Dennis Family Files: Wedding (Part 1 of 4)

WE DID IT! And, I LOVED it. It was the best weekend/week of my life and with only a few minor bumps (which I expected) the rehearsal dinner, wedding and honeymoon completely exceeded my expectations...which is rare. We have TONS of pictures from not only our photographer but our own personal paprazzi (Steve's sister, Donna...AKA my new sister-in-law!)
So, I had to take a few days off from my blog and collect my thoughts and catch up on other things ~~like work~~. And, I knew that this was goign to be a LONG post so I had to have the time to compose the whole thing. Now that I think about how long it actually will be I may start it and do it in four parts, the wedding rehearsal (part 1), the rehearsal dinner (part 2), the wedding (part 3) and the honeymoon (part 4). We have pictures of all of it and I am so happy. I cannot thank Donna enough for taking as many pictures as she did. The woman took over 1000 pictures total. Our photographer that we hired and paid money to, took about 1200. Our photographer took great pictures but I would've been okay with even just Donna's cause they are almost the EXACT same. It's insane! She's awesome.

So, on to Part 1....THE WEDDING REHEARSAL DINNER.

I don't think that I ever posted about the drama of our rehearsal dinner location but here's a quick recap. Steve's friend, Nate, called us two weeks before the wedding and told Steve that he drove by the American Tap Room (where we ahd originally booked our rehearsal dinner) and it looked "dark". Hmmmm... So, before I ~~freaked out~~ calmly tried to locate another venue, we called the restaurant to find out if it was true...no answer and no message on their answering machine. Then, we went on their website...no notice letting us know that they have closed down. So, I called the Hampton Inn next door to ask if they knew anything. The lady who answered informed me that they had gone out of business. AWESOME. The next day at work, I recruited the help on my Maid of Honor, Tiffany to find a new venue. What some may not realize is that our wedding is in the stix! There is nothing around Haymarket and I feel very lucky that they even had a decent hotel for guests to stay at even though it was a Hampton Inn (it was actually a nice, new, pretty one). Tiffany located a winery a little further out that we could hire a catering company for and we nailed down some minor details, visited it a week later and it was set. I can't tell you how much BETTER it turned out than the American Tap Room ever could have and how pretty and perfect it was in my eyes. We had a risk of rain the whole weekend and it did not rain once! I couldn't believe it!

Before, I go on to the winery details, the reheasal ended up working out well too. This was one of the first times MANY of our family members and friends were ever meeting each other. The rain held off, the bridal party members did well, the two younger flower girls needed a little work but that was to be expected and the scenery was beautiful. It was a little chaotic but it all worked out in the end.

Now, back to the winery. The only glitch was that it was a little further out than I had expected and there was traffic but other than that, it was absolutely perfect. We had Brion's Grille cater the food and they did an excellent job. We had hand carved prime rib, chicken cabernet, vegetbales, a dessert tray, appetizers, beer and wine....in the middle of the vineyards! It was beautiful. Now, on to the pictures.

The entrance (the place was gorgeous!)