magical memories - rehearsal dinner

Nine years ago today, we enjoyed a very special dinner with some very special people.

In the midst of our wedding planning, my then-future-mother-in-law (TFMIL) offered to host the rehearsal dinner. We thankfully accepted her offer, and I left it pretty much up to the then-future-husband (TFH) and her to decide where. TFH came to me and said that she had offered to host the dinner at Club 33, the exclusive private club at Disneyland. She knew what Disney fans we were and thought that would be a nice treat for a special occasion, and she had a friend who worked for a company that had a membership and through which she could make a reservation. We talked about it, and as much Disney fans as we were and still are, we had decided to limit the Disney affiliations in the wedding - those who were at the wedding might have noticed a couple of touches during the reception, but that was pretty much it. We declined her gracious offer, and eventually, the location of the rehearsal dinner was decided to be North Woods Inn, a small chain of restaurants that we happen to like anyway and which had other family significance, not to mention there was a location not too far away from the hotel where the ceremony and reception would be held.

The rehearsal dinner included the bridal party and SOs, the officiant, all the parents, and some out-of-town family of mine. The restaurant didn't take reservations though, so to avoid having to wait too long because it was on a Friday night, TFMIL arranged for a family friend to arrive at the restaurant a little earlier to put our party down on the waiting list - and yes, he joined us for dinner as well. After our rehearsal, we all headed to the restaurant, where we waited in the bar area for a short time before our table was ready. I remember a group of us amusing ourselves by trying to throw the available unshelled peanuts into each other's water glasses.

Our group was set up as a long table, and we had a lovely dinner with everyone. Great food (North Woods Inn is spectacular at steak - cooked perfectly to order) and good company meant everyone had a wonderful time. We had a chance to thank our bridal party and our officiant (who was a friend of mine), and mostly, I was so thankful for the time with everyone and to TFMIL for hosting such a wonderful dinner.

After dinner, everyone went their separate ways for the night, and my maid-of-honor and I went back to the house since I hadn't finished preparing everything yet. We were both staying at the hotel that night, but when we got back to the room, we ended up spending most of the night talking, so neither of us got much sleep.

But overall, the rehearsal dinner is something that sticks in my memory, a time of relaxing and enjoying in the middle of all the planning, the night before the big day.