Read. Teach. Travel.: TBT: No Cold Feet Here!

Joe and I were so excited about the people involved in our wedding and the opportunity to spend time with our friends in places we love that our event quickly became a 3-day extravaganza involving hotel stays and itineraries and dress codes. (Sorry wedding partiers, sometimes I can't help myself...)

Thursday, July 11: Rehearsal Dinner
Joe and I had known for years at when we eventually got married we would have our rehearsal dinner at Stone Brewery World Bistro (even before he got a job there). We were especially excited for this event because we'd convinced the Events manager to allow us to have an event in an event space but without using any of the event services or the events menu. Our friends and family could order whatever they wanted from Stone's delicious regular menu and we were even able to pick our servers, two of Joe's good friends who would also be wedding guests on Saturday. (The photos are by Michelle Zuniga of Studio Z Photography.)

Chalkboard invitations from Etsy.

Brewery Tour led by Joe's friend Mike Martinez (also a wedding guest)

Joe's parents, Janis & Toby, the generous hosts

Bride and MOB (looking fab!)

Bridal Party

Groom & his men

love this pic of Joe with his mom and sister

and this one of my Maid of Honor and I like we're on the red carpet...

I also printed wedding-themed madlibs on kraft paper and bought black pencils -
fun activities for guests while they waited for dinner

the Bride and Groom

Afterward Joe and I welcomed four guests into our tiny apartment and continued the fun.

Friday, July 12: mani/pedis, ceremony rehearsal, and fun times at the hotel
When Joe and I first visited the Renaissance ClubSport in Aliso Viejo as a possible location for our guests to stay after our evening wedding, we fell totally in love with it and changed our entire wedding weekend to accommodate a night here with our whole wedding party. We switched the rehearsal dinner from Friday to Thursday night and informed all of the bridesmaids and groomsmen that they were expected to be available for hotel shenanigans all Friday afternoon and night (once we completed the business of the actual rehearsal). We may sound demanding but OMG it was worth it. We had such a blast hanging out here from 4 pm until way too late with our closest friends.

Manicures and pedicures were done at Cosmo Nail Bar, which basically has NO information online but was cute inside and could handle an entire bridal party at once, plus they had a patio out back that looked out onto a lake of some kind and we got to use it for our lunch. They did a good job and the Italian restaurant in the same center sent it's manager to deliver food directly to us, which was awesome. We did go about an hour over our originally allotted time, though, and I wouldn't ask them for anything outside of very traditional manicures unless you have pictures for them to copy (these are the manicurists responsible for the glittery "ombre" mess I mentioned in the bridal shower post, after all).

Bridal treatment

Charlotte's first pedicure (age 3.5) and she looks CONCERNED.

Next was the wedding rehearsal. All very serious, of course.

recognize the tissue paper explosion that Cate made at my bridal shower?

"So we walk and then we stand and then we walk back? Cool?"

love this one snapped by our wedding planner Amanda before we headed back to the hotel

Once we had all checked in we migrated to the outdoor lounge and fire pits where we quickly conquered a large area for our party. We stayed there, fluctuating from 6 to 25 people, for the next 8 hours with no complaints at all from the staff. In fact, they were attentive and courteous to our ever-changing group of people, taking food and drink orders nearly constantly for the entire duration.