lizzie + doug: May 3, 2012

Moving right along with the story…

As soon as I dropped by bags in the suite, we got the call that Scott had arrived with the pieces and parts of the centerpieces! Doug and I met Scott in the valet and helped him bring up all the ingredients for the centerpieces to the Royal Room.

(The Royal Room was wedding headquarters. It held all the boxes that were packed at my house. It was also our work room for the wedding.)

On a side note, Scott and I had dreamed/designed these centerpieces while on a ski trip in Colorado. With his engineering brain and my useless brain, we came up with what you are about to see. Scott and I met multiple times at his house. Scott basically did all the hard work while I just helped make it "pretty”. Scott even designed it so the centerpieces would spin veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery slowwwwwwwwwwwly.

Scottie’s arrival meant it was time to assemble the four main centerpieces for the wedding. Each centerpiece stood about 10 feet tall by itself. Once it was on the tables, it was quite a bit taller.

Doug, Scott, and I began the assembly. The first one took the longest, but after that we were rolling along. Scott had come to help us during his lunch break on a very busy day of work. He is amazing for just getting away from work that day. Scott left us to head back to work with only one more to assemble. I was less helpful than Scott, but Doug put up with me. :) I definitely used too much wood glue. :)

During this time, Mom and Dad brought over much needed food. We were starving. It was also time for us to go to the rehearsal dinner location to set up the projector, let dad practice, drop off the gifts and check on the space.

We ran up to the suite to grab the boxes and head over to Le Foret Restaurant. Luckily (and on purpose) it was around the corner so it was not a HUGE deal when I realized we had brought over one of the boxes that was not suppose to be there. Poor Doug was sent back to the suite to get the correct box.

The space was/is so pretty! I am glad we got there early because I noticed it was not set up as I requested. The staff, Doug, and I changed the room and added two more tables. It was still not enough seating in my opinion, but it had to do at that point. When we left, all the gifts were in place, the AV was set up and working and Dad was practicing. :)

Doug and I headed back to the suite to relax and change. Here is our elevator shot!

Once I got to the suite I started putting things away and organizing the room. My hair and makeup expert arrived – Brandi Bederka. She is awesome and I fully recommend her if you ever need hair and makeup.

Once they started doing my hair and makeup, Ashley decided she wanted hers done also. I asked Brandi quietly and she made it happen! Ashley was one lucky lady. Doug and Andrew had some quality time while Ashley and I had our makeup done. It was awesome!

Right on time, Doug and I headed down to the lobby to start walking to the rehearsal. It was set for 6:00 pm and I wanted to be there for 5:45 pm as I know things happen and people are sometimes late. Well, they all proved me wrong. They must know me well as EVERYONE was on time at 5:45 pm. So much so that is shocked the wedding coordinator at Immaculate Conception.

Doug was looking dapper in his new suit and I finally decided on the green dress (I was between this or a blue one.)

When we arrived it was hot! Ms. Patricia turned on the AC at 6:00 pm when she arrived and it cooled off quickly. Everyone was concerned for the wedding the following day, but I think they all relaxed when they realized the AC would be running all day Saturday.

Before we started the rehearsing, we snapped some awesome pictures! As you can tell, people were super impressed with my wedding programs.

This one below is my new favorite! I really like that Shawn is in it! :)

Once it was time to start rehearsing, Ms. Patricia lined up all the girls in the back and put the guys in the front. Dad came and hung out with me in the rear of the church.

Each of the girls practiced walking down the aisle, except me! You know it is bad luck for the bride to walk down the aisle during her rehearsal, right? Well it is. :) (Ha, but so is seeing your groom before the wedding…)

Anyway, Shawn’s mom (yes, the awesome driver of all the alcohol for the wedding) took my place for the long walk down the aisle with my dad. They even practiced the “two steps forward, one step back” routine and found it faulty. I will talk about this “step back” on a later post. At the very end of the aisle, I jumped in to practice.

And so we practiced…

I do remember when we practiced coming from the statue of Mary, I was the closest to all the guys and I low “high fived” all of the groomsmen and ushers as I walked by. I think they were all curious if I would actually do it during the wedding.

When the rehearsal was over, Doug and I walked up to the front of the church and said a prayer to bless our marriage and all of the people who have loved and supported us that were there in the church with us and beyond. Amanda (the unofficial official photographer) took pictures for us.