Wedding Weekend: Rehearsal Dinner

The rehearsal dinner! Oh my goodness where do I begin??

Sage and Louis (Luke's parents) hosted the rehearsal dinner at Hardywood Brewery and it was SO MUCH FUN.  We danced, ate, toasted, drank beer, exchanged gifts, and just had a really awesome time. It was the perfect way to kick off our wedding weekend and we are so thankful for the memories made! Here is the only picture I ended up with of the brewery:

 

When we started planning the rehearsal dinner with Luke’s parents there were many, many [MANY] ideas passed around about what to do.  In all the ideas two things were the same: 1) beer had to be part of the theme. 2) it had to be casual and fun.  For Louis and Sage’s rehearsal dinner they rented a school bus and drove their bridal party out to the best BBQ joint in Austin.  After stuffing themselves full of amazing BBQ they went to a hole-in-the-wall bar and celebrated.  They both remember that night as one of the best nights of their lives and were so sweet in wanting to recreate it for us (and let’s be honest, so they could relive that awesome night again themselves!!) 

So to honor Louis and Sage’s wonderful rehearsal dinner [not so ;)] many years ago, we decided to go the beer and BBQ route and it was FABULOUS! We had Texas beef brisket, smoked turkey, green beans, baked beans, corn bread and, oh my, bread pudding that was to die for.  I promised myself I wouldn’t eat too much the night before the wedding (I had a terrible fear I wouldn’t fit into my dress) but I didn’t work very well once I saw the bread pudding. 

So anyway, we ate a wonderful dinner, then had a tour of the brewery so we could learn a little about how they make beer!  After we were sufficiently stuffed, we had toasts from Luke’s dad, my dad, Luke’s sister, my cousin- Jeb, Luke’s friend- Jake, and my friends- Olivia and Britt.  As you can see from our faces below (ok, mainly my face) they were hilarious, heartfelt, and absolutely perfect.  We are so thankful to have such a wonderful group of people in our lives that surrounded us with love and support all weekend (and all our lives!)

 After toasts….we DANCED and oh lawd was it fun.  It was the absolutely perfect way to end the night. Here are a couple of the dancing :)

Luke and I snuck off to exchange gifts with each other and our families in the middle of everything.  It was a really special time to steal and I recommend anyone planning a wedding doing the same thing.  It is so important to thank the people who raised both of you.  It was a very special moment for us. 

Here are a couple extra pictures with Luke and me with our minister and his wife and my bridesmaids (minus Micah) and me.  

So that is the rehearsal dinner.  Thank you, thank you, to the best parents-in-law for throwing such a wonderful party for us!  We had a blast and I am fairly certain everyone else did as well.