Bridal Shower & Rehearsal Dinner

Apparently it’s wedding week here on the blog. I promise I’ll return to normally scheduled content! I just want to share some of the fun that happened with the wedding before the “magic” feeling wears off. (How long does this post-wedding high last because it is blissful???) Plus I do love that my blog serves as a bit of a memory capsule for me too.

I’m not the best person to be “celebrated.” I hate the feeling of being the center of the attention and I really hate making people go out of their way. When we decided to do a tiny wedding on a short timeline, I was kind of relieved that we’d “get out” of doing a lot of the celebrating that comes with weddings. No engagement party, no bridal shower, no bachelorette party. (Well, I am kind of bummed about the bachelorette party because so many of my friends are from various points of my life, live all around the country, and they don’t know each other but I want them to!)

My sister-in-laws ended up going above and beyond for Mike and me and I truly had NEVER felt so loved. We have all really gotten to be friends and I’m so grateful for their friendship. I don’t think you can help who you love, but man, am I glad I fell in love with a man with a fantastic family!!! It’s like the cherry on top 🥰

On Thursday before the wedding, one of Mike’s sisters threw me a bridal shower and it was so lovely and so me. It was also a great way for all the girls of the group to get together and have some quality time. (It was just his sisters, my sister, our moms, my grandma, and the flower girls!) She put together a seated lunch, had the most incredibly “Carly” desserts, and then did a little gift exchange.

I mean… ginger jar cookies and a hydrangea cake. I think they get me!!

It was perfect, honestly.

And then Friday night, Mike’s parents hosted everyone on their back patio for a “rehearsal dinner.” Aka just a dinner before the wedding– we had nothing to rehearse. Again, it was just so nice to have everyone together, regardless of what we were celebrating! I think the best part was that Mike’s youngest sister put together a video of all of our friends wishing us well before the big day. It was a complete surprise and I bawled. It felt like our friends were in the room with us celebrating…. so ridiculously thoughtful!!! (If you’re a friend who can’t go to a wedding or a relative of someone getting married during the pandemic…. FILE THIS IDEA AWAY!!!!)

I had a little bit of a “veil emergency.” The one I originally bought said it was “ivory” but it was way, way to white for my dress. So I rush-shipped a “dark ivory” one that ended up being the perfect shade. But my mom’s good friend sent up her veil as a backup!!! It was so thoughtful and fun to try on with my little rehearsal dinner dress.

Watching the video of our friends!

If there is any take away from the whole experience of planning a wedding, pandemic or not, it was really about keeping the important things important. Sure it’s nice to have beautiful flowers and to feel beautiful/handsome to have great food and great music… but we were really celebrating committing to each other and not only creating our own little family (which don’t even get me started on that because it’s waterworks central) but also bringing our two families together. The entire time was just filled with so much love. I feel beyond beyond beyond lucky.