Rehearsal Dinner - Texas Style!

My dad flew in this afternoon and picked up my Uncle Fred on his was to McKinney. Dan ended up not being able to come because of work, so Allison was solo this weekend.

Everyone kept telling us that the rehearsal dinner was at La Hacienda Ranch, like we should know what that is. I guess if you live in Texas you do, but I kept imagining it was going to be outside on a ranch with BBQ, since I was too embarrassed to ask...I mean everyone knew what they were talking about. Finally the night before, I asked, knowing I was going to sound stupid, but I had to know if we were going to be outside. They laughed and told me it was a restaurant and it was Mexican style food. It was the perfect place for their rehearsal dinner. Totally Texas. We had our own room which was nice and it was buffet style. The food was super yummy, make your own fajitas. Chips and salsa on the table. What more could I want?

This girl can pack away some chips....Lyla, I mean.

They did this cute thing where they had us write down a character and a question for the couple each category on a different index card. Then, since Emily and Bryant are wanting to make it in the acting industry, they had them pick one index card from each jar and they had to answer the question as the character and act it out. It was really funny to watch!! 

Some cousin pictures.

The love of my life. So happy to not be states apart anymore.

Sisters.

And mom.

And dad.

Nana with three of her kids, Fred, my mom and Pauline. Her other daughter could not make it.

The bride and Sarah.

Loving life.

Nana and her grandchildren, somehow missing William....guess he didn't get the memo.

After dinner, we made a stop at Walmart on our way back to the hotel to get some snacks :)

We got back to the hotel, put Lyla to bed and came back down to the lobby area to hang out. They were playing Emily and Bryant's slideshow for the wedding and it was beautiful. After that was over, the bridesmaids had to go upstairs and get some thing done, as well as pray over Emily before the big day, so we stayed in the lobby and hung out for a bit longer before heading to bed for THE BIG DAY!!

Nails and Bridal Lunch

Wednesday after check out, we drove back to Fort Worth. We met Susan, Ryan and their girls at their house and then headed to dinner at Babes (YUM!!) and had so much fun catching up with them. Lyla was in heaven with those girls, so I am so glad we got an extra chance to spend time with them. 

After dinner, we headed back to my aunt's house and Allison, my mom, nana and Sarah had come in. Emily and Bryant were there as well. We had fun staying up late chatting and helping with some last minute wedding decorations.

We got up early Thursday morning and the girls drove to McKinney, Texas to get our nails done and enjoy the Bridal Luncheon. Since we had to be up SO early, we stopped at CFA on the way to enjoy some chicken biscuits for breakfast. It was quite a drive, so we reserved hotel rooms for the wedding, that way there would not be a whole lot of driving. Adam and Lyla hung out at my aunt's house, swimming, relaxing, and Lyla took her nap (they might have even had to run some errands and re pack EVERYTHING back up since we would be leaving straight from the wedding to head home).

We enjoyed getting our nails done! Man, it had been a long time for me!

Sarah.

Allison.

Emily's bridesmaids. 

The gorgeous, relaxed Bride! Excited for her big day!!

Aunt Pauline and my mom. Can't you tell they are sisters? I know my mom's eyes are closed, but this was the only picture I had of them sitting. 

Emily's MIL and SIL are in the middle.

Family.

One of all of us.

Emily with her MIL and SIL.

I LOVE this picture of the two of them. Sarah (my sister) is Emily's MOH and this picture depicts them perfectly.

This pretty much sums us up as well :)

The place they had the Bridal Lunch was too cute. It was in the downtown area, and it was just so cute, quaint and had that shabby chic feel.

My mom and Nana.

Emily's MIL and SIL.

The Bridal Party.

The entire table.

Emily gave a sweet speech about what all the girls in her wedding meant to her. She has some really special friendships that the Lord has blessed her with.

She gave each girl their jewelry to wear for the wedding, as well as a Willow Tree Angel that depicted her relationship with each of them (so each girl got a different one) and she wrote a special note to go along with it.

She gave Sarah one with the title "Two Alike". They seriously were separated at birth. There is a six month age difference between them and they could not be closer. Cousins, best friends.

The party girls got these gorgeous pearl bracelets to wear the day of the wedding. They were all to wear cream for the wedding and they looked beautiful!

The bridesmaids wore the gold hoop earring as well as stacked bracelets. 

She labeled each of their cards with maid of.... and wrote a special word for each of them that described them as well as a verse. I loved this and tried to get a picture of each one to remember.

Bracelets for the bridesmaids.

The lunch was so yummy!! We had a choice of chicken salad, a salad with grilled chicken and a club sandwich. I got the chicken salad with fruit and it was amazing.

                                      

Pink sparkly cupcakes for dessert. They literally had sparkles (not sprinkles) on them.

Daughter and mother.

Emily with her bridesmaids and party girls.

Emily with her aunt and mom.

The whole group.

So sweet.

It was such a fun way to start celebrating Emily for her big day!! The girls went to the hotel to get some things done, so Allison, my mom and I stayed behind with Sarah's car to look at all the cute little antique stores in the downtown square. We also might have made a pit stop at Sam Moon as well, so that Allison could get a chance to go there....And I might have picked up a few extra things as well ;)

Adam called and said they had checked in to the hotel, so we headed over there to get dressed and ready for the rehearsal dinner!