Okay, on to our Rehersal Dinner (without the rehersal! lol) at Ohana's. We figured this would be a good time to get everybody together and have some fun the day before the wedding, and give them all an idea of the timeline for the next day.
We get there pretty early, and everybody finds some where to sit outside the restaurant while I go and check in.
The whole group lounging around:
Joe and his parents waiting patiently:
We figured we had at least a 15 min wait, so we decided to hand out the gift bags. Instead of giving out individual favors, everybody got a bag. We all got leis, too, which Mom purchased ahead of time on Ebay. The gift bags had hot chocolate packets in a mug, door hangers Joe and I had made, ornaments made by my Mom, candle votives my mom had etched Mickey heads into(the were so cute...and I'll post a pic as soon as I take one!) CD's that we had burned with special songs on them, and cinderella carriage picture frames. Tied onto the bags were small bells which had a tag tied onto them that read "Today as we gather together, Wish us A Love to Last forever. If you would like us to share a Wedding Kiss, Ring the bell for Lifelong Bliss." These of course, were supposed to be for the next day, but everybody got a kick out of making us practice! Also tied on were bubbles for everyone to blow as we walked out of the Pavillion. The had a tag that read "Rice may be traditional, but bubbles are more fun to wish the newlyweds well as their new life has begun!" My Mom was responsible for almost everything in the bags, except for the door hangers, and I was so happy with them-she did a great job!
The doorhangers Joe and I made:
Aftet everybody got their leis and bags, Mom headed towards us with two presents. Before she gives them to us, she gave us both a visor...mine was white and said Bride, his was black and said Groom. They were soo cute!(another thing i need to take pics of!) Hmmm what is she doing? Gifts at the rehersal dinner? Well, little did I know what she was up to...so in front of everybody, and I do mean everybody, I open the box:
Joe knew what was coming, so he was a little bit more cautious in front of all of the people in the lobby who were listening and watching the big loud group!
I thought I would pass out from laughing so hard, and I wish I had a picture of the look on my Mom's face! Something was said by her, in between laughing and crying, that she expected us to wear them the next night! LOL, it was too funny.
So as soon as we get over our new "gifts", our buzzer goes off. We're walked through the restaurant, right past the dessert....yummy! I can't wait!
We finally get to our table and get situated. We stick out just a little bit...10 people, all dressed up, wearing lei's, and Joe and I wearing bride and groom visors! I was really happy to be there with everybody, and I knew we were gonna have some really good food soon!
Everybody haging out right after we get seated:
We get our drinks, and the entertainer for the night comes over to our table and starts talking to us. We tell him what's going on, and he's extremely friendly and gives us a lot of attention
He asks Joe and I if we'd be willing to help him with the limbo later on, which of course we say yes to. Lots of screaming kids running by, and they're all a different height-sure it was no problem! LOL! We had a lot of fun watching them and being a part of it!
Also during the dinner, we are singled out by the guy(I wish I remembered his name!!!) and he announced who we were and what was going on, and got us to slow dance in front of everybody in the restaurant! We were pretty embarassed, but it was lots of fun, and our families got a kick out of it!
While I'm talking about dancing...a few people at our table learned a little about how to Hula while we were there-I haven't laughed that hard in a loooonnng time!
All of this went on through dinner(I can't remember what happened exactly when.) However, this is where the story turns a little sour. After we got our appetizers, we had to wait a pretty long time for any other food. Then we finally get some sides, and an extra suprise with it. The server with the shrimp somehow managed to pour the sauce down my brother's back while he was sitting it on the table. He saw it, and barely acknowledged it. We finally got someone's attention, who brought over a damp towel to try and clean it up. In the meantime, I realize that Justin has a LOOK on his face. He's pretty easy going, so I knew that wasn't the whole problem. I finally found out that the food was really hot, and it was just as hot when it slid down his back. We tried to be cool about it, but nobody seemed to care, so Mom called over a manager and told him the problem. He was nice and apologetic, and offered to have the shirt dry cleaned for us. Ok, fine, shirt problem now fixed. Now on with dinner. But wait, there's nothing to eat! No skewers came to our table! We finally got 2 of them(steak and somehitng else) and ate them. Our drinks were empty, and our server seemed to be completely ignoring us. We were finally offered the other 2 typed of skewers about 5 mins after we were done eating. Keep in mind, that there were 10 of us. Add in everybody getting up, dancing, limbo, etc...we were there a pretty long time. I used to wait tables, and know it is a very hard job...but we were never really helped after the "shrimp incident." So back over comes the manager. He and Mom have a quiet talk, and eventually he comes over to Joe and I to personally apologize. He also let us know that the holiday Wishes would be starting soon, and we should stay to watch it. Turns out he took 20% off the total bill, and the shirt would get dry cleaned while we were at the Poly for the week. I would have rather had the good food, but it didn't quite work out that way. We received our dessert, which was the most delicous bread pudding, and watched Wishes from our table. Aside from the food and the service, we had a great time. The guy (why in the world did I not write down his name?!?!?) who was entertaining could not have been any better, and really involved our whole group in a lot of fun. I wasn't going to let this ruin anything about the trip or our wedding. Turns out, this was by far the worst thing that happened in the 2 weeks we were there.
After dinner, we walked back to our room, where we would split up again. This time, Mom and Joe were switching places. Mom would spend the night with me at the Poly, and Joe was going back to the condo with my grandparents and brother. We agreed we wouldn't see eachother or talk to eachother until the wedding!!! I told him goodbye, not believing that the next time I talked to him, I would be repeating wedding vows!
Up next:
It's finally here!!! Our wedding day!!!!!!
We get there pretty early, and everybody finds some where to sit outside the restaurant while I go and check in.
The whole group lounging around:
Joe and his parents waiting patiently:
We figured we had at least a 15 min wait, so we decided to hand out the gift bags. Instead of giving out individual favors, everybody got a bag. We all got leis, too, which Mom purchased ahead of time on Ebay. The gift bags had hot chocolate packets in a mug, door hangers Joe and I had made, ornaments made by my Mom, candle votives my mom had etched Mickey heads into(the were so cute...and I'll post a pic as soon as I take one!) CD's that we had burned with special songs on them, and cinderella carriage picture frames. Tied onto the bags were small bells which had a tag tied onto them that read "Today as we gather together, Wish us A Love to Last forever. If you would like us to share a Wedding Kiss, Ring the bell for Lifelong Bliss." These of course, were supposed to be for the next day, but everybody got a kick out of making us practice! Also tied on were bubbles for everyone to blow as we walked out of the Pavillion. The had a tag that read "Rice may be traditional, but bubbles are more fun to wish the newlyweds well as their new life has begun!" My Mom was responsible for almost everything in the bags, except for the door hangers, and I was so happy with them-she did a great job!
The doorhangers Joe and I made:
Aftet everybody got their leis and bags, Mom headed towards us with two presents. Before she gives them to us, she gave us both a visor...mine was white and said Bride, his was black and said Groom. They were soo cute!(another thing i need to take pics of!) Hmmm what is she doing? Gifts at the rehersal dinner? Well, little did I know what she was up to...so in front of everybody, and I do mean everybody, I open the box:
Joe knew what was coming, so he was a little bit more cautious in front of all of the people in the lobby who were listening and watching the big loud group!
I thought I would pass out from laughing so hard, and I wish I had a picture of the look on my Mom's face! Something was said by her, in between laughing and crying, that she expected us to wear them the next night! LOL, it was too funny.
So as soon as we get over our new "gifts", our buzzer goes off. We're walked through the restaurant, right past the dessert....yummy! I can't wait!
We finally get to our table and get situated. We stick out just a little bit...10 people, all dressed up, wearing lei's, and Joe and I wearing bride and groom visors! I was really happy to be there with everybody, and I knew we were gonna have some really good food soon!
Everybody haging out right after we get seated:
We get our drinks, and the entertainer for the night comes over to our table and starts talking to us. We tell him what's going on, and he's extremely friendly and gives us a lot of attention
He asks Joe and I if we'd be willing to help him with the limbo later on, which of course we say yes to. Lots of screaming kids running by, and they're all a different height-sure it was no problem! LOL! We had a lot of fun watching them and being a part of it!
Also during the dinner, we are singled out by the guy(I wish I remembered his name!!!) and he announced who we were and what was going on, and got us to slow dance in front of everybody in the restaurant! We were pretty embarassed, but it was lots of fun, and our families got a kick out of it!
While I'm talking about dancing...a few people at our table learned a little about how to Hula while we were there-I haven't laughed that hard in a loooonnng time!
All of this went on through dinner(I can't remember what happened exactly when.) However, this is where the story turns a little sour. After we got our appetizers, we had to wait a pretty long time for any other food. Then we finally get some sides, and an extra suprise with it. The server with the shrimp somehow managed to pour the sauce down my brother's back while he was sitting it on the table. He saw it, and barely acknowledged it. We finally got someone's attention, who brought over a damp towel to try and clean it up. In the meantime, I realize that Justin has a LOOK on his face. He's pretty easy going, so I knew that wasn't the whole problem. I finally found out that the food was really hot, and it was just as hot when it slid down his back. We tried to be cool about it, but nobody seemed to care, so Mom called over a manager and told him the problem. He was nice and apologetic, and offered to have the shirt dry cleaned for us. Ok, fine, shirt problem now fixed. Now on with dinner. But wait, there's nothing to eat! No skewers came to our table! We finally got 2 of them(steak and somehitng else) and ate them. Our drinks were empty, and our server seemed to be completely ignoring us. We were finally offered the other 2 typed of skewers about 5 mins after we were done eating. Keep in mind, that there were 10 of us. Add in everybody getting up, dancing, limbo, etc...we were there a pretty long time. I used to wait tables, and know it is a very hard job...but we were never really helped after the "shrimp incident." So back over comes the manager. He and Mom have a quiet talk, and eventually he comes over to Joe and I to personally apologize. He also let us know that the holiday Wishes would be starting soon, and we should stay to watch it. Turns out he took 20% off the total bill, and the shirt would get dry cleaned while we were at the Poly for the week. I would have rather had the good food, but it didn't quite work out that way. We received our dessert, which was the most delicous bread pudding, and watched Wishes from our table. Aside from the food and the service, we had a great time. The guy (why in the world did I not write down his name?!?!?) who was entertaining could not have been any better, and really involved our whole group in a lot of fun. I wasn't going to let this ruin anything about the trip or our wedding. Turns out, this was by far the worst thing that happened in the 2 weeks we were there.
After dinner, we walked back to our room, where we would split up again. This time, Mom and Joe were switching places. Mom would spend the night with me at the Poly, and Joe was going back to the condo with my grandparents and brother. We agreed we wouldn't see eachother or talk to eachother until the wedding!!! I told him goodbye, not believing that the next time I talked to him, I would be repeating wedding vows!
Up next:
It's finally here!!! Our wedding day!!!!!!
I cant believe the gifts you opened! Think of it this way though- you will never see those other people again. I hope your gifts turned out well. I can imagine your DH liked them. 
This is my newfound reasoning... see if others find it the same. 
My WC was Tanis- Juliana showed up
! He also helped me a lot when it came to getting my DH and Dad ready. lol... I think they might have forgotten the marriage liscense if it werent for good ole Mr. Chapman.
