Friday, April 6, 2018

Our Wedding, Part One || Morning Preparations

Welcome to Part One of our wedding posts! Not sure how many posts I'll end up doing in this series, but I'm planning to walk y'all through our wedding day, as well as share everything from how we planned our wedding on a budget, to how we picked our bridal party. Hope y'all enjoy these peaks into our day of all days!

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Our wedding day dawned bright and clear and FREEZING. Negative six degrees, to be exact, with five inches of snow on the ground!! Only the bravest of souls came out to our wedding, haha!
But really, it was the perfect winter wonderland and more gorgeous than anything we could've imagined. For a winter wedding, it was pretty marvelous!

I drove in to the church early with my sisters. We arrived in town at 7am, only to get a phone call, as we were pulling in, saying that the hair + makeup crew was locked out of the church. HELP! With everything else on my mind, I had totally forgotten about lining up anyone to unlock the church. I made a frantic phone call to a friend who lived in town and worked at the church, and he was over within five minutes to get us in.
This is my Cassie friend and she did an incredible job on my makeup. Love her so much! 
Our rings.
When I was selecting my bridal jewelry, I instantly knew I wanted to wear this necklace. It was one of John's first gifts to me, for Christmas 2016, right after we started dating. He bought it for me earlier that month when he was in South America on a business trip. The teal matched perfectly with the color of the bridesmaids dresses, and I loved having that little pop of color in my outfit, and close to my eyes.
I was barefoot for most of the day but did buy these flats (in gold) specifically for some pictures we were planning to be doing in a field. They were a great price + super comfortable and I still wear them all the time! I love how they can be super dressy or casual depending on what I pair them with.
I sewed my own dress and loved it! I love sewing my own clothes and really hardly gave it a second thought when it came to my wedding gown----I knew I wanted to make it.  I love to sew, I love mixing patterns, and I love making things exactly how I want them. With all that in mind, it was the most natural decision in the world for me to sew my own dress. 
(stay tuned for an upcoming post with pictures, pattern info, and all the details of what went into the making of my dress!)
Along with the five girls on the hair/makeup team, I also asked a friend to provide back rubs, and another girl to do nails. These were very fun little touches intended to pamper my bride tribe and make them feel special. It was definitely a success!
My sis and maid of honor, Allison, had a delicious breakfast of muffins, fruit, + kombucha.
Earlyyyyy morning smiles! 
Another thing I did for my bridesmaids was to schedule the single + newly married bridesmaids to come in first, to get ready, and then all the mama bridesmaids got to come in an hour later. With such a wide span of ages + life stages with my bridesmaids, I wanted to do everything I could to be considerate of each of them. The mamas really appreciate the extra hour!
I love having my makeup done for me but I ALWAYS do my own mascara. This day was no exception. I did a coat of my regular mascara (this one) then a very light coat of waterproof (this one) and ended with a final coat of regular. I didn't want to do purely waterproof since the consistency of that is a little different and I always feel like it makes my lashes go weird. However, I knew I was going to need a little bit of something waterproof to keep everything from running! =) My friend Cassie suggested this method of both and it worked perfectly-my lashes were normal since I mostly used my regular non-waterproof kind, but the light coat of waterproof held everything together and I didn't have any problem with makeup smearing, despite those happy tears!
I debated a little about having a floral wreath or not, since it was a winter wedding. Originally I wanted all of my bridesmaids to have floral wreaths, but I ended up scratching that idea because I felt that with the very colorful bouquets and dresses, wreaths for 14 bridesmaids would possibly be a little much. 
In the end, winter wedding or not, I knew I wanted one. Hey, after all, I went barefoot in six degrees below, didn't I? Yeah, I could throw a wreath in there with my oddness!
My sis Allison did her own hair; all the other bridesmaids had their styles done for them. They were all different but everyone specifically had a braid of some kind incorporated into their style, because I love braids. =)
You can't see it super well (and I don't have a full length pic) but I wore this teal blue robe for the wedding morning and I loved it. So fun to have something pretty + special for the wedding morning, and then still have it to wear later as part of my loungewear wardrobe. 
I'd jokingly told my friend Jess, years ago, that she would be the one to do my hair if I ever got married. She's done my hair for me multiple times over the years and I always love her style and skill with the curling irons. It was pretty grand to get to follow through with our little idea from long ago!
Liz with another one of my makeup crew ladies.
And then of course here are a few shots of my veryyyy handsome groom getting ready! His tie is this one and I loved the mixture of teals + greys in it. 
Seriously just the most dashing man I ever did see...*alllll the heart eyes*
Meanwhile...I was getting into my dress, with the help of my mother + sisters!
My perfume was Elizabeth Arden 5th Avenue. I love this scent, and was especially thrilled because I got it at TJMaxx for a fraction of the regular price. It is actually the same perfume I wore when we got engaged, as well. 
One thing I would say to all future brides who are wearing a floral wreath, is to practice with your hairstyle/wreath ahead of time. It ended out turning out fine, but because we hadn't practiced with it earlier, it ended up being a little short and so the actual floral part didn't span the whole way around. It still looked great but we had a few stressful moments trying to get it to fit right.
One last look and check before heading out for our first look.
And our first look will be featured in the next post!

Happy Weekend, friends!
 -Chels

23 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing about your special day. It's fun for those of us who wanted to come, but couldn't to see it through pictures. Your dress is beautiful! Great choice of hairstyle and wreath. Looking forward to seeing more.

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  2. You looked gorgeous! I think "dashing" is a great way to describe your husband. Mine is rather dashing as well! I'm enjoying reading your blog and can't wait to hear your "how we met" story. ;)

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  3. I love your dress - it looks very Regency/Jane Austen. I’m sure that was on purpose!

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  4. Thankyou Chelsy! I had looked forward to this time when we could get the wedding posts! Your dress turned out AMAZING �� gorgeous bride!

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  5. Super fun! I love all the pictures, and your dress is so pretty, I can't believe you made it yourself! :-)

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  6. It's so neat that you made your own wedding dress!

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  7. Did you pay your hair/nail/back rub team? It seems like those services should be compensated in some way.

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    1. Yes, absolutely-I couldn't agree more! So all seven of the gals on my "team" were close friends of mine. Two were professional cosmetologists-I paid one of them, and did a trade with the other one. (I did a photoshoot for her family in exchange for her hairstyling for my wedding)
      The other five girls were incredible as well but said they didn't want to be paid, so I gave them gifts instead!

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    2. Chelsy, you were very gracious to answer that question. I would not have! There is no no reason to ask personal questions about who was paid/not paid as part of any event. That is the height of bad manners.

      Thank you for sharing your beautiful wedding day with us. Seems like that first look was something quite special. That was not done when I was getting married other than walking down the aisle with everyone watching! I really like the idea of a private place and time before the ceremony.

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    3. It's okay-I'm not offended!
      Thanks for your kind words though-you thoughtful souls are by far in the majority of my blog readers and I'm really grateful for your encouragement!

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  8. Gorgeous!! It looks as if you all were having a great time! Excited to see more of the story:-)

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  9. Do I spy the Country Muffin in a photo?! Small world... I found her blog searching for natural remedies. Through her, I found your families’ blogs and [long story short] y’alls’ words led me to rededicate my life to our Lord and make Him my Saviour. Isn’t God so great?!

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    1. That's wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing! PTL!

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  10. Wait! Upon closer inspection, it may be your sister Anna! Please disregard my previous comment about Sarah the Country Muffin! But my remarks about your blog’s effect on my faith still stands! ��

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    1. And! I'm not even sure who the Country Muffin is! But makes sense that Anna might look like her, whoever she is...? =)

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  11. I can’t believe you made your own wedding dress!! That is awesome! It’s so beautiful! Great job!

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  12. Pretty. Thank you for sharing this. Your necklace was beautiful!

    Rebecca

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  13. Beautiful! Love your dress. Can’t believe you made it. Enjoyed this post.

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  14. So pretty can't wait to see part 2!
    I love your dress and the bridesmaid dresses!

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  15. I just got on here to see these wedding post now. So lovely! Jess did great on your hair! -Salinn

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  16. I love your dress Chelsy! You did a great job on making it!

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  17. Hi Chelsey!

    Thanks for sharing about your wedding. I look forward to the upcoming posts and reading more about how you and John met.

    I am a fellow braid-lover; when you finish posting about all these exciting events, could you post a tutorial on all these braids? I'd love to see how they were done and try them on my own hair.

    Thank you very much.

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