Wedding Recap- Part 2...The Rehearsals

Live Trip Update
Howdy again!  My camera died and I don't have much to show you except for the fire that I saw on the runway from the hotel.  Apparently they didn't think it was a big deal because they let it keep burning and then did it again.  I felt quite safe today.

Back to the recap! Rehearsal Part 1
Since we had never been married, we needed 2 rehearsal dinners- this is something we do not take lightly!  The first rehearsal actually started with a practice run of our ceremony and it went well.  My husband turned into quite the wedding coordinator and regulated- he got people marching right into place.

We practiced at our wedding location, The Argonaut Hotel in San Francisco.  The hotel was by far my favorite vendor to work with for our wedding.  We chose it mostly for the location and we loved the exposed brick on the inside and outside of the hotel

My nephew took the job seriously:

Once we finished the rehearsing (much of which was delightfully wrong when we did the actual ceremony), we went to eat dinner with our bridal party.  I had looked for a place that was fun and captured the San Francisco experience, so we chose Bocce Cafe in the North Beach area of San Francisco.  Bocce Cafe is an Italian restaurant with live entertainment and a beautiful outdoor seating area.  Since it was fairly chilly out and we had a large group, we sat inside.

I pre-set the menu and people were able to order their own entrees after sharing some appetizers.  My personal favorite was the warm bread and the veggie lasagna. 

After our dinner, we went out to grab a couple of drinks and to get our dance on!  We went to an awesome mojito bar with live salsa music and stayed out too late for my own good- but it was all kinds of fun.

Rehearsal Part 2
The second rehearsal dinner was a dinner to practice eating.  Something you should know about my family is that food is important- eating it, preparing it, talking about it, and figuring out how to eat it without growing another human's worth.  My mom is a gourmet chef- self-taught and super creative (hi mom!).  My parents hosted a rehearsal dinner for our out of town guests and family.  It was a really nice time together and we enjoyed a plethora of Russian foods and desserts. I hope to tap into my mom's arsenal to share some fun Russian recipes with you soon!

We had a classic American dessert- ice cream cake that was brought by my mother-in-law:

Spent some time with the 'original family'

Played, hung out, and exercised:

And could not believe the day was almost here after all that planning!

We were so excited and I think I went to bed and never slept.  I just closed my eyes and woke up to marry my best friend of 4 years.