My Best Friend's Wedding: The Rehearsal

So...even though I didn't finish my countdown, Jenny did, indeed, get married!!!

I got a little caught up in the wedding festivities and excitement, so blogging was the last thing on my mind.

Basically, everything was perfect. Jenny was super calm and happy and as cheesy as it sounds, absolutely radiant.

I took off work on Friday, and got into full wedding mode as soon as that 3:15 bell rang on Thursday. I met Jenny and her sister in Montgomery, ran some last minute errands, and had Jenny's last single meal with the Stough fam. Once we made it back to Auburn, Jenny and I finished packing for her honeymoon, made piles of things to go to different places (church, hotel, big don's house), and pretty much acted like this was all a dream...because it was.

The next day was the rehearsal. Jenny stayed busy, but again...cool as a cucumber. She was so organized and on top of things.



The rehearsal was beautiful and I might have started crying as soon as the priest started praying. Don't worry...I got a hold of myself, but things were questionable for a minute. At one point, the priest started saying the vows and it seemed like he wasn't going to stop, so we got kind of nervous that they would be married before their actual wedding. This didn't happen...the priest knew what he was doing...go figure.

This was when Jenny was giving us our bridesmaids gifts...jute bags (good thing because mine is getting holes), monogrammed hat (with my NEW initials-she's so thoughtful), and some really pretty jewelry to wear the next day. I'm pretty sure in this picture, our conversation is going something like this..."I luh you so much"..."I luh you too." I feel like we said that a lot this weekend, but it's true, so it's ok.



There was a little drama (because my life wouldn't be complete without it) with my speech. I had typed almost all of it out on the computer and planned on printing it out, well...Marti's printer wasn't working, so I proceeded to write my long-winded speech out on paper 30 minutes before I had to be at the rehearsal. I still wasn't finished when I got there, so I did what I could when we had little breaks. I actually finished writing it in the church parking lot.

Their rehearsal dinner was at Zazu in downtown Auburn and it was sooo nice!! It was an Italian theme since both Andy's and Jenny's family are Italian and let me tell you...they went all out! Everybody had a little bottle of olive oil with Jenny's and Andy's picture on it to tell us where to sit. Tyson had a seminar that Friday, so we knew he would be late to the dinner, but he made it just in time! I was so glad!



It was so good to catch up with friends AND be reunited with four friends! When we saw Perryn and Ro Lynn, we hugged and cried for a pretty prolonged period of time! I stole these pictures from Perryn's blog...



 There were LOTS of speeches during dinner and they were all SO good! I swear, everybody but me must have majored in public speaking. I was so nervous! I wanted to do a good job because Jenny is so special to me and I really wanted to tell her what was on my heart. The only other speech that I've given like this was at my sister's rehearsal dinner and I'm ashamed of it to this day. I had written out what I wanted to say, but I freaked out and just decided to wing it and it was awful. I didn't say anything that I really wanted to! So...I knew I had to be prepared this time. I wrote down and read everything which isn't my favorite, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I did have to put my hand in an ice bucket because I talked to long, but I was ok with it. I had things I needed to say. Jenny's Dad's speech almost sent me over the edge. It was absolutely precious.



After the rehearsal dinner, a bunch of us went out to 17-16 for just a little while. We made it a pretty early night because we wanted to be rested up for the BIG DAY!!