I woke up thirty minutes before my alarm went off at 6:30am, looked out the window, saw the rain, and to my surprise sprung from bed un-phased shouting with glee, “It’s wedding day!”  See, I ALREADY knew there were going to be scattered showers (what bride doesn’t check the forecast beginning ten days ahead?). And over the past 30 years, …

On the anniversary of the day Brian proposed, Angela Stott, the masterful photographer who shot our wedding, sent us the link to our wedding album online. Great timing, right? We spent the evening remembering our wedding day – it couldn’t have been a more perfect way to celebrate the day we decided to become husband and wife.

I’m SO …

With four months to go, we’re moving full steam ahead! Here’s a post to catch you all up on what’s been happening in my neck of the woods.

{Photo from here}

After a long debate and many nights of arguments ending in “harumpf!”, we booked our tickets to Japan for our honeymoon. We plan to spend 10 days, half of them in …

So, on the big day (third big day if you’re counting), I had a bridesmaid tea with my ladies and our mothers & grandmothers and then we were off! And running behind. I think I took the whole “getting married beforehand means less stress” thing too seriously, and the tea didn’t get kicked off right on time so we were …

Yes, I woke up to rain on my wedding day. Every bride’s worst fear. I laid in bed for 20 minutes, listening to the raindrops hit my window, but I felt surprisingly serene.

Then it was off to Escape Salon, where all of my best girls met me for primping and pampering. The salon staff couldn’t stop talking about the weather. …

Although I love fashion and adore shopping, wedding dress shopping was a different story. It took me a while to actually want to go dress shopping, but when I went, it was easy and fun. My mom and I met in Nashville (halfway between Memphis and Louisville) and I had made three appointments. The first was at The Bride Room …

There was another bride at the salon for my hair trial – she was with her mom and bridesmaids. They were sipping mimosas and enjoying bagels with the stylists, taking turns having their hair done. The bride had a pretty veil and really cute short hair, super shiny and full of volume. There she is in the corner behind me …

I have straight hair.  Thick, fine, long straight hair that doesn’t hold a curl for more than ten minutes.  Oh, also I twirl my hair so if there are any stray pieces on my wedding day they will end up being long, straight, strings hanging from my head – boy, doesn’t that sound attractive!  And to make matters worse, I …

I’ve put my face on a beauty regimen, which is something I have never done before.  I’ve always had pretty clear skin, which means that I totally neglect my face (I’m ashamed to admit that I used to only wash my face in the shower, even if I had been wearing makeup – yikes!).  I always felt pretty okay with …

After being unsuccessful at finding a hair and makeup person to return my emails, I luckily found Uyen Tran and had a fantastic trial! She spent three hours with me and I’m so happy with how the trial came out.

This was my inspiration:

Hair Inspiration

Makeup Inspiration (pink lips and cheeks and lots of false lashes!)

And this is what she miraculously did …

I just wanted to let you know, in case you wake up to a zit somewhere dangerously close to the big day, that I found something that worked for me!

image source

I always use the neutrogena on-the-spot benzoyl peroxide (because it’s hard to find the cheaper off brands with a comparably low percent, and 10 percent dries skin out which can …

I’m going with lipcolor #1. To refresh your memory:

versus

There were definitely way more votes for #1, 18 versus 10. It was really fun to see the comments pour in, I just got a blackberry and the entire weekend I was getting messages about my lip-color! It was like all my girlfriends were hanging out with me. The comment that initially …