We’ve been recapping all of the events leading up to my (Greta’s) wedding weekend, and finally we’re here… wedding weekend has begun! Well, wedding week, actually. Our wedding was in Brainerd, MN (about 2.5 hours North of the Twin Cities), so we drove up the Monday before to have time to relax and get settled before people started arriving. Our families rented two big cabins at Grandview Lodge, one for the girls & one for the guys. We had the best time hanging out at the cabins all together (they were right next to each other, so it was really convenient to go back and forth)! We brought our boat over from our cabin, so we boated to dinners, had bonfires, and had so much fun with just our two families! Some of our friends and extended family started arriving on Wednesday, so we boated to Ernie’s and got to spend some time with the early crew. Then, on Thursday, the majority of our wedding party arrived… just in time for our rehearsal dinner!
Before we get into sharing about the evening’s events, we thought we’d take a moment to share what we wore!
Click to shop our LTK!
We shuttled to our venue, Blacksmith Main for a 4:30 rehearsal. We met our wedding planner and did a quick run through of how it would all go down on Saturday. We practiced getting in order, walking down the aisle, and exiting. After we rehearsed, we took the buses to Cragun’s Resort on Gull Lake where we would all board a big dinner cruise boat for the Rehearsal/Groom’s Dinner. Attendees included our wedding party & plus ones, both immediate families, our officiant, and our aunts/uncles/grandparents that were able to make it.
The weather was perfect, a little overcast so it wasn’t too hot. We started the night with a cocktail hour; our signature drink was a bootleg, it was so yummy! We also had some light apps as well.
Then after about an hour, we sat down for dinner. We had salmon, short ribs, potatoes, asparagus, it was delish! During dinner, Matt (Grant’s dad) gave a speech, it was so special!
After dinner we went up to the top of the boat for some more drinks & then we extended the mic to friends to say a little something if they wanted to. The next hour or so was spent laughing & crying while we listened to our favorite people speak. After people were done talking, we spent the rest of the night singing & dancing, it truly was the best! One thing I did at the rehearsal, which I highly recommend, was giving my bridesmaids their wedding gifts. I will go more into detail of what I gifted the girls in a couple posts from now, but it was a really fun time for them to open the gifts & then they were able to plan accordingly for the day of because I got them a few things that I thought they might want to use!
When the boat was over, we shuttled back to Grandview. The whole wedding party stayed up late playing games & hanging out in the cabins. Thursday night was a bit of a later night (4am) which was fun, because Friday we didn’t have anything except enjoy a day on the lake until the Welcome Party… Which I will cover tomorrow 😉 stay tuned!
Also – shoutout to Jordan Joseph Photography for so perfectly capturing our Rehearsal Dinner. He was amazing, and so great to work with!
