Wedding Hair Trials Part I and II

I've been battling the idea of my hair ever since I took my mom into see my dress.

As I posed in front of the mirror she plopped one of many veils on my head and asked "What do you want to do with your hair?"

In my mind I started to panic. I've only had really bad experiences with formal up dos. Every formal or prom I went too I had some pretty scary looking dos. Way too much hair spray... exposed bobby pins... stylists who don't listen... and I had already had one professional trial and it made me look too much like I was about to go to a winter formal vs. a wedding.

Even the tasteful knot I had done for Michi and Nai's wedding was not exactly what I had wanted...

Struggling with the thought of some stranger doing my hair and trying to decide which overpriced salon to go to my Matron of Honor saves the day again and offers to do my hair for me! So we arranged to meet up and experiment with some styles.

This is the style that I fell in love with so we decided to meet roughly once a month to practice it and try to modify it for the big day.

We met this past Monday for some quality girl time and hair practicing!

As you can tell from the previous pictures the gathering is a little longer and lower down the nape of my neck.

Tracy also added a homemade barrette for added definition, and bobby pin masking! I'm going to be on the look out for a barrette that will match my gown and headband.

The curls this time are much looser than the previous time as well.

I just love the side sweep. I like the idea of it being up, but still looking down to a certain degree.

We've talked about somethings for the next trial...

More of a sweeping bang in the front.

Doing smaller curls with the shoulder bit.

And securing the bottom bit so that it's a little tighter. I will also take my veil and headband so that we can work with that as well. I said that the last time around, but forgot them! As Tracy lives about an hour away I was not able to dash out and grab them though. But we have at least four more trials before the wedding day.

The Dress

Instead of going month by month, mostly because I can't remember exact dates, I thought I'd just talk about plans that we've already made.

Not long after becoming engaged I went browsing with my Matron of Honor for wedding dresses. I wasn't really looking for "the dress" and it wasn't looking like that was going to happen. We had some pretty poor experiences along the way.

At David's Bridal, the staff being not very kind, and the dresses not really catching my interests. I had looked at a local bridal shop in Avondale called Sukie's Bridal and encountered the same thing. The last shop we went by was beyond friendly.

As soon as we walked into Once In A Life Tyme the owner was very chipper and upbeat. She told us to look around and feel free to try on as many dresses as we'd like. I wasn't anticipating trying anything on and really had no idea what I wanted in a wedding dress so Tracy and I randomly picked dresses that we thought would look good. I tried on 8 dresses and only liked one, but didn't love it. I was almost ready to give up when Tracy said I only had one more to try.

Ninth one is the charm apparently because I fell in love with the last one I put on. It's a Maggie Sottero. And although the picture I'm posting is the style it's not the accurate color. It's a one-piece, strapless, A-line gown with corset back. It's made of rhapsody taffeta and is ornamented with scalloped lace creating a sweetheart neckline and has an accenting asymmetrical side wrap and lace appliqué that are at the back of the skirt in a caught up design. It also has a sweep train.

The color in the picture is a gold, but I purchased my dress in diamond white.

I recently found my wedding shoes to match, thanks to my wonderful Matron of Honor! Tracy is brilliant and has been very helpful. She referred me to some shoes at http://www.zappos.com/ . I really loved them, but the price tag for them was a little steep so I started browsing on line and found them at http://www.knotthegroom.com/

The color of the shoe is the exact match for my dress. The details over the upper matches the detail on the sweetheart neckline of my dress. They really are perfect.

The rest of my attire will include a veil that my mother picked out. It's a single layer with seed pearl accents. I've yet to decide how to wear it, up high on top of my head, or low, under my hair. I will also have a headband with pearls and rhinestones.

My hair is a different entry entirely, which will be posted soon!

October 2007

In October, which really was only a few days after we got engaged we started planning for our big day.

We already knew that we wanted a church wedding so we called our parish, All Saint's Episcopal and made an appointment with our favorite rector, Rev. Marian Fortner .

Marian met with us and we really only had three options that did not include summer, because really, who wants to get married in Phoenix in the summer?

Since I am a teacher we get scheduled breaks throughout the school year. One in October, another in December, and one in March. We wanted to be able to go on a real honeymoon after the wedding so it was important that we try to set a date within one of those scheduled breaks. We both absolutely love the fall so we sought after October 11th and fortunately for us it was available, so we set our date!

After we established a date and ceremony location it was time to start looking for a reception sight. This was such a process! We used very helpful web sites such as www.theknot.com and www.weddingwire.com .

There were several places that we were interested in but it was their policy to have ceremonies and receptions together if performed on a Saturday. Also, many places that were in our price range were already booked even a year in advanced!

We went and looked at a few places but we were very disappointed in the locations so we continued to look.

At the suggestion of a friend we decided to search for "banquet facility" instead of wedding reception and we found the ACC Banquet hall. Josh made the phone calls and on Halloween we went down to view the site and it was perfect. We decided to "think about it" before we made a decision. We didn't even make it to the freeway before we called the manager and booked it for the 11th!

So within a month we had a church and a reception hall. Two major items off the check list!

The Proposal

As we are catching up from almost 8 months I thought I'd post what I wrote when Josh first asked me to be his wife.

From September 29th, 2007

Joshua proposed this morning :)

Joshua took me out to dinner the night before at the melting pot. Our reservation was pretty late so by time we finished dinner it was already 11:15 and when we got home it was about 12 midnight.

Josh said he wanted to ask me in our new house after dinner, but I was so tired I fell asleep in the car and went to bed before he had a chance!

The next morning he had a business meeting and I went to go work out. I called him when I finished my workout and he said he had bought us something.

When I got home I pretty much just wanted to shower and change, but he wanted to show me what he bought. As I take my shoes off he hands me Dance Dance Revelution for the Wii then tells me he wants me to sit on the stairs. I put the game down and sit down. He starts rubbing my shoulds and says "Last night isn't over yet". In my head I'm thinking, "Oh God, he wants to have sex and I'm all stinky and need to shower."He tells me to stay on the stairs and close my eyes, so now I'm wondering what the heck he is doing.

He ran up stairs and then came down again and I could feel him in front of me. He tells me that he loves me and talks about how wonderful it's been being together. Then he started talking about how we built this house together and that he wanted to be able to share the rest of our lives together. That's when he asked!

And out of my mouth...."Really?"

Then I opened my eyes and saw my ring. I got a little teary eyed :p And of course I said yes.

I love the ring. He picked it out all on his own, and it's the perfect ring for me. It's an ideal cut pear diamond set in platinum. It sparkles so much!

After Josh proposed (and I finially showered!) we went to my parent's house. They were so happy! My mom started screaming and then crying. My brother Rusty came flying down stairs thinking that something awful had happened. Then my sister and I went up stairs to wake my dad up, she she had my hand 2 inches from his face. At first he didn't understand what was going on. Then the look of shock was priceless.

Of course we called most of our family while we were there and everyone is so excited. After my house we went to Josh's mom's place and visited her for a while. And then we went over to his Dad's and step mom's place and told them. It was so busy!

Today we have church and we are going to try to set up an appointment so we can pick a wedding date. We are thinking next fall... but we'll see what's available! You have no idea how excited I am!

The countdown

Maybe we are 8 months behind and should have started a blog together when we first became engaged, but neither of us thought of such an idea until now.

In the next few days we will post some important stuff that most of our family and friends know, but will catch everyone up on the wonderful journey it's been in planning our future together.

Keep in tune!