Family Celebration: The Rehearsal Dinner

   The Middle Sister is always prepared. She thinks ahead, plans ahead, and accomplishes more in a month than I can get done in a year. She is a model of efficiency. It's a good thing, because in addition to totally taking the house next door to her down to the studs and building it back in the last six months, this past weekend she and her husband hosted both the rehearsal dinner (at their farm) and the wedding reception (at their home). If she even broke a sweat no one around her knew it. She was as cool as a cucumber and seemed to enjoy the festivities as much as anyone else. And boy, do she and her husband know how to throw down a party!
   It basically rained all day Friday so the plans for an country supper under the stars had to be scrapped. No worries. My sister and her husband just moved everything under their football field sized roping pen adjacent to their barn. How do you make something as huge and cavernous as a roping pen seem personal? You take your lesson from my sister. She moved in some tractors, an old farm truck, lots of rolled bales of hay and used them to divide up the space. No one even realized that it was a back-up plan. It was a wonderful evening: intimate and casual and great fun.

This giant "R"  hay bale welcomed guests as they drove onto the farm.

 Green tablecloths, glowing lanterns, buckets of tiny green apples,
and wildflowers in vases provided a nice rustic touch.

 I love the pen and ink rendering of the barn on the rehearsal dinner invitation.

The welcome table featured the Bride's little ballet shoes and the Groom's childhood cowboy boots...a sweet and sentimental touch!

 The old farm truck is doing double-duty here

Groomsmen gifts all lined up in a row!

Country cooking never tasted so good!

A bevy of homemade cakes rounded out the meal,
six-layers of goodness, chocolate, coconut and red velvet! Yum!

Hands down, one of the best things that happens at a wedding, is the reunion with loved ones. 

Here are the "Sistas."