Thursday before Wedding and Bridesmaids Luncheon

Let's start with Wednesday actually.  My parents got into town early Wednesday afternoon.  I met them at our house and we got things organized and had cocktail hour.  Once Kevin got home, we loaded two cars of hotel welcome bags and went to dinner at Wolfman Pizza, just the four of us.  That was really nice.  Then we headed uptown to deliver the bags and some other things to the hotels and City Club.  This was SO great to get done on Wednesday night!  Highly recommend doing this.

 

On Thursday before everyone got to town, Mom and I had a busy day.  We dropped off ivy to our florist that Mom brought from their house in Maryland.  It is special because the ivy used to be planted at her parent's house and it was used in my parents wedding.  Therefore, it had to be used in mine!  Tiny pieces of it were behind the guys boutonniere's and I believe specs of it were used in my bouquet too.  Oh this is so fun telling you all the little details of our wedding!  There were so many...

 

Also on Thursday, Mom and I got our nails done by Mr. Lee at the Myers Park location of Polished.  We saw my bossman as we were leaving, that was random.  She and I went to Nordstrom and I bought more shoes because my nude peep toes were hurting so I got a pair of nude closed toe pumps by Corso Como.  These were much better.

 

Thursday afternoon, our families were starting to arrive.  Oh PS - Kevin is at work all day on Thursday.  He liked being down there and not in the hub bub. 

 

He did come uptown around 5pm and we all went to Vapiano's for dinner with his family and my family.  There were about 25 of us!

 

My niece Sarah took back some dessert!

 

 Her sister Anna Kate doesn't eat nearly as much haha!

 

Kevin and his uncle Jeff from Seattle.

 

My first niece and Kevin's first niece!  Anna Kate loved holding Kendall!

 

Us with the kiddos!

 

My Uncle Mac and his granddaughter Maeve.

 

Kevin's side of the family - folks in from Boston, Dallas, and Seattle!

 

Back in my parents suite, we all hung out.  The girls got into my makeup and decided it would be fun to put it all on Kevin!  He loved every second of them hanging out with him.

 

Thursday night Kevin and I went down to the house to stay the night.  I get so sick of hotels and I just wanted to sleep in my own bed and be well rested for the weekend.  Plus I had to wash my hair one last time!

 

Friday morning, my Dad came to pick me up and take me to get my dress.  This was pretty cool that he came to get me and take me to pick up my WEDDING dress.  Something about that was just neat.  We also stopped by Teeter and got some more beer and tonic water.  Ha!

 

We took my dress to the church and then went to the hotel and I put on my dress for the bridesmaid's luncheon.

 

My Aunt hosted our Bridesmaid's Luncheon at Aria.  It was perfect in every way!  These are the gifts I gave everyone in attendance! 

 

Flower girls - a big ivory hairbow and a pearl bracelet.

My Aunt who hosted - a teal clutch

Mom - a silver frame

My SIL's Mama - a fancy soap

Kevin's Mama - a wedding cake Pandora charm (Kevin picked this out!)

Bridesmaids - I had been collecting spring looking wraps from Nordstrom since Spring 2012 to give to them.  They were all different and suited each of my girls.  This was fun to pick out but hard to narrow down.  I went back and exchanged several times when I saw one I liked better, ha!  I think they liked them!

Readers, Greeters and Guestbook girls - earrings that were designed by the ladies at On A String

Lil nieces who weren't there - an ivory hairbow! ;)

 

 

Isn't this dogwood cake amazing?  It was inspired by a cake my Aunt saw in Southern Living.  It was gorgeous!!!

 

 

You can see the napkin rings in the picture below.  They are white with the teal rosette and a pearl in the middle.  My Aunt made these and carefully brought them up from Florida.  She is very talented!

 

Here's my Aunt who put the whole event together!

 

This is Brittany, Kevin's brother Joe's wife!  Now my SIL!

 

My girls!!!  Minus one flower girl!

 

Friday was a wonderful day!

 

After the luncheon, I headed back to the hotel with the girls to freshen up.  Then I met my Dad and some of their friends at Dandelion real quick then I walked over to Modern and got my hair done.  This is the best thing I did for myself all weekend.  Got my hair done, by myself.  I really got to chill and relax!  Highly recommend.  And Val was able to prep my hair for Saturday, all while dry cutting it and making it pretty for the rehearsal!

 

When I got back from getting my hair done, my parent's suite was packed with folks from Maryland who had come down!  It was so fun having cocktail hour with them and catching up.

 

Next was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner and I'll tell you all about that soon!

 

Now I'm off to two bachelorette parties!  Both of the girls were bridesmaids in our wedding! :)  Can't wait!!!!