Let's take this party across the border! (passports not required.)

Before we ever had a florist, a dress, a DJ or colors, we had our Rehearsal Dinner booked and its menu selected. Mark's parents are really on the ball. It only took about two weeks after we got engaged before they wanted to get our RD figured out and taken care of. We are so excited and grateful that they want to host this for us, so we agreed to meet them in Muenster one weekend this summer to scope out possible places for the party.

Now, in case you didn't already know, Muenster is a small town. Like really, really small. From the get go, the future in-laws were worried that they wouldn't be able to find something they liked or something that would be as nice and fancy as they had envisioned our Rehearsal Dinner being. I knew we could find something that would work, but they definitely had to be convinced. Mark and I did our homework before they came into town and scoped out anything and everything that might be what they were looking for. We had a list of local restaurants, tea rooms, hotels and bed and breakfasts that were in and around Muenster that would host a private party of our size. Many of them were really nice and quite charming. But there was one that stood out with the in-laws, hands down. The funny part? It's not in Muenster, or even Texas.. it's in Oklahoma!

So we are rehearsing in Texas, then taking our bridal party posse across the border to Mark's home state of OK for our RD at the Winstar Golf Course Clubhouse. (Yup, that's Winstar as in the ginormous casino just across the Texas border. Pay no attention to all the crazy grandma gamblers, just drive on past all those slot machines and neon lights to the scenic golf course tucked behind it!). It's a great setting, and can totally compare to any big city country club that we would never be able to find out in the sticks where we're getting married.

It sounds totally silly, but a dual state wedding is perfect for us. My family's from Texas, Mark's is from Oklahoma. I went to school at the University of Texas, Mark graduated from Oklahoma State. My friends are scattered around TX, his friends mostly call OK home. My extended family will be coming in from all over Texas, Mark's will be road-tripping it across Oklahoma for our wedding. And it's not as bad as it sounds... our small town wedding is actually less than ten miles south of the state line, so while it may sound like we have to drive miles and miles to get to our out-of-state rehearsal dinner, it's really no further than we'd likely have to drive anyways. Plus, we think its a great way to include a little bit of both of our backgrounds in our wedding weekend!