Getting Ready {The Girls}

My dress. Le sigh.

After an incredibly busy and somewhat stressful morning the day of our wedding, I was more than happy to finally sit down, champagne glass in hand, make up brushes doing their thing across my cheeks. As I sat there eyes closed, face being transformed, I tried not to let my mind go a mile a minute about the things that were happening. People were in and out of the bridal suite with questions for me, my bridesmaids were running around helping Amanda grab different details for photos, I had my girls open their gifts from me and Andrew's mom and sister even popped in once my gown was on to see how I was feeling. Although everything was such a whirlwind that day, I loved being with my girlfriends and my Mom during that hour of girly prep time; there was a sweetness in the room and a sense of excitement that only a bunch of females could possibly create on an afternoon of someone getting married.

{The Details} My wedding gown was Diana by Enzoani and was my one huge wedding splurge. I actually found the dress almost a year and a half before our wedding via a bridal magazine and remember thinking how much I loved the gown and how unique the floral sash was; how could I possibly find out where this dress was being sold? Fast forward exactly one year before our wedding date and a friend called to tell me that the dress, my dress, was in fact downtown in my hometown's bridal shop's window. It was meant to be. I went that day by myself to the salon, made them take it off the mannequin, tried it on, knew it was the one. Thanks to my incredible Dad we had the gown paid for within a week. I had the lace straps removed as I thought the straps made me look shorter than I really am (I am 5'1). My veil was a fingertip lace-trimmed beauty that was a last minute purchase when I realized I loved it much more than the bubble veil I previously purchased. My shoes were ivory t-strap heels with a ruffle down the front of each shoe. Except last minute I changed my mind and decided to wear a pair of old silver-gray closed toe shoes that in my mind were more comfortable and competed less with the detail on my gown. My earrings were from a kiosk in the mall and they cost $30.00. In an effort to not compete with my wedding rings and my dress. I opted to not wear any other jewelry or accessories. 

My plain old shoes. Cost me $45.00 when I originally bought them a few years ago.

Here I am helping my gorgeous Mom get in her beautiful purple-hued dress. Her gown is actually a Jessica McClintock wedding gown that's made in a purple as well as a white. She scored it for under $100.00 at Neimans and it fit her spunky and fun-loving personality to a t. Plus she worked very hard to lose a lot of weight in the months leading up to the wedding so having a gown to show off her hard work was definitely a necessity :)

I found the mismatched Mason jars for the bouquets at a vintage flea market and used shipping tags to label each vase for each one of my four bridesmaids. Their bouquets consisted of ivory Vandela roses and white ranunculus tied with champagne coloured ribbon and ivory lace. My bouquet was made with the same flowers but also included my favourite, a few cream-hued garden roses. To add a little sass and tie in with the sash on my gown I bought black satin ribbon and a thick banded lace to have tied around my bouquet. In memory of my Nan I had a silver vintage hummingbird pin added to the stems of my flowers. In this post I talked about how I asked my Mom to be the only one who helped me get my dress on; and how it was one of the best decisions I made that day. I then had my girlfriend Emily help tie my sash and my girlfriends Jenna and Melissa help me fasten my veil into my hair. The bridesmaids wore pearl earrings, pearl bangles, cocktails rings I gave them as gifts and black cotton halter dresses from J. Crew which were on sale for $99.00. I asked each girl to wear a pair of black shoes that they loved most and that they would be comfortable in. I didn't want things to feel stuffy, over-done or too traditional. And I wanted my girls to have dresses they could and would wear again. 

My sweet Dad seeing me for the first time that day all dressed up as a bride. I just adore him! And come back later this afternoon to check out a post written by Andrew. He talks all about what dudes do to get ready for a wedding and surprisingly it turns out they do a lot of the same things us chicks do too :)

What was your favourite part of getting ready on your big day?

P.S. If you haven't would you please be so kind as to vote for me over on The Lovelies?!