Rehearsing? Sort of. Eating? Hopefully!

After the lovely day spent with the wonderful women in my life, it was time to rehearse our exchange of nuptials and then, of course, eat!

Arthur had been freaking out a bit prior to the rehearsal dinner because he, his brother and his mom had gotten a bit lost making the trek out from New York City. I think the idea that he was really getting married started to hit home. He is usually not prone to nerves, but I could hear it in his voice as he called, saying, "I have no idea where we are or if we'll make it." Now, for all you Long Islanders out there, you must be thinking, "you can't get lost on Long Island." I thought the same thing. In any event, they managed to piece the puzzle together and arrive at the Three Village Inn with time to check in and change.

When I arrived wearing my Jessica McClintock (hello, 1992 prom) dress, the whole of the wedding party was awaiting my arrival. It felt a bit odd to be one of the guests of honor and I found myself shaking a bit. I was immediately handed a glass of wine by someone (I don't remember who you are now, but THANK YOU). Little did we know that a wedding was going on that evening and in order to rehearse, we going to have interlope slightly on the other's festivities. This made for slightly awkward moments and bumping into wait staff. My grandfather's temper flaired slightly conjuring up my fear that words would be said that would embarass me, but things calmed down as soon as we were able to move and walk into the room that would be where we got married if it rained (it was NOT going to rain despite the forecast saying that there was a 90% chance).

The rehearsal itself was fun and our offiant and my high school friend, Dan, did a fabulous job of moving things along and working out our kinks.

Next stop: Food Where? Why the Rib City Ale House, of course! It was a great prix fixe deal with decorations and a cake included. However, it turned out that because we had slightly less people than we had originally indicated to Frank, the owner, we were no longer able to sit in the semi-private room. Instead, we were put in the room next to where the band would be playing. This was just fine until the band started playing. Our relatives - old and young alike - had a hard time hearing with the loudness of the whole thing. Arthur's mom began feeling unwell half-way through the meal, which some might say could be attributed to seeing her...no strike that sitting across from and staying in the room next to...her ex-husband for the first time in years. One of my lovely best women offered to take her back to the hotel though and the next day she was fine.

The wine and beer poured, our food ordered, we anxiously awaited our food. And we waited. And we waited. We asked for bread. It was still baking. And we waited. Apparently, they were not prepared for all the people they had that night. Unfortunately, there was barely even an apology. The actual servers did there best, but the management was no where to be seen.




But then we had a great surprise! Arthur's best friend, Tom, after missing his first flight, managed to make it to the dinner mid-way through. Arthur and I were both thrilled by his presence after not seeing him for such a long time.

We then said a few words and handed out the gifts to the Friends of the Wedding and to my parents. Our offiant received the biggest bottle of Jack Daniels we could find. I shopped at Satya Jewelry for the best women, women of the wedding and the flower girl. The best women received lotus earrings. The flower girl was given a butterfly necklace and the women of the wedding received stretch bracelets in different stones. The men of the wedding received a flask, a pocket watch and a lighter with their respective initials engraved into them. The Ultimate Experts received engraved beer mugs. My parents received a gift certificate to their favorite local restaurant.

We ended up having a nice time and it was really great having all of our closest in one room together.

Review of Rib City Ale House: The food was ok, the service was eh and overall we were disappointed by the experience.

Review of our rehearsal evening: It was a great pre-cursor to what turned out to be a perfect event.