(WEDDING COUNTDOWN) T-minus 1 day and counting

It's here! The wedding weekend is on -- it doesn't seem like it's already been ten months since my sister and Jamie were engaged. In that amount of time, though, they've planned what's sure to be a beautiful weekend with their usual attention to detail.

I had a fairly short but quite eclectic to-do list today: pick up a video projector, get my hair trimmed, and buy a sixpence for the bride's shoe.

I hadn't intended to rent a video projector, but for the rehearsal dinner Jamie's sister and I made a PowerPoint photo toast/roast of pictures from Margaret & Jamie's infancy through adulthood. After hours of work on the project, I asked a question I probably should've asked before I started the work: earlier this week I called the rehearsal dinner venue and asked if they have the screen and equipment in house for us to show the photo toast. Um, no. They do have a screen we could use (some venues charge for this) but we'd have to rent the projector.

So today, I had to go by the rental company, promise our firstborn and get the video projector. TIP: Don't forget to write down a contact name and phone number in case you have trouble setting up the equipment.

I then went to get my hair trimmed. Usually you'd want to do this a week or so before the wedding just to give you a few days to get adjusted. But the hair stylist I use is my friend Bruce Reed, the owner of Halo Salon, so he's always booked really far ahead -- the only date I could get was today. I took it! I walked out swinging my hair like a shampoo commercial and it looked great for the rehearsal dinner that night.

After that, I went to the closest David's Bridal and bought a sixpence* for the bride's shoe. It'll count as her "something new." Initially, she'd asked to borrow the sixpence I'd worn in one of my wedding shoes and that would've been "something old" or "something borrowed." But unfortunately, it was just "something lost" in my closet!

I went back to Bonterra Restaurant, the rehearsal dinner venue, so my husband and I could set up the projector. The wedding party started to arrive an hour later. The party began with wine and the rehearsal.

Some background info: Bonterra is in an old church and the former choir loft was turned into a balcony with table seating and a small, private room. We used the open space for the rehearsal, which went smoothly and my sister liked the bow bouquet I'd created for her!

We moved into the private room for the rehearsal dinner and what a beautiful and intimate evening it was. Margaret and Jamie decided to keep the guest list to just the wedding party and their spouses, our parents, and the minister and his wife so it truly felt like a family dinner. The night was filled mostly with laughs but there were a few tears, too, during the wedding party members' heartfelt toasts. It was an unforgettable night and it makes me even happier to welcome Jamie, my new brother (OK... in-law), into our family.

*LINGO ALERT: The sixpence is a British coin and is considered lucky. It's a wedding tradition for a bride to place a sixpence in her shoe to bring the new couple wealth and prosperity. Some bridal stores sell a sixpence gift set or you can buy the coin online.