Bridal Tea and Rehearsal

The day before the wedding, I had my bridal tea for my 3 MOH's and my 7 honorary bridesmaids. Because 3 of the girls in the wedding came from out of state, the only day to have the tea was Friday morning. We chose the Gift Box Tea Room for the tea because it was in town, has good food, and they had a little party room we could use. On the invite, I asked all of the girls to wear fascinators since it was a "tea" & because I l-o-v-e fascinators!  I thought it was a fun idea to incorporate and turns out, it was also the start of the Queen's Jubilee that day, so it fit the day perfectly!

We had a little "spray tan party" the night before so we could all get tanned, where I was reunited with my long lost college best (who I hadn't seen in over 2 years), Krista, who flew in all the way from Hawaii and with my MOH, Julia, who lives in NC! If you live in the Lexington area, call Jessica @ MobileGlow for spray tans. She's so fun and the tans are great, long lasting and super affordable. Plus, its a fun way to have a little girls night :) We had wine, chocolate covered strawberries and other snacks, thanks to my friend Ashley who hosted last minute after the house disaster! I wish I had taken pictures, but I didn't- whoops!

My wonderful mamma! My dress was a $15 steal from Marshalls!

My beautiful and amazing Matron's of Honor!

You can't even tell she just had a baby!!

I was so blessed that every girl was able to make it to the tea, including our matchmaker who had literally had her baby a few days prior! My other OOT bridesmaid from FL also arrived, so it was great to be reunited with her as well. We snapped LOTS of pictures, drank tea, ate sandwiches/quiches and I gave each girl her gifts.

My 2 lovely Kappa Delta pledge sisters, Krista & Jane

For my MOH's I gave them a champagne colored Coach wristlet, their necklace and earrings we made (I couldn't find anything I loved, so my mom's friends helped us make some), and their reception flip flops (Old Navy flops tied with a navy ribbon).
For my BM's I gave them a monogrammed bikini bag (bought from the same company we used to order our invites), a Vera Bradley green and navy sunglasses case, their earrings and bracelet we made, the Thirty-One pink flower for their hair (I had to incorporate my 2nd job in the wedding somehow!), and their reception flip flops. Of course, I used my mad bargain shopping skills when purchasing their gifts and I am SO pleased at the amount of items I was able to get each girl while staying in budget. They said they didn't expect any less from me! Ha!

Thanks, Tiff, for taking this picture :)

After the tea, we headed to mine and mom's favorite nail shop, Lovely Nails, and got manis and pedis. We've gotten to know the employees their quite well and they made sure to take extra good care of us that day! Again, if you live in Lex, I highly recommend them :)

My 3 MOH's and myself went to the reception venue after we left the nail shop to check out the table set up and such then went back to the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal. We headed over to the church, which was only a few blocks from the hotel, and had the traditional rehearsal. It was the first time I had seen all of my family that had come into town for the wedding and during the rehearsal is when it really hit me that we were getting married. Because of the sheer craziness after the house flooded, I never really had time to sit and soak in the fact that it was all real and about to happen- we were about to get married. As we were standing up on stage, looking out to where everyone was going to be the next day I was like holy cow, this is real, we are finally tying the knot! It was almost a surreal moment for me. I tried right then and there to soak up every minute of everything that was about to happen over the next 24 hours and to not think about the house or anything else that may distract me. My dream day was about to happen and I was SO excited :)

As soon as we did our final run through, we headed to our lovely rehearsal dinner, which was held at the Equestrian Woods Country Club. We had a fun night of eating a delicious dinner and spending time with everyone who was so near and dear to us. M gave his groomsmen their personalized Louisville Sluggar bats and we also gave out our gifts to our parents and others involved in the wedding as everyone ate their desserts.

The fellas with my hubs and their bats- M's best buds from college :)

Some of my maids/matrons and guest book girls!

After the dinner, about 15 of us headed out to downtown Lexington for a night out on the town. After finding several overly crowded places, we ended up at Chase Tap Room where we spent a few hours (but just a couple, we had to get our beauty rest) having drinks and socializing. It was an absolute and total blast and an excellent night before the wedding outing! M and I kept remarking how our ENTIRE wedding party got along like they were best friends. Many of the people had never met until our wedding weekend and it was like we were one huge group of lifelong friends. We were/are beyond blessed with amazing friends and our amazing wedding party!!

Around midnight, me and my 3 MOH's headed back to the Gratz Park Inn and crashed-but not before being the super annoying bride and updating my fb status that it was officially wedding day. ha!

Wedding Day post coming next......