Wedding Recap: Set-up and Rehearsal

Hi Friends! I'm MARRIED. It still feels so strange to say that! It was a whirlwind few days, full of a lot of work and some stress, but also an incredible amount of fun and love. 

I had at my wedding at my favorite place in the world, at my family's house in Cape Newagen on Southport Island, Maine. Having it at our own house was incredibly meaningful, but also a real challenge because we had to bring in everything.

Friday, the day before the wedding, was full of preparation. The tent had been delivered the day before, but we had to assemble and arrange all the chairs and tables. My Mom had done a lot of work to level out her field, but the yard is just solid ledge, so getting the tables level and not tippy was not an easy task.


We also had a lot of food to prepare, most of which needed to needed to be refrigerated. There was no way all the wedding food, plus the food to feed our friends and family all weekend, was going to fit in my Mom's fridge. Luckily, our neighbors opened up their fridges and their houses to us. The wedding was a wonderful example of our island community. One neighbor let us use their garage and driveway for the caterer to prep all his food, another both performed the ceremony and hosted some of our friends, another let us use her kitchen for all our food prep, and another just gave us her whole house for the weekend so we would have enough beds for all the groomsmen!

The ceremony site was another challenge. I have always dreamed of having a floating ceremony at high tide in our cove. My Groom was highly skeptical- he was pretty sure the entire wedding party was going to end up in the water. Luckily, he agreed to at least give it a try. Our family friend Gerry can make anything happen -he rigged up a ramp from our shore out to a float, which he anchored in the cove.

I was so busy that the day flew by and I couldn't believe it when the bridesmaids and groomsmen started showing up for the rehearsal!

My MOH and I fill out some paperwork

First we took care of logistics. Our neighbor, Sue, who was performing the ceremony had us fill out all the paperwork so all we'd have to do after the wedding the next day was sign. This was the point where it finally hit me; I wasn't just throwing a big party, I was officially getting married!


Then it was time to rehearse! Our rehearsal was especially critical because we needed to make sure we could all stand on the float without it sinking! We eventually discovered that we could, but we needed to process in really slowly so that only 1 person was on the ramp at once. Also, we couldn't have the traditional set-up with all the bridesmaids on one side and the groomsmen on the other because it led to a very lopsided float. Once we got all the details figured out, I got the official go ahead on the floating ceremony from my Groom. Victory #1 of the marriage!

We didn't sink!

Post rehearsal, the tide was fully hide and it was time for the least glamorous job. A storm earlier in the week had brought in a lot of seaweed, which was clogging up the beach and the cove. So we got to pitchfork it off the beach and rocks and then try to push it out of the cove so it would go out with the tide. Not your average wedding task!

Since we were all in the water, we managed to talk quite a few people into swimming. Given how cold the Maine water is, this was quite a victory!

We held our rehearsal dinner at the Tugboat Inn in Boothbay Harbor. After handing so much of the wedding myself it was so nice to know I just had to show up and they would take care of everything! It was a beautiful night and they make the patio look so nice.

The view from the patio while we ate

It was so fun to get to visit with our closest friends and family while enjoying a delicious meal. 

The Bride and Groom

We ended the night with a hilarious game of wedding charades. I am proud to say the bridesmaids trounced the groomsmen 22 to 6. Go girls!

Stay tuned for Wedding Recap #2!