The whole day of the rehearsal was so surreal for me. It was hard to believe that the wedding weekend was finally here!

By Friday of wedding week Ian and I had finished up most of the things on our to-do list. Ian took the last few things for me and I had a pretty relaxing and enjoying day leading up to the wedding. My Mom, my bridesmaids and I got manicures and pedicures. They took extra good care of me when they found out I was the bride and it was probably the best manicure I have ever had.

After manis and pedis, I headed back to my parent’s house with a few of my bridesmaids and hung out until it was time to head to the rehearsal. My friend Sarah did my hair. I have never mastered anything more than using the flat iron, so I let her take over and put in a bunch of loose curls!

Mom & I on the way up to the rehearsal!

All of a sudden it was past time to go and we were rushing to the Church as Ian texted wondering where we were! The ceremony was held at Immaculate Conception Church in Fayetteville, NY where I grew up. It holds a special place in my heart as I went to the neighboring elementary school there. There were many events held up at the Church for us over the years from Kindergarten and Sixth Grade graduations to mine and my brother’s high school graduation parties in the reception hall.

Ian and I rocking our custom chuck taylors at the rehearsal

Ian and I quickly met with the priest, Father Chris, when we got there. Father Chris was absolutely great. He was our age, very personable and had a great sense of humor. We met with him a couple months before the wedding and he seemed to take a genuine interest in getting to know us and making our ceremony a very personal experience for us. I really appreciated it.

We did a whole run-through so we would know when to sit and stand and where to walk. Naturally we still managed to mess a few things up the next day, but I don’t think too many people could tell!

We wrapped up in less than an hour. This made things really start to feel real! After the rehearsal we were off to our Tailgate Party! More on that later.