8.16.2010

a small town wedding: girls get ready.

Before I go into the details of the morning of the wedding, I must share one last detail about the night before.  After our rehearsal dinner was over, we had gone to our friend's bar for a bit to visit with friends who were just getting into town.  While we were there I noticed that my nails were destroyed (the manicure I had earlier in the day was not the greatest) so I decided to fix it before I went to bed.  My sister (and MOH) and I stopped at the store on our way to the hotel (keep in mind this is after midnight and Walmart was the only store open) and bought some nail polish.  When we got back to the hotel, I sat down on the bed and immediately painted my nails while we were chatting.  The next thing I know...it's light outside, and both of us are sleeping while sitting up on top of the covers.  I had a bit of a freak out when I realized we had fallen asleep...I was afraid I was going to be late for my own wedding day!  Thankfully it was only about 5 am and I still had a little while left to sleep...under the covers and laying down this time!  

When I woke up (for the second time) we gathered our stuff and headed for the salon.  Leah went right to work on my hair since we'd already had a trial.

My bridesmaids took turns getting their hair done and had some breakfast and mimosas while they waited.




At some point, my (almost!) husband sent me a sweet text telling me that he couldn't wait to marry me.  I swear it made me much happier than I look in this photo.

My hair took forever.  Literally like 2 hours.  I was a little apprehensive at first...this is not what we agreed upon!

But eventually it started looking better.

When it was almost complete, we took a break to do my makeup.





Everyone else was doing their makeup too.


After a few last minute tweaks on my hair...
and a lot of hairspray, we were ready to head to the church!

Previously in this series:
a small town wedding: the beginning.
a small town wedding: giving gifts.

8.03.2010

a small town wedding: giving gifts.


The part of our rehearsal dinner that I enjoyed the most had to be giving gifts to our bridal party.  I love coming up with creative gifts for people and we had put a lot of thought into what we were giving all of our nearest and dearest.

First up, the girls!  I put together gift bags for them with things they could use on the day of the wedding, but I wanted to make sure they were useful after the wedding as well.
I wrapped each little package up in the extra totes we had made for our OOT bags.  Each one included some stationary, flip flops, and two little things I had designed and made especially for them.

A pearl necklace and bracelet to wear on the wedding day.
And a little clutch to hold their essentials.

Thankfully I had thought ahead and made the clutches and jewelry months in advance, or there was no way I would've been able to finish them all in time!  The girls seemed to love their gifts and I've even seen a few of them use them on other occasions as well.

Next up, the boys.  Guys are hard to buy for.  My husband didn't want to get them anything personalized, no swiss army knives, etc. because they've all been in so many weddings and already received these as gifts.  So we opted for something that was a little bit of an inside joke to all of them.

Chucks and matching green socks!  As I've mentioned, these guys have all been in a lot of weddings.  Each of which have required them to wear those awful rented dress shoes to match their tuxes.  And by the end of the night at every single one of those weddings, all they do is complain about how much their feet hurt.  So we decided what better way to make them happy than to remove the one thing they always hate most about weddings?  (Yes, they still wore dress shoes to the ceremony.  But they took them off immediately after and I never heard a single complaint about their feet hurting!)

So after gifting our best guys and girls, we had two more very important gifts to give.  Our parents helped so much and were so supportive of us during all of our planning, we couldn't help but get them something too.

For my in-laws, who are very into landscaping, we bought a new tree for them to plant in their yard.

For my parents, who are in the process of opening a tavern & grill with a political theme to it (it opens this month!), a huge one-of-a-kind caricature of JFK, painted by my talented cousin.
We were so glad to give our family and friends a little something special to show them how much we appreciated their help and support!  It was a great way to wrap up our rehearsal dinner.  

Next we were off for a little fun with friends, the night was still young and we weren't ready for it to end just yet!

Previously in this series: