the pre-wedding party!

there were several things we had to keep in mind when planning our wedding festivities. the first was that many of our family and friends were flying in from far away.  we hadn't seen some of these loved ones in years, and we knew we would only have a couple *busy!* days to divide up between them all.  second, dannon and i have always made very close friends with people of the opposite sex. that meant that i had to have my guys with me at whatever sort of bachelorette party we threw.  third, dannon and i also happen to have a ton of the same close friends from college and san francisco, which meant there was no way we could divide them up between the two of us in the same night.  

so the mister and i used our strategizing strengths and planned one night devoted to our families {allowing them to get to know each other, as well as spending long awaited quality time with us}, and a second night devoted to all our friends {in lieu of a bachelor and bachelorette party}.     

the night before our wedding we threw one great big pre-wedding cocktail bash with snacks, spirits, and all of our friends in our private courtyard.  i made several stations around the yard: a box where people could leave us advice, a table where people wrote their dirtiest jokes {we had a contest later in the evening with a very special prize for the winner}, and a peep show which i had made by drawing naked stick figures behind little doors.  we sang our most risque sea chanteys and i seem to recall real life interpretations from "the position of the day" book... hmm...  it was such a beautiful night laughing and catching up with our favorite people.  

{this was the peep show.  i had it set up under a drape so people could have a little privacy. :) see the red tabs? underneath are some very sexy stick figures. oo-la-la!}


i was so glad we decided to throw one big party with everyone.  not only was it a blast for dannon and i to have our friends in one place without the adults {er, wait, how old were we last year? 28 and 30? oh right.}, but it was also a great chance for our different groups of friends to meet and mingle before the wedding day.  many of them still keep in touch, even though they only met in person once during our wedding weekend.  helping awesome people form meaningful connections? what could be a better bonus to a wedding?!



credits:  these fabulous photos were all from my dear friend devon... at least, these were the ones i could share here. ;)