Getting Hitched: We Eat, We Rehearse, and We Eat Some More

So, things are a little out of order at this point, but I'm sure you guys won't mind. I showed you some of my favorite guest photos from the big day, and now I want to jump back 48 hours to the beginning of our wedding weekend. See? It's not that confusing. ;)

We officially started our wedding weekend with the arrival of some very important people on Thursday afternoon. Namely, our Officiant and MIL & FIL Coach. Following their arrival, Mr. C and I headed down to the hotel they were staying at, and FIL Coach treated us all to a delicious dinner at Truluck's) (mmm, steak and seafood!) Side note: earlier that day, Mr. C and I actually made a reservation for dinner at the WRONG restaurant location. I was in wedding mode and handed him the phone which was already calling another Truluck's in downtown Dallas, not the location we were heading to. Luckily, they made room for us and everything worked out, but I do suggest letting someone else handle details like that when you have a little case of wedding brain the days before the wedding!

That's Officiant Josh and his wife, Kim; FIL & MIL Coach; and, of course, Mr. C and me, with our huge slice of carrot cake :) 

Dinner was amazing, and it was so wonderful to spend some quality time with some of our favorite people before we started the wedding rush. And seriously, how much do Mr. C and FIL C look alike?! Crazy!

The next day, Friday, I officially felt the craziness of the wedding coming on. As much as I was able to enjoy the actual wedding day, and surprisingly nothing ran behind on time, Friday was the day for rushing around and being overwhelmed. I was supposed to be at the hotel where all of our bridal party was staying at 2, so that they could all check in - I showed up promptly at 2:30. Meaning that our 4pm rehearsal arrival was almost impossible, not just for me, but for our bridal party who needed to shower and freshen up from their drives in. But somehow, we all made it to the Piazza eventually, and the night finally started to unfold as planned. 

We rehearsed for the big day, with the help of our wonderful coordinator, Tabitha. Despite how we look in the picture above, we were actually feeling much more like this:

Uhhh, we're rehearsing for our WEDDING!

The guys were all looking great, and had some fun waiting around until it was their turn to walk in...

...And Momma Coach snapped one of my favorite pictures from the weekend of my wonderful bridesmaids and me. And, no, I did not ask them to all wear solid colors, they just looked that beautiful all on their own ;)

After the rehearsal, and a few more pictures in front of the Piazza, we all headed over the Brio Tuscan Grille (highly recommended!), where we enjoyed nothing short of a feast. The food was great, and we loved the private room that we had reserved for our dinner. We reserved two-thirds of Brio's party room - I know it sounds weird, but they let you reserve sections based on how many people you have, and each section you use increases the minimum. Ideally, we would've liked to have the space of all three sections, but someone had already reserved part of it. So, we just got a little cozy and then chowed down! There were two long tables like you see below, so Mr. C and I just made our rounds to talk with everyone in between stuffing our faces with all of the tasty food ;)

After we finished dinner at Brio, Mr. C, our bridal party and I headed over to the Glass Cactus at the Gaylord Texan Hotel for a little pre-wedding shindig with our friends. I have no pictures to show for it (bad blogger!) but I'll just let that represent the all-out amazing time we had and the fact that we couldn't slow down to take pictures :)

Now that we had rehearsed and partied it up with our friends, it was time for the big day! Next up, the girls get ready!

Miss a recap?

First, I shared some of my favorite guest photos from the big day!