Rehearsal Dinner + Surprise for the Groom!

The night before the wedding, we had a wonderful rehearsal dinner at The Capital Grille in Chestnut Hill. Food and service were both excellent. Our party had a private room (the wine room), and while a little tight for nearly 30 guests, it created a cozy space to catch up with family. DH and I are incredibly grateful to his parents for hosting the event - it was a great night!

I wore my previously decided upon outfit, and DH let me play dress up with him for the night :) I had him in black Calvin Klein pants, a CK black & white checked gingham shirt and orange tie - didn't he look adorable? I love this outfit - I'm going to have to find an excuse for him to wear it again!

For a surprise, I got DH a "groom's cake." This is something traditionally done in the south, but has made a big debut in the north recently. Plus, any excuse to have more cake is just fine by us. I worked with Konditor Meister in Braintree, who also did our beautiful wedding cake. DH is a part of an outdoor organization, and they recently purchased a tipi (even drove up to his sister's house in NY to cut down all the poles - which they spent months sanding and preparing).

I knew instantly that I wanted a camping/tipi theme for the cake - but many of the images I found online (after googling "camping cake") just weren't what I was looking for. Most were just disasters composed of plastic trees, green airbrushing, and far too much buttercream. But then I found an adorable cake that looked like paper cutouts! However instead of a tent, I wanted a tipi, in honor of his new venture. I sent the photo to KM, and they worked their magic!

How cute is this cake?! My mother picked it up, and she had to wait at the bakery because KM loved it so much, they were photographing it for their catalog!

I chose carrot cake as the flavor - DH had loved it at our tasting, but we thought it might be too heavy for the wedding cake. It was perfect for the groom's cake though - so delicious!

I know DH was really surprised and I'm so glad I could do something for him. I know it often seems like the wedding is more about the bride - but he put just as much work into our special day (if not more, there were power tools involved...) as I did, and I really wanted to give him his own special moment.