Because everyone had to travel to our wedding, and we wanted to make sure we were able to actually spend time with our friends and fam during the weekend, we hosted a little cocktail party the night before the wedding. SOME of us may have had a few too many martinis the night before at the rehearsal dinner and ensuing late night party at Melvyn's piano bar, so WE enjoyed the entire cocktail party sans cockatils. But everyone else seemed to enjoy themselves. Including most of my bridal party who left our house with large bottles of whiskey sticking out of their purses. Luckily they managed to recuperate in time to get ready for the wedding the next day. Such trusty friends.
We rented a great little house in Palm Springs for the week around the wedding which was excellent for hosting such things as cocktails parties. Ours was super casual... you know, kind of a make-your-own-drink house party situation. Plus we made some simple, never-fail party foods (homemade pickles, spiced nuts, a heaping cheese board, salted chocolate chip cookies, etc.) and pretty much just let the party run itself. 
Post Wedding Notes:
If you're going to drink too many martinis before your wedding (which is hard to avoid when all of your friends are in town and your wedding is in two days and you're so excited), I can't recommend enough doing so TWO nights before the wedding. Excellent plan, if I do say so myself. I was so happy nursing club soda Friday evening and waking up Saturday morning perfectly intact and ready for a big party.
And even though throwing a party the night before the wedding was a little stressful, I'm so glad we did. It made the weekend and our whole wedding celebration feel so much longer, because like everyone says, the actual day goes by really quickly. And renting a house so we had a place to relax and store all of our wedding supplies was one of the best decisions we made.
I would possibly NOT recommend lugging 3 cars full of wedding supplies (centerpieces, ceremony arrangements, favors, bathroom baskets, programs, escort cards, 40 lbs of lead flower frogs, etc) from your rental house to the hotel at 11pm the night before your wedding. However if you're not going to hire a full time planner, I'm not sure how you get around that, right?
Next comes the actual wedding, promise.
All photos by Michéle M. Waite.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Our Wedding: a welcome cocktail party
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12 comments:
I am so loving all of your recaps and tips. Very helpful and I can't wait for the wedding!
Great formula to have your insiders's tip at the end! And I CAN'T WAIT for the real deal to come!
It looks like you had such a good time, your photographs are so nice :)
More amazing photographs, and renting a house is a genius idea! I can understand the stress of having multiple events right before the wedding, but it looks so worth it.
even the picture of the bowl of nuts is GORGEOUS. it all looks fantastic.
Great photos. It looks like a lovely party. Thanks for the tips!
What a wonderful idea! Looks so sweet and intimate. Thanks for sharing, and congrats on 100 layers!!
Your jars get me every time.
p.s. excellent advice re: martinis.
You have such a beautiful life.
That's a great idea having a mini party so everyone gets to know each other before the wedding! Beautiful photos!
I love this. Excellent ideas. Thank you for sharing!
Quite helpful data, lots of thanks for your article.
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