Mani, Pedi's and Rehearsal Dinner

We started the day before the wedding with manicures and pedicures for the girls. This is a typical American tradition that I thought would be a fun bonding time with the ladies and everyone needs their fingers and toes to be looking good. The only problem is here in Mieres they don't have nail places on every other corner owned by little asian ladies that can seat 5-10 people at a time. So this meant I had to search for a place that could take two girls at a time and luckily I found one close to the hotel. But I should have asked how they did their pedi's and mani's because it wasn't exactly what we were expecting. No spa mani/pedi here. Done dry, no soaking hands, feet, nothing. They even used some kind of industrial buffer on the toe nails. We felt like we were in dumb and dumber getting a home depot pedicure. But everyone got their nails done in the end and they looked good. We didn't get to bond so much since it was the tiniest place ever-no more than two could fit in a room but we had fun!

After pedi's we ladies went and had a drink in the park before Pablo and I had to meet some friends for a drink and more gifts at noon. I left the family and told them to meet us at Charly Bar (its American style with Elvis in the door) in a half hour and we could have some drinks there and they could see the bar. Well the family arrived there before Pablo and I (pablo running late) and were greeted by Jorge who called and told us we better show up because the Americans had arrived. We ended up all having drinks together and stayed there for quite a while. Charly the owner was so kind and gave us all t-shirts of his bar and spoiled us with tons of tapas. We finally gave Charly the old license plate from my car to use as decoration. He was so cute and put it up on the wall right then and there. Now Washington State has representation in Spain!

My license plate

We finally pulled all the Americans out of the bar and headed to the city hall plaza (where we were to be married the next day) for lunch. I miraculously found my dad after running around Mieres so he could join us. Jill and fam had gone to Oviedo for the day.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch with lots of sidra and made friends with our waiter who helped us out the next day at our wedding.

Walking to lunch- stop in front of Pablo's building

After lunch we went back to the hotel to relax and get ready for the rehearsal dinner. We all met in the lobby at 7:30 and all took taxi's to El Palacio de Arriba. It is this very cute hotel/restaurant/sidreria in a small pueblo outside Mieres that we found when searching for places to have our wedding reception. This was my top vote but it ended up being too small so I made sure to have the rehearsal dinner here. I also wanted a rehearsal dinner even though we didn't rehearse anything. It is an American tradition I wanted so we could have both families together, in a casual environment, where everyone could meet and just enjoy each other before the big day. It turned out great. The weather was perfect so we sat outside enjoying a few bottles of sidra. All the americans got to try pouring the sidra too. Then we went to our private dinning room for dinner. It is the coolest room, hundreds of years old and full of wood and rock which is exactly what I love. We enjoyed an espicha type dinner and bonded.

My bow bouquet from my shower- gotta have that!

Surprise flowers from Jorge's family. They had sweet peas!

Arriving at the Rehearsal Dinner

Enjoying the nice weather and atmosphere

Little chapel on the grounds

My family

Pouring sidra- couple style

Dinner