The ladies get pretty, the guys sleep in.

So the morning of the wedding I woke up without the aid of an alarm clock, I was just too pumped up to sleep anymore. I took a shower, blew my hair dry and threw on my white hoodie and some jeans to wear to the salon (it was a large V-neck hoodie which easily fit over my head and hairstyle), meanwhile my sisters also got ready and chatted with me. I remember that I was eerily calm, like it was a regular day, not my wedding day, but there were moments when I had surges of overwhelming happiness and joy. It was a weird feeling to go about my business as usual and have those moments of "Oh my goodness, I am getting married today!" I think it was because my morning routine at the apartment wasn't that different from a typical day for me so it was easy to stay calm and collected. Once all the girls were semi-ready, as in, ready enough to hit the salon we hit the road.

First stop was to Tim Horton's for an assortment of Tim Bits and some coffee (of course) then we had to hit up Meijer for some unknown reason, I really cannot for the life of me remember what we stopped there for but I do know we had to stop there. Sisters A and E what did we stop there for? Do you remember? Anywho, we then finally made it to K.D Alexander's where fabulous hair stylists were waiting for us. We did get there a tad early but it turned out to be a good thing because that made us early to everything else we did that day. I have to say everyone at the salon was so nice and it was such a relaxing time, they were completely fabulous. I don't have any pictures of us at the salon because I told Jackie our photographer to just meet us at the house where we were doing our make-up and getting dressed. I regret that I don't have pictures of all of us getting our hair done but it meant that Jackie could stay later at the reception. My sisters and I went first, since we were the first to arrive, my mom, momma Tal and sis-in-law were all arriving separately since their appointments were a little bit after ours. It seemed like our hair appointments were over in a flash and we were off to PeTEAte Parlour in Pemberville just a block away from the opera house aka our ceremony location.

Once we arrived we got everything laid out and hung up and all the girls started doing make-up and getting dressed.

 

All of our stuff laid out/hung up for us!

Top pic: Me getting the eye shadow on! Bottom: Sis-in-Law prettying herself up

 Sister E smiling for the camera, Sister A getting her make-up done by Mom

Some hair shots!

Mom helping me get ready. It was at this point that I only had a little bit until I got to see Andy and this is when I started to get nervous!

My all time favorite picture of myself from my wedding day! There is just something so peaceful and calming about this picture!

Finally all put together before the first look!

Up next: The Bride and Groom get a sneak peak!

Makeup your mind

Again like many things with the big day, I decided early on to do my own makeup. I do not enjoy people touching my face and the two or so times I've had my makeup done I didn't really like it. I haven't really thought to much about products until recently, figuring I would hit up the local Sephora and see what they said. I ended up going in twice, once just before Christmas and last week. Each time I asked for suggestions, noting that I would need all day coverage and makeup that would look good in pictures. The first time, they were way too busy to give me any helpful information, the second time I got some really good info all written out for me. When I got home I decided to price out everything that was suggested to me and boom, I was hit with over $280 worth of product. That's all well and good and if we weren't on a tight budget I wouldn't have a problem with paying that much for some high quality makeup. As it is we are on a budget, and I can't justify spending that much money on makeup. I've been wavering back and forth for weeks, Mr. Tal, God bless him, isn't helping much because he wants me to have everything I want. So what's a girl to do?

Play with some drugstore makeup of course! I went in and studied some of the products at the drugstore and also did some online research and here is what I think I will end up doing. I will probably use a more expensive primer, foundation, and setting powder. As for the rest of the products, I can use the drugstore products for my blush, eyeshadow, eye liner, lipstick and mascara. I played with it last night and it looked really good, so I think it will work well. As soon as I purchase some of the more expensive products I will post pictures on how the look pulls together.

If anyone has some suggestions on products I would love to hear them.

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY bride.