Rehearsal Dinner #1

As previously mentioned, we had two rehearsal dinners for our wedding. The first one was a sit-down dinner at The Mooring Restaurant in downtown Newport for the wedding party and their guests.

Heading out to the rehearsal...

I was still feeling a bit stressed from the wind when we got there so it didn't help that we were seated outside on the deck at two separate tables. Additionally, the deck was down about 7 steps and my dad can usually only do 1 step with his walker, so instead of starting off the dinner with a great We're-getting-married!!! vibe, I was a bit pouty.

Thankfully, my friend Sarah had the smarts to order up a drink for me...I don't actually remember exactly what it was, but I think it had champagne in it and maybe some lime and melon. What matters, is that it was just enough alcohol to calm. me. down. and as I mentioned before, once I had that drink, the whole rest of the wedding weekend was smooth sailing from there.

Some of the other yummy drinks...

The menu looked amazing! We ordered tons of yummy, yummy food. Of course, we had to keep in mind that there was an entire other rehearsal dinner to attend after this one, so we tried hard not to fill up too much!
My table ordered the Lobster & Waffles Appetizer which was baked lobster tail, toasted pistachio butter, house-made savory waffle and mâche with mandarin orange syrup as well as the Bag of Doughnuts; crab & shrimp fritters with chipotle-maple aioli. We also got some coconut shrimp...delish, delish, delish!!

For my meal, I had the Lobster Croissant...traditional steamed, chilled lobster meat, tarragon-dill dressing. It came with SO MUCH lobster meat in it! I was smart though, and didn't eat my fries or my croissant in anticipation of meal #2!!

The view from the back deck at the Mooring

The food was very, very good and once I got over my frustrations from when we arrived at the restaurant, I (and the rest of the party) had a wonderful time. I highly recommend going to the Mooring if you are ever in Newport, RI. It really is a beautiful restaurant with quintessential New England water views and terrific food!