Rehearsal Dinner!

I'll preface this by saying that from beginning to end, our wedding was a bit out of the ordinary...but if you know me you wouldn't have expected otherwise :)

It was important to me to be able to have the ceremony and reception be open-invitation to my entire congregation, so that put our estimates around 300...which obviously limited some things!  What we decided to do was use the rehearsal dinner as an opportunity to spend time not just with our wedding party but also with our closest friends, many of whom had traveled from out of town to be with us for the weekend!

We found this great place at a local park that we were able to rent out and do a casual evening of North Carolina BBQ and all the trimmings and just a relaxing evening of fun...with dancing, DJ, a photo booth (that will have to be a post all of its own!), and plenty of space outside for all of the little ones to play!

We decided to honor our area not just with the food but also with the drink!  RayLen Vineyards is close to us and the wine is great!

 Part of my wedding party :)  Being a (female) minister meant quite a spread of female ministers for the wedding!

It was POURING when we arrived, but thankfully it cleared up as the evening went on and actually was quite pleasant for July in NC!

The girls decided they wanted to go white for the rehearsal dinner :)

 Susan and I with Isabelle and her bestest, Gabriella (and notice baby Suzie and her matching dress...saved special for the occasion!)

Truth be told, Steve and I probably never would have met without my aunt, "Hat."  She moved to Greensboro to be able to help me out with Belle, and I was at a point where the expense of a babysitter really would have kept me from being able to even try out dating...  Hat also did TONS of the behind the scenes work for the wedding (and let us turn most of her house into our staging area, especially once the bats forced me to find all the wedding stuff a new home!)

Hurley was the first senior minister I worked under when I got my first job in a church my senior year in college.  He's been an amazing mentor over the years, later ended up being my district superintendent, and was the one who baptized Isabelle!  Hurley offered our blessing, and I was so thankful to have him and his wife Mary as a part of our special celebration!

My brother and my cute nephew Hayes sportin' his spiffy tie onesie :)

Part of how we chose our wedding date was because it was the weekend of my parents' 40th anniversary (July 10, 1971).  Steve and I decided to surprise them by asking them to do the first dance and had the DJ ready to play One Hand, One Heart from West Side Story, which they had sung at their wedding.  It was cool :)

So for Steve and I, our "first" dance was actually the second dance of the evening...and boy am I glad the focus wasn't really on us!  I have no idea how Katherine managed this photo...

 ...because after listening to Isabelle scream, this is what our "first dance" ended up looking like... Real romantic, I know lol!

 We also offered a toast to my parents using the blessing cup my grandmother had gotten engraved for them when they got married.  Their reception had been in the fellowship hall of the Baptist church...so I think they toasted with apple juice or something like that ;)

 My side of the family!

 My parents :)

My nephew and my cousin's baby were born just days apart last February :)

It cleared up enough for the kids to get out and run around, and the evening ended just as I'd envisioned, with everyone just hanging out, relaxing, and playing!

And I shouldn't be surprised at all that the last people to leave were my minister friends :)  Big partiers...

It was a great, great night!  Wouldn't change a thing :)