The night before the wedding, Lu and I had the traditional rehearsal dinner and the rehearsal.

To be completely honest, I was more concerned about the dinner than the actual rehearsal. Not just because I love food, but also because I thought, “How hard can a wedding be? You walk down an aisle, you stand there, you follow the lead of the pastor, kiss, and it’s done.”

Uh-uh. Our two-hour rehearsal proved me totally wrong.

But let’s back up to the dinner.

Lu and I decided to have dinner before our wedding rehearsal. That way, we could finish the rehearsal, decorate the church, and everyone would be done with their “official” duties for the night.

We had a great time at our rehearsal dinner. Calvert House Inn, the restaurant we chose, didn’t look like much on the outside, but the food was delicious. We started a bit late because Lu’s family underestimated the mess that is DC rush hour, however everyone was able to eat (and go back for seconds).

After we ate, Lu and I passed out gifts. Gifts were one area of the budget that Lu and I didn't skimp on. We wanted to make sure that everyone who was involved in our wedding got a token of appreciation from us.

Organizing our gift table

 We got gifts for our parents and grandmother (moms got handkerchiefs, dads got pocketknives, grandma got an engraved picture frame), bridesmaids (day-of emergency kits, personalized purse mirrors, and cosmetic bags), groomsmen (personalized pocket watches), junior bridesmaids (purses with a book, hairclips, and a jewelry box), ring bearer ("ring security" t-shirt), hostesses (picture frames and flowers for their hair), coordinators (notebooks and pens), musicians (wallet clutches decorated with musical scales) and soloist (inspirational magnet), makeup artist (nook gift card), and pastor (engraved clock/notepad combination). We were grateful to everyone for their help, and we wanted them to know.

Lu giving Grandma her frame.

Then we had cake. Ugh! The green cake! However, the flavor completely made up for it: caramel apple. Yummmm.

After dinner, we headed to the church for a looong rehearsal. We'd thought that the rehearsal would last from 7:00-9:30 pm. In that time, we'd factored in about an hour to decorate the church. Since there was a funeral the next morning, decorations couldn't be done until 11:00 am the day of the wedding.

No problem -- in and out by 8:30.

Not so fast (literally), we went over everything twice. The hardest part? Walking and standing.

Perfect examples of why we needed to go over standing: slouching, turning around, arms folded, hands in pockets. We got it together for the big day!

Yes, walking and standing: when to walk, how to walk, which side to walk on -- which sparked a mini-etiquette vs. practicality debate, how fast to walk, where to hold your flowers, how to stand formally without locking your knees, how to walk back up the aisle, and where to walk at the end of the aisle!

At one point, I just gave up and started skipping down the aisle... much to the chagrin of the church's coordinator. However, our personal directors knew I'd pull it together for the actual wedding.

Daddy and I walking down the aisle.

Other than that, everything else was pretty much in order. I thought the hard parts would be timing the music, going through the sacred ceremony, figuring out the unity ceremony with our parents. Nope, all of that was fairly straightforward. Our coordinators/directors had it down to a science!

Oh, well. with a 105 foot-long aisle, at least we worked off some of the calories from our rehearsal dinner!