Honeys Do: A Pizza Party!

After we rehearsed we headed up the hill to my parents rental house for dinner...I never talked about our rehearsal dinner and that's because it wasn't finalized until the Monday before the wedding. We went back and forth on having either burgers catered in a restaurant at Vallecito or pizza brought in to my parents rental house. Ultimately, the pizza party route worked better for our wallets and for the vibe we wanted at our rehearsal dinner. My parents rented a large house with plenty of space, a pool table and a ping pong table so we all gathered there.

Mr. Honey and I ordered 20 pizzas from Domino's and had my cousin T pick them up for us on his way to Vallecito that afternoon. We picked 20 different varieties of pizzas from pepperoni to BBQ chicken to spinach and white sauce. For sides we picked up bread sticks and marinara and my mom made some favorite appetizers. To top of our pizza party, we tapped a keg of Tecate. It was so fun! It was casual and laid back, but just perfect for what we wanted. Seriously, who doesn't love a slice-o-Domino's with a cold beer?!

After everyone gorged themselves on slices of pizza, Mr. Honey and I passed out the wedding party gifts. We gave a very brief "thank you for being with us" speech...

And everyone raised their glasses, cups and cans to toast the Honeys!

My mom's best friend (in the blue shirt above) D, then pulled Mr. Honey and I aside and requested we open her gift before our big day. I'm sharing it with you because it was one of the most sentimental gifts we received and I think it will become a gift I give to couples in the future.

Here Mr. Honey and I are reading the sentiment that described our gift. I love this picture, it captures our focus as we read the special note.

Danny & Cara, This is Your Blessing Cup...

May this cup be the beginning of a tradition passed down through generations.
Use this cup to celebrate the beginning of a new day, a wedding, birth, baptism, birthday, life's miracles, a loved one who has passed on, or anything that has special meaning. Place this cup in a prominent place as a reminder that all blessings are possible. Use it as a vessel for prayers, affirmations, hopes and dreams. Create your own blessings and traditions as you journey through life. The first blessing will be your wedding and for many happy and fruitful years between and ahead of you both. God bless you and your lives together.

Promptly after reading the description of our gift and admiring the ceramic cup, D whipped out a bottle of Peppermint Schnapps to christian the cup with on the eve of our wedding. She also included a little notebook for us to make note of each of the events that we use our Blessing Cup for.

For the first entry, I excitedly wrote "rehearsal dinner", dated it 1/20/12 and made sure to include a heart as part of the exclamation mark. Then I took the first sip from our Blessing cup.

The cup now sits proudly in the hutch in our kitchen. We've used it once since our wedding weekend, and that was on Valentine's Day to commemorate our first Valentines Day as husband and wife and also to welcome MOH Stac's 3rd daughter to the world (she was a Valentine baby!).

Back to the rehearsal...there was more socializing, some pool and ping pong games and then the groomsmen busted out a bottle of Jager. Mr. Honey is a big fan of Jager and so we passed the bottle around the room, sharing with all our family members and closest friends. Mama Honey really took a liking to the Jager...and it was quite entertaining to see family members cutting loose! In the picture below you can see that the groomsmen picked out one of the larger sized bottles, and I will say that it was polished off!

Once the Jager was gone, my bridesmaids and I decided we were ready for girl time and left the party earlier than everyone else. But we certainly continued our own party...up next: Princesses, panties and dance practice!!

*All photos by BM Mae

• We had a busy wedding week
• Teamwork made our Dream Work
• We rehearsed casually

Honeys Do: A Casual Rehearsal

After we set up, all my bridesmaids and I went back to our house to get pretty before the rehearsal. I had bought a few new dresses for wedding events and was stoked to finally be putting on the one I had picked out for the rehearsal. After we were all prettified, we piled into BM K's Swagger Wagon, Tecate's in hand, and headed back to the venue for the rehearsal.

Photo by BM Mae
BM Scoot, BM Candace, Me, BM Fawn

Us girls arrived very last to the rehearsal, but you know what? I was a-okay with that because I was the bride! Certainly the rehearsal wasn't going to start without me, assuming anyone even knew what to do at a rehearsal. I was so happy to see my very soon-to-be husband and get the thang started!

Photo by Aunt M

We did the standard reverse walk through, with everyone starting at the altar. The most important part of our rehearsal was working with pairing up our uneven wedding party, and fortunately it worked out perfectly.

Photo by Aunt M

Because there was no real strategy to our rehearsal, there was lots of directing going on, however the lack of formality made it go rather smooth...you know, since we were just casually walking with friends while enjoying a brewski!

Photo by Aunt M

Officiant Mark & Mr. Honey

Photo by Aunt M

I'm explaining something very important, I'm sure

We did a few walk throughs and decided that we had it down, so Mr. Honey and I rehearsed our recessional one last time, beers in hand...

Photo by Aunt M

Our rehearsal took all of about 15 minutes and we didn't plan on dinner until 5, so we had some time to kill. This provided some good catching up and kick back time with our guests.

Photo by Aunt M

Mr. Honey and his aunts from Alabama

Photo by Aunt M

Mr. Honey with Officiant Mark and FIL Honey

This down time also allowed FIL Honey to give us his wedding gift, which was perfect, because it was a rather special gift so we got to open it when it was relatively calm. He handed over a card, giving a sweet sentimental speech:

Photo by Aunt M

We read the card, and my reaction was caught perfectly on camera:

Photo by Aunt M

The card clearly warranted a big hug for my FIL:

Photo by Aunt M

The gift was far more than a card, on the inside of the card was the statement "Good for one sectional couch". You see, Mr. Honey and I have been wanting to replace our couch for far too long and we planned on using wedding money to do so. My very generous FIL decidide he would purchase the couch for us so that we can buy our other dream item with wedding money (which I will share with you, I promise!). I'm so happy we had those few minutes to take in the gift he had gotten us!

Photo by Aunt M

And with that, it was time to head to dinner!

• We had a busy wedding week
• Teamwork made our Dream Work