You Make My Dreams Come True: Getting Pretty

I woke up around 7:30 the morning of the wedding with lots of butterflies in my tummy. I get insanely nervous and my stomach always gets upset when either something big is happening (i.e. starting at a new school, moving away to college, etc) or I'm going to be doing something in front of a lot of people (especially public speaking). Um, I think your wedding day is the epitome of those two things. Needless to say I wasn't feeling very well, but after reading the email David sent me at 7:32, I had a smile plastered on my face. While it's probably not the most interesting thing to any of you, I started this blog for my own memory, so I'm posting it here. :) 

Good Morning, Baby!

Today is the most special day of our lives. We are officially closing what has been a pretty darn good chapter of our lives and opening what is set to be the best chapter yet! Most people wait a lifetime to actually meet someone that is meant for them the way we are meant for each other. The fact we met at 14 is awesome to think about! God has blessed us in SO many ways, it's unbelievable.

Sweetie, you are the most beautiful girl I have ever met. And to know you will be walking down the aisle to meet ME is still hard to believe. There has never been one doubt in my mind that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. In fact, I miss you so much the few moments we aren't together, it is crazy!

So, enjoy your last morning as Ms. my old last name, because you have an incredible family and amazing upbringing. Without your folks, this would have NEVER been possible. This afternoon you become Mrs. my new last name, which is the best thing that has ever happened to the new last name family!

I can't wait!!

I love you with everything in me,
Always and Forever.
David

Is he not the cutest thing ever? I married a keeper. After reading that I honestly thought to myself, 'No matter what happens today, I'm marrying this man and that's all that matters.' (I'll be honest, I let myself forget that a couple times, but deep down I knew it was the truth.) My hair appointment wasn't until 9:30 and I didn't want to wake everyone up, so I had some time to myself. I attempted to go back to sleep for a little while, but there was no chance of that. So instead I texted my soon-to-be hubby saying thank you for the email and that it made me cry (of course) but also made me even more excited for the day. I told him I loved him and couldn't wait to see him, and he sent the funniest reply back:

'Eeee!' is my go-to phrase, ha! And then I, of course, had some last minute stuff I needed him to do.

Soon BM S was awake and went to get breakfast, but I was way too anxious to eat. Once she got back she, BM M, Jr. BM K, and I all left for the hair salon. I'm so thankful for that BM S had her dad's camera and was able to get all the pictures of the morning!

Jr. BM K and BM M - I love this picture :)

Surprisingly we were done pretty quickly. I have a TON of hair and it takes awhile to curl all of it, but she was done even faster than my hair trial. 

We made a stop at McDonalds on the way back to the hotel so I could get a large Dr. Pepper. I drank an insane amount of those in the month leading up to the wedding, and it was about the only thing that sounded good at the time. We met MOH A back at the hotel since she had gone to breakfast with her family (she lives in Louisiana and doesn't see them often) and she had happened to pick up a present for me from my sweet groom. I had almost forgotten I'd be getting a gift from him, so I was surprised when she'd met up with David's older brother to get it that morning! I opened it right away and teared up (again) reading the card.

As soon as I saw the shape of the box I knew exactly what it was. Back in January when we'd picked out my wedding bands there was a necklace at the jewelers that matched my ring setting perfectly. They tried to talk David into buying it, but I thought it was way too expensive. They had me go to the store next door and when he met back up with me he swore he hadn't bought it. I was almost sure he did, but he wasn't giving anything away. Turns out he had and I was right!

Love my bestie!

Photo by Lola Jo Photo Design

Shortly after I called my mom and had her head over to start my makeup. Conveniently, my parents' house is only a couple miles from the hotel we stayed at, so she was there within minutes. I loved having my mom do my makeup. Not only did she do a fabulous job, it was nice to spend some quality time with her that morning!

Meanwhile, we started the flower girl tutus. I'm so glad I had help from BM S and Jr. BM K. We kind of switched off between getting ready and working on them, and we finished them just in time! My mom had found pink petticoats for the girls, but I just wasn't crazy about how they looked. I'd envisioned tutus and I knew I could make them easily. Unfortunately the project just kept getting pushed to the end of the list, until I finally got the rest of the supplies for them Friday night at midnight. I had planned to finish them before I went to bed, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open. While I'm sure some brides would never finish a project the morning of their wedding, it all ended up working out just fine! 

Photo by Lola Jo Photo Design

Photo by Lola Jo Photo Design

Photo by Lola Jo Photo Design

I promise I'm not constantly on my phone - In these pictures I was either writing my last blog post as a miss or was trying to deal with the issue of our jr. groomsman's lost tux jacket. (No worries, David had it.. I don't know why.)

I love that MOH A and BM S wore their towel wraps to get ready. They looked so cute!

They all added their finishing touches and slipped into their beautiful mismatched black dresses. I know every bride says this, but I had gorgeous bridesmaids.

Photo by Lola Jo Photo Design

Photo by Lola Jo Photo Design

Photo by Lola Jo Photo Design

Once they were all ready it was time for me to 'slip into' my dress. I wanted more than anything to have my sisters and my mom help me get dressed. However, both of my sisters were incredibly late to the hotel (like 45 minutes +) and we couldn't wait any longer to put the dress on. We were already late to the first look, and the boys were already at the location we chose for pictures (outside, in the 100 degree heat, in black tuxes). This is one of the times that I wish I would've sucked it up and realized that things go wrong on your wedding day. Instead I let myself cry and I hate that I look upset in a lot of the pictures of me getting dressed. It just hurt that they missed that moment and messed up the whole day's schedule with our photographer. Granted, both of my sister's had 2 month old infants, but I had hoped that they'd be able to be on time just once. Anyway. I've got to get over it!

I may have been upset, but as soon as I put that dress on I immediately felt like a bride! There's no feeling like it - Looking up into the mirrior to see that everything has come together: the hair, the makeup, the jewelry, the dress. It's so exciting! But I'm going to make you wait until tomorrow for those pictures. I'll leave you with these:

Photo by Lola Jo Photo Design

Photo by Lola Jo Photo Design

Was the morning before your wedding crazy? Did anything go wrong?

Tip #4: Tell your bridesmaids to arrive much earlier than you actually need them to. Then if they're late (which someone will be) it won't be as big of a deal, and it's always better to have too much time than too little.

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

Dressing My Little-Ish Lady

**I apologize for the lack of posting the last few days - I was without a computer charger last week, my sister's baby shower was Saturday so my mom was in town, and I was sick most of the weekend with a 101 degree fever. I'm hoping to get some posts scheduled for this week, though!

My JrBM K, David's younger sister, is at that stage where she's right inbetween girls' and juniors' clothes. While I was home for spring break FMIL and K wanted to go dress shopping, so we started out at JC Pennys. K is wearing a black dress of her choice, just like all of the other bridesmaids, so our options were a bit limited. We basically found these two dresses:

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She looked adorable in both, but David being the protective big brother that he is preferred the 2nd one because of the sleeves. K was happy with it, so FMIL went ahead and bought it (on sale!) We ran out of time to look for a dress for FMIL, but I'm sure we'll be able to find something within the next couple months.

Do any of you have jr bridesmaids? Was it somewhat difficult to find a variety of options for their dresses?

Darling Dress Hangers

Ok, I'll admit, this is another one of those extra unnecessary projects. But I don't care. I love how they turned out, and I'm going to love the pictures of them! I'd seen a couple different super cute bridesmaid dress hangers. I think I first saw these:

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And then I saw these from Miss (now Mrs.!) Gloss:

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So when I found initial 'ornments' at Michaels in the dollar section around Christmas, I knew exactly what I wanted to use them for.

I found black satin hangers on ebay:

And used the letters from Michaels:

To make this:

Here are all of them waiting to have pretty little black dresses hanging from them in June:

I think I'm going to make a hanger for my dress using the same type of hanger, maybe with a damask ribbon bow or something. For some reason, I didn't get an initial for me and I don't think they have them at Michaels anymore.

For a project that cost less than $15, I think it was totally worth it. The pictures will be so cute, and what girl wouldn't like a fancy hanger for one of her favorite dresses?

**I have 5 hangers left if any of you are interested in doing this project for your ladies!

Convertible Dresses Revisited

I blogged about my love for twobirds bridesmaid dresses a few weeks ago. Several of you commented saying you loved them too, or that you were debating buying one for yourself. Well, my mom is awesome, and just sent me a link to this:

 

 

 

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A convertible dress from Newport News! It can be worn 4 different ways: As a halter, a bandeau, a tank, or a one-shoulder style. It only comes in the 3 colors shown above (Black, Royal Purple, and Scarlet), but it's also only $89.00! It's part of their 'shape fx' collection, which means it has slimming shape control. It also has built in soft cups for shaping and support.

Newport News always has coupon codes for free shipping or 20% off. By doing a simple google search I found a code for free shipping (L52) and a code for 20% off (588), and you may be able to find even better deals. I definitely want a black one for myself! I think I'll wait to see if they have any Cyber Monday sales, though.

My mom has ordered several things from Newport News in the past, and has always been happy with their quality. If I end up ordering one, I'll be sure to post some pictures and a review of the dress!

If I Had All the Money in the World...

...I'd buy my bridesmaids these dresses!

 

 

I bookmarked the twobirds bridesmaid website (source for all of the pictures) long before I was engaged. I thought convertible dresses were the coolest idea. I still do, but I also know it's $270 for the short version and $290 for the long version. You can wrap the dress-yes, it's all the same dress-in over 15 unique ways and it only comes in 2 sizes: Size A fits 0-14 and Size B fits 16-24. And it's maternity friendly!

I'd never ask my bridesmaids to spend nearly $300 on a dress for my wedding regardless of how many times they'd be able to wear the it, but I still think it's such a cool idea! If only I had the budget to buy one for each of them... And maybe one for myself, too! :)

Have you seen anyone use convertible dresses for their bridesmaid dresses?

Do you have something you'd love to be able to do if your budget allowed?

Weekend Updates

As another weekend approaches (thank goodness - it was SUCH a long week filled with midterms/papers/WORK!), I remembered I didn't update you on my last wonderful weekend! It was SO nice to see my best friend/MOH again, and to get to just 'hang out,' something I obviously used to take for granted. BM S's birthday was lots of fun, and she looked gorgeous! *I bought her a tiara to wear and she rocked it!*



It was so nice to have two of my great friends here on the same weekend (even though BM S lives with me, so she's here every weekend!) My cheeks hurt from laughing so much Saturday night!



Not only were two of my best friends here... My other half was here at the same time! I really don't think it could've gotten much better.



Although we didn't work on any wedding projects like MOH A wanted to, we DID make some wedding related progress! She found her dress! :) And after seeing her in it, I seriously contemplated joining the Air Force to make my body look like that - Ha! :P



We'll (well, my mom will!) be adding some pink fabric at the top so she feels covered and comfortable, and both she and my sister (Matron of Honor) will probably have pink sashes unless I can think of something better to set them apart. I think it'll look great with BM M's dress that I posted about here, and it makes me even more excited to see all 5 of my girls' dresses together!

I hope your weekend was as great as mine! My mom is in town again this weekend because my Grandpa had surgery today (everything went well - Praise God!), so I probably won't be around much. I don't really have any questions for you - Just remember to tell everyone close to you how much you love them! :)

Beautiful Bridesmaids!

I mentioned in my post about last weekend's wedding progress that BM M found her dress! We kind of looked in Wichita when I was home a couple weekends ago, but didn't find anything. We didn't even really plan to go this weekend, but my favorite store in Lawrence is right next door to Chipotle, where we ate lunch, so I wanted to stop in just to look. :) She tried a few things on, including a super cute black dress and she ended up loving it! I love it too:



The best part is it ended up only being $29! I love a good deal, so I was very excited! I can't wait what all of the other ladies choose. BM S has been looking at a few different ones including this dress in black:


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And this dress from Nordstrom:





This one says it's "currently unavailable" which is unfortunate, because I want one for myself! I LOVE the bow in back!

I talked to my sister (MOH A) the other night after babysitting the kids for a few hours, and she said she's going to start looking. There was one she liked in Wichita, but couldn't justify buying (it was before I told her I was just going to have them pick out black dresses) but I'm sure she'll find another one she loves! I've always been drawn to little black dresses, so it's been fun helping the girls look for theirs. I'm so excited to see how they all come together!

Did you let your ladies pick their own dresses? If so, did you help them look? Or did you leave it entirely up to them?