Wedding | Jovers

We had our rehearsal dinner the night before our wedding last month. I emphasized to everyone to please be on time. Almost everyone was there on time, however I couldn’t find Andrew or his family anywhere! I found them upstairs, just talking.

And then my brother shower up.

My brother Steven, who is our resident “crazy” sibling, came to our rehearsal as a homeless man. Yup a homeless man.

Homeless Steven
At first, I couldn’t believe it – but then again it is my brother so it really didn’t surprise me too much. I jcouldn’t stop laughing and I still laugh now when I look at that picture. I mean, not many brides can say that their brother showed up to their rehearsal dinner looking like that! Plus, I was kind of impressed with all the effort he put into it and how well it turned out! He had a family friend help him with the makeup, though she didn’t want me to know because I thought she would be mad. ;P

The groomsmen didn’t realize it was a joke until after the wedding. ;P They thought that he was actually homeless! Once they understood the joke, they thought it was a lot funnier. Andrew’s poor mother had to be escorted down the aisle by him. I know she thought it was funny, but he even told her that she didn’t have to hold his arm. I am just giggling writing about this!

Rehearsal

The actual rehearsal was a little rough. I may have broken down into tears on several different occasions which was absolutely mortifying. Everyone was looking to me for decisions, asking me a million different questions at the same time, and then when I would make a decision, they wouldn’t agree or like it! It was driving me absolutely bonkers. And when I get overwhelmed and upset, the floodgates just open! So embarrassing. In the end, however, everything worked out and we ran through it once more and everything went smoothly!

I just wanted to eat! x_x

The fellowship hall, where we had planned on having the dinner flooded the day before, so we moved the food upstairs to one of the Sunday School rooms. I actually think I liked it better up there! Andrew’s parents catered Olive Garden so we had chicken parmesan, fettuccine alfredo, breadsticks, salad, and his sister baked cookies! It was all so good!

Since we had to move all of the food upstairs, we brought up tin holders and bunson burners to keep the food warm. They placed water under the tin food, so that the burners would warm the water, which would keep the food warm. When I went to scoop myself some chicken, though, the whole thing collapsed and water went everywhere. I just stood there, frozen, as everyone tried to put the food back on the stand, but kept dropping it because the tins were so hot. All my girls just giggled at me. -_-

After dinner, we handed out our gifts. I wish I would have taken pictures because I made really cute bags for everyone with their names on it. We used yellow bags with mint blue tissue paper we found at the dollar store to match our wedding colors. All of the groomsmen received a flask with their name and our wedding date engraved on it. I bough all of my bridesmaids pearl necklaces and earrings and then some lotion and body wash from Bath & Body Works.

I bought Andrew’s mom a necklace I found from Etsy with a sweet message on the inside. It was so cute how it was packaged! I think she really like it! I mean, I would have liked it if I got it!

Ericka's Present

My dad’s side of the family is from Pennsylvania, and it’s about a 12 hour drive from there to St. Louis, so we don’t get to see them very often! They went out for margaritas afterwards and Andrew and I joined them. We had a great time – and it was perfect for me because it kept me from worrying and stressing about my big day tomorrow!

Margaritas Margaritas2

This is the first post in a series about my wedding. Read about the morning of my wedding next!

I had my bridal shower this weekend. This was actually the second one – I had a small family one back in May. I was really nervous about how it was going to turn out. My maid of honor waited until the last minute to plan everything – and you know me! I want everything organized and planned like a month ago, haha.

It was a bit frustrating, but in the end, my shower turned out really nice. We had it in my church’s fellowship hall, which by itself is really pretty ugly. Just a lot of brown and tiles but my mom and bridesmaids did a great job decorating it and made it really cute. They used streamers and hung lanterns from the ceilings. It was just really cute!

I think my favorite thing was the picture frames one of my frames made. She painted them my colors and used clothes pins to hang up pictures of me and Andrew. And she let me keep them afterwards!

It was at 11:30AM so for lunch, we served croissant roll sandwiches with fruit and chips and Rotel dip (a spicy cheese dip that is to die for!). My maid of honor baked cupcakes and I thought she had bought them at the store because she iced them and added little sunflowers and beads to them. I couldn’t done that good of a job!

After we ate, we played a couple of games. The first was called He Said, She Said. My mom and I found this cute template and just filled it in with questions like, Who wears socks to bed? or Who has been to Paris? Then you had to circle whether it was me or Andrew. Only one person got them all right, which made me laugh because it was a little girl that I used to babysit. She was so thrilled that she won (“And I just guessed!”) and got to have a prize.

The second game was a memory game. There were two rounds; the first round was beach themed. Emily had a bag full of beach items like a volleyball, flip flops, sun screen, etc. She would pull them all out and then put them back in the bag and everyone would have to write down what they remembered was in the bag. The first round everyone did really well. The second round was kitchen themed and there were fifteen items in the bag and they were all really small items like chip clips or a peeler. It was so funny watching everyone try to scribble everything down and my friends were having such a hard time.The winner of both of those rounds got prizes, too.

I opened presents after that. I was really blessed by all the presents that people gave me! I never thought that I would receive so many gifts from people getting married. I am just really grateful. It was a bit awkward opening presents with forty people watching and it was really quiet. I think my favorite gift was from my friend Allison, we gave me two nerf guns for our “first fight.” Mine was the really big one with “Hers” labeled on it and Andrew’s was a little bitty one with “His” labeled on it. He was not amused when I texted him a picture.

I received a lot of kitchenware which was great because I don’t have a lot of kitchenware, and what I do have is hand-me-downs from my siblings which they used in college so it’s all old and falling apart. I joke now that I have to learn how to cook. I am really excited to use them though! Like my panini press… my lunches will be so much tastier now.

Overall, my shower was a lot of fun but I was so exhausted once it was over. I wanted to go home and just take a nap, but we had to figure out where to put all my presents! I don’t think I’ll have in our small apartment in Kansas City to take everything back with us, so we will have to pick and choose what we want to take back and what we want to store in St. Louis until we come back (permanently).

Very blessed by such wonderful friends and family. :love:

Jovers

Category Archives: Wedding

The Rehearsal Dinner

Feeling Bridal-y