Wow, it’s been a minute since I hit “publish” on a Wedding Wednesday post. Today marks our second wedding anniversary and now that two – TWO – years have gone by since our nuptials, it seems like all of the planning is long gone. It’s not until I scrolled through my hundreds of wedding photos again that I was brought back to the last minute print orders, dress appointments and makeup lessons to DIY my own for the big day! So many parts of that weekend required me to do a lot of legwork since we chose to do it on our own, but thankfully planning a rehearsal dinner was not one of them. Aside from requesting where our dinner was held, Steve and his mom took care of the rest. And, these photos are some of my favorite because it was truly the aesthetic I was picturing for my wedding. In the end, it would have been too hard for us to pull off for a wedding of our size, so I’m thankful I got it another part of the weekend.
We held our rehearsal dinner at a venue in Dayton, Ohio, called “Something Old Dayton.” At the time it was relatively new and was a cross between a vintage rental company and event space. The company no longer does events, just rents the space out for photo shoots, so I’m so happy we got in when we did. I’m not sure if my mother in law can say the same, since the loft space was without air conditioning and she spent a good part of Saturday setting everything up. She didn’t complain though, and I was none the wiser when I arrived after our ceremony rehearsal.
I loved that Something Old had most of the elements onsite that I wanted in the event: a chalkboard, gold candlesticks, glass chalices, the list goes on and on. In fact, the inventory is so eye catching that Steve and I rented a few things for our actual wedding. Knowing that we were using someone else’s inventory and could return it at the end of the weekend helped me feel a little bit better about all of the stuff at our wedding. The wedding industry is just one big excuse for more consumerism, and if that feeling isn’t for you, I highly recommend hunting for a vendor who’ll rent goods like picture frames and cake stands so you don’t have to purchase more new.
Not only did our rehearsal dinner feel unique because of the venue and available decor, Steve’s mom made sure there were personalized elements. She printed a cute sign listing famous couples and added Steve’s and my name to the bottom. In the photo above, behind us are drawings she did on foam board of Steve’s and my college mascots (since we got married in my college town) and the Sears tower – a nod to where we met. She also hand painted a cake topper to look like us.
The Sparty cake was courtesy of Steve. It was one of his few requests for our big day to have a cake of his college mascot, and I was happy to oblige. The cake maker was based 40 minutes away (he’d found her through a friend’s Ohio wedding), and I left it up to Steve to coordinate the order and pickup. Sparty got there in one piece and it was a highlight of the night for Steve!
Scrolling through my rehearsal dinner photos now makes me want to have another excuse to rent out Something Old inventory and hold a wedding party! That, or redecorate my house from estate sales. I’m happy I went a path planning a rehearsal dinner that was a bit unusual, catering food in an unconditioned loft, because the end result was how I pictured our big day. And in the end, the intimate start to the weekend was perfect.
Thank you Sarah for capturing photos from this event!