By Nathan
It might be surprising since Katharine and I have been together for over 3 years, but our parents just met for the first time a couple weekends ago. The weekend was full of sharing stories about our childhood and taking care of wedding stuff. But before my parents arrived, the weekend started off with Katharine and Bryan wedding dress shopping in Santa Monica on Friday afternoon. Paul then later concluded some business stuff in the area and we all met at Literati for dinner. Literati has become one of our favorite restaurants because it is within walking distance and it has an incredible mushroom soup that we love.
Then on Saturday morning my parents arrived, and after introductions we headed back to Middle Ranch. My parents have already toured the venue but this was Katharine’s parents first time. After walking the grounds and touring the inside of the club house they agreed this was the perfect location for our wedding. We started laying out potential ceremony arrangements, trying to answer some logistical questions like, which direction we would be facing? where would the sun be during the ceremony? and where would Katharine enter from? While we were walking around outside, a storm started to roll in, kicking up strong gusts of wind. This picture was right after Katharine was hit in the face with a flying leaf. One of the few downsides to her beloved trees. Hopefully the winds will be calmer on August 6th!
During this weekend we thought it would be a good time to try some rehearsal dinner locations. For lunch we then headed east to Dish, a resturant in La Canada Flintridge. Everyone liked the food and the location was fitting for a rehearsal dinner since you can reserve the whole bar area (which is also about half of the restaurant). They have great banquet pricing and a nice relaxed atmosphere that we think suits us. We still have quite a list of possibilites to try in the Pasadena area but this one looks promising so far.
After Lunch we split up guys and girls. The guys headed to the shooting range while the girls went dress shopping. My brother met up with us at the range and we enjoyed going through almost 200 shells between the 4 of us. I think this will be a great pre-wedding activity for the guys while the girls spend hours getting ready for the wedding. Plus I think the pictures will be one-of-a-kind.
For dinner we all met up again at another potential rehearsal dinner location, Green Street Tavern. It provided a nice atmosphere for the two families to meet, but we didn’t feel like it was quite the right place for our rehearsal dinner since it was pretty small and very dark. But Katharine’s mom was able to impress my dad with her magnifying glass flashlight to read the menu. Still, the food was amazing, I recommend the wild boar meat loaf, and I think it was a good time had by all.
The next morning we had brunch with our parents at Bread and Porridge and further discussed family histories and wedding plans. It was a nice ending to a event packed weekend.
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