Rehersal Dinner

To start, Alex and I surprised everyone with a caricaturist! This was great. We hired Marty Macaluso who did a wonderful job. Everyone seemed to have a good time picking out bodies for their heads. Marty had already prepared about a dozen different body types, both for one person, and for two people in the same drawing. He also did requests, like a bicycler for Laura who has biked across the country, or skiiers for my parents who ski every season.

Then we had our dinner which was buffet style of different breads, two different salads (green and ceasar) and three main courses, a seafood pasta, a chicken, broccoli and garlic pasta, and another pasta I can't remember. The food was really good. We had an open bar and music was piped in through their stereo system. Tello's provided centerpieces of balloons.

After dinner Alex and I gave out our gifts. This was fun. First, for my aunt Joyce, for doing the motzi (a blessing before dinner at the wedding) we gave her a framed map from the early 1900's of where she lives. My Mom actually found this one. For Alex's parents, we gave them a fridge/heater for their conversion van. For my parents we gave them each a ticket for a soaring plane ride for when they visit.

For the guys, Alex got them a leatherman pocket knife tool, the best man got a larger version of the same thing and David got the keychain version. With the tool, they got tulle wrapped valentines hersheyettes, a Disney pen, and Mickey and Minnie lollipops. (Our honeymoon was to be in Disneyworld - hence all the Disney articles!)

For the girls, I collected things for months. First, they got a freshwater black pearl necklace. I told them if they wanted to wear it for the wedding, that was fine, if not, that was fine too. The flowergirls got a heart necklace, and the readers and program passer-outers got freshwater pearl earings. I put each of these in a basket along with the valentines hersheyettes, the Mickey and Minnie lollipops, a single serving of hot cocoa, a ceramic candle holder, a pressed flower book mark, a Disney pen and a little jewlery box.

Then for the finali, I had realized months ago that our 7 attandants on each side match the number of dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Disney sold a package of the 7 dwarfs beanies. Alex and I each got a set, and our attendants each picked one out of a bag. So, each of our attendants has one of the 7 dwarfs! After getting the 7 dwarfs for the attendants, I had to get other Disney beanies for our other helpers, readers and flowergirls which included Goofy, Pluto, Chip, Dale, sourcer Mickey, the dancing alligator and the dancing hippo.

Because we're so close, I wanted to get my sister something extra. I ended up buying a 3 shares of Disney stock before it split 3 ways. I got one for Alex, one for me and one for Leora since she's a Disney nut too. By the time I gave the certificate to Leora, it was worth 3 shares!

And for Alex, I got a brick on the Walk Around the World in Disneyworld. I had the brick say," Alex-on our honeymoon 10-17-98, love Dara" We both were looking forward to finding it during our trip there.

Alex's gift to me was to be presented at the reception, so I had to wait another day!