"The Best Buns in Town"

(I know I know, I said I wouldn't be posting for a while, what can I say? I found some time)

Are at this place right here!

I couldn't agree more! Initially, Mr. Tal and I wanted our rehearsal dinner to be really laid back, we're talking pizza and beer at our apartment complex's community center. Then it occured to Mr. Tal that we could incorporate a little of our hometown into our wedding by holding the rehearsal dinner at Packo's. It ended up being a really great idea because all of our family and friends LOVE Packo's. It is scrumptious. So after our rehearsal we headed to downtown Toledo to Packo's at the Park, this location won over the originally because it offered a better room for our event..

They had the whole room ready for us and our family and friends ordered some drinks and food and we ended up having a good ol' time. I would like to elaborate more but we didn't really do much at dinner. We all hung out and talked. Oh yeah, and we handed out presents.

Our bridesmaids and groomsmen each got their gifts, along with our parents. Each one of my girls got a tote bag with their name on it, printed in their favorite color. Inside the bags were a bunch of goodies, lightweight hoodies to wear while getting ready, handmade pearls with matching earrings to wear the day of the wedding, a bridesmaid survival kit, some snacks, a pashmina, their clutch purses with flowers to carry down the aisle, and last but not least each girl got a necklace from dogeared.com that suited their personality. I know that it seems like a lot and I'll admit I went a little overboard but I did get a really good deal on everything I bought/made for the girls. The groomsmen each got a pair of handmade cufflinks with the Redwings symbol and a pair of Converse sneakers in maroon to wear to the reception. As for our parents, we got Momma Tal a beautiful digital picture frame that we pre-loaded with some pictures of the whole family. My dad got a frame which we had engraved with our invitation wording and my mom got a new purse with a bottle of wine and a necklace from dogeared.com.

Mr. Tal also took this time to speak for both of us, because I probably would have got too emotional, to personally thank everyone for helping us out and let them know that we could have never done it without them.

After dinner was over and the presents unwrapped we had to head back to the hall and finish decorating. But more on that at another time.

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY bride.

Postings on Pause

I didn't want anyone to think that I was not going to finish my recaps. I am I promise. I just have a lot to do. See, Mr. Tal and I both got new jobs, in a new city, which means we are in the process of relocating. If that wasn't enough of a reason to be light on posting, I start my job next week. Yeah, so I am freaking out just a little bit, we are trying to find a place to live, make sure I have a temporary place to stay, pack up our apartment and do as much as humanly possible before next week. It's crazy and exciting and you'll be able to read all about it over at Tales from the SalTals. It should be fairly interesting and entertaining to say the least. So bear with me through the next couple weeks, I'll try to post the rest of the rehearsal and start on the actual wedding day by next week, but if I don't, you can see I have good reasons.

Stay tuned for more tales from a DIY bride.

The Rehearsal

Ha, it's been long enough but my dear sister has been on my butt lately to blog the last few days of the wedding, so I thought I'd get to it. I don't know why I'm so hesitant to do it, I think if I blog those days it's really over for me, which makes me a little sad.

When I last left off Andy and I were getting ready for our rehearsal at the Pemberville Opera House with dinner following at the famous Tony Packo's (if you are ever in the Toledo area, stop by it is delish). It was kind of nice to have that little bit of time alone in our apartment before the marathon started. We weren't very bright about gettign ready for the rehearsal, we both got dressed up and then realized that the truck needed to be loaded with decor for the site. Ooops. Luckily, there wasn't that much to load so we didn't get too gross in the process.

So we headed down to Pemberville a little early to get some of the set up done. One of our groomsmen was early as well so Andy had some help unloading and I could just start hanging our pew cones. Meanwhile, some of our guests started to arrive. We opened up our rehearsal to my grandparents and my aunt and uncle who had come from out of town, so there weren't many people there but just enough that it was a little crazy. You have to forgive the fact that I have no pictures from the rehearsal, it all got a little insane. I do have some videos that my sisters gave me, so I can load those in at the appropriate spots.

As soon as everyone got there it was like chaos had ensued. We had our pastor, wedding planner, my parents, momma Tal, four groomsmen, three bridesmaids, my grandparents, and a family friend. Everyone was jabber-jawing and I had no idea what to do to get things started. This is where Melissa, our day-of coordinator, started her miracle working. She started speaking over everyone, clapping her hands and lining people up. She was so authorative, it was great. I don't think we would have got started as soon as we did if we didn't have her. So we we walked through our ceremony, did some sound checks, played through the music and in what felt like a snap of the fingers our rehearsal was done. It then hit me, oh my goodnes, we are getting married tomorrow. I kept getting moments like that for the rest of the night and all through the next day. Moments of pure adreneline, where reality hit hard, then just as quick as it came it would subside and I would keep going.

So that was our rehearsal, next up our rehearsal dinner.

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY bride.