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!

The most boring sleepover ever

Ha, ha, ha! I didn't forget about this blog. I swear. I'm just having a hard time with the recaps and admitting it's all over. Anyway, I left off we had just finished our rehearsal dinner and were headed back to the hall to do some last minute set up. I mentioned in an earlier post that our table runners didn't arrive until that afternoon, after set up had already taken place. So basically we had to run back to the hall to place all the table runners, but it was also the perfect excuse to look over every little detail and make sure it was perfect. It was!

After dancing around a bit and a few "Oh my goodness, this is really happening!" we all decided to call it a night and head to our respective places to spend the night. Mr. Tal and I decided to go with tradition and spend the night apart. In his place my sisters spend the night at our apartment with me so I wouldn't be lonely and I wouldn't freak out. I had a great night planned out, we were going to watch a movie and have some popcorn and chocolate and talk and giggle like when we were little. However, by the time we got back to my apartment and settled it was already around 10 o'clock at night. We had to be up by 7AM to all shower and get dressed to go to our hair appointment. So we chatted a little bit and one sister took her shower that night so it wouldn't be so hectic in the morning. By 10:30 I took a Xanax (hey, don't judge, I needed sleep) and we all crawled into our beds and fell asleep. So much for my grand sleepover plans.

I do remember that I slept surprisingly well that night, which is unusual for me when I am excited/nervous about something.

Next up: The girls get pretty!

"The Best Buns in Town"

(I know I know, I said I wouldn't be posting for a while, what can I say? I found some time)

Are at this place right here!

I couldn't agree more! Initially, Mr. Tal and I wanted our rehearsal dinner to be really laid back, we're talking pizza and beer at our apartment complex's community center. Then it occured to Mr. Tal that we could incorporate a little of our hometown into our wedding by holding the rehearsal dinner at Packo's. It ended up being a really great idea because all of our family and friends LOVE Packo's. It is scrumptious. So after our rehearsal we headed to downtown Toledo to Packo's at the Park, this location won over the originally because it offered a better room for our event..

They had the whole room ready for us and our family and friends ordered some drinks and food and we ended up having a good ol' time. I would like to elaborate more but we didn't really do much at dinner. We all hung out and talked. Oh yeah, and we handed out presents.

Our bridesmaids and groomsmen each got their gifts, along with our parents. Each one of my girls got a tote bag with their name on it, printed in their favorite color. Inside the bags were a bunch of goodies, lightweight hoodies to wear while getting ready, handmade pearls with matching earrings to wear the day of the wedding, a bridesmaid survival kit, some snacks, a pashmina, their clutch purses with flowers to carry down the aisle, and last but not least each girl got a necklace from dogeared.com that suited their personality. I know that it seems like a lot and I'll admit I went a little overboard but I did get a really good deal on everything I bought/made for the girls. The groomsmen each got a pair of handmade cufflinks with the Redwings symbol and a pair of Converse sneakers in maroon to wear to the reception. As for our parents, we got Momma Tal a beautiful digital picture frame that we pre-loaded with some pictures of the whole family. My dad got a frame which we had engraved with our invitation wording and my mom got a new purse with a bottle of wine and a necklace from dogeared.com.

Mr. Tal also took this time to speak for both of us, because I probably would have got too emotional, to personally thank everyone for helping us out and let them know that we could have never done it without them.

After dinner was over and the presents unwrapped we had to head back to the hall and finish decorating. But more on that at another time.

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

No Foolin'

I had been debating writing this post and had ultimately decided not to, but I think it is important for future and current brides-to-be to know they aren't alone in dealing with this. This week I lost not just a bridesmaid but also a friend. I will not get into the nitty gritty of the situation but I will say that it was almost a snowball effect (one thing led to another and another, so on and so forth). During this sad time I have had an almost over-abundance of emotional support from my family and friends. While it has been a trying time, it is also inspiring to know I have so many wonderful people in my life. I would go into further detail but I don't think that I can put it quite as eloquently as Miss Taco over at Weddingbee in this post.

My absolute favorite line is the following:

"So, do weddings push us to the edge? Funny that: weddings, the target of plenty of mockery, have an amazing ability to bring out both the best and worst in anyone involved in one." - Miss Taco

I took that statement and ran with it. While I am sad and hurt, I do see the silver lining in this whole situation; I know for certain who my friends really are and who truly care about me and at the end of my wedding day (and every day) that is who I want to be surrounded by.

How about you my former and current bride readers, did your wedding bring out the best or worst of your nearest and dearest?

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

Third time is a charm

Seeing as yesterday I posted about vendor indecision, I decided to continue that theme with today's post.

Remember the first hair trial that lead to a second hair trial? I never really elaborated on what happened at that second hair trial. It went well, the stylist that did my hair was really nice and easy to talk to, they style was good, and the salon is great. Too good to be true of course. The nice people at the salon told me that they would only book us if we booked the entire bridal package for myself and my girls. That was $250 for me plus $99 for each girl. I kindly told the lady that ran the salon that I didn't need all the services offered in that package and neither did my girls. I failed to tell them that my parents were not about to lay down $500 to get myself and my two younger sisters pretty. I was in tears when I walked out. My mom and I went to lunch and talked about our options. I decided to call the salon and try to compromise. They problem with us and the salon is that they didn't want us taking over the salon just to get our hair done. So I asked if they would be willing to schedule us seperately. I waited a day for them to call me back and they said yes. However, when I told my maid of honor, she thought it was unacceptable for us to get ready seperately. I can't say that I disagree, I had always imagined my mom and my girls by my side while I got ready.

My maid of honor, my bestie, took it upon herself to call salons here (she is based about 3 hours away) in search of a place that would do our hair and allow us to be there together. I was so touched by this, it was a moment of above and beyond the call of duty. It only took her a day to find a place. She got quoted for every girl, she made sure they could get us out by 12:30, and she even scored us some food to snack on. Completely amazing. I had a trial there yesterday and the girl that did my hair was uh-mazing. By midnight last night after laying on my hair, head banging a little, walking around outside, only a few hairs were out of place, my hair looked fantastic. And no you don't get to see pictures, I'm leaving the final hairdo for my recaps.  I'm so happy that this is done and I don't have to worry about it anymore.

Anyone else have a 'maid step above and beyond? Were the results awesome?

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

Alternative to bridesmaid bouquet

When I decided to do something else other than a bouquet for the bridesmaids to carry, I had a lot of trouble finding things on the interweb, most ideas included fans and parisols and that doesn't exactly work with a spring wedding in Ohio, so I came up with my own alternative. I decided the girls would carry clutches but the clutches would have a silk flower corsage on the front of it so that it would have a bouquet look and feel but not be a bouquet. So here is what I came up with (I appologize for the crappy cell phone pictures, I don't have a camera right now):

Ridiculously simple but it looks nice. So here is what I did, but anyone could could create something very different, it's just a matter of what look you are trying to achieve. Here are the supplies I used:

Flower of my choosing taken off the stem, ostrich feather, floral tape, glue gun. Not picture is the bar pin that I glued onto the back of the flower once it was complete and the scissors. From here it was so easy. All I did was pinch a bit of the ostrich feather together and cut it off the main feather. Then I used hot glue and floral tape to secure the feather grouping together. From there I glued the grouping onto the back of the flower. I repeated this until I thought that the flower looked good. It was seriously that easy. Once I was done I glued the back of the flower to a bar pin, which in turn will be used to secure the flower to the clutch. Obviously there are so many options for this. You could use smaller flowers in a groups, add pearls, rhinestones, whatever. It's whatever you want and a great alternative to bouquets. Here's the clutch I used and the clutch with the flower attached:

This is the simple look I was going for, I could have just left the flower alone but I think the feathers add just a little bit of sass. The girls will then carry these either clutched in their hand  or by the strap that comes with the clutch, I'm not sure, I have to see someone else carry them and Mr. Tal isn't a willing volunteer. I think it will look nice and it is handy. I can make sure someone has some tissues for me! Best of all after the ceremony the girls can remove the flower and have a clutch to hold any necessities for the night.

Does anyone else have alternatives to bouquets? Please share, I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting something different.

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

Outfitting the 'Maids

Do you remember my struggle with the bridesmaids dresses? If not you can read about my indecision and struggles here and here. All caught up? Good. Moving on...

So we ended up going with David's Bridal for the girl's dresses and I think it's a good compromise. They all choose their own dresses in a style that suited them, but the purchases weren't officially done until this past Saturday when I trekked my butt down to Columbus to go shopping with soon-to-be-sis and my bestie. So without further ado, here are the dresses my four beautiful, fabulous bridesmaids are wearing and keep in mind, all these dresses will be in the apple red, as seen in sister E and soon-to-be-sis's dresses.

Maid of Honor and Bestie:

(Source)

It's a chiffon material, kind of beach-y feel. She belongs somewhere in Florida bumming on a beach somewhere so it suits her well. The straps have a little bling on 'um and I think she will rock it out with 4 inch heels.

Next up, little sister and 'maid A:

(Source)

This one is a satin material, wrap dress. It's a little off-the-beaten path and a little less traditional like her. The ruffled collar, faux-wrap style is her, plus it gives her breathing room. Important for our star performer at the wedding.

Next up, Littlest sister E's dress:

(Source)

This one is satin, this strapless little number is going to also be little sister's prom dress, which happens to fall the day after the wedding. That curvy girl is going to knock some guy's socks off in this dress.

Last, but certainly not least, soon-to-be-sis L:

(Source)

This dress in a jersey knit and different from the other dresses because it's long. Well, soon-to-be-sis wanted something with a lot of give and some extra fabric because they are expecting! Woot! I am so happy for them. She'll be about 7 months at the wedding and I'm sure looking hot.

So that's it, the long journey of the bridesmaids dresses are done. As for accessories and everything, I said get some silver shoes, I'm taking care of the rest. Which I did, it's done but I refuse to blog about my awesome gifts yet because 1. I'm not done, and 2. I don't want them to know what they are getting!

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

Om Nom Nom!

I had an awesome idea to gather all my girlies for some bonding over lunch and dress shopping. So I e-mailed everyone and the moms and set a date for the 26th of September and got excited. My sisters, my mom, Mr. Tal's mom, and soon-to-be-sister-in-law were all able to make it. Unfortunately, my maid of honor and bestie ended up needing to be out of her apartment by the 1st, so she had to move over the weekend of the lunch. I was a little sad, but it still worked out, they'll all meet eventually after all!

The morning of the 26th came around and I was actually pretty giggly and excited. Everyone gathered at our place around noon and we all took off for my former place of employment the Olive Garden. It was scrumptious. We had a great time just chatting and I was so excited that sister-in-law was getting along great with my Mom and my sisters. We ended up taking off for David's Bridal after lunch, which we all agree was the wrong way to do it. Should have went dress shopping first, oh well, hindsight and all that.

Oh, yeah, I bet you're wondering why we went dress shopping when I already had a dress picked out. That fell through. The seller that I was in communication with didn't get back to me for about a month and I decided that while I can understand that she was busy, I didn't want that kind of stress surrounding our wedding. Like I told the ladies at lunch, I want our wedding to be as stress free and fun as possible. Thus, the need to go dress shopping emerged.

Luckily, I made an appointment at David's Bridal since when we walked in the place was packed. It is one of the two bridal stores in Toledo. We checked in and started perusing the dresses, there was one in particular that I wanted all the girls to try on, which we found for each girl. I also told the girls to try a few that they liked on to see if they liked anything else. The dress I had picked out didn't work for everyone, which was fine. I ended up going with my original gut feeling on the whole dress situation and allowed the girls to pick whatever they wanted as long as the dresses were short and red. The consultant that worked with us was so suprised at how laid back we all were, the look of suprise on her face when we told her we were done after a half an hour was priceless.

The whole afternoon was wonderful and went just the way I wanted it. I think I've choosen a great group of girls to be by my side on the big day. They are so wonderful and supportive, I can't wait to see what they decide to pull out of their hat for my Bachelorette party!

My First Tough Decision

Let me tell you, I have felt that I was getting off pretty easy with this whole wedding planning bit. Photographer, hall, ceremony site, caterer, the big things were SO easy, I should have seen it as a sign. A big ominous sign, you know all flashy and neon-y, Vegas style! I say this because I've started to look into various smaller tasks since the official engagement and it hasn't been all the pleasant.



I had ideas for my bridesmaids, great ideas. Originally, I was going to go with David's Bridal but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted something different, something the girls could wear again and something affordable. After pouring over the internet, I found the Victoria's Secret convertible dress, very unique, beautiful, and best of all affordable. I said that was that, and didn't think about it again until a few months down the road. I knew that I wanted to order a dress and see how it looked, but it was just a formality, I was so sure that this dress was perfect for my girls. Three weeks ago we ordered one for my youngest sister, she is curvy and we figured her figure would probably be hardest to fit. The dress came in and it was an EPIC FAIL! I mean, it was cool, the long straps could be used to tie the dress into many forms, but the back was very open, way too open for a wedding, and the top dipped way too low for my taste. It was back to the drawing boards for me.



I scoured the internet for the next week and a half trying to find something that I liked, could be re-worn, and was under $150. It was like pulling teeth, it was awful. Nothing was what I wanted, nothing seemed good enough. I began to recant and told my mom that it was just going to have to be David's Bridal because I couldn't find anything. It didn't stop me from searching, but the more I searched the more David's Bridal seemed appealing. I wasn't happy at all with this decision, in fact I said numerous times to Mr. Tal that the dresses were going to be the death of me as far as wedding planning goes. Finally, I turned back to Etsy.com. I had searched Etsy before and found some okay options, even found a fabulous dress for my mom to have made, but nothing for my girls. However, Etsy is so massive I figured I should give it another go and utilized Weddingbee at the same time. I recalled a post Miss Mouse did about her E-pics and her perfect dress. I loved that dress so much so I looked up that post and went to Miss Brache's shop on Etsy, where I found this number:

My mouth hit the keyboard and I started screaming a little. This was the one, my bridesmaid's dress. It's in the higher end of my money spectrum, but it's reversible, cute, and I love the vintage feel to it. Miss Brache will custom make this baby in my colors, red and white, for each of my girls. I'm actually considering going one side red, one side black and leaving the straps white, that way the girls have a little black dress to wear again (thoughts anyone?) I'm even considering having one made for me. So ends my first tough call as a bride. There was much celebrating in the Tal household the day I found this dress.

How about everyone else, what was your first tough call as a bride? How did it play out?

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