Getting Dressed

When we last left off, I was all set to start the process of turning a girl in her "undies" into a bride...So get ready for some funny faces – mainly from me as they get me into a dress without messing up hair, veil or make-up...


I was getting ready to have the dress come down over me...
I think that it started out with just MOH holding the dress, but we quickly realized that a few more hands were needed! You know that old saying about it taking a village to raise a child? Well, it might also apply to dressing a bride...Ah! Air!! It was needed and welcomed at this point! Maid Britney got the LOVELY task of making sure that "the girls" were staying right where they needed to be...

Luckily her task was easy enough, and Mom and MOH started on the laces...

Then we realized that not only did it take one person holding up the front, but someone needed to get the veil out of the way...enter Mom to the rescue.

Once that was out of the way, MOH could see what she was trying to do with the laces. It really helped having the seamstress cut off some of the "extra" on the laces...they were MUCH more manageable, just as a tip to future brides-to-be!

MOH and I had previously decided that we liked the corset laced bottom to top best...so that's where she started...I think that it was at this point that MOH was muttering curses and comments under her breath about brides that pig out the week of the wedding! I was doing my best to "suck it in" and hold still...You can see from my facial expression below that the "comments" were getting a little funny...or maybe I just chose to laugh and ignore her...

Almost done...

And what a pretty picture the back makes...MOH and Mom did a GREAT job!

While I was being tortured...I mean, while MOH was working SO hard on getting me all laced up...J was looking at me with little stars in her eyes. She kept saying over and over how much I looked like Cinderella...it almost made me cry. And she could NOT resist touching the sparkles...

I tried to make sure that each Maid was captured doing something special to help me get ready...MOH had already been in LOTS of shots getting me dressed, but she went about putting the final touches on J's hair and pinning her tiara in. (Note to other brides out there: this step of putting on the tiara is BEST left for right before the pictures start...I'm just saying.)

A pretty princess all ready to go!

Maid Britney helped me with the veil, which was fitting since she slaved so hard over it putting all those crystals on! Maid Momma helped me get my garters straight, which was really special if you know the history between us...this is what I helped her do at her wedding several years ago! And some of my favorite shots of us getting ready that Christina captured...little J slipping my shoes on...since she’d made the comment about me looking like Cinderella, it was really a simple choice to have her help me put my shoes on. I mean, she was the closest one to the floor! But I’m SO glad that these shots were captured...they were SO sweet in real life! LOVE those shoes! Wasn’t that the sweetest?!?!?

Stay tuned for the girls’ pictures!

All photos courtesy of Christina Carroll Photography

Need to catch up? Here’s some links:
Girls’ Spa Day
Bachelor/Bachelorette Party
Setting Up the Venue…
Practice Makes Perfect…
Rehearsal Dinner
5 Minutes is All that I Need
A “Quick” Stop at the Hair Salon
A Sneak Peek at the Venue...

Arriving at the Venue...to Stay!

A “Quick” Stop at the Hair Salon

Wow. That’s really all that I can say...I would have NEVER in a million years thought that it would take me this long to get started back on my re-caps...yikes. I guess now I understand how all of those bees over on Weddingbee don’t just start re-capping right away...sometimes life gets in the way and it takes you a little bit.

Something like this, perhaps? Yeah...maybe. If you haven’t followed along in a while, or just completely gave up on me for lack of posting (and I really don’t blame you!) then maybe you missed out on the news that I have a new blog all about Ziggy. That’s what I’m calling the “bump” right now...hop on over and check it out! Click here if you’re interested!

So, now that we all understand what’s kept me let’s get back on track! I would really, really like to finish off my wedding recaps BEFORE my 6 month anniversary...a date that is looming on the horizon...but I’m pretty sure that I can do it. I’m motivated...and the chance to offer myself a prize is almost too tempting to pass up. What could I give myself? Hmmm...well, while I’m thinking on that – please don’t tell me that I’m the only person out there that rewards themselves for a job well done! – let’s get caught back up.

Where were we? Oh yeah. Headed to the hair salon...for a “quick” appointment...

It all started off so well. The trial that I did a short two weeks before the wedding went off without a hitch...and all of the girls and flower girl were scheduled to come into the salon at some point that morning to get their hair did. (That’s something that we say in East Texas...or that some people in East Texas say...I don’t really use that expression in everyday life.) I would have liked for us to all go at the same time, but beggars can’t be choosers, and when you wait until two weeks before the big day to schedule this at all...you really just have to take what’s offered to you.

There were two appts that could happen simultaneously at 9am, and then one at 10:30 and the last at 11 that morning...so we staggered ourselves around that schedule. My initial thinking was that J would go last...since #1 – she’s seven and keeping a hair do up between 11 and 5 would be a small miracle anyway, and #2 – I didn’t really have a concept for what I wanted with her hair, so I wanted to go first and get mine over with and then have her go last so that I could be there to supervise. Because I’m a hair expert. Not. Just because I like being in charge.

In the end? Yeah, it didn’t happen that way. In the end, J wasn’t going anywhere without me, or maybe I should say that she wasn’t going to let me go anywhere without her...yeah, that’s more appropriate. So she and I headed off at 9am for our hair appts. Then MOH and Maid Britney could fight over who would take the later appts. So I grabbed my veil, we double checked that we had on loose, button-up shirts and off we went. I visited with the girl that was doing J’s hair first, since Autumn wasn’t quite ready for me yet, and she and I agreed on curls pinned back off of her face and J decided on which tiara to wear. Perfect.

Then I slipped into my own chair and settled back for Autumn to work her magic like she did the week before.

Except the magic was starting.

Hmmm...should I be alarmed?

I glance over my shoulder to see Autumn alternating her stare between the photos that she took during our trial run and my veil. I asked if there was a problem, and she said “I don’t know.” Now, in case you’re not sure about this...let me tell you straight up and honest. Having someone tell you that they don’t know if there’s a problem on your wedding day is generally not the best of news. It’s really not. Sure, there might be a solution, but for that one small minute, you have a mini-heart attack. Your mind shuts down and the world goes grey...

I assumed that the problem was with the veil, since the trial went well, and there could be no problems with that. On top of that great deductive reasoning, I decided that it has to be a problem with the veil because I didn’t have the veil with me at the trial. Sure enough, I’m one smart cookie. There was an issue with the veil.

Apparently, the lady that made my veil (who saved me about $200) used a rather large head comb. Not a problem if you’re doing a high veil, like towards the crown of your head. But since I was choosing to place my veil underneath my up-do at the base of my head...do you see where I’m going with this? If not, let me try to draw you a better picture.

When you held up the comb of the veil against the back of my head (like in the area level with behind your ears) the comb was sticking out my AT LEAST one inch on either side. Now. I know that one inch doesn’t sound like that much...but when you’re talking about it sticking out from the side of your head...when 160 people are going to spend an hour staring at the back of your head during your wedding...an inch on either side becomes a larger deal.

Are we on the same page? Good.

Once my vision comes back and I can breathe easily again, I see that Autumn is already working on a game plan. Our first plan of action was the break the hair comb, making it “bend” around my head easier. But that didn’t work – I don’t know what those things are made of (not cheap plastic), but it wouldn’t crack for any of the 5 ladies in the salon who tried. My next thought was to just go without the veil. But after all the hard work that Maid Britney had put into it, I just couldn’t bring myself to actively consider that option.

Our eventual solution was to change my hair style. Autumn kept it as similar to what we started out with as possible, but had to alter the style at the base of my head to hide the comb a bit. As you can imagine, all of this ended up taking a little longer than anticipated, so I was in the chair quite a while. And the weight of my hair was falling in a different spot, but that couldn’t be avoided at that point either. Overall, I was pleased, but not thrilled with the end result. It looked nice, don’t get me wrong, and Autumn did an AMAZING job on the fly like that, but I had really, really loved my trial up-do...

It worked out, as J’s hair wasn’t as responsive to the curls that I had envisioned or the pins that the hairstylist was trying to tame it all down with. I tried to tell the girl that was working on her hair that although I liked what she had done, I wasn’t sure that it would last until 5pm in the nicest way possible. Her solution? To spray more hairspray on...NOT what I had meant. Oh well. I grabbed J and away we went...over to Redbud Hall to check the status of things and drop off our bags and such. Then we needed to head back to the hotel to take a quick rinse off and get the final load ready to bring with us...

And just on a side note...we ended up squeezing one more teeny-tiny trip back to the salon to have J’s hair fixed. I tried to tell them that it wouldn’t stay like she had it. Yeah, it didn’t. It fell down within the hour, to be precise...but what do you do? Well, I don’t know what you would do, but I went back, showed them the damage, looked at my watch, detailed the time that we had been gone, then calmly and politely asked for it to be put up the way that I had asked in the first place. A ponytail was all that ended up working...but we did get some curls re-done while we were there and a look at the Maids who were still getting gussied up!

I couldn't find a good picture of just my hair...maybe somewhere in the 2,000 images that I got from my photographer? Oh yeah, I don't have the desire to look through those...but here's a shot taken by a friend/family member that kind of gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. See how WIDE the veil is?
Yeah, it really shouldn't be that wide. You can almost tell that it's sticking out past my scalp...but not really. Like I said, Autumn did a GREAT job with what she had to work with. It gave my whole over-all look a more structured, "done" look than what I was going for...but oh well. It looked pretty, no one but me really knew the difference anyway, and the world kept on turning. B still said "I Do" at the right moment, no matter what my hair looked like, and that's all that's really important...

Need to catch up? Here’s some links:
Girls’ Spa Day
Bachelor/Bachelorette Party
Setting Up the Venue…
Practice Makes Perfect…
Rehearsal Dinner
5 Minutes is All that I Need

Hair Trail...Part II

After much debate, previously discussed here and here, I hired another hair stylist. I agreed with all of the comments that you guys left for me from those posts and just couldn't trust that the previous hair stylist would be able to do my hair to my satisfaction. Then I wrote that I had a new hair stylist scheduled and was awaiting my trial.

Well, funny story. My trail date came and went...and I slept right through my appointment! Yep, no joke. It was scheduled for last Saturday morning at 9am, and I woke up about 30 minutes after...oops! I felt really bad, called immediately upon waking up and rescheduled for my lunch hour on Monday. She warned me that it might take a little longer than an hour, and I just had to make it work...I'm glad that I have an understanding boss!

Anyway, I immediately liked Autumn when I walked into the salon. She was nice and friendly on the phone, totally understanding of my cold medicine "overdose" the weekend before, and was really warm and inviting. She works at this salon, in case you're interested. I showed her my hair inspiration picture, and she started messing with my hair. Keeping in mind that I've never met her and she'd never worked on my hair, she took a few minutes to look it all over and do some trial curls and things to get accustomed to what my hair would do.

Mom, you're gonna love this: the first comment out of her mouth after about 30 seconds of messing with it was "Oh my gosh - you have a LOT of hair!" I laughed. I assured her that with all the stress before the wedding that I had been shedding like crazy the last few days and she let me know right away that I could stand to lose some...this is my curse. My blessing is that my hair is naturally curly and holds curls very well. After just a few minutes of "getting to know" my hair, she got down to work.

She was upfront and honest and told me that she might not be able to exactly replicate my inspiration photo. I told her that was fine, I wanted more curl to it anyway, but I wanted the overall feel of the messy updo. Something that might look like I did it myself on-purpose-by-accident, you know? Satisfied that we were off to a good start, she went to town, after warning me that with as much hair as I have that I might be late back to work! LOL.

The good news? She did it in 45 minutes. The even better news? I L-O-V-E-D it. See for yourself...
Now, these pictures were taking by me AFTER I got home from work and shopping that evening. Yep, this was about 7 hours into the hairstyle. And it still looked that good! I was out in the wind, jumped around, bopped my head side to side while I drove, I really put this hairdo to the test. Yippee! The even best news? I took the style down after wearing it for 11 hours and had NO headache. She started with a ponytail, which I'm used to wearing with the weight that my hair brings, and then pinned from there. (I think that's what helped me stay headache-free all night.)

We'll make some minor adjustments, sleeking the front a little more, taking some of the frizz out in the back...but all in all, I call it a resounding success! What do you think?

Hair Trial

I promised you pictures of the hair trial...and not surprisingly, since I thought that it was going to be a hair AND make-up trial, my Before pics looks absolutely gross! This is me, sans make-up or anything being done to my hair...

So lovely. NOT! I can't believe that I'm posting that picture out on the internet...Mom, do NOT get any ideas about sharing 4-7th grade pictures! LOL.

Like I said in this post...I'm not sure how I feel about my hair trial. When I left the salon, I thought that it was really ok that it wasn't what I asked for. It looked good on me, even if it did feel a little more Prom and a little less Bride. But the bottom line is that it was NOT what I asked her to do. And since there was NO make-up trial, other than me just trusting her (this total stranger that I don't know from Adam, as my Mom pointed out!) with my make-up on the wedding day, I'm fairly certain that I'll be cancelling her services today. Thank you to all of you who responded and commented to help me make this decision.

Without furter ado, here is what she came up with for my hair, and yes, I still look gross due to lack of MAKE-UP!Maybe you didn't know this, so I'll let you in on an "insider's secret" - it's HARD to take pictures of the back of your head! See that expression on my face? Not fun! That's a better shot. Now for the side view...And then I started playing with the zoom...And here's a close-up shot of the top/front of the updo...this part I actually liked...it wasn't totally flat and tight, but not poofed up too much...Here I am, trying to show more detail of the back...
And one last close-up on my face and the overall look:
So that's it. Not bad, right? No, it looks nice. Fits my face well. I will agree with all of those statements. What I don't agree with? It does NOT match this picture (which she had in front of her and kept referring to!):

source

Do I have a valid complaint, or am I being too "bridezilla"?

Vendor Problems???

I’m not really sure where to start with this post...you see, I have some pretty mixed feelings about my hair and make-up trial that I had the other day. Maybe I should start at the beginning and see what you all think...

I don’t have a specific hair person. My hair is naturally curly, and I wear it long which translates to not a lot of fuss. I can typically walk in anywhere and get a trim that I like. So I don’t have a specific hair person. Not really a big deal on an everyday basis, but when you’re planning a wedding, you want special hair...and not having a hair person then becomes a problem.

A few months back I received an email from a beauty consultant offering her services for hair and make-up the day of our wedding, including travelling to the venue to do it all. Seemed like a gift from above, so I quickly emailed her back to check pricing and availability. (I’ll apologize now for the multitude of “her” references coming your way...since I haven’t made a decision one way or the other yet, I don’t want to use names.)

She and I emailed back and forth for a few days, and we worked out that she was available, and she sent me a link to a website where I could view her pricing and some of her work. I contacted each of my Maids to see which ones would also be interested in having their hair done, and I sent off my final counts and awaited a price. I got a quote back and immediately wrote back and asked if the price included a trial for my hair and make-up.

Then five weeks went by. I never got a response. To be fair, I got busy with other things and didn’t notice that I hadn’t gotten an answer, but she never wrote me back and answered my question. So I finally contacted her back and asked point-blank (not rudely, but firmly) again if the price included the trials and was also clear to say that I had not agreed to anything with her yet until I had my questions answered.

And here’s where I made my mistake. When she wrote back apologetic and very sorry and yes, let’s get that scheduled for you, I overlooked the fact that she STILL did not answer my question. Actually, I thought the answer was yes, the trial was included. So I scheduled the trial and went on with my life.

Fast forward to the day of my trial. I bring along my inspiration pictures and we talk. She immediately starts working on my hair, and it takes about ½ an hour for her to finish. It’s not exactly what I asked for...but I don’t dislike it. It looks fine. Once we’re done with the hair, I assume that we’re moving on to make-up. She takes out her appointment book and starts talking about payment the day of, and scheduling and timing and all, and sits down on another chair. After a few minutes of this, I bring up the make-up trial. She goes on to “reassure” me that she does not believe in a heavy hand with make-up, that she wants to emphasize my looks the day of without overdoing and that I can “trust her.”

I have to admit that I didn’t really know what to say. So I said the obvious, that I thought we were doing a trial on both hair AND make-up. She says no, she just does the trial on hair and has another appointment coming in 15 minutes. She then asks me for $70 for her services for that day.

Now, I’m the first to admit that I’m non-confrontational. I seriously like to avoid conflict. So instead of making a scene and throwing a fit, I took out my checkbook and wrote her a check. But in the back of my mind, I’m thinking “What the Hell” is wrong with this lady. I seethe about it, leave and go about my day. But the whole drive home, I’m just SO frustrated. After talking to a few people about the situation, including B, we all agree that I need to make sure of what I remember before I go off on this woman. When I get home, B checks out my hair and says it looks nice, but he didn’t think that I wanted such a “done” look. I admit that I’m not thrilled, but keep quiet about it for the most part.

The trial was at 1 o’clock in the afternoon. I had to take the updo down at 7 o’clock. I had a raging headache from the do, and was all itchy from the amount of hairspray used. J helped me remove all 51 bobby pins...and she even helped me brush it out. The fact that I couldn’t wear the updo for more than 6 hours concerns me. I don’t have a sensitive head...I wear a ponytail most days, and I know that I have thick hair that is heavy when piled up on top. But I’ve worn updos for much longer time periods and not had the problems that I had with this one.

The day of the wedding, she’s supposed to come out and do my hair and make-up at 1 o’clock. It has to last until we plan on leaving around 10:30 that night. That’s quite a bit longer that I wore the do the other day, and I don’t know that I’ll be able to do it. Not to mention that I’m just supposed to “trust her” that I won’t look like a clown?

In her defense, when I went back and checked the emails she and I had sent, I see that she never actually answered my question about the trial being included in the price or not. It was MY mistake. She was so apologetic and wanted to book the trial right then, that I just made the assumption that yes, it was included. I should have asked for clarification...but now I’m torn. I’ve already had what I would consider to be two problems with this woman, and I wasn’t really thrilled with my hair. And don’t get me started about the fact that I never got the make-up trial.

So here’s my question...what would you do? Would you continue on? Or would you look for someone else? I’m really curious to know if I’m over-reacting...and I promise that I’ll post some pictures in the next day or two...I still need to calm down about it all.

Could it be true???

Ha ha. The joke was on me when this post automatically posted yesterday WITHOUT the inspiration pictures! I reloaded them to my site, and here it is…sorry for any of you who might have been looking at my blog early in the morning and were confused by the lack of inspiration picture!

I had to take little CC to the dentist the other day, and I realized that I’ve been carrying around the latest issue of Modern Bride in my ever-present bridal bag for about a week now and haven’t finished looking through it yet.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking…you’re wondering to yourself how it is that I could start looking through the latest issue of ANY bridal magazine and NOT finish! Am I right? Yeah, probably so. And several months ago, I would have thought the same thing, I would have devoured that magazine the first evening that I got it.

So what’s changed? Well, me, I guess. You see, I’m at the point in my planning now that looking at more bridal magazines is almost something like information overload. Seriously. Every time that I open a new bridal magazine, I see something in there that makes me want to change my present course of action. And that’s just no good. For one thing, it would drive Mr. CC completely bonkers if I continued to change my mind. For another thing? Well, I’d probably be going nuts too!

Anyway, I decided to pass the time in the waiting room flipping through the rest of the magazine, not really expecting to see anything that I had to have. It turns out that it was a REALLY good thing that I decided to finish looking through the magazine, because I think that I came across my hair inspiration photo. No, I haven’t settled on anyone to actually DO my hair (or make-up) that day, but that’s just a minor detail. The inspiration is more important.

I had written here about some styles that I liked. But let’s be honest here, they were ALL over the board. Seriously. I’m not scared to be honest about my faults…and this was something that I was having a REALLY hard time making a choice on. Until I saw this…

source

Isn’t it perfect? Well, it’s perfect for me. My natural curls should do well in this loose up-do, without causing too much strain on my hairdresser, whoever she may be. It’s not tight and confined (which is SO not me!), but tight enough to not worry me with falling down all evening. It’s loose enough to allow my natural curl to work with it, and I just simply love it. What do you think? Here’s a picture of my hair on a normal day…

Source – my own photo skills

Ha ha. Yep, I rock a ponytail most days…isn’t Mr. CC a cutie? But seriously, here’s a picture of my naturally curly hair…

Source

And here’s the inspiration picture again…

Can you picture it? What do you think? Is it a match made in heaven? Was it easy or difficult for you to come across inspiration pictures for your hair/make-up that reflected who you are normally?

Hair, Hair, Long Beautiful Hair!

Most brides, when planning their wedding think about the “look” that they’re going for LONG before they think about other things. Well, since I’ve never been what you might call “traditional” in the first place, why should this be any different? I mean, let’s face it, I have had other things on my mind…pesky eggplant tablecloths…

So, now that my attention can be diverted elsewhere, I’m starting to think about the look that I want to pull off for myself. You know ladies, the important things – hair, make-up, nails, SHOES!
I’m SO sorry Mr. CC, but you’re going to have to excuse yourself if you’re reading this post…Thank you! Love you!

I’m having a weekend with my ladies (and Mama CC and Sister CC are going to try to join in on the fun as well!) here in a week, and there are several pressing questions that I hope to get answers to that weekend. Of main concern to me is my hair. Mainly because it affects several things – it’s not just about how my hair looks, but what I wear with my dress and my hairstyle.

Here are some inspiration pics of some bridal hairstyles that I like.

all images courtesy of http://www.theknot.com/

What you might notice about all of these is that there is almost no pattern. I like each picture for different reasons. Some of them because they look soft and romantic, some of them work with the dress and overall feel of the day, and some of them capture more of “me” than the others do. Some of them have barrettes, some tiaras, some just veils. I’m NOT a big fan of the trendy floral fascinator or the birdcage veils. I know that for sure, which actually does help eliminate some options.

But most importantly, some of the hair styles are up and others are down. When I first started to think about hair, I just assumed that I would wear my hair up, something like picture #1, 5, 6, or 10. But truth be told, there’s a side of me that would actually consider wearing it down. I have long, naturally curly hair and get complimented on how beautiful it is on a daily basis. (Well, on the days that I wake up in time to fix it that is!) I’m not really trying to sound conceited by saying that, it’s just a fact that I get compliments on my hair when I wear it down. Check out this picture to jog your memory.

But if I leave it down…that covers up one of my favorite parts of my dress…the back. I think that the back of my dress and the closure is one of the prettiest parts about my dress. Then again, I guess if the work-out wagon didn’t “work out” (no actual pun intended) wearing my hair down could help to cover up any back cleavage that still remained…

I know, I know. That’s NOT a good plan. But you get what I’m saying, right?

I wonder if I could do something that was kind of half up and half down. Something like picture #7,8, 9 or 11? And just in case you’re wondering if weather would be an option, my hair is normally at its best during the fall month of October/November when the wedding is planned. Not too much humidity to make it crazy frizzy.

What do you think? Have any opinions on whether a curly-haired bride should contain it all away or let it flow naturally? I’m honestly torn between the two options…