Burning River Wedding: Gettin' Prettified

Despite only a few hours of sleep and feeling like complete crap, I pulled myself together and started getting ready. I inhaled the granola bar and the ginger ale was really helping my stomach. Once all of the girls arrived I ordered breakfast for everyone...you have no idea how much I was looking forward to eggs and ham.

While we waited, the stylists got started on the girls. I also pretended the outside world didn't exist so I didn't have to witness rain on my wedding day, hence the closed curtains.

BM Helen and BM Ena. Sorry Helen, I had to do it :) 

We all looked a bit rough that morning

*Photo courtesy of BM Nikki*

I got a head start on my make up before BM Bree tackled my hair. I'm glad I left plenty of buffer time in the schedule because doing my own make up definitely took longer than normal. 

Right before we started my hair, our photographers arrived! I was SO happy to see them. I hired them over a year before the wedding and stalked them for nearly a year before I booked, so this was a long time in the making. Rachel is a beautiful person with amazing talent and I was so thankful to have her with me the morning of my wedding. I really should have insisted we take a picture with our photographers. They truly are special people.

Bree requested we start with freshly washed hair because her philosophy is you can always make it "dirtier" but you can't ever make it "cleaner." Makes sense to me! She started by blowing out my hair the way only she knows how. Sigh...I'm a lucky girl. Then she curled it and began pinning.

There's a smile from Mama P! One of the few caught on camera that day.

Laughs all around...I was feeling much better by now.

I also worked on my face a bit while Bree pinned. This was harder than it looks.

Some of my favorite pictures of the day are the ones Rachel captured of everyone laughing and having a good time. My goal was to create a relaxed and happy environment, free from stress and drama. I think the pictures showcase this.

I spy with my little eye....a mother-in-law-to-be!

The suite was definitely buzzing with activity. We put the finishing touches on my hair and make up:

The moms got their hairs did:

And the ladies prettied themselves up:

*Photo courtesy of BM Nikki*

Next thing I knew...it was time to put on The Dress! And guess what: we were totally on schedule!! I couldn't believe it. We actually had time to spare.

Burning River Bride Tip (I've lost track of the numbers...whoops): Create a TON of buffer time in your wedding morning schedule. If you think something is going to take 30 minutes, give yourself 45. We managed to stay on time all day which I hear never happens. We started really early (8am), but we were relaxed and not rushed.

Next Up: I become a Bride

Was your wedding morning crazy and rushed or pure serenity?

**All photos by Linczak Photography unless otherwise noted. Do not take without permission.

Chop me up!

Everyone's doing it. It's the "cool" thing to do, post-wedding. And I'm the latest bride to hop on the PWC bandwagon.

PWC?

Post-Wedding Chop, of course! My long hair was getting out of control and it was definitely time to chop it off. Since I moved to the DC area I had to find a new person to do my hair. Luckily I had no problem choosing one because my SIL is an extremely talented stylist who works at a salon only 30 minutes away! I knew she would do a great job and wasn't nervous at all.

Here is a reminder of my crazy, curly hair. This was taken 2 days before the wedding so by the time I cut my hair it was even a bit longer.

And here I am with my beautiful and talented SIL right after the cut!

And a close up (sorry for the not-so-great cell quality):

And curly (this is at a pool party so it's not really "done" to my liking, but you get the idea):

She chopped off a LOT of hair. Probably a good 3-4 inches, I'd say. I'm super happy with it, although I do think I'm going to start growing it out so it's about an inch longer. Then it'll be just about perfect!!

Did you do a PWC? Did you go super short or just a trim?

Ps, narcissistic much, Em? 4 pics of my silly mug in one post...lordy.

I gots mah hurr did: part deux!

BM Breeze was in town for my shower last weekend (more on that soon!) and agreed to do another hair trial. Ah, the perks of having your FSIL do your hair.

You may remember these posts about my hair inspiration and first hair trial. While I loved what Breeze did the first time, it still didn't feel completely "me." This time I asked her to make it bigger and the results were amazing!

My camera was completely dead after taking those two pics so we weren't able to get a great shot of the front. Oh and of course I forgot my hair flower. But I assure you, it's fabulous and I'm extremely happy.

There are absolutely no products in my hair (we also started with clean hair rather than starting with day-old dirty hair; this is Breeze's preference) and the bobby pins were kind of crappy (my fault, whoopsie!) so this is a bit messier than how it will look on the wedding day. Breeze assured me that her up-do's have massive staying power, and of course I trust her.

I wish I had taken a pic of my hair when I took it down. Oh my gosh, SO glamorous! And then even after I slept on it, it still looked fabulous! I wish Bree could do my hair like that every single day of my life.

Did your hair go through numerous revisions or did you have a concrete idea of what you wanted?

I gots mah hurr did!

*Warning* Picture-heavy post, mostly of my silly mug. Enjoy!

I love love LOVE my future sister-in-law, Brianna (aka Bree/Breeze/Breezy). Seriously, she's the bomb dot com and I will sing her praises as long as I live. As I've mentioned before she's a hair stylist and has got some mayjah skills. I showed her my inspiration pictures (which you'll remember from this post) and after giving me a fabulous blow-out (with just a round brush!), we got to work. Please remember this was just the first trial and she did these very loose. Plus my hair was freshly washed with zero product in it. At our next trial (I get unlimited trials because I'm family. Lucky me!) she'll make everything tighter.

This was the first style we tried to recreate:

And this is how it turned out:

 

Although I loved the inspiration photo, neither of us were really feeling the look on me. Actually that first picture looks pretty good, but in person it just didn't feel right.

Here is the next picture I showed her.

As you'll see in the picture, she didn't pin back my bangs. Instead, she decided to figure out what was going on in the back and create something based on that. Here is what she came up with:

 

 

 

 

This is the style we're going to work on perfecting during my next trial. I'll explain why at the end of the post.

And finally, here is the 3rd picture I showed her:

This is what Bree created:

Pretty cute, right? Ultimately, however, we decided that this wasn't quite right for me either. She did all of these styles in about an hour and I was so impressed. We got a really good idea of what looks good on me versus what doesn't look so good. I can't wait until the next time we can play!

OH! And the BEST thing that came out of this trial was that Breeze told me I can cut my hair! Apparently I have more than enough hair to work with and that if I wanted to, I could cut off an inch. And INCH?! That's a lot in curly hair world and will make my hair look so much better. Oh, I can't wait to cut it!

I came to an interesting and sobering conclusion during the trial: you must trust the pros. Bree has been telling me all along that I should look like myself on my wedding day and I continually said "No no, I don't care about that. I'll feel like myself no matter what." What can I say, I'm a know-it-all. Well, um, I was wrong. Totally wrong. I'm used to seeing my hair with a ton of texture. Also, I'm used to seeing myself with BIG hair. I love volume and I love to have my hair high up on my head. Basically, I belong in New Jersey.*

Anyway, I realized that with the first and third style, there just wasn't enough texture for me. You can't really tell from the picture, but the 2nd style is textured on top as opposed to smooth like the other two. I finally *got* it. Yes, I do want to look like myself on my wedding day, and "myself" includes big, curly hair. So ladies, trust the professionals. They get paid for a reason.

Did you eat a big slice of humble pie at any point during your wedding planning?

*Please don't email or comment about how I'm stereotyping NJ. My grandma is from there and she loves her some big-ass hair, too.

The Bane of My Existence: Hair

BM Bree (aka FSIL) is in town this weekend! YAY! If you'll remember from my post about the BM hair drama (update coming soon), I mentioned that Bree is doing my hair for the wedding. She is a very talented stylist and I wouldn't want anyone else touching my hair on my wedding day. Since she's here for a few days she agreed to do a hair trial with me. Basically I need to know if I can keep my hair at the length it's at now, or if I should grow it another inch or so. I'm really hoping she'll tell me she can work with the length it's at now because I *haaaaate* having long hair. As a reminder, this is the hair she has to work with:

Recent pic of me and Josh. He's Mr. Smiles as always.

Here are a few pictures I plan on showing her for inspiration. I've divided them into 3 categories: Volume, Off the Face, and Height on Top but Sleeker. And yes, I'm very aware that I'm a freak. I wave my freak flag high and proud.

Volume:

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Mariska Hargitay is so amazingly beautiful. 

 

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Off the Face:

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Not quite sure where I found this one

Height on Top but Sleeker:

(Source)

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I'm not looking to recreate any of these looks exactly, but hopefully these pictures will help her create something fabulous. Pictures will be posted next week!

Did you go overboard on hair inspiration photos or did you let your stylist run wild?