Rehearsal Lunch: October 15, 2010

Hi friends!

Still waiting on photos and videos for the reception recap but I’m excited to share another part of our wedding weekend with you today – the rehearsal lunch!

I love my family. 🙂 Digging the raised eyebrow that Baby Bender has going on. What a hunk!

The Korducki-Krenn clan met at the Outlaw Cantina in Desert Mountain for a fun afternoon of folf. No, not frisbee golf – but food and golf! When we arrived, we were greeted by the most beautiful table setting. My mom had been there that morning to set everything up and did a phenomenal job!

Part of the lunch was giving our bridal party their gifts. Bobby gave his brothers a grill set and my brother a monogrammed DVD case. I gave my three bridesmaids – Sam, Caitlin and Lauren – their jewelry for the wedding. A purple necklace and earrings, both of which we found on Overstock.com.

I also gave my “lady in waiting,” Jill, a Soiree Wine Aerator. I absolutely LOVE this thing!

But my absolute favorite part of the gifts for both the bride and groom sides were the personalized wine glasses and beer mugs we purchased from Stephanie on Etsy.

Photos cannot possibly do justice to the amazing detail and care that went into these glasses. When Stephanie sent us images as a preview, I was literally jumping up and down!

There were wine glasses for the gals, including the three bridesmaids, mother of the bride and mother of the groom. We sent Stephanie a picture of the girl’s dresses, my wedding dress and my planned bouquet design. You can see how great of a job she did by clicking on the pictures below to blow them up!

I’d say they were pretty true to life, wouldn’t you?

As if that weren’t enough, Stephanie also went above and beyond with the backs and bottoms of the glasses. My bridesmaids all went to Northwestern with me, so we got Wildcats on the back – and our wedding shoes with a corresponding flower (purple for me, ivory for the girls) on the bottom stem!

I wanted Jill to have a sparkly shoe on her stem and a UW Madison Badger on the back. As you can see in the picture above, there was a slight miscommunication at first (I blame it on email), but Stephanie was SO awesome to work with that she realized the mix-up and came up with a new glass overnight!

Seriously, did I mention I was jumping up and down in my apartment?

For the majority of the guys, we went with beer mugs that had the exact color of their vests – purple for the groomsmen and father of the groom, ivory for my groom and my dad. But of course, Papa Bender got a wine glass. I don’t get my affinity for vino just anywhere, you know. 😉

And just in case there was any doubt about how serious we take his blog nickname…

He loved it.

Clearly, I can’t rave about Stephanie enough. She was completely fabulous to work with and extremely talented. I highly recommend visiting her Etsy site if you ever are interested!

Fun fact: She completed this project just days before she had a baby! Congrats, Stephanie!

Everyone was very impressed by your artistic ability.

After we oohed and ahhed over Stephanie’s work, we sat down to an amazing lunch. I had a salad loaded with veggies and BANANA BREAD croutons, which was incredible. Of course, I didn’t snap a picture. 🙁 But we did manage to snag a photo of what Bobby and his brother Adam chose. A selection of sliders for the manly men.

I have no idea how they managed to eat all of those, but they did!

When lunch was over, a few champagne toasts were made in thanks for the weekend ahead of us.

And then we were off…to the putting green!

We split up into teams of two to take on an 18-hole putting challenge!

Mama Bender and Bobby…

…Sam and Lauren (looking ferocious, might I add)…

…Caitlin and Jill (sorry ladies, that’s not quite the right putting stance)…

…Baby Bender (who now towers above all of us) and me!!

There were several more dynamic duos, but they eluded the camera’s eye. 😉

It was a tough battle, with many great putts and close calls.

But in the end, Baby Bender and I were victorious!!

No ring in the cup this time, but the smile on my brother’s face was an amazing prize!

We grabbed a few more photos of the guys and the gals…

…and then we were off again! This time to the church rehearsal, bow bouquet and all. 🙂

It was quite an exciting day of rehearsals! Of course, the real thing is still my favorite.

I hope you enjoyed this installment of our wedding weekend! Still more to come – unless it is getting boring for you all. I could talk endlessly about the details so just let me know when to be quiet! 🙂

What is one of your favorite life events or moments that involved a “rehearsal”?

Abrazos,