Treely, Madly, Deeply: We Celebrate Rehearsing!

After our rehearsal at The Fez, everyone came back to our place to relax for about forty-five minutes before making our way to the rehearsal dinner. Our rehearsal dinner was held at the Carnegie Science Center, which is where one of the offices for the catering company I work for is located. My boss and our staff really, truly took care of us, with a customized menu, customized BEAUTIFUL details and customized desserts. I am obviously biased, but I would be happy to go into further detail for anyone looking for a caterer in the Pittsburgh area.

I wanted to have it at the Science Center because it's a great location in Pittsburgh. It's along the river and has a great view of the skyline. It was important to me to treat and recognize our guests and the people who have helped us throughout this process.

A bunch of really, really cool things happened at our rehearsal dinner that I will remember and cherish forever.

*all photos courtesy of BM Y

So many people who would otherwise never be together or interact were all together, in one room, all for Mr. Palm Tree and I.

Pretty much all of our favorite people in one place.

From left to right: Friend B, MOH Mem, Rev. Fun, Friend B's gf (also a 'B'!), GM Pythagoras and BM Tiny Dancer

From left to right: GM Y, GM L, Best Man R and BM Y

Cousin L, Cousin O, my aunt, Cousin B, BM Blackout and DOC E

The amazing dessert display.

Seriously, my boss did such an amazing job and put so much thought and care into this. I will never forget it.

Our beautiful and sweet, sweet flower girls gave Mr. Palm Tree and I the most incredible and touching gift pretty much ever. FG Pad RAN up to me as soon as they arrived almost bursting with excitement. "We know we're supposed to wait until tomorrow to give you your gift, but we didn't want either of you to be alone tonight."

Of course Mr. Palm Tree had his food in one hand. ;) 

You guys, they were bride and groom bears that the girls had made especially for us. We even got the certificate of authenticity for them. They carefully explained that Mr. PT had to take the Bride bear and I had to take the Groom bear and neither of us would have to sleep without the other one tonight. Talk. About. Tears. 

Mr. Palm Tree and I got up to speak and hand out the gifts right after everyone had eaten. We both spoke, but it was unprepared and I literally cannot remember anything I said other than, "Thank you all for being here, we're so excited to have everyone here." Mr. Palm Tree's stepfather also said a few words.

True Confessions: I was pretty much clocked out at this point. I had nothing left to do but wake up tomorrow and let the day run its course. No more last minute errands, no more decisions to be made, no more set-ups or ideas. It was going to be what it was going to be and I was confident, in Mr. Palm Tree and myself as well as in DOC E, that it was going to be exactly what we wanted it to be, so I let go. And drank a lot of Moscato.

People continued to visit with each other, as we encouraged (and for which I am SO grateful!).

From left to right: Mr. Palm Tree, GM J, Mr. Palm Tree's stepfather, MIL Palm Tree, Mr. PT's grandmother, Mr. PT's aunt, Mr. PT's grandfather, Mr. PT's aunt's boyfriend and SIL/BM Badonk's fiance.

The B's and Rev. Fun.

All of the wonderful men - and the beautiful centerpieces. <3 

One of my favorite pictures of the evening. Mr. Palm Tree, FIL Palm Tree and SIL/BM Badonk.

MIL Palm Tree, Mr. PT and FSIL/BM Badonk.

The Palm Tree family - another one of my favorite pictures of the evening. 

I realize that these pictures, and perhaps their stories, might be a little zzzzz-inducing to you, but it's really so rare that occasions like this happen. Mr. Palm Tree and I are the first in his immediate family to get married and to celebrate all of this with both family and friends is really, really special to both of us. It was a very de-stressing evening.

Oh, and remember the story about the heels that I alluded to in my last post? I fell. I fell HARD. I was walking through the chairs, my heel caught the edge of one and I went down like there was no tomorrow. Thankfully, all of my friends sort of circled around me and SIL/BM Badonk's fiance was right there and he very smoothly helped me get up and acted like we had bent down, together, to look at something. See what I mean, you guys? So much love in the air.

Remember this picture from our honeymoon recaps? The beast on my knee is a battle wound. Sigh. WHEN WILL I LEARN?! ;)

Finally, my favorite part of our rehearsal dinner came toward the end of the evening. BM Tiny Dancer was our DJ for the weekend and had carefully crafted playlists for each part, including the rehearsal dinner. At some point after eating, BM Blackout had said to BM Tiny Dancer, "let's dance!" So, we did what we always end up doing - whether at a house party, a bar, or a rehearsal dinner - and took over the place.

We have no shame, you guys. There were some pretty solid 90's tunes mixed in here - how could we not jam?!

Celine Dion's "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" came on and like magic, the floor cleared except for BM Tiny Dancer and I. We looked at each other and had silent communication, as we are known to do, and the result was this:

Yes, Hive, we went there. We sang and waltzed around the space to our heart's content. It was a beautiful (admittedly obnoxious, but as you can see, people barely paid us attention) moment. 

Finally, at some point, everyone filtered out - the families left, the men went back to The Y's house (Mr. Palm Tree with his Bride bear in tow) and the girls went back to our place, where we stayed up for a few more hours eating, drinking and talking about the next day. I remember crawling into bed with Rev. Fun and MOH Mem for a while after everyone had fallen asleep, basically gushing about the evening and the day ahead. I remember, specifically, thinking "I am so happy," right before I fell asleep.

The best wedding party ever, from top left to bottom right: Best Man R, GM J, GM Y, GM Pythagoras, Mr. Palm Tree, for-one-of-the-last-times-as-a-Miss Palm Tree, GM L, BM Y, BM Blackout, BM Tiny Dancer, BM/SIL Badonk, MOH Mem and Rev. Fun.

I crack up every single time at Mr. PT and his beer bottle, as well as GM Pythagoras' look at BM Y.

I love us. 

Really, what else could a Bride want?

Tell me your rehearsal dinner stories, Hive. Any others turn into a party? Anyone else have an absolute BLAST? Anyone have a formal and/or low-key one?