The Rehearsal Dinner.

On Friday, August 7th, Jesse and I prepared for festivities. He was hanging out with his mother and father, and I was bustling around my parent's house waiting for my lovely bridesmaids to arrive at midday. Most of them were coming from New York or Connecticut, but Christy flew in from Austin, Texas, and Amber from Lansing, Michigan. I'm sure it was a task to coordinate the arrivals, but coordinate they did and arrived by the wheel of Jiscilla. (For those interested, no, she does not ride a unicorn everywhere.)

We had a nail salon appoint for mani/pedis for all - lika ya dooo - and we went in and relaxed and chatted. We might have relaxed a bit more if the overhead televisions weren't playing that show where the host goes around eating the nads of every animal on earth - because we definitely saw some vom-inducing bull-penis chomping. ((Shudder))

Afterwards, we had to get ready for the ceremony rehearsal. I was wearing a fabulous dress I had found in LA in May; it was marked down hundreds of dollars to $60. See what I mean about fabulous? And you haven't even seen it yet - but you know it is. I wore my heels I had dyed purple for both the rehearsal and wedding, and donned a purple feather hair get-up that I had also bought for all my bridesmaids as part of their bridesmaids gifts. Then, I hightailed it to the hotel because my lovely, amazing, superb make-up artist Kristy Konopka was going to do a make-up trial.

You may remember Kristy as the woman I wrote about when I went to LA, where she gave me a facial and threw a pool party. Yeah, she's pretty great. The make-up turned out great as well, and I went off to find my bridesmaids and head to the church!

Before the process began! Sans make-up!

After!

I felt fab!
(Pictures courtesy of Kristy & her husband Dan!)

At 6pm, our parents and wedding party converged on St. Joseph's Catholic Church and Father Bob had us all get lined up and practice how to enter and exit the ceremony. It was a little nerve-wracking, but we got the hang of it.

Me and my bridesmaids - Christy, Kelly, me, Erica, Jiscilla, and Amber!

The rehearsal dinner was at my parent's home, nearby the church, and was provided by Jesse's mom, Sandi, who hired caterers. The italian cuisine was delicious and all of the wedding party, relatives, and my nine visiting Panamanians devoured it.

Christy, me, my brother Travis.

(All rehearsal dinner pictures provided by Jiscilla!)

During dinner, one of Jesse's Best Men (we had two BMs and Maids of Honor!), Jason, gave a speech, as well as one of my Maids of Honor, Kelly. Jason told the sweet tale of first becoming Jesse's friend - which he details on his blog here - and as he got to the end of his speech, he started welling up with tears and I think everyone in the house did, too.

Kelly brought the house down in a more humorous way - by telling everyone she was also marrying into the Parker family, by announcing a "surprise engagement" to my brother Travis. Travis looked directly at me with a confused look on his face, and then started high-fiving everyone at his table. They were known as The Fiancees the rest of the weekend, and some people actually thought they were engaged. (For the record, I would be totally okay with my best friend marrying my brother. I mean...Kells & Trav - I'm just saying.)

After dinner, my mother and the Panamanians got everyone on their feet to dance! Even Jesse, who was reluctant to dance, grabbed me and started swinging me around. Diaz jumped right in. My mom got Jason to dance, and I pulled in Brendan and Tony, while Kristen took care of Matt. These are dudes who usually refuse to dance! That's the way y family does it. Eventually, nearly everyone was on the dance floor, having a great time.

I think you can surmise how much fun we had by looking at these pictures!

Jesse and I went back with the wedding party to the reception hotel a few minutes away; I wanted to say hi to everyone who had already come in the for the next day. We hung out in the bar and I got to say hi to a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while. Then Jesse walked me to the car, and we had our last hug and kiss as single people. I wouldn't see him again until I walked down the aisle the next day!