Rehearsal day dawned snowy, and the snow continued most of the day. Dad, Mom, Anna, and Mary focused on the rehearsal dinner and decorating. Jesse also helped by cutting a lot of fresh evergreens, and then he drove the girls to a nearby Amish store before taking them to the church.
The extended family, Jesse and I spent time helping at the reception site (both the church and reception site were a little distance away). I loved seeing the teamwork of friends pitching in and getting a task done that would be impossible for just one family!
The rehearsal began late afternoon. When you factor a wedding party of over 30 people, well, details are important.
With ten little ones being bell ringers and flower girls, there was sure to be some drama. The drama came from an unexpected person: Danny. We really thought Benjamin would be the one, but no, Danny. With all of the activity and being separated from Daddy/Mommy, he fell apart in tears at the idea of walking down the aisle. They gently worked with him Friday evening and Saturday morning to see if he would acclimate to the idea, but on that timeline it was a bridge too far for this little 18-month old. He didn’t walk down the aisle with the group, instead, his daddy held him during the ceremony.
We ran through the order of events and practiced recessing and coming in, and things seemed to go well. This meant we were one step closer to the WEDDING!
After the rehearsal, we moved downstairs. We are so grateful to our friends who came all the way from the East Coast, West Virginia, and Idaho to help!
We served smoked meatballs over rice with brown gravy, salad, rolls, and brownies. When dinner was over, for those who were still around, we had a sweet time of prayer. Then, back to the hotel to try to get some sleep before the big day!
Love,
Sarah
Dad and I grabbed coffee at the local coffee shop and met up with friends. The snow was picture perfect!
Great selfie! Anna, Cathy Jo, Faith, and Mary
John grinding coffee for the reception.
Tina and I placed many napkins and spoons down on tables for the reception.
These girls did a beautiful job of decorating.
Joanna making brownies.
Mary and Toria.
The moms were a great kitchen team.
What an awesome decorating + kitchen team!
Jesse and my view as we drove to the rehearsal!
Selfie going on here.
A full stage!
Lots of Maxwells and Bontragers!
I think Joshua and Drew made positively the cutest bell ringers ever!
Working on getting a system going here.
Guys, this was not my idea!
Dinner!
“And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you,
and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you:
for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they
that wait for him.” (Isaiah 30:18)
That looks like so much fun! Congratulations to the newlyweds!
I love children in wedding parties, it must have been loads of fun to have so many of them.
Yes, it was great!
Loving all the photos!
Thank you for sharing them!
xxxxxxxxxx
You’re so welcome!
There’s just something about Abigail – she seems to be so mature and reliable.
Yes, she is!
What a blessed occasion! Everything looks wonderful!…. I was wondering though where do you find such great skirts for little girls? I’ve yet to find denim maxi skirts! And I know my girlies would love them!
Melanie shops often at consignment sales (and also some eBay, I believe), so that’s probably where she got them!
Great photos!!! Thanks for sharing all of them! So fun to see and hear little details! Made me smile! and yes, last weekend was crazy weather here in Iowa!! So glad you were able to pull everything off and everyone was safe even with all the snowy weather! 🙂
Thank you! Yep! The weather was something.
Oh I was going to say…I absolutely LOVED the picture where Nathan is praying for John and Chelsy, while his girls look on. It’s just so precious how Bethany has her eyes fixed on her Daddy and Tina is fixed on the soon-to-married couple. Such a sweet and holy moment that they were obviously drinking in and learning from!
🙂
Congrats to the newlyweds!! Is the wedding video online still? I would love to watch it, as we were not able to watch it on the day. Thank you!
And one more question…how in the world did you transport all those meatballs to Iowa? Seems like a serious logistics challenge! I think I would have opted for local caterers 🙂
I don’t see the video up.
The meatballs were frozen, so it all worked! 🙂
Very nice pictures, thank you for sharing!
So glad you enjoyed them!
Beautiful pics Sarah. Liddy and Ruthanne are so adorable. Anna Marie makes the cutest clothes!
Wishing we had some of that snow down here!
Blessings ya’ll
Anna Marie does a really great job. Well, with the snow, we also had super cold temperatures. 🙂
Thank you for sharing the rehearsal with us! Great pictures, and I especially enjoy seeing the little ones—so cute! 🙂
Love, Mrs. Patti
So glad you enjoyed it!
It looked so beautiful! Praise the Lord! Sarah we met when my husband and I attended your family’s conference in Alsip, IL. I’ll always remember how much I enjoyed meeting you and what a blessing it was!
Thank you! I always love meeting y’all! We haven’t done a conference for awhile, but we will be announcing one in Ft. Smith next month! More details soon!
Y’all will be doing a conference soon? Cool! Why don’t you come to LA? 😉
I loved all the pictures. Funny trying to get all the little kids to cooperate. I love weddings. I was a flower girl in a few family members’ weddings when I was little. Would you consider posting the wedding video on the blog? I wish I’d have known it was live. I’d LOVE to watch it. And congrats to the newlyweds. 🙂
Yes! We’ll be doing a conference in Fort Smith. Here’s the link. We didn’t do the wedding video, and it was only available live.
Hmmm… that’s about 10 hours away from us. Wish we could come! 🙂
How much snow was there? It looks like you guys did a great job with the rehearsal dinner.
I believe there was about 4 inches of snow by the time it ended on Friday.