dan and I were saying it so much. LOL!
Drea asked me if I was staying by myself and I told her Ebby would be staying with me. She said she would stay with me if I needed her to. I told her if she wanted to stay with both of us, she was welcome to. So we decided to keep girls in one
room and boys in the other. Drea said there was WAY too much testosterone in there. My king bed was certainly big enough.
I was determined to go to bed early. 11:00 was my goal. I didn’t make it in there too much later. I had to wait for the key from Dan. Dan and I said goodnight to each other and kissed goodbye because we wouldn’t see each other again
until First Look next day! So scary. And here we go.
Drea was putting her hair up into noodles for curls tomorrow and Ebby was being crazy with Dan and the GMs. I went to my room and Drea and Ebby said they would meet me in there soon, by midnight. I took a lot of deep breaths and calmly got
everything ready for tomorrow. I made sure my getting ready outfit was all laid out and that I knew where everything was that I would need. I also tried to pack things up as well as I could as I would be checking out of that room in the morning.
I was kind of glad that I had the room to myself for those few moments. I had a talk with myself about relaxing and that tomorrow was going to be amazing. I set my phone alarm for 8 AM. I took a valerian root capsule (my go to sleep aid) and
climbed into bed. What a luxurious comfy bed I had with huge fluffy pillows and down comforter. I felt like a princess. I tried to go to sleep but that’s when my brain kicked into overdrive.
So after the last few days of everyone telling me "You're getting married!" and me saying "Yay!" but it not clicking, it finally hit me. Tomorrow was the wedding. Tomorrow we would get married. Tomorrow everything that we had
worked for, for the last 15 months, was going to come together. And then I worried that we didn’t do enough or forgot something important or that it wouldn’t look right. I was officially stressed and totally understood what all of the
other brides had been talking about. But I told myself that my job now was to relax and get a good night’s sleep. I had done my research and we had hired all the best vendors and they would make sure everything was the way it should be. I needed
to have faith and just relax. The pep talk worked because I fell asleep.
Drea and Ebby tried very hard to be quiet when they came into the room and climbed into bed with me. There was still plenty of room in the bed. I wasn’t asleep deeply yet so I woke up and they told me to go back to sleep.
There was a knock at the door and Dan was in the hall talking loudly (and a little drunkly) through the door. “Ebony! I need to give you the car keys!” (Drea would be driving our car for me tomorrow) so she opened the door and it was
so cute because he had his hand over his eyes so that he wouldn’t see me and held out his hand for the keys. Awww! He totally got it. :)
Back to sleep for the night. I got a good 8 hours or so of sleep!
