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Okay, this post is going to sound kind of gross. I kept trying to figure out how to talk about this in a less gross way and just couldn’t.
So my entire life, I’ve always had moles on my neck and collar bone area. Not hairy, gross moles, but not sweet beauty mark moles either.
My nieces frequently point them out and ask me what they are and why I have so many. Not really easy to explain them to little girls, so I usually just say they are big freckles, and that it was just the way I was born.
But, I’ve been self-conscious of them and wanted to get rid of them for some time now. Well, the wedding was my motivation to finally do it. Once I picked out my strapless wedding dress I knew there was no reason to keep waiting, and just get them removed. So, recently I went to the dermatologist and started getting them removed. I figured that I couldn’t get them off all at once, so I settled for two. My doctor warned me that because they are on my neck and chest that they could lead to keloids so I was extra careful to follow all the post-op care advice, and I’m glad to report–no keloids! The worst part was the healing because I had to wear band-aids on my neck and got lots of “covering up hickies” comments. Ahh, sigh. But, they’re gone.
Now I feel lots better and once I got rid of the 2 I hated most, I think I can just leave the rest of them.
Did you take on any extreme beauty measures before the wedding?
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Remember when I said I wanted to wear a hair flower? Well, I lied. Okay, I didn’t really lie, but I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes away from all the latest headband eye candy out there.
See, two things really did me in. First was watching Say Yes to the Dress. I mean Randy pulls out all of these amazing things, and I just nod along and add new items to my wish list. Well, on a recent episode (I have no idea if it was the most recent one or not, I just set my DVR to record it whenever it’s on), he pulled out this amazing headband that was reminiscent of the 1920’s prohibition era. It was sparkly, it had ribbon, it was gorgeous. I put it in the back of my mind though because I had already decided on a hair flower.
Then earlier this week, Chelsea from Oh My Deer posted more amazing headbands from her etsy shop on Weddingbee Pro! I was smitten.
So what did I do? I ran to google and started searching for my very own headband. Just to look though, you know, not to buy. I’m wearing a hair flower, remember? 🙂
Here’s what I found:
This changes a lot. Not that I’ve bought a hair flower yet, but I was trying to incorporate it into my hairstyle choices. Now I’m thinking of taking both items to a hair trial and seeing what I like best. What would you do?
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For you girls in the waiting section, I thought I’d try to help you and your SOs out (I know you made a vow to say nothing until Christmas, but just hear me out). Maybe your SO is trying really hard to come up with a creative idea or way to propose, but just can’t figure out what the hell to do.
Well, that’s where your blog friends come in. See, this sweet guy knew that his girlfriend loved reading Bakerella (and who wouldn’t, her stuff is amazing), so he emailed Bakerella to see if she would help him out with his proposal! Well, of course she said yes, and this was the result:
Every Sunday night she posts a new recipe or sweet idea, and just recently, this was the post on her blog! What a lucky girl! Oh, and the recipe for those awesome cupcake pops is also on her website.
So, maybe you all could hook your SO with some of your blog friends and see what happens. Just a thought!
Did your fiance involve any external parties in the planning or execution of your proposal?
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So when you were little did you like to play with pipe cleaners? I totally did, even though I had zero crafting ability back then, just like now. I don’t know what it is about them, but the possibilities seem endless, and then when Pengy came back from the Martha Stewart show with pipe cleaner rings, it totally gave me the idea to have pipe cleaners at the kid’s table!
Well, I went to Michaels and picked up the largest bag of pipe cleaners I could find, and somehow ended up with this:
It’s a squirel!
And then I also made a ring:
I found some tutorials online via Martha, and all of them are really easy! I think the kids will love making them.
So for the wedding, I hired a girl to sit at the kid’s table, and I’ll include some of these tutorials in their kid’s kits and I can only hope that the kids will have a great time.
Are you going to have the kids at your wedding make any special projects?
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Woohoo!! I got a very exciting package in the mail this past weekend! I ordered way too many things last week (stamps, ink pads, halloween costume, out of town guests bags, and the list goes on and on), so everyday was like christmas at my mailbox. I’m still waiting on a lot of those items, but I got one item I’ve been waiting on for the past couple weeks. It was my ring bearer bowls from Paloma’s Nest!!
Before I even knew who my ring bearers were, I knew I wanted one of these bowls. And then once I asked two sweet little boys to be in the wedding, I had to get two of them. Which was really great because I was having a hard time deciding on just one phrase to put on them. Finally I decided on two great phrases, but for budget reasons I went with one custom bowl and one pre-existing.
So on to the fun part, the pictures! Here’s what it looked like when I opened up the package:
And then I opened those up as quickly as I could and saw this:
(the heart is removable)
And well, because I could, I took some ring shots. I had to practice for the wedding day!
So what do you think?? I’m super excited about how they turned out, and glad to already have them here!
What will your ring bearer carry?
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I wrote this post while listening to this wonderful song, so I think it’s only fair if you listen to it while you read it. 🙂
Ok, I didn’t really listen to Kim, but it’s funny and it fit with the topic. The real reason for this post is to talk about the after party.
We have a lot of people coming from out of town to celebrate with us, and I don’t want our time to be limited from 6:30-11, so we are definitely doing an after party. However, by this point in the wedding process I know I’ll be done with the formal, planned, organized events. I’m going for something low key that will offer me a chance to spend some time with my friends. Here is an example of the mood I’m going for:
Only, ours will likely take place in a bar we can walk to just a few blocks from our reception. And sadly, it will probably be without a fire pit (thought it looks really cool). Oh, and I already have the perfect dress.
Are you going to have an after party? Is it going to be organized or are you just going to hit up a local bar like us?
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So I thought I could just roll up to my make up trial and say I want a “bridal”make up look. But for some reason I decided to search the internet for “bridal make up looks” and this image came up:
Go ahead and google it, I promise it’s there. That’s when I realized that people have very different ideas of what constitutes bridal make up, and I better not just stroll into my make up trial empty-handed.
My normal make up routine takes approximately 5 minutes. It includes powder, an eyelash curler, mascara, bronzer and chapstick. When I’m going out at night, I will throw on some eyeshadow and MAYBE eyeliner if I’m feeling bold. I really want my wedding make up to look like me, only me at my best.
Here are some looks that I really like:
I love that this one looks really natural–an almost nude lip, some peachy cheeks, and some shimmer on the eyes (I think this is my fav).
Again, I love the nude lip, and I also love the long lashes with lots of mascara, and the pink cheeks.
It’s kinda hard to see her makeup because of the editing of the photo, but I really like that her eyelashes stand out, I think that will be my focus.
This one has a little too much shimmer on the eyes for me, but I like the bronzy color, and light lip.
So what do you think? Which look is your favorite?
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Pre-marital counseling. Hmm…should we? The state of Texas thinks we should. Maybe all states do. They offer discounts on marriage licenses for couples who have taken part in certified pre-marital counseling classes. I’m talking major discounts too, where the license is nearly free. But I don’t want to take a class just to get a discount; I want to be sure that the class we take is the right fit for us, and one that we will benefit from.
As we continue to contemplate whether or not we should go down the road of pre-marital counseling, we recently started reading The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. Now we find ourselves saying, “You’re stonewalling” or whatever term fits the type of behavior one of us in engaged in during a fight. I think this book has been helpful for us, even though it is primarily for couples that have already dealt with marital problems. We still feel like we are learning from it.
The reason all of this is so important to me is because unfortunately, I have not had the best example of marriage in my life. I love both of my parents dearly, and in so many ways they were great together, but in so many other ways they were terrible together. I can say this now as an adult, though of course I was devestated as a child when they divorced. I think my mom is an amazing, strong woman, but she got cheated and missed out on having a partner in her life. I don’t want that for me, and I know she doesn’t either.
I was recently talking about this very thing with some friends, and a lady I didn’t know well, who had been married for several years. She laughed at me for saying that I have a real partner in my relationship. She said it was because we were “new” and that it would change a few years down the line. Before I made some snarky comment, I really thought about what she said (I’d had a few glasses of wine, so this was not an easy task). I wondered if she was jaded or if I was naive, but ultimately I disagreed with her. Mr. Fro Yo is not only my partner now, he will always be my partner in life because that is something we value and work towards. We make it a point to be each other’s equals and to help each other in everything we do. Not just as a support for when we are feeling sad or struggling with a difficult task, but in everything we do–including the mundane things like emptying the dishwasher, going to the grocery store or making dinner.
Anyway, the point is that I want what my parents didn’t have, more than anything. I feel like we are well on our way to a happy marriage, but because I’m the product of divorced parents, I want to do any and everything I can to be certain that we won’t end up that way. Does that mean pre-marital counseling? Maybe. But I also think it means remembering the things we value for our relationship, especially during the difficult times.
Anyone else with divorced parents? Are you doing pre-marital counseling or reading books before marriage?
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So last week I got the best email ever (okay, second best email, next to the one from Pengy saying I was a bee). This one was from another bee though. I’m too excited and getting ahead of myself, let me rewind and start from the beginning.
I have been scouring every website I can think of for invitations and none of them were me. Don’t get me wrong, they are totally gorgeous, but none of them spoke to me. I felt like if I picked one, I would be settling, but I didn’t think that custom was in my budget. Actually, I knew it wasn’t because I tried to go that route several months earlier only to get a quote that was just not doable for me. But then I started to think, ‘Hmm…I am surrounded by such talented women, why not contact a bee and see if she can make me custom invitations’?
So over the last couple weeks I have been stumbling through custom invitation language, and sending each and every piece of inspiration I can think of to this sweet bee (did you catch on that I’m not going to tell you who it is just yet? I promise I will soon, but I like the element of surprise). She has been amazing to work with, and last week she sent me my first round of invitation designs!!! I tore into that email like no other and looked at each and every one over and over again. She listened to exactly what I said, and was even able to interpret my non-technical (ok, down right ignorant) invitation jargon.
Oh, and best of all…they are going to be LETTERPRESS!! Ahh, that was something that I thought was just not possible, but this wise bee showed me the light. I can’t wait to show them to you when they are all done. I am so happy that I no longer have to search through pages and pages of invitations , and now I’m actually going to end up with something I love.
Since we’re talking about invites here, I thought I’d leave you with a custom invite that I love (though this is NOT mine).
Did you go the custom route? What was your experience like?
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Much like many brides before me, I am super excited about wearing a hair flower in my hair. I even talked about it with my six year old niece, who also happens to be my flower girl. We were having a discussion about how to wear our hair for the wedding. No, seriously, we were–this girl knows fashion and has picked out my outfits on more than one occassion, and I typically gets compliments when she does. I’m talking entire outfit; dress, shoes, jewelry, and purse. One of my bridesmaids even commented that my niece has a closet she can only hope for and that she often ends up looking more trendy than the rest of us.
Anyway, so back to talking about our hair. I asked her how she wanted to wear her hair and she mentioned that she wanted to wear a flower in her hair. I gave her a big high five and told her that I too wanted to wear one! So me and my fashionista niece started talking about what said flowers might look like, and then we got into how many we should wear. I’m somewhat terrified of the oversized hair flower. Listen, some girls can pull it off and it looks amazing, adorable even. I don’t think that I’m one of those girls, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t see them and dream. Here’s one that I love:
I sent this very picture to a bridesmaid and asked her if she thought it might look too big on me. She didn’t think so, and I decided to convo the etsy seller. Problem was, the etsy seller wasn’t very responsive. On to the next one…
I took the non-responsiveness to mean that maybe I should reconsider the single, large flower and start looking for smaller, double flowers (plus my niece thought more was better, and I like to listen to her). So then I found this one:
And these:
So what do you think? Do you like the double flower? Or do you think the single flower is the way to go? The little ones have such adorable names like ‘sweet pea’ it’s sort of hard for me to pass that up!
Oh, and just because I know you’re asking yourself-what the heck does that sweet little girl look like? I’ll leave you with this photo of both my nieces in their flower girl outfits. 🙂
happy go lucky wedding 