Last week, I kick-started the blog series all about our wedding weekend!!! If you missed it, you can read all about our Thursday night tacos HERE. But, in this post – we’re going to be talking about our REHEARSAL!! On Friday, May 5th we hosted our rehearsal, rehearsal dinner and welcome party. In this post, we’re going to focus on the rehearsal itself – and later this week, I’ll be sharing all about our dinner + welcome party hosted by Hayden’s parents!

I woke up SO giddy and excited first thing Friday morning. It was our first “official” wedding event, and anyone who wasn’t already in town was arriving this day. Some of my bridesmaids had arrived during the night, so we all huddled together in my room first thing in the AM in PJs squealing like little kids!!! I just love them all so much, and we’ve been through SO many seasons of life together. I can’t imagine the weekend without Kristen, Natalie, Erika, Morgan, Abby and my mom by my side. They are my people through and through. I’ll never forget the little giddy, barefoot run I did through the hotel hallway when each of them texted me.  I had to go open a stairwell door for them, so I ran down the hall like a little kid on Christmas and jumped up and down each time one of them got there!!!

The entire morning and afternoon on Friday was spent getting hair and makeup done and finalizing prep for the big day. My favorite part of our hotel room is that we had a studio that was big enough for everyone to hangout AND a view of the front door of the hotel!!! I hid in the room all day to get ready, but I got to watch all of our family and friends arrive and it was SO exciting!!! My mom, sister, MIL and I all got our hair and makeup done (and I crammed a room service burger in between, hahaha!!) We jammed to Taylor Swift, handed all of the boxes of details, gifts, etc. to my planners and got EXCITEDDDD for a big night!!

Our rehearsal was scheduled for 4pm, so we hopped on the trolley over to our venue around 3:30pm. We all had drinks on the bus and jammed to good music, then did a quick 30-minute practice for the ceremony. I’ll never forget how surreal it was to pull up to our venue and see the sailcloth tent all set-up! FOR US!! Not for me to photograph!! Hahaha!! My dad totally cried just PRACTICING walking me down the aisle, and the rehearsal itself was a breeze thanks to my amazing planner, Katie. I guess that’s also a major plus of having 4 wedding photographers in your bridal party! Hahah!!

We hopped back on the trolley, headed back to The Alida Hotel and I got changed before our rehearsal dinner + welcome party kicked off. Come back on Thursday to see all of the details about those two events!!!

Before we get to the photos, a HUGE thank you to:

The Beauty Tribe: I am going to say thank you to these ladies 1000000x over in these blog posts, but let’s start here: Tori and Grace were hands-down one of the best decisions I made for our wedding weekend. I had the privilege of photographing their branding photos a few years ago, and they just happened to be available for our date! I was SO excited to book them, but I honestly under-estimated just how much they would go above and beyond to make my experience incredbile. We did two separate trials for my hair and makeup, and I consider both of those trips some of my favorite memories from the entire wedding planning process. They made the entire weekend SO much fun, made me feel SO beautiful and I consider them friends for life. I just love you two!!!!

Katie of Social Graces Events:  The hero of our wedding weekend from beginning to end!!!! I’ll go into WAY more detail about how fabulous Katie is during our actual wedding day posts, but NOTHING would have been possible without her. She ran our entire rehearsal and took SO much off of my plate starting from the moment we checked into our hotel on Thursday. I basically handed her two entire luggage carts worth of boxes, gifts, random bags, unopened boxes of decor, etc….and she just took it and ran with it. Didn’t even have to ask a single question. She’s the bomb.diggity.com.

The Alida Hotel: The home base for ALL of our pre-wedding events!!! All of my bridal party (and about 80% of our guests) stayed at The Alida, and we also hosted our rehearsal dinner and welcome party on the rooftop. Their hospitality, attention to detail and overall guest experience will keep it at the tippy top of my list of favorite Savannah hotels. I just absolutely love them (and will also share more about them in Thursday’s post about our welcome party!!!)

Hewitt Oaks: Our wedding venue (and the location for our rehearsal)! It was SO fun to get a small peek at our wedding decor during the rehearsal, and their team was so flexible with us on timing. We had to keep moving the rehearsal up to accomodate all of the other events on Friday, and they were so kind about us moving things around! Seeing the team buzzing and prepping on Friday night was SO exciting!!

Link to my rehearsal dress!

The first time the girls were all in the same place!!! It felt like the OFFICIAL start to wedding festivities!!!

My momma was up first for hair and makeup, and my MIL brought me the most beautiful florals!

I NEVER wear my hair up…but I ended up LOVING this party pony!

All dressed up and ready to go rehearse!

Don’t be fooled…he totally cried just practicing this part.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also love:

Our Wedding Weekend | Thursday Taco Night

Hayden & Hope | The Engagement Party

Hayden & Hope | Our Engagement Photos