On August 1, 1981 I married my best friend and the love of my life. On August 1, 2014 my groom of 33 years and I threw a huge party. I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate our 33rd wedding anniversary – even though the party wasn’t for us. The party was a rehearsal dinner for our oldest son Joseph and his fiancé Julie.
Immediately after the wedding rehearsal at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, Bill and I welcomed our guests to Il Fornaio in Reston Town Center .
Il Fornaio’s private dining room was the perfect intimate setting for the wedding party to mingle and get to know each other, the parents, and grandparents of the happy couple.
Photo courtesy of Il Fornaio
Bill first ate at Il Fornaio in San Francisco back in the 90’s when he was on a business trip in California. Since it doesn’t seem at all like a chain restaurant (there are 19 locations), Bill was quite surprised when I told him a few years ago that I’d had lunch with friends at Il Fornaio in Reston.
Their website describes their food as the “most authentic Italian experience outside of Italy,” and having thoroughly enjoyed my dining experiences in Rome and Florence, their food comes the closest to that delicious food of any Italian restaurants I’ve tried in the DC area.
Once guests arrived, they were able to mingle with their friends, and make new friends while enjoying wine and beer.
And munching on antipasti of calamari, Italian meats, and cheeses.
In order to come up with the perfect dinner menu combination, Bill and I did what any good parents would do, and made several trips to Il Fornaio to try out different dishes to serve at the rehearsal dinner. We started our little exercise back in January when we dined with Julie’s parents, and later when we invited Daniel, Joseph, and Julie to join us. Our trips paid off, and Bill and I were able to narrow down the menu selection for our guests.
After about 30 minutes of visiting with our guests, it was time for us to sit down for dinner. Being the parents of the bride and groom, we got the best seats in the house!
And from the looks of the plates of the guests of honor, I think our homework paid off, and our menu selections were spot on!
One last picture of our family of four about 20 hours before we became a family of five!
And of course I had to get a picture of Julie with her college roommates, and fellow running bloggers Becky and Kelly!
As a gift to Joseph and Julie, the parents, and grandparents, Bill made a video, The Story of Joseph and Julie. It was filled with photos and videos of both of them from birth to present. It was so fun to watch, and will be a keepsake forever!
Before showing the video, Bill thanked everyone for attending, gave a short little speech, and toasted Joseph and Julie. Next, Becky and a few other friends toasted the happy couple.
And since it was our anniversary, Daniel, Joseph, and Julie surprised Bill and me with an anniversary cake, and some very sweet words! It totally caught us off guard, and made me cry… Happy tears, of course!
I seriously doubt we’ll be able to top this celebration for our 34th wedding anniversary!
- Questions:
- Married people, where did you have your rehearsal dinner? ~ Bill and I chose to have a BBQ at my parent’s home.
- Have you ever eaten at one of the 19 Il Fornaio restaurants? They are located in Virginia, Colorado, California, Nevada, and Washington.
- What would you have chosen from the dinner menu? What’s your favorite type of food? ~ I had the salmon, and it was outstanding!
These pics are so beautiful, Deb!! You look great! Congrats on 33 years of marriage… How special you got to celebrate with a rehearsal dinner. We got married at a historic home and had the rehearsal dinner there. We did a pig pickin… Us NCers love that vinegar BBQ! My brother got married in May and we had the rehearsal dinner at the NC State Club (both bride & groom are wolfpack alums)… Mr. & Mrs. Wuf joined us for the cocktail hour before dinner… It was pretty awesome. I’m so glad you shared these photos… Can’t wait to see some do the wedding!
Caroline recently posted…Slow Cooker Golden Mushroom Pork & Apples {Make Ahead Meal}
Thank you, Caroline! How exciting that Mr. and Mrs. Wuf attended cocktail hour! My husband and I considered hiring Hokie Bird for a couple of hours during the reception, but it didn’t work out.
Beautiful post of the rehearsal dinner. Everything looks so good – I will have to add Il Fornaio to my list of “must go”. So hard to pick a favorite cuisine, I suppose French and Thai are pretty high!
Jennifer recently posted…Turkish/Georgian Vacation Recap – Part 2
My husband loves Thai food, but I’m not a fan. He has to have it at lunch with co-workers since I won’t go with him. 🙂
what a special anniversary! cheers to you. also, i’ve only had ravioli with pear once, but it was incredible — must find a place around here with them!
Kristin @ W [H] A T C H recently posted…KAYAK CLAMMING ON THE EASTERN SHORE
Thank you! The people who had the ravioli said that it was delicious!
What beautiful pictures!!!
I would go with the filet!
We didn’t have a rehearsal or rehearsal dinner. We planned our wedding for the day after Chris graduated Pilot Training (military) so Friday was all about that – ceremony, pinning of wings, lunch and formal dinner. It worked – and those of his family who came from KS only had to make one trip to TX!!!
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Bill had the filet and said it was delicious.
I sounds like you had a busy, and very special wedding weekend! In case I’ve never mentioned this, please thank your husband for me for serving our country!
oh, what a perfect evening! i definitely would’ve gone with the salmon as well! it’s so fun that you were able to throw this awesome party and then have such a great night celebrating both the impending marriage of your son and your anniversary! 🙂
Courtney @ Eat Pray Run DC recently posted…Leesburg 20k Race Recap
It was such a fun evening! We couldn’t have imagined a better way to celebrate.
It was so nice to be a part of this!! It was a wonderful rehearsal dinner and I still can’t believe it’s all over!! Congrats on 33 years – that is amazing!!! 🙂
Becky recently posted…Weekend Recap
Thanks, Becky! It was so nice having you as a part of our festive weekend!
Happy Anniversary and what a fantastic way to celebrate. Did Joseph decide to make his wedding close to your anniversary or was that a coincidence?
That menu looks great.
The Reston Town Center brings back many memories from a week back in 2003 when I, along with 80+ other Peace Corps volunteers had been evacuated from China due to SARS. Normally when PC evacuates a country, the volunteers get to stay in DC, but we had to stay in Reston and were not allowed to enter the city (in case we were infected) so we spent a lot of time in Reston eating pizza (which we had dearly missed in China).
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Joseph and Julie got engaged on the same weekend last year, so it seemed like a good weekend for them to get married. They needed to plan it after Julie got out of grad school this spring and before she started teaching this fall, so it limited the weekends available. Bill and I just got really lucky!
I didn’t realize you’d been evacuated from China to Reston. Did you have pizza at Uno Pizzeria?
I love how y’all took several trips there in order to pick the perfect menu for the rehearsal dinner 🙂 I think that ravioli would be my favorite. I bet Julie and Joseph enjoyed their surprise video that Bill put together. My little sister surprised Barry and I with a slideshow of pictures set to music at our wedding reception. As you know, we got married in Bburg on campus. Our rehearsal dinner was at Custom Catering over near Carol Lee’s. Oh and I think it was really sweet of Julie and your boys to surprise y’all with an anniversary cake!
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Everyone loved the video, and it was so fun to watch everyone’s reactions when they watched it. It’s great that your sister made a slideshow for you and Barry!
Whew- this made me tear up. What a memorable way to spend your anniversary! And what a great day for Joseph and Julie to kick off their wedding festivities- in the shadow of great role models!
That menu sounds divine! I’m anxiously waiting for the wedding photos and recap 🙂
Our rehearsal dinner was on my in-laws 32 anniversary! They graciously hosted it, and we brought in Italian from a local place.
Abby recently posted…Taking a break
Thanks, Abby! I plan to post the wedding recap later this week or next week. I’ve got thousands of pictures to narrow down to about ten! Stay tuned! 🙂
[…] If we were having coffee….. I’d tell you that today is Bill’s and my 34th wedding anniversary. We’re keeping it simple this year because there’s no way we can celebrate as big as we did last year when we hosted Joseph and Julie’s rehearsal dinner! […]
[…] wrote about the rehearsal dinner being on Bill’s and my 33rd wedding anniversary, in my post The Rehearsal Dinner, Our Best Anniversary Ever. Last night while enjoying a quiet evening at the beach, we reminisced about the stark […]