Remembering...the Rehearsal & Dinner

It's time to start writing down some of my thoughts about the wedding & honeymoon before it gets too far away. I cannot believe I've been married for almost a month already! WOW! Time just keeps on flying, that's for sure :)

The day before the wedding...

...was the day we had set aside to decorate the church & reception hall. There were quite a few of us there, so I honestly didn't think it would take too long at all to do. I was a little wrong. It took A LOT longer than I thought, but it was all worth it. Tim's family helped with a lot of the decorations, and they knew what they were doing. Mom and I helped in the reception hall and then when Harry and Cameron got there, they did what they could to help out, too. When it was all said and done, the church looked beautiful and the reception site looked wonderful (and beautiful, too). We had just enough time between finishing up all the decorating and the start of the rehearsal to go home and clean up, which is what we did.

Everyone arrived at the church around 6pm for the rehearsal. I was overjoyed. The moment I've been thinking about and wondering about for so long was right before us. Tom, our senior minister, led the rehearsal. It went perfectly. We laughed through Tim's intro (the Monday Night Football theme song) and mom cried the first time we ran through the "who gives this woman to be married" part. Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous. I was just excited to be this close to being Tim's wife. I don't think Tim was too nervous, either. It was a tender moment between both of us.

After running through the order of events for the wedding twice, we got ready to go to the rehearsal dinner. I know a lot of dinners involve toasts, speeches, and all that stuff. We didn't do any of that. We prayed, ate, and just visited with each other. I gave my bridesmaids their wedding gifts and Tim gave his groomsmen theirs. We tried to give Tom his honorarium for doing the wedding, but he wouldn't take it, saying marrying us was marrying family. (Which, yes, made me cry).

Once people started leaving the rehearsal, my bridesmaids and I went back to my apartment. We sat up stairs and talked and laughed for awhile, then they went to Rene's to spend the night. I went to Tim's for a few moments just to say goodnight before the wedding. It was so sweet to think of that last moment as we stood in the apartment, knowing the next time we saw each other we would be vowing to spend our lives together, no matter what.

I will admit that I got teary a few times during the rehearsal. Just knowing that we were so close to this moment that we had been planning and preparing for for so long was such an overwhelming feeling.

And, looking at Tim, I felt such peace and joy knowing that he would be the one that I would spend my life with forever.