Rehearse

One of the must dos for any bride before the wedding is to rehearse, rehearse, and rehearse again what's going to happen on the big day. This was especially applicable to me, mainly because when things get a little chaotic, rather than staying calm and continuing my course, I tend to just throw all cares out the window and go with the flow...not a good thing when all eyes are on you and your wedding coordinator is whispering cues.

So, the day before the wedding, we all packed up in a caravan of cars and headed down to the wedding site in Coconut Grove, Miami. Mango and I picked this area because we've always loved how beautiful it is, being one of the oldest parts of South Florida, the streets are covered with gorgeous trees that create a canopy and old buildings made of coral give it a unique personality...I guess you can say, it gave the wedding a "Miami flavor".

I would like to introduce you to Cynthia, a.k.a "Boss Lady", our wedding coordinator. This woman managed to not only keep me sane, but she made the day flow smoothly and effortlessly. Not only that, she had an amazing imagination, which created some brilliant ideas for our big day. On rehearsal day, she made sure that everyone was organized and knew where to be...even the bride and groom with the short attention span.

Very important in a wedding rehearsal, is learning how to walk. This is something we did over and over again, mainly because my crazy self picked a ceremony site that required walking down coral steps.

Since we had to do this a lot, in those moments while waiting for the music to begin my dad and I admired each other's shoes. In case your wondering where I got my shoe obsession, that would be from him.Something very personal to us, was that my grandfather officiated our marriage. He also married my mom and dad, and being able to have him marry us was very special. After the rehearsal we all headed off to the rehearsal lunch which was hosted by Mango's parents at Christabell's Quarter, a New Orleans themed restaurant in the heart of the Grove.

On the menu was a choice of shrimp etufee or duck with banana pudding for dessert. While the food was awesome, personally, we had a lot of fun with the Mardi Gra mask centerpieces.While I was busy meeting members of Mango's family, my girls decided to have a little fun with the photographer:With our bellies full and only one more night to go, Mango and I snuck a little good bye kiss and parted ways until our wedding day.

Photos by Cindy Karp