the dress, the hair, the devil’s in the details…

Posted by Sara in Weddings.

Well, the make up trial went really well. The woman who’s doing my make up knew the right colors for me, did exactly what I wanted (a natural look with an emphasis on the eyes), and was cool to talk to– definitely a winning combination. I got airbrush make up, which was definitely interesting… it lasted throughout the night and I only wish I could have scheduled my trial earlier in the day to see how well it would wear throughout the day. We went and got our photos taken afterwards, which was fun, since it was the first time D and I ever formally got our photos taken.

Friday I went for my final dress fitting. I was happy with the alterations and how they came out, but not pleased with the effect of the fluorescent lighting + silk charmeuse (the world’s most unforgiving fabric) + my Italian thighs and arse. Even with a seer-sucker skirt underneath, I still felt the wrath of the part of my body I take issue with most. Of course everyone there said I was being crazy, and I didn’t want to go there while trying on my dress, especially because it really is very beautiful, but it was a bit of a downer for me. Then again, I could have prevented this had I stayed true to my gym plans (it’s in our building, for God sakes!!!), but such is life. I’m sure the day of it will be fine (or I’ll just get photographed from the waist up ;))

Saturday was interesting. I went for a second trial on my hair since the first one didn’t go too well. I want to do finger waves for my hair, as Gwen exhibits below

and figured since I have pretty short hair, this would be easy.

Rule #1 about wedding planning: never assume anything is going to be easy.

Because my hair is thick and poker straight, finger waves was a challenge, regardless of the length. The stylist even thinned my hair out a significant amount before starting on it the second time around and the owner went to a supply store to buy gel which is specifically designed to hold thick, course hair. After setting the hair and putting me under the dryer for more than an hour, my hair was still damp. They tried the dryer again, but my hair still would not completely dry, which I learn is a necessity for the finger wave to properly set.

Finally, the older gentleman who worked there (and seemed to cater specifically to the blue-haired clientèle, who had kept stopping over to offer his advice was given his chance. After washing out my hair of all the gel and product, he set my hair using water, a thin comb, and a touch of hair spray here and there. After 45 minutes under the dryer, he took it out and it had set.

We got there at 11:30 a.m. and did not leave until 4:30 p.m.

By the end, I felt a mixture of relief (that we could actually get my hair to set without having to wait 5 hours), fatigue (5 hours in a small, high-energy salon takes a lot of you), frustration, and extreme hunger (no food all day makes Sara feel a bit off…). I wasn’t mad though– I really appreciated all the work/effort that the people at the salon put into trying to give me the look I wanted. And unlike other salons I’ve been to, nobody made me feel like a burden or an unnecessary problem. They were all polite, friendly, and accommodating. That definitely helped a crazy situation stay light-hearted.

Unfortunately, I had no time to run all the wedding-related errands I had planned for that afternoon, which I guess is just as well because we got slammed pretty good by the effects of all the tropical storms/hurricanes that have been swirling around. I feel awful for all of the people who had weddings Saturday. I know a few people who were planning beach weddings… Even worse is the fact that today (or I guess tomorrow, since it’s so late now!) was absolutely GORGEOUS!!! I pray we have weather half as nice for our day!

Although I wasn’t able to get a lot done yesterday, D and I took advantage of the day and got an early start to run all the errands we needed to, which was a lot. But D was good about the countless stops (I think filling our bellies early on with Cracker Barrel goodness helped…) and we got a ton accomplished today. I solved my problem with the money card holder by sort of making my own…

Our solution: we stopped at Home Goods, (similar to a TJ Maxx or Marshall’s, except it’s mainly focused on, well, home goods…) and found pretty fabric-covered storage boxes that came in different sizes. We bought two to stack on top of one another, and Donnie plans to hot glue them and then exacto-knife out the bottom of the small one and create a hole in the top. That way, we have a fancy looking box and we only spent about $20 on it.

Whenever we can find our digital camera, we will post photos of these things I’ve been describing…

I also now have 3 pairs of wedding shoes… but that is a blog for a different day.

Until then, stay classy…

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