One of the many questions I fielded from the DoC the day before had been whether we wanted to rehearse with the music or not.
Maybe it’s just me, but I was definitely in the “with music†department, since I wanted to make sure everyone (namely the DoC, who was in charge of pressing play) was comfortable with the music cues, etc. We didn’t have a lot of them, but better safe than sorry.
Oh, how I’m glad we made that call!
Waiting for the DoC to been done with the AV dude. | All photos courtesy of Friend-ficiant L’s husband
Because of the two simultaneous events, the AV unit we were using was a rental they had arranged for (which, hey, since we didn’t have to do it ourselves, however they worked it out was fine with me) and it was still being set up as we were starting the rehearsal. It took some doing to get my iPod to work that evening (turns out the battery was running low–at least that was an easy fix) but I had thought ahead and also burned all of the playlists onto Roadie’s iPod and had CDs burned of each playlist as a back-up to that, plus both of our laptops in the cottage that could have run the playlists. But then Roadie’s iPod wasn’t wanting to play some of the songs.
No clue what Friend-ficiant L said that was so funny–we were all a bit punchy by this point.
They fiddled around with everything they could for a good long while, meanwhile the weather was getting more ominous, so I make the call to leave the music alone for now, I’d figure out what was going on with it that night, and let’s get going before the bottom drops out, yes? After all, we’d done the seating of the families for their cues and I knew where in the song to begin our walk, so let’s get on to the ceremony!
Practicing our line-up.
The preliminaries accomplished, Friend-ficiant L began to read through the ceremony script and surprised the hell out of me as she proceeded to get choked up reading the opening remarks. Considering our group is more the cynical, sarcastic bunch, certainly not tear-jerker sentimentalists, color me stunned with L about to lose it just practicing. As one of our biggest supporters from the day we all met, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised–it just cemented the fact that no one else would have been a better officiant for our wedding.
It looks like I’m trying to push Roadie away but I was really trying to get us centered in front of the steps.
The rehearsal also gave us a chance to get a good run-through of our wine blending ceremony. The original plan was to test the wines in advance to make sure we were not going to be making vinegar of the unity pour, but that plan kept getting delayed. Instead, I took the wine guy’s suggestion on faith. That suggestion was to blend Chardonnay and Pinot Noir together since they are the same varietals used in Champagne, just not 50/50. Since I’m not a big fan of heavy oak notes in Chardonnay, this was my first try of an Unoaked Chardonnay–something I’ve seen more and more of in the shops, so I’m obviously not alone in this taste preference–and it’s pretty much my new favorite thing.
But I digress.
We did have a back-up plan, though. Since the wines we were using for brunch the next day were both muscadine-based, they’d definitely blend well so we could always grab a bottle of each if the rehearsal blending didn’t go so well. Happily, that back-up plan wasn’t needed since the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay blended just fine on their own. We also decided that I would pour the red and Roadie the white, slimming the chances of red wine splashing on my dress that much more.
We decided to have the readers form a circle around us.
The sky had been spitting a bit during the first half of the rehearsal, but by the time we got to the handfasting part–which L was most concerned about–it was starting to steadily drizzle. We moved the rest of the rehearsal up on the covered porch and all thoughts of practicing in the Church were forgotten as we wilted in the humidity.
And we’re done!
Music mishaps aside, the rehearsal actually went pretty well. Not only that, we found ourselves ahead of schedule, giving everyone a chance to freshen up if they wanted before heading back into Tallahassee for the rehearsal dinner.
The Road Trip Wedding Recaps: