Best part about a 11-01 wedding? Halloween rehearsal!
Since I won’t be in town to celebrate Halloween, I figured I’d talk about Halloween last year. We got married on 11-01-08, and like a lot of people, we wanted to have our rehearsal the day before. The day before being… Halloween! Because it was Halloween, it was a costume-mandatory event. It was like having a Halloween wedding without having a Halloween wedding, which is good for me because I’m too stuck-up and traditional to do something as offbeat as that. (That said, there have been some pretty awesome Halloween weddings. Offbeat Bride has many examples.)
One note about having a costume rehearsal before your wedding… Kelvin and I had the ambitious idea to make our own costumes, so a lot of the week before was spent working on the costumes because we are procrastinators. Word of advice: DON’T DO THIS. It took away time and thought from working on things for the actual wedding, which means I missed a couple details for the wedding because of chaos of mind. I feel like an idiot for not thinking this part through thoroughly.
Looks like a hurricane hit our apartment
Because of time constraints Hakone Gardens has, this was a rehearsal lunch instead of a rehearsal dinner. It was a Friday, so everyone took a day off from work to rehearse, which I really appreciated. (I took the entire week off!) That morning, the girls got manicures and pedicures at Sakura Nail Bar in San Jose Japantown. Word of advice: Don’t clip your nails immediately before your wedding! The salon ladies didn’t have much to work with for me because of that… another thing I did without thinking. It was nice getting pampered before rehearsal, and it was our moms’ first manicures too!
Kimi, me, and Kelvin’s mom getting pedicures
Anna and Sandra getting manicures
After manicures, we went straight to Hakone Gardens at noon. I think we were a little late, but we were the first ones there, except for our photographer and day-of coordinator! Aside from my mother and me, EVERYONE was late. Even the girls who were just at the salon with me. They took a different route than me, and it should have been quicker, but there was a massive accident on the freeway they took, lol. Eventually, everybody that was coming made it, and we did our rehearsal.
Flower girl and baby sister
Hanging out while we talk to Patty
Rodney leading my mom in, followed by bridal party
In walks the bride!
Getting fake married… almost like the real thing!
Patty says we’re supposed to wave at people, so we’re wavin’
The Rehearsal Party
Bride – Harley Quinn
Groom – Joker
Maid of Honor – Carmen Sandiego
Best Man – Invisible Man
Bridesmaid – Pirate
Groomsman – Himself/Robot
Bridesmaid – Wonder Woman
Groomsman – Tiger Woods
Mother of the Bride – Witch
Mother of the Groom – ??? Cabaret lady??
Father of the Bride – Surgeon
Father of the Groom – Surgeon
Stepmother of the Groom – Surgeon
Flower Girl – Snow White
Mother of the Flower Girl – I have “no eye-deer“…
Officiant – Priest
Video cameraman – Kankuro
Kelvin’s best man couldn’t make it to rehearsal, so he was the only person from the bridal party missing. Some interesting notes about the costumes:
-Kelvin and I were mostly successful in making our costumes. I made mine from a modified Burda dress pattern, and Kelvin got the pattern for his from a costume sewing pattern for Uncle Sam. His ended up being a little small, so his suit actually has no armpits. I didn’t have time to sew my collar or sleeves on, so the collar is pinned on, and the sleeves are just cut up stockings slipped over my arms! LOL, we’re ghetto!
-My dad was flying in from Taiwan and has no grasp on Halloween, so I bought the cheapest and easiest costume at Party City, which was hospital scrubs. I forgot that Kelvin’s stepmother works in a hospital… so of course she and Kelvin’s dad shows up in (way nicer) hospital scrubs.
-My mom, the witch, didn’t want to carry around a broom, so instead she brought a feather duster.
-Anna’s costume didn’t come with tights.
The bridesmaids
Our groomsman, Geoff, showed up last even though he lives like a couple freeway exits away from the venue, and because we were rushed for time, he couldn’t put on his costume during the rehearsal. Which is too bad, because he made this awesome and well-constructed robot costume. He was a procrastinator like we were, but I believe he did finish his costume on time. The problem was, he didn’t quite figure out the logistics of transporting his costume to the rehearsal venue. He has two vehicles: a motorcycle and a convertible Miata. Neither of these vehicles could hold his costume. What he ended up doing was taking his Miata, putting his costume in the passenger seat, and driving down the freeway with the roof down at 30mph so it wouldn’t fly away. I wish I could have seen him share the freeway with no doubt numerous other POed drivers. Geoff, I’m sorry for not letting you wear your costume for rehearsal, especially after all that effort.
WTF is this thing?
Lunch was at C.B. Hannegans, just down Highway 9 from Hakone Gardens. Everyone was treated to a buffet lunch, courtesy of Kelvin’s folks. Because our photographer couldn’t make it to lunch, Ted joined us and took pictures for us. Pretty good ones in fact!
Robot is human after all
Chowing down
Princesses need to eat, too
Sandra and pirate Anna
An unfortunate thing about this rehearsal is that we rehearsed outside because the lady in charge of the gardens had told us it was going to be clear on our wedding day. She must have misread her weather report, as I had read before and after the rehearsal that rain was definitely coming the next day. Sure enough, the first major storm of the 2008-2009 winter season came on our wedding. (I think there was a random shower early in the month, but nothing compared to what hit us.) It would have been better to have rehearsed inside, but at least we got some nice pictures of the garden from rehearsal!
New thing I learned today: The term “hug it out” originated from Entourage.
Related posts:
- The best part about wedding planning: CAKE TASTING! (pt.1)
- The best part about wedding planning: CAKE TASTING! (pt.2)
- The best part about wedding planning: CAKE TASTING! (pt.3)
- A short trip to LA for a wedding and hangtime with Sandra – Part 2
- A short trip to LA for a wedding and hangtime with Sandra – Part 1
whoa! hold up! I would like some credit for showing up on time. I was there with Kelvin’s parents (which was awkward because I hadn’t met them before) before you and your posse showed up. Normally, not a big deal, but I drove in from Santa Cruz through the beginnings of a major storm and showed up on time, in costume.
just saying.
1My bad for forgetting who arrived before us. The main thing I remembered was how behind schedule we were. You do get bonus points for coming from SC.
I’m not sure what you mean by “beginnings of a major storm” though. Weather was nice that day!
2Oh… maybe the storm thing was on the day of the ceremony.
and the hakone gardens lady was seriously looking at the wrong weather report. i remember when she told us that it would be sunny and we were all like “yay!” and then going to lunch and everybody’s like “uh… no, it’s rainy tomorrow”
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