My Brother's Rehearsal Dinner.

So, this post is definitely {just short} of a year late.


Ooops.


My camera card messed up from that day and I never got the pictures from my parents, so I haven't been able to post this. Until now.

I was at my parents a couple of week's ago and found the pictures on their computer. I went ahead and uploaded them to Flickr so that I could eventually share them with you!

{let me preface this post by saying that I am totally biased. I think my parents are the best in the whole wide world for a number of reasons, one of which being their decorating skills. My mom has some awesome visions and my dad used to work at a flower shop, so together they have the skillz {yes, with a z) to make some really awesome ideas come to life. so, take it with a grain of salt when I saw this is one of the top rehearsal dinners ever.}


{dad, my brother nathan, mom}

My brother met his (then) fiance Kaitlan working at Texas Tech, where they both went to school and have a die hard love for (Nate maybe a little more than Kait. We have a sonogram with his guns up. Kidding. They didn't do sonograms way back in the day. Who knew!) Nathan is an Event Coordinator at the United Spirit Arena for Tech and has some pretty cool hook ups because of it, one including being friends with people in high places, which meant we were able to hold their rehearsal dinner at Jones Stadium. {if you're not from Texas this may not be cool, but it's a pretty big deal people.} I think it's also normally like almost $2,000 to reserve the room, but Nathan is such an amazing employee, they gave it to us for free. Booya.

Here's our view for the night:



Nathan and Kaitlan were not too picky when it came to a theme and were really fine with going with Tech colors, so my parents used those as inspiration. My mom also wanted to incorporate Nathan's love for golf, so we were trying to come up with girly touches to include Kaitlan into the night. Kaitlan and I share a "it's all about me!" attitude and she made sure Nathan knew he was marrying a princess, which has been one of Nate's nicknames for her since they started dating.

Thus, The Princess and The Pro was born:



I designed the sign for my parents and helped come up with the wording for the invitations, which of course were on black and white damask! I don't have a picture of it, but here's what they said:

From drivers to diamonds,
golf shoes to stilettos,
and polos to pearls,
the Pro has met his Princess and they're ready to swing off into a new life together!
Please join for the rehearsal dinner honoring Kaitlan and Nathan as they tee off fore better or fore worse!

{super cute, huh?}


The tables were rather easy to come up with decorating ideas for:





The tables had black and white accents with either red candles or flowers, golf tees, balls, pearls and tiaras to incorporate both Kaitlan and Nathan's tastes.



No detail was overlooked.

Any free space was decorated, including the entry table:



The serving table:



No detail was too small or too big:





The show stopper was this main piece my parents created:










My parents brought every single piece to use to decorate this and truly went over the top. {these pictures don't do it justice!} It was such a special night and it was so fun to see both Kaitlan and Nathan's tastes in the decorations.

Nathan and Kaitlan also had some surprises for us and we were able to watch their wedding video on the jumbotron!


{sorry that we caught a picture of it cutting Nathan's head off!}

It was a really special night to celebrate together. One of my favorite memories is when the opened it up for guests to share and one of Nathan's groomsmen got up to speak. While he was a fun guy, there were many a time that I know we questioned why Nathan remained friends with him after some of the stunts he pulled. He ended up tearing up and saying that Nathan was a huge influence in his life and how much he appreciated Nathan for sticking through him with everything he'd been through. It was such a sweet time for our family to see what a difference Nathan has made in so many lives.


It's hard to believe that it's almost been a year since their wedding. I'm so excited that Kaitlan will now be with us on our next family trip! Here's to many more years celebrating the princess and the pro!


{p.s. I have to throw in one last picture... I always like to remind tease my brother that it's all about me in our family... so I only thought it was fitting that even in the middle of his rehearsal dinner and decorations, my name was one of the main attractions! :)  }