We checked out of our BEAUTIFUL hotel and headed up to Newport/Santa Ana where all the wedding stuff was happening. Jessie treated all of her bridesmaids to a luncheon on Thursday which was so much fun! We took a small boat out on the harbor and headed to The Cannery for lunch where our expert driver, Jessie, did an awesome job docking our little sailing vessel. After lunch we puttered around the harbor some more and enjoyed my favorite dessert, cake with butter cream frosting!
I hung out with all the super cute bridesmaids who made this old, pregnant lady feel so very welcome all afternoon and then Jessie, her friend and former UT roommate, Jessica, and I headed over to Jessie's Aunt Linda and Uncle Jan's house to pick up the boys who had been hanging out at their lovely pool all day.
And then, as with all wedding weekends, Jason and I had to head over to the hotel where all the groom's family and friends were staying to help put out a few fires. It's impossible to have these events without at least something going wrong and on Thursday what went wrong was the AC at the Embassy Suites. Let's just say it wasn't working right, I'm at the end of my 2nd trimester and it's too hot in California in August for no AC so I was going room to room with the manager trying to find the coolest rooms they had. They brought in fans and we survived and 2 days later the AC seemed to be working okay. First "snaffoo" under control. :)
Friday morning Jessie's mom, Gail, picked up me and mom for a little pampering at the spa. Gail treated us to our own private room for manicures and pedicures. We're talking the works here! It was SO RELAXING!!!! And we loved spending the morning with just us girls! Thanks Gail and Jessie for including us in such a nice morning! My toes still look pretty! :)
Now, I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail, but let's just say I was so thankful for a relaxing morning because the rest of the afternoon leading up to the rehearsal dinner was one of the most stressful times in my life to date. After grabbing a quick bite at In-N-Out Burger we got ready for the rehearsal and Jason, Mom, and I headed to the Balboa Bay Club (where my parents had reserved a room for the rehearsal dinner and worked with the event coordinator for MONTHS to pull off this big, beautiful dinner) to set up a few things before we headed to the rehearsal. Now, this Balboa Bay Club is a swanky place. Private room right on the water.....no cheap clam bake if you get my drift. However, this is where we encountered the next "snaffoo." Apparently the event coordinator...... well let me just say......perhaps she should find a new job preferably out of the country and definitely NOT in the event planning industry. Long story short, the 3 of us missed the entire rehearsal because we were trying to throw together a huge dinner party that we thought had been all planned because the event coordinator "wasn't on the premises" and couldn't be reached and no one had a clue as to what had been planned in terms of seating charts, table assignments, and room design. CRAZY!!!!
Now the event itself turned out beautifully. We pulled it all together in the shortest 2 hours of my life and managed not to have a nervous breakdown in the process. The food was delicious, the wait staff very attentive, and all the guests seemed to really enjoy the atmosphere and fantastic scenery. We do not recommend you ever have an event at this fine establishment however, and I'm not sure my mother has quite gotten over the fact that she missed her only son's rehearsal, but we did make it to the wedding the next day, so I guess that's really the important thing.
Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of the room or the view due to the madness of pulling it all off before all the guests arrived, but the florist did an amazing job with the floral arrangements on the tables. Truly stunning! And the audio visual guys were the best and helped me and Jason figure out all of the technical equipment to play the famous slideshow created on our new MacBook. Hats off to Jason as the DVD turned out amazingly professional looking and probably should be considered for some kind of Oscar, but I don't think we'll be doing another one of those for quite some time. We were so glad to be able to do that for Craig and Jessie, but DON'T call us for your next event! :)
Come visit again tomorrow and I'll try to recap the wedding day! :) Thanks for reading!
1 comment:
BLESS your hearts!! i've been the "event coordinator", too, and it is the most stressful thing! BLESS your hearts! i'm so glad that everything worked out and that it was beautiful! i'm taking careful notes of your trip b/c we're going to san diego in december! :) still up for tea sometime?
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