Wedding Recap 1: Pre-Wedding

Ah the wedding, seriously it could not have been more wonderful. My grandparents have said that the entire weekend was great, from the moment they arrived on Friday. So that's where I'll start, with the pre-wedding wind up.

I started a brand new job the Monday before the wedding. Crazy? Yes. A teensy bit maochistic? Probably. Worth it? YES. I looooove my new job. I've only been here about 3 weeks but it's been a great change. Anyway I was able to get Friday and Monday around the wedding as unpaid vacation, which was wonderful for getting everything taken care of.

Thursday night I stayed at my parent's house, and my mom, sister, and I got mani/pedis. Then Friday morning I came back to Ann Arbor for final preparations. I cleaned the house and finished wrapping the wedding party gifts. Then around 2 people started to arrive! My family showed up with my grandparents, who had never seen the house, as did several of my bridesmaids, so several tours were in order. Everyone was so excited! It was totally infectious. After tours, and gift-giving and lots of hugs we all headed off to the hotel.

We stayed at the Bell Tower Hotel in Ann Arbor. It was so nice! The elevator was the slowest thing on the planet though, so we took a lot of stairs. It kind of looks like the shining in that there are a ton of long narrow hallways. My parents got a suite on the 3rd floor, so that was kind of the 'base of operations'. We had my dress, veil, the tuxes, hats, everything in there. It was a little tight.

Then before we knew it it was time for the rehearsal! We took 2 cars over (we could have walked, but we had to drive to the dinner after anyway). My parents, sister, and grandparents in one and my brother, me and grandparents part 2 in another. It took the valet so long to bring the car around I was starting to get worried. Then of course it took us 15 minutes to go 3 blocks and find parking! I was wringing my hands and panicking in the back seat, picturing the minister refusing to marry us tomorrow because I made the rehearsal late!

Of course that didn't happen. The rehearsal was orchestrated by the minister and the church's wedding coordinator 'Betty'. Betty was like a drill sergeant! The rehearsal actually made me more nervous, there were so many times to step or not step or turn around, or hand my bouquet off, etc etc etc. Oh well, just hope for the best!

After the rehearsal was over we all piled into cars and headed to the dinner at the Gandy Dancer! The Gandy Dancer is a very nice restaurant in Ann Arbor, it used to be the train station. It's all stonework, and the food is amazing. We had our own room, and it was so elegant (picture below). One family was about an hour late, so we ate later then expected, but it was cool. Everybody got along (and as I anticipated there was some major flirting between a few of the singles in the wedding party...) and it was so nice to have a relaxed evening with everyone before the crazy next day!