declaring all-in in a limit game

ok so after pechange (read other post about bad beat jackpot) and dinner, buddy and I go to san manuel tonight. I am sitting 3-6 with about 120 or so in front of me.

I get QJ off, dont remember position, maybe mp-lp. Anyway flop has a Qxt, dont remember better rounds either. turn is a T, river brings another Q, its me and another guy heads up at the end, I bet, he raises, reraise, etc,etc, finally after about 5 sets of this I say im all in, the dealer looks at me and says you cant say that, and I said I mean im going to reraise until i am all in, he said you cant do that, but the guy says I call. Then we sit there, anyway finally I called the guys last reraise and did the showdown.

SO i had like 60 left in front of me and he had like 20-30, he wins, had TT for quads which I didnt think he would have, was a new player and didnt have a read yet but thats not the point of the post.

Ok so now my question is was that all in declare actually binding? Nobody said anything about it but im just curious.
I remember a post about this but im not sure.