San Diego Part #2 - The Rehearsal

The wedding rehearsal....

Todd and Erin picked a beautiful garden setting for their wedding, a location called Paradise Gardens, in Oceanside, CA. My parents, Caty and I arrived at the location and it gave me chance to look around, as I hadn't seen the gardens except in pictures. My parents had visited the location back in February, when they made a trip down to see Todd and Erin.

As for being one of the two flower girls, Caty has been practicing at home, along with reading two flower girl books - The Little Flower Girl and Flower Girl. She was ready for her part. Erin's niece Sydney (who is 2) and her parents were stuck in traffic and couldn't make it to the rehearsal, so Caty got the stage to herself. She walking up the aisle, just smiling away. Todd scooped her up and we had to make sure that she understood that he wouldn't be picking her up at the actual wedding.

Todd had just 4 groomsmen (Paul, Ryan, Landry and Brian) while Erin had 11, yes I said 11!! Todd's best man was Paul - they have been friends for 25 years; they met when they were 3. Erin was so well prepared that the rehearsal ran very smoothly. Todd proposed in December of 06, so they have had plenty of time to plan the wedding. Erin's dad, Don, had a heart transplant during that same December and they wanted to make sure that he was healthy enough to be at the wedding.

So, like I said the rehearsal went well. Caty got to practice her flower girl walk a few times and of course loved being the center of attention.













From the rehearsal we all headed to the Ocean House for a beautiful dinner hosted by our parents. Since Friday was Scott's last day of school, he caught a flight down, supposedly arriving around 5:15. However there was a short delay in Sac, which put him getting in about 30 minutes later than expected. Todd and Erin had left him a car at the San Diego airport; also waiting for him was Paul's sister, Taryn, who had flown in from Paris. Scott and Taryn actually showed up at the Ocean House at the same time all of us arrived from the rehearsal. Perfect timing. We went on to have a wonderful dinner, followed by toasts and gifts. I love the gift that Erin got all of her bridesmaids - personalized robes. Todd's gift was a mug with they guys names on them (typical) and a bottle of Jack Daniels. The kids got different gifts, Caty's was a personalized nap mat, very cute!

Here Caty is with her soon to officially be Auntie Erin

And this is Erin's sister, whom Caty calls Auntie Amy

Now after the rehearsal dinner was over, the party just got started. I spent some time texting my cousins Greg and Jeff, who were in town for the wedding. We got the plan into motion to meet them out at the bars once Caty was in bed. We brought Caty back to the house and put her to bed (it was already close to 10:00), then since my parents were also in the house with us, my dad (chauffeur Rod) was nice enough to drop us off at the bar. WE GOT AN EVENING OUT!! I got in touch with Paul, the best man, and told him where we were at. So, Scott, myself, Greg and Jeff were hanging out in this little tiny bar, when at least half of the wedding party showed up, along with a few other friends. This little tiny dinky bar got so packed very quickly, but we had a BLAST!! Taryn took some pictures which I have been waiting to get my hands on to include in this post, but she hasn't sent them my way yet, so they might show up at a different time. We ended up closing the bar down around 2:00. My dad said to give him a call when we were done, however I'm not sure if he realized that it would be so late, or early, whichever you want to call it. So again chauffeur Rod came and picked us up and drove us one. We had a great time out with family and most of Todd's friends. We conked out quickly knowing we were in for a long day ahead of us with the wedding.

The next morning - we both woke up with hangovers, who would've guessed. My parents hosted an early (10:00) get together for family and friends that were in town. My mom was determined about getting everyone out by 12:00 (which she succeeded in doing) because Caitlyn needed a nap and we would need to leave the house around 2:45 as the wedding was starting at 4:00. So Caty got her nap in and we all got ready....

Stay tuned for my post about the actual wedding. I know that I have been making some of you wait for the pictures and such but I have a lot to share about the events leading up to the BIG DAY!