Wedding Weekend: Rehearsal Dinner

At 4:00 on Saturday we all headed over to rehearse for the big day! Mr. Rusty married them so it was neat to have him there with us. He married us too (it was his first time!) and I joked with him when Danielle told me she got engaged that she immediately said she wants Rusty to do the wedding haha. It was fun getting to practice everything and for Chrissy to get to use her bow bouquet we made her from her showers!

with my little man

The Parker’s in Purple!

Kye wasn’t allowed to crawl, didn’t want to ruin his shoes 🙂

great family pic!

Brandon and Chrissy had their ceremony at The Pena Peck Women’s Exchange in old town in St. Augustine! Very unique as I’m sure all of you thought “St Augustine must mean the beach!” I love that they did something different and it was a very pretty spot for sure! It was neat because after we finished practicing we just walked down to Harry’s where Mom planned the Rehearsal Dinner!

Mom went all out planning the rehearsal dinner and she did a great job. They put us all in an upstairs room and the food was great! It’s cajun and when I ate their before (for my 21st birthday with Dad and Brandon…I forgot to mention this to them that weekend actually! It was a fun time!) I wasn’t a big fan but our menu was specially selected by Mom so it was more my style! The steak was super yummy 🙂 In part of her going-overboard-ways (who does that remind you of?!?) Mom baked TWO cakes and made them look like kissing fish! I swear with Kye’s monkey cake and now these she should have one of those baking shoes on TLC 😉

btw it seemed like everyone copied our purple theme haha

fish kisses!

The rehearsal dinner was nice as it gave us a chance to mingle with other people in the wedding party. I first met Cassandra back at Chrissy’s graduation from UF and she was the Maid of Honor. I clicked with her right away as Kye was a little over 2 months old I think and she was still pregnant at the time with Gavin! She actually read the blog and has followed Babywise! AND she breastfed for a long time too! We have so much in common in our parenting styles and just overall personalities. I’ve only actually seen her three times (including the weekend of the wedding) which just doesn’t seem possible. I feel like we were bffs in a past life or something b/c I feel like I know her so well! I really wish we lived closer (she lives close to Tampa) as I’d LOVE to spend more time together and for Gavin and Kye to be good friends!

Kye and Gavin – they are 5 months apart in age to the day!

all the bridesmaids!

had to get a full length one with Liz and our matching bubble dresses

If you didn’t notice already, I didn’t actually see Kye much over the weekend! It worked out GREAT that Mr. Rusty did the ceremony (or “Father Rusty” as Liz kept calling him haha) as that meant Mrs. Charlotte got to come down for the weekend too. She and Mr. Rusty volunteered to help take care of Kye so Zach and I could keep our focus on the wedding. I’m more thankful for that than I can even express. They were AMAZING and did such a great job helping out. I seriously didn’t have to worry about a thing, just being a bridesmaid! I feel like they are some of those people I really bonded with over the weekend. I feel SO much closer to them both than I’ve ever felt! Everyone kept telling me how lucky I am to have them for in-laws and how not too many people would come on vacation to St Augustine and spend their whole trip babysitting. Trust me, I agree and I AM so lucky 🙂 They kept him right on schedule and everything!

While he looks cute in the pics, Kye was probably the fussiest at the rehearsal dinner. It was bad for him at least. He started having a lot of snot (like it was a RIVER pouring from his nose) the day we left and I think it’s a teething issue. GREAT timing right? At least we had a lot of people to help keep him busy and happy!

It was a nice dinner and we even played some games (not a surprise if you know my mom! she makes everything fun!). It was also nice b/c it got over rather early and we had the night to ourselves to go get stuff to decorate THE CAR (I’ll have a post dedicated to our fine work soon!)

Next Up: THE BIG DAY!!!!

Emily Parker

6 Comments

  1. Chrissy
    March 16, 2010 / 12:13 pm

    that was YOU that did the car?? Haha I hope you have pictures cuz we didn't get any.Thanks for posting all this for us!Love, Chrissy

  2. Stephanie
    March 16, 2010 / 3:10 pm

    You look SOOO good!! 🙂

  3. Jonathan&Danielle
    March 16, 2010 / 4:16 pm

    OMG!! Dang girl, you look GOOOOODDD!!! Your tummy is so flat, & that rockin' purple dress looks smokin' on you! I hope you're proud of yourself- you look AWESOME! WOW!!

  4. Rachael
    March 16, 2010 / 4:39 pm

    I love your dress- where did you get your necklace? Kyes tie is SOOO cute!! hahaha

  5. Emily
    March 16, 2010 / 5:02 pm

    WOW guys! Thanks so much!!! I worked hard to try to look my best that weekend and I'm glad y'all think I succeeded 🙂 Dress was only $27 from Forever 21 online, necklace was from Express (ZACH picked it out so he takes full credit) and Kye's tie was from The Children's Place for $4! 🙂

  6. Crissy Megow
    March 17, 2010 / 1:52 am

    Mrs. Charlotte is really sweet, and I can picture her taking her job so seriously watching him and sticking to his routine, she is such a sweet heart ;)And btw, I am so glad that you look this good, it gives me encouragement for my future body some day after my 14 children, lol!

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