Sunday, August 22, 2010

recap 1: pre-wedding events!


(one of my favorite photos of me and the bestie at the pre wedding dinner; promise next recaps will have more pictures!!!)

Event 1: Bachlorette aka Friday the 13th Fiesta

First piece of advice: I recommend (if you can) that you have your best ladies stay with you before the big event. Because our wedding was a Sunday, I lucked out and had the girls for 3 days, 2 nights! You can do things like gab, do your nails and eat nachos and drink lime rickeys (also, if you paint your nails a bright cheery color, it will pump you up!I picked some crazy bright pink red orangish color!)! And watch MST3K! So I spent most of Friday morning doing last minute things (last minute gifts to give out at pre-wedding dinner, last minute grocery shopping for fiesta, etc). Then my sis came over at noonish and my other amazing girls came pre party and helped me clean and make food. I should have known better but I of course made too much food (I made a couple salads but all we ate were chips, salsa, jalapeno poppers and crab empanadas. Also, the tres leches cake was a huge hit! Will make that again). More advice: make sure to invite your McGuyver friend who can jury-rig your clothes line to hold a pinata. Another piece of advice? If you make edible favors, remember to actually give them out to the people who attend your party. Whatever you do, do not 'have a little bite' of one of the many left in your fridge because you will then proceed to eat more than your share of margarita cupcakes with lime curd and whipped cream (and edible glitter!!). All in all, great party, good friends, good sangria and margaritas. Not too much to clean up other than jalapeno confetti and broken pieces of pinata (which doubled as hats! It was a star shaped pinata). Anyone need any pinata candy? I have a huge bag left. I could send candygrams if you send me your address!

Event 2: "Rehearsal Dinner" aka Pre-Wedding Dinner
I know its is traditionally called a rehearsal dinner but we did no rehearsing. It was making me a little nervous to have no rehearsal but guess what?! Didn't matter. We all made it down the aisle fine. So anyways back to the rehearsal. There were 30 of us at a great Chinese food place. More advice: eat scallion pancakes before your wedding. It will make you very happy. We did an introduction of all family members to one another and I did a quick 'thank you everyone' speech. Then I gave out gifts. I am going to tell you guys what I did since I was really stressed out on what to give so maybe this will help you!

Mom- Maya Angelou book, picture of us (I printed out pictures of me when I was little with them and found a nice quote and framed it. I also found some cool vintage wallpaperish paper to use as the background)
Sister & Hairdresser-stovetop espresso maker (for doing my hair), bridesmaid tin (filled with all yellow things to go with my original color theme, things like candy, earrings, chopsticks, screenprinted dish towel, perfume, nail polish, etc etc)
Best Friend-bridesmaid tin
Out of Towners- canvas bag with iron on map of Mass (easy to make! and cheap!) filled with:
Boston magazine, lobster lollipops, local Marylous coffee, Cape Cod postcards, stuff from the College I work at (baby shirts for the cousins with babies, mugs/water bottles for the other guys), bottled water
Dad- stovetop espresso maker, picture of us, cufflinks (used fabric and cufflink posts I bought off etsy)
Aunt & Florist- picture of us, pot with herb seeds
Ryan's mom- ladybug brooch (ladybugs remind them of Ry's grandma), 'thanks for being so fabulous' wooden sign, vera bradley photo book, picture of us
Ryan's aunt (super helper with venue and on day of!)- ladybug day planner, candy, photo clutch
Ryan's dad- hot pepper vodka, cufflinks, flask (covered blank flask with hawaiian shirt fabric since he wears hawaiian shirts all the time)
day of helpers- bags with penny candy (wax lips, unicorn pops, hot tamales, etc)

I also made gift tags which said 'thank you for everything' and I used pictures of me as a baby with them or pictures of them and little Ryan.

All were very affordable but I really wanted to thank everyone for all their help.

Up next: day of! woo!

7 comments:

  1. Gorgeous picture! Glad to hear the empanadas were a hit. I always prepare more food than is necessary, too.

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  2. Loooove that photo. And good call on the girl time before the big day and for eating a ridiculous amount of food, weddings are the perfect excuse for both.

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  3. Gift ideas are always great! Some people are so tricksey to shop for!
    More food = more happy! some goes with some good girl time with the ladies!

    Looking forward to the day of recaps!

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  4. such thoughtful gifts!!! covering the flask in Hawaiian style fabric for your FIL! so cute!

    weddings really are big lovefests, aren't they? they show us love and we give it right back. love it.

    p.s. you need to change your profile from fiance to husband!!!! weeeeeee!!!

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  5. sarah- if only you were local, i'd have to over for leftover treats!

    miss fp- thank you! i am always looking for excusing to eat like crazy :)

    jen- best equation :)

    angie- thank you! I know, my heart feels like it will burst from the lovey doveness

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