Brian and I have a tradition of running the Firecracker 6 Mile Race every 4th of July.

We knew that this 4th of July, even though it was the day before our wedding, would be no different.  Because the race was an important tradition for Brian and I, we invited all of our family and members of our wedding party to run the race with us.

Of course, not everyone decided to run with us, but we had a pretty good size crowd!

A couple of the bridesmaids, Katie and Chelsea, stayed at our apartment so I whipped up a big batch of smoothies to give everyone some race day fuel.

Brian and I had special outfits to wear courtesy of my mom 😉

The rest of our running group had special shirts to wear too!!

These were a big surprise from one of Brian’s mom’s best friends.  She made these shirts with our wedding logo in the wedding colors.  I couldn’t believe how perfect they were!

After gathering the group, we found our places at the starting line and we were off!

Brian and I actually kept a pretty steady pace and ended up finishing with an average pace of 8:24 minutes/mile thanks to Katie, one of our bridesmaids.  Katie is a track and cross country and a very experienced runner, so she was able to help us keep our pace throughout the race.

Timmy, one of the groomsmen, actually beat all of us and pushed through to be the first in our group to finish.

We waited and watched everyone cross the finish line.

I was so proud of every single person!  This was the farthest that many of our bridal party members had ever ran.  Boy, do Brian and I owe them big time for making this race so special 🙂

Once we crossed the finish line, we had bellinis and mimosas calling our names.  Ellen, the secret t-shirt designer, got a little carried away with the prosecco!

There was also delicious granola waiting for us to snack on.  Ellen made this as well, and we all could not stop raving about it!  She used oil and maple syrup to bind the granola together and added lots of mix-ins for crunch and staying power.  I NEED this recipe!

After the race, we all showered up to get ready for the next event on the agenda.

Brian and I hosted a pre-wedding lunch at our apartment to welcome everyone into town and go over the details of the wedding time line.

It was such a fun opportunity for Brian and I to show everyone our apartment and use some of our new serving dishes.

The time lines and wedding day information were tucked away in these cute jute (no rhyme intended!) bags.

Brian and I thoroughly enjoyed sharing our home with everyone.  It was the perfect way to “round up the troops” and get everyone on the same page before all of the BIG wedding festivities took place.

The next event on our agenda?

The rehearsal dinner! To be continued…