Wedding Weekend – Friday, 7/24 Tea and Rehearsal Dinner

Friday is when the Wedding Weekend really started to pick up for us. Most, if not all, our family and friends have arrived at this point and the we were ready for the weekend to get busy! When our guests arrived to the hotel to check in, they were given fun little welcome bags that included snacks, bottled water, Baylor stickers, and information packets:

Anyway, back to Friday. The first thing I planned for the day was a Bridesmaids/Mothers Tea. I had all of my lovely, incredible seven bridesmaids, my mother, Mary (Greg’s mom), and Grandma Linda (Daddyo’s mom) there for the festivities. The event took place at Cullen’s over here in the Clear Lake area. It only made sense to have it on this side of town since the rest of the weekend would be taking place around the Galleria area.

When I first booked the event, the folks at Cullen’s were so amazing! I got to completely personalize my menu for my tastes, pick out linens and even charger plates! There was even a personalized menu at each place setting. It was awesome. The room looked beautiful, the food was amazing (along with the mimosas), and we had a wonderful time! We felt so prim and girly with our tea, scones, and mini sandwiches. I highly recommend Cullen’s if you’re thinking about hosting an event! Here are a few pictures from the tea.

The spread. Everything was so pretty (and delicious)!

The scones were seriously the best I’ve had this side of the pond. That’s why they get their own picture.

My lovely bridesmaids at the tea. Notice the hot pink pintuck linens and mimosas!

Me and my Momma! I feel so Jackie O. in that dress.

All of the lovely ladies!

So, after the lovely tea, we all headed to the Hilton Houston Post Oak to check in and relax a bit. We were extremely lucky and were able to get the 3,050 square foot PRESIDENTIAL SUITE with all three bedrooms for a steal. Rachel with the Hilton was amazing to work with and really accommodated us and our guests! It was so amazing to be able to stay in the suite with all of my bridesmaids, and just be able to wake up in the morning and have the hair and makeup people come to us! The suite was incredible!

View of the living room with views of the Galleria area. That was just one of the rooms. Dude, we even had our own doorbell, entryway, bar, half bath and much more! It was so awesome.

After checking in, it felt like it was already time to go to the wedding rehearsal! Whew. We all got prettied up again and headed off to St. George Orthodox Church. Here’s a few photos from the rehearsal…

My maid of honor and I!

Practicing walking down the aisle. I was silly with it, twirling and being a little goofy! Helped me not to get too emotional too soon… 😉

Bride and bridesmaids. We all had the cutest fun dresses.

Groom and Groomsmen (minus Colin, who was taking the picture)

Aerial shot of everyone

After the rehearsal, we all headed to Cafe Adobe for our lovely rehearsal dinner. We had an amazing Taco Bar set up for our guests in a lively and festive private room. We ended up having more people come than we expected, so it was a tiny bit cramped, but I think we made do and everyone enjoyed themselves! We had some problems last minute with Cafe Adobe. We changed our mind on our menu, which we were told we could do as long as it was days before the event, and then we were quoted a different price than what we had on the paper they had given us when we booked. They were pulling a ‘bait and switch’ on us and we definitely gave them a very hard time until they gave us the price they initially quoted us. NOTE TO ALL VENDORS: after a client signs a contract and pays a deposit, the prices that are quoted at that time are the prices that should be honored! Despite the little mess up there, we did have a wonderful time with our guests.

After the rehearsal dinner, we all headed back to the hotel. The girls and I went back to the Presidential Suite for some “last night as a single woman” bonding. They all gave me some fun little gifts and we drank champagne and had a nice time. It was wonderful to spend that evening with the girls. And I couldn’t believe the weekend was almost over!!!