Face time

At first, when I considered all the vain things I’d spend my money on in the name of being a bride (hair, Spanx, facials, makeup, all that good stuff), I figured I’d probably get my makeup done the day of the wedding because those sorts of things are best left in the hands of professionals.

Then I had my makeup done twice in one month and really wasn’t a fan either time. Thinking back on it, I should have realized that might happen, as I’ve never really liked when someone else has done my makeup for me– colorguard, theater, or even messing around at sleepovers. I’ve done my own makeup for all the proms and balls I’ve ever been to, so why not do it for the wedding?

This is when people generally step in and say “Oh, Leah… your wedding day is totally different from a prom or ball. You should really have someone else do it.”

To that I reply: “Wellllp, that’s just too bad because I don’t trust anyone else to do my makeup at this point, mmkay? I’d rather do it myself and know I’ll like it.”

So that’s what I’m doing– to save my sanity and a little money, I’m doing my own makeup. With that knowledge, I headed out to Sephora, one of my favorite stores. The staff was super-helpful in pointing out things like makeup with SPF gives people a weird sheen in pictures and BareEscentuals might be great for everyday wear, but they refract the light really weird in pictures and also give a weird sheen– two things I didn’t know, the second being kind of crucial, since that’s what I was thinking about wearing. Whew!

Anyway, on my first excursion, I picked up a handful of things:

• Benefit Big Beautiful Eyes kit- $32
• Sephora Stain & Shine in Coral & Gold- $15
• Benefit BadGal Waterproof Mascara- $19

I played around with it a bit today to see how it all looks together, and I really like it! The kit is everything you need for, like it says, bit beautiful eyes, and you can really amp up the smokiness (what I tend to do for formal events) to your preference. The stain & shine is just the right color for my lips– pinky and perky without being too bold, but I might swap out the gloss for something else. The one included is a bit sticky. I don’t have enough good things to say about the mascara… I’m a huge fan of the BadGal line, and have used the regular black and plum versions, which make my eyes really pop. The waterproof version lasted through a 7.5-hour bakery shift on a 95+-degree day, a nap, a shower, and my 30 Day Shred workout. I think I’m in good shape for the wedding.

I’m also planning to use NARS’s The Multiple ($38) and Powder Blush ($26), both in Orgasm. Layered up, the color is fresh and fun, and it won’t go anywhere. I already have both of them, so I’m glad I don’t have to plunk down the money again.

Now, all I have to do is find my face base makeup– primer, foundation, and powder. Anyone have any suggestions?

The flower girl dress saga

I’ve had this post in draft for a while (umm, since November), but I’m having one of those days at work and want to do something I actually enjoy. Whoops– biting tongue, now.

I’d like to start with two questions: what the eff is with the mini-bride look? And why the eff are all the dresses wicked expensive?! That should give you a little insight into how this all played out.

Style-wise, FG L likes skulls more than flowers and FG J likes pretty much whatever FG L likes, but is shyer (so minus the skulls). FG L will be 10 and FG J will be 9 (I think? Family, help!) by the time the wedding rolls around, which is I guess a little old for flower girls. So cutesy is out.

Also out: taffeta, pickup skirts (gag), white/ivory dresses, accessories. Cue my refusal to Google “flower girl dresses,” much like my refusal to Google “mother-of-the-bride dresses.” I knew it would only return results that would make me nauseated.

Where do you buy nice dressy girls’ dresses, though? I have no idea. So I start with Macy’s. And find this adorable little number:

I wanted it in a big-girl size so I could have it myself. Incidentally, that’s how a lot of the dress decisions have been made– would I pick this out myself? If yes, it’s a contender. If I wouldn’t subject myself to it, I wouldn’t subject anyone else to it, either.

Moving on. I’m super-excited and go ahead and put the order in. Sweet! This was a few months ago, so I was WAY ahead of the game. Man, I’m good. A few hours later, I get an email informing me it’s out of stock. Fury, wrath, anger, frustration, wanting to punch Macy’s where it will really hurt a lot… all those things.

Re-center. Continue to refuse Googling. Moan and whine to Cousin E (also BM E), tell her criteria. She sends dresses.  Not quite what I was looking for, but… wait, what is this? Another dress on the same site… PERFECT!

ORDER!

BM/Cousin E shows me headbands she made with rosettes on them. I die, and promptly tell her they’re super-adorable. Plan for some in gold, also plan for kickass sparkly gold ballet flats for kickass FGs.

End plan for adorable but not gag-inducing FG outfits. Score!

Did anyone else have such a hard time finding specific items for their wedding that bucked what’s considered traditional?

Pretty maids in a row

Well, one matron-to-be, but you get the idea. I’m talking about my best ladies, the ones I’ve asked (and have accepted!) to stand up with the FI and I at the wedding and to back me up/calm me down when the going gets tough. I got me an entourage, yo!

I just realized I never posted about going dress shopping with my awesome bridesmaids, and now that I’ve emailed them all asking them to order the dress we decided on, thought it might be time to do a little intro and show you what they’re wearing.

Drumroll please for my 5 bests…

MOH K: Is the matron-to-be in the bunch. I’m in her May wedding, which has been a blast so far. We commiserate when things get ridic, and are passengers on the same crazy train. Fun fact: I hated her when we first met. I thought she was a major bitch! But we both kind of are, so it works out for the best now. We both have a flair for the dramatic and enjoy margaritas and wedding shows.

MOH S: That’s right– I couldn’t pick one honor lady, so I picked two. MOH S was my roommate for 2.5 years of college. We make each other laugh til it hurts, watch The Biggest Loser (anyone see the premier last night? Holy smokes!), and balance each other’s personalities. Her BF, N, is neurotic and paranoid like me, and S is laid-back and go-with-the-flow-y like the FI. The 4 of us have good times, and we’re actually living with them now while the kitchen’s torn apart (post to come)!

BM/Cousin E: Is she of the awesome blog-reading family, my cousin closest in age to me. She’s as wedding-obsessed as I am, and is exactly where I was right before the FI and I got engaged (just waiting and waiting). She’s super-hip and stylish, and we make up the “European work ethic” branch of the family. She’s also into baking in a major way, which makes our discussions lots of fun.

BM/Cousin C: Is going to take over for Nana B. as the family glue. She’s a nurse, fabulous with kids, and has a hot temper like the rest of the family. She always knows what’s going on in the family, and is always working things out. We haven’t hung out in a while because of crazy work hours, but always get into hours-long gabfests when we do see each other.

BM/FSIL A: Is the FI’s only sister. Fun fact: A and I used to play youth soccer and softball together, and our parents each coached teams we were on, meaning we’ve known each other for 15 +/- years. We also were in the marching band’s colorguard in high school.

There you have it! And now, what they’re wearing…

MOH K and MOH S's dress

BM E, C, and A's dress

Like my wedding dress, we got these bad boys at David’s Bridal in Truffle. I made the final call yesterday, and know they’ve started ordering them today!

I went into the dress-shopping experience not needing/wanting everyone to have the same dress. I did want the MOHs to stand out a bit, so stipulated that they could wear long dresses if they both wanted to. I only knew I wanted the dresses to be short for the BMs and that all of them should be chocolate brown. When all three of the BMs picked out the same dress to try on and they all looked fab, we went with it!

The fun part is that though the fabrics are different, the necklines and waistlines are the same, and the long dress has satin trim, mirroring the short dress. AND the neckline of the flower girl dresses (post to come!)  is the same as these dresses and it’s made of chiffon and satin, just like the long dress! Can you stand how awesome it is?

Obligatory shoe post

Part 1 of probably a million or so.

Wedding bloggers love talking about their shoes. It’s a funny thing, I think. I’m not entirely sure why I find the shoe posts so funny, but I’m always excited to find other ladies who aren’t wearing the traditional white high heels. None of those four words apply to my shoe ideas.

You see, I’m 5’8″ or so, barefoot. The FI is 5’10″ish, when he hasn’t had a haircut in a while and is wearing his work boots. Long story short, I’m almost as tall as he is. And while I’m all for wearing heels from time to time, I don’t want to be taller than he is on our wedding day.

Enter flats and kitten heels. Strike number one for traditional wedding shoes. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find more-or-less-formal shoes at those heel heights? Maybe not that hard, but I haven’t gotten into the rest of the requirements yet. Of course there are more.

They include (with reasoning):

• Not white: my dress is ivory, so I don’t want white for fairly obvious reasons.
• Not ivory, though, either: because I’ll never be able to wear them again. Honestly, does anyone wear fancy ivory shoes? Nope.
• Colored somehow: gold works for me just fine, though I’m really open to orange and maybe browns. I like shoes that give pops of color to an outfit.
• Not sandals: we’re getting married in mid-October in New England, people. Snow is a realistic consideration. Plus, it just wouldn’t feel right. (PS- this is where I lose a LOT of options)
• Not boring: a peep toe or d’orsay cut is fun, maybe some ruching on the vamp, or maybe some jewel/laser cutout detailing? Or I can just get boring ones and pick up some shoe clips, like these. Or these.
• Not outrageously expensive: and by “outrageously expensive,” I mean “more than $100.” The lower the cost, the better.
• COMFORTABLE: if a pair of shoes meets every other requirement (there is one pair I have in mind right now), but they aren’t comfortable (they weren’t), automatic disqualification. I’m going to be wearing these suckers for 10 hours or so, walking, dancing, and otherwise carrying on. If my dogs are barkin’ (random The Office reference anyone? Kevin Malone after wearing tissue boxes to Pam and Jim’s wedding?) 10 minutes after I put them on, no dice.

Clearly, this narrows the field of possibilities. I haven’t really found anything that I’ve liked a whole lot for a reasonable price, but lucky for me, I have 339 (thanks, The Knot) days left to search. Whew!

Something old? Check!

I’ve been going through the “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” shtick, and I’ve realized I’ve got “something old” DOWN.

• My engagement ring was set with my great-grandmother’s (Dad’s mom’s mom) diamond.
• Our toasting glasses are one of my other great-grandmother’s (Mum’s mom’s [Nana] mom) wedding gifts.
• I’m wearing my Mum’s garter, which Nana also wore at her wedding. This double-counts as the “something blue,” too.
• I might be wearing pearls from my grandmother’s (Grandma) collection, but haven’t decided. I might wear them as a bracelet instead.

My “something new” will be my wedding dress and shoes. And maybe some earrings I’ve been lusting after: check ‘em out! Sidenote: I love Etsy. It’s like a big fat craft show online. Fun!

I’m having some trouble thinking up “something borrowed.” I do have 345 days to figure it out, though.

What did you/are you planning to use for your old, new, borrowed, and blue items?

ZOMG NOT WHITE SHOES?!

Of all the things to throw Mum for a loop in this whole wedding-planning shebang, she was totally shocked by my decision to not wear white (or ivory) shoes. She (being very silly, if you ask me) asked what kind of shoes I plan to wear, and I replied “flats or kitten heels.” Fair enough. She’s really pushing me toward the kitten heels, though, since I evidently can’t be married wearing flats.

Listen, the FI is only an inch or maybe two taller than I am. I don’t want to be taller in all the pictures, so I’m not wearing heels. End of story.

But when we were at David’s and they made me try on shoes to see how the dress would fall, I snagged a cute (but WICKED uncomfortable) pair of peep-toe flats and made a comment somewhere along the lines of “But they obviously wouldn’t be white. Maybe orange or something.”

And Mum looked at me like I had just called her a slew of four-letter words. All the good ones.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, OBVIOUSLY NOT WHITE?!? WHY WON’T YOU WEAR WHITE SHOES?!?”

Oh, yes, friends. Caps-lock and mixed punctuation to boot. In speech.

To which I could only respond with a laugh, because of all the decisions I’ve made and all of the discussions we’ve had about what “has to” and “cannot possibly” happen/be present, the thing that threw her most for a loop was the flippin’ shoes.

She argued that I could just dye them after the wedding, and I replied that I could just as easily find a cute pair of shoes that don’t need any tinkering with at all.

I might compromise and wear gold, but so help me– they won’t be white.

The Dress. Part 3.

The final installment in our dress-o-rama of doom (or not… it just sounds funny) was a stop at David’s Bridal in Danvers. It was totally on a whim, since Mum and I really hadn’t planned to head anywhere else after Vows, but we figured we’d already been to two shops that day and weren’t quite dead on our feet, so why not try one more?

FI, once again, get outta’ here. Of all the posts, you really, for real don’t want to read this one.

We checked in with the front desk and they got all my pertinent information. After poking through their catalog, folding corners of the dresses I wanted to see, the manager at the desk called the consultant who would help me: Roberta.

First of the signs. Three of our four grandfathers (between the FI and me) and Lil’ Bro are all named Robert.

She went through the spiel, asked my bra size for the longline bra they encourage all the ladies to wear, and instructed me to pick out a pair of shoes (more on that particular tidbit later) so I could see how the dresses would fall with a particular heel height. I went with a pair of flats first, and had to kick those off after a few minutes because they were so uncomfortable. Then I went with a pair of kitten heels (the FI isn’t all that much taller than I am), which were just slightly less uncomfortable for the duration.

Roberta vanished to find the dresses I’d marked while I hung out in the dressing room. She returned with this dress, which I was a fan of due to its brocade fabric– it made me think of the Monique dress I’d tried on at Vows not too long before. She brought a 12, though, so it was way too big and we had to make do with some interesting clipping. It was really pretty, and I did like it, but it just didn’t quite feel like “me.” Onto the next.

After banishing the first  dress, Roberta returned with this one. I put it on and immediately loved the way it felt. I came out of the dressing room (Sign #2: it was number 26, which is my birthday) and looked in the mirror. It was perfect. It was lace, ivory, a flowy elegance, fitted at the top, cap-sleeved, sweetheart-necked, and open-backed. Sure, it needed a nip in the waist, and that heavily-beaded sash had to go. But I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was clicking. I kept swinging around trying to look at my back, and Roberta asked if I wanted to go to the area in the store that has 360* mirrors. I said yes, of course, and she brought me over. With a veil. I looked at myself from all angles, and found myself fixating on the back of the dress. I could see myself standing at the altar, exchanging vows. Then, Sign #3: Coldplay’s “Clocks” came on the radio. The FI and I have seen Coldplay in concert a few times, and we have a real soft spot for their music. At hearing this, I broke down in tears. I knew this was the dress. This was The One.

Mum asked if I wanted to order it at that point, but I wanted to sleep on it just to make sure. We left Roberta with the intention to return the next day with an entourage, which we did.

On Sunday, Mum, FMIL M, FMIL K, MOH S (MOH K was on her way back from CT and couldn’t make it– sad face!) and I all went back up to David’s. We poked around in the bridesmaids/mother of the bride dresses for a while, then made our way over to the fitting room area. Mum brought a dress with her to try on, too. I put my dress back on, with a veil, and came out of the dressing room to big ol’ smiles. MOH S’s reaction was my favorite, though– she had a HUGE grin on her face, maybe got a little teary, and said “ohhhh, Leah… you look so pretty!” Definitely what I wanted to hear/see

I stood around for a while in the dress, loving every minute of it, and just wanting the wedding to be here already so I could wear it. Mum tried on her dress, which didn’t quite work for her. I had to censor the comments I wanted to make– we were in public, after all! Suffice to say, she didn’t get the dress.

Before we could order my lovely, Mum insisted I try one more on: it looked a lot like the Miranda, and she thought I should exhaust my options. It was pretty, and it would have been a strong contender had I not already found my dress, but it just wasn’t the same as my lovely. The lace pattern kind of bothered me, and it kept getting snagged on the smattering of sequins through the skirt. It solidified my choice.

We ordered my dress that day! I can’t wait to get it in and get to visit at Mum’s house before the wedding!

The Dress. Part 2.

After a no-go experience at Gallet (sniffle, sniffle), Mum and I hopped on the Mass Pike to head to Vows in Watertown. Fun fact: Vows operates the site Bridepower.com, where they list a whole slew of designer dresses for ridiculously marked-down prices. Some are gently worn, some are samples, but they’re all in great shape.

We walked in and were greeted at the door and got the spiel of the store. All designer-label gowns, sorted by skirt type and not size or brand. Most were sample sizes, meaning 8-10.

“Fun” fact: wedding gowns generally run 2 sizes larger than your normal street size. It’s a great way for already-stressed brides to freak out that they’re suddenly a 10, when they thought they were a 6. Yeah, real fun.

Anyway, Saturdays are their walk-in days, so it was a bit busy. Luckily for us, it was Halloween, so I think the store traffic was a bit lighter than it might have been otherwise. I received 5 pink tickets with my name on them to slip into pockets on the dress bags, claiming them as mine. Once I picked out 5 dresses, I could head into a dressing room. I’m assigned a consultant, she zips/buttons/laces me up, I check myself in the mirror, and try the next one. Rinse, and repeat. I think I went through about 15 here as well.

Now, I’d already known that Monique Lhuillier’s designs consistently appealed to me. At this point, I’d never tried on one of her dresses. As I’m trolling the “sheath” section of Vows, I keep finding myself drawn to Monique. Over and over again. The tagline for this stop on our shopping extravaganza was “Monique, she calls to me!” I wanted them all. Vera, not so much. I’ll stick to her perfume. But Monique? Le sigh, as they say in France. And Montreal.

I tried on this one, which I thought was absolutely gooorgeous. Quilted wedding dress? Why not? It’s October, for Pete’s sake! It was soft and luxurious and a whopping $1 under budget. But the corset-style top was a little distracting, and while I was looking at myself from the ribs down, I was pretty sure other people would look at me from the chest up. Pass.

Then came this beauty. Allover ivory lace? Yes, please! High-neck? No one does that– score one for against-the-grain me! Would definitely have had to make a few tacks here and there to make sure it all stayed where it should (and would have had to employ some double-sided tape, methinks) but it was amazing. It was the best feeling I’d had in a dress at that particular shop. I thought I liked her better than the ones at Gallet (ruh-roh!). Then the budget monster reared its ugly head: $1950 for a used gown. Sad face. That answers that question.

And so we would continue. Overall, I would recommend making an appointment to visit Vows. The staff was friendly, but seemed a little distracted (fair enough, considering it was all walk-ins). And bring a bigger budget. While there were a few dresses under the $1000 mark, the really good ones (according to my taste, obviously) were well over that.

But if you have expensive taste, hie thee to Vows! Designer gowns at a fraction of the cost– gotta love it!