Time to Dine

After our rehearsal was over, we headed down the street to Lefty's Grill in Nevada City. Mr. Goodlaff and I chose the restaurant because, exactly three years ago to that very day, we were set up on a lunch date at Lefty's by Tally and Houdini, and the chance to celebrate that anniversary with our family and friends at the place where it all began was just too good to pass up. The venue was a perfect fit for us. It had a private banquet room in the back that fit just enough, but not too many people, and made for a cozy rehearsal dinner atmosphere.

We gathered in the back banquet room with our bridal party and immediate family, and everyone mingled and chatted as we waited for our dinner to arrive.

At one point, there was also a painting of a knife behind me, but it mysteriously came crashing down.  The fork painting shared the knife's destiny, and later was floor-bound as well. Oops...

After dinner, there was much speechifying as Mr. Goodlaff and I passed out the gifts for the Bridesmaids, Groomsmen, and our parents, and the handkerchiefs I had hand embroidered for all the moms.

(That's Houdini, convincing one of Mr. Goodlaff's groomsmen that he should be doing a reading in the wedding the next day....)

But the hour was late, and everyone began heading for the bars or home.  I must confess: I was in a huge hurry to get out of there. I had vows to write and a hotel to check into, and a million details to try to empty out of my head before I'd be able to sleep.  Crazy time was just beginning, because I was getting married in less than 24 hours!

Practice (Even at the Last Minute) Makes Perfect

Because of a high school prom the night before, the Goodlaffs were unable to rehearse in our wedding venue until the morning of the wedding, which I found frustrating but manageable.  Upon learning that a wedding eve rehearsal was out, I came up with the genius idea of having a rehearsal breakfast, which was quickly shot down by Mama Goodlaff.

See, until about two weeks before the wedding, I was absolutely convinced that it wouldn't be too bad rehearsing on the day-of . Then I had my hair trial, and I found out just how long it would take for me to get beautiful--hours! Hours and hours of hair, and a wedding rehearsal on the big day would mean a start time of 7:30AM for my hair.   I'm not a morning person anyway, and the thought of being in a stylist's chair about three hours before I usually begin functioning on a normal day would be especially brutal on wedding morning.  Score one for Mama Goodlaff.

We explored the option of rehearsing somewhere besides the Miners Foundry before the rehearsal dinner, but until the day before the wedding, never really made a decision on where or when to rehearse. So, mere hours before our rehearsal dinner was scheduled to happen, we decided that yes, we would rehearse that evening. Since the Foundry was out, we decided to rehearse somewhere open, with a lot of parking, and not a lot of people around: the county government center.

Romantic, I know. 

Pancakes Makes Perfect

One of Mr. Goodlaff's favorite things is to "wing it."  I am a planner, descended from a long line of planners, and Mr. Goodlaff simply is not (which is not to say that he can't plan--he just doesn't).   If it were up to him, we might be foregoing the dress rehearsal, and "winging" the ceremony. 

No.  Just no.

That said, our venue is occupied the night before the wedding (by a Junior Prom, of all things), so we will be unable to do a rehearsal in our venue until the morning of the wedding.  Timetables on paper tell me that this will be possible, but it's still a daunting thing to know that we won't get to play wedding until a few hours before we're actually married.  So what's a girl with no wedding-eve rehearsal to do?

I pondered on the topic for a while and eventually came up with what I though was the Best. Plan. EVER:

A rehearsal breakfast.