Wedding Recap: Bridal Primping/Getting Ready with My Maids!

Alright, I can’t take it anymore! I’m ready to share with you some wedding day photos!! While we’re waiting for the professional photos to come back to us, I’ll share these that were taken by my lovely Aunt Deb, Aunt Jill, and me and my mom.

Obviously I don’t want to miss recapping one moment of the wedding day, because not only is this blog somewhat of a “hobby,” but it’s also a personal journal and I definitely want to read these in the future and make sure that I covered every special moment of that very, very special day.

I wish I could recap the rehearsal dinner now, but if you’ve read my blog before, you know that I love to share pictures and unfortunately I don’t have any pictures from that evening. Don’t worry though; our photographer was there to shoot the actual rehearsal and the dinner, so we’ll just recap that later when I have the photos! :)

So today we’ll start with me and my bridesmaids getting ready…

I woke up early on June 19th, 2010, probably around 7:00 am. I actually got a great night’s sleep the night before. It’s somewhat of a tradition that the night before big events (holidays, graduations, birthdays) my younger sister and I sleep in the same bed. We’ve been doing this since we were younger, so it was no different the night before the wedding…except for of course we’re much bigger now (my younger sister is 5’11"!). Either way, I woke up early and hopped in the shower and made my way downstairs to find a very quiet house. It was quite calming not having hustle and bustle all around me – it gave me the chance to stop and reflect for a moment on how important the day was and how exciting the next few hours would be.

My mom handed me a box wrapped in pink paper. I opened it up to find my robe and slippers, but my mom had put the most adorable little accent on the outside of the tissue. “Happily Ever After” is what the little banner read, and at the moment I got even more excited about the whole day! My dreams were coming true and I was getting ready to marry my best friend and the love of my life! My mom also had all of the bridesmaid's robes and slippers lined up and ready to go for when they arrived! She also had wrapped their monogrammed silk sashes in beautiful pink tissue, tied them together with a pink satin bow and then accented the bow with the slate pearl and crystal pin that would hold the sashes to their dresses. My mom had covered every detail! :)

Our hairstylist, Joselin, arrived around 8:15 to get everything set up and immediately put my mom’s hair in rollers. My bridesmaids arrived around 8:30 and everything got started!! My mom had set out a beautiful breakfast for us on the kitchen table – nothing too heavy of course, but bagels & cream cheese and fresh cut strawberries and oranges. We all enjoyed a little breakfast, had a cup of coffee (water for me!), and were in and out of my parent’s bathroom (where Joselin was all set up!) watching each other have our hair done.

Around 9:00 am Shannon, our makeup gal for the day of arrived with her case of goodies! She spread out all of her beautiful Laura Mercier makeup all over the big coffee table in my parent’s well lit living room and got to work! She started with my mom’s makeup and I loved sitting and watching her work! ***Shannon was like a gift that we randomly stumbled upon one day while out shopping! She was absolutely AMAZING the day of the wedding – she stayed all morning, stayed through the entire ceremony so that she could touch up my makeup after for the photos, and even trekked with us all the way to our “other” photo location to make sure my makeup looked great. I couldn’t have asked for a better make-up artist or friend on the day of the wedding! :) ***

During all of the excitement our photographer, Abigail, and Andy, our videographer arrived! I was so excited to see all of them there – it really made everything super real! My photographer ended up having three people shoot our wedding – one was her assistant, Traci and the other was a very mature, college-aged intern named Marissa. While we were getting ready Abigail and Marissa were busy taking detail shots and other photos. I ended up having a few minutes to chat with Marissa. Turns out we lived on the same exact street growing up! It was like I made a whole other friend that day and it reminded me of all of the good memories I have of growing up in my hometown and in my old home!! Both Abigail and Marissa were fabulous – so kind and easy going. Andy was also amazing – he was so discreet, I barely knew that he was even there! Plus I was super excited to meet Andy since I had only been in contact with him via email for many months!

A few of my mom’s friends stopped by that morning to see our transformations…Mrs. Frederick (the host of the beautiful bridal luncheon I posted about yesterday), Mrs. Pastoor (a family friend who also so kindly agreed to pick up some lunch wraps for my maids and I before we left for the wedding), and my Aunt Jill (who wanted to see her daughter, my cousin/bridesmaid getting ready!). It was nice having a few visitors because it made everything very relaxed. People kept asking me if I was nervous at all, and honestly, I wasn’t one bit! I was so excited for the day and to see M. and we had waited so long for that day to come that I was just plain happy! :)

Eventually though it was time to pile in the limo and head off to the church! :) The girls hair ended up taking a little longer than we expected (as a tip to brides-to-be start 45 minutes earlier than the earliest you think you need to start getting ready!) and Joselin was finishing my hair up until the last minute! Luckily I had decided not to change into my dress until arriving at the church for the fact that because my dress was so simple (without a lot lace or beading) I wanted it to look crisp and fresh as I walked down the aisle – if I had sat in it in the limo ride to the church it may have gotten creased.

So with Joselin spraying and fixing my hair up until the last minute, I popped on my wedding shoes, stayed in my short, white robe and hopped in the limo with my already dressed and glowing bridesmaids!

The ride over to the church was definitely fun! We laughed and listened to music and before I knew it we were there! We all shuffled out of the limo and into the gorgeous….and by gorgeous I mean UGLY (see the gross royal blue walls and ugly pipes?) waiting room in my childhood church where we all hung out prior to me getting dressed for the ceremony!

And then, in a moment of silence with my bridesmaids, I could hear the trumpets and string quartet playing above us….

Come back tomorrow for the ceremony!! :)