Getting dressed: Groom Style

Wedding photos are so awesome. It is a lot of fun going through them, sharing them, using them to give inspiration to others. What isn't there to love about reliving each part of your wedding day? I'll tell you what: Getting to see all the things you didn't actually see the day of.

Wes's friends are a really great group of people. I have really enjoyed getting to know them over the past 5 years through all the weddings and the Duke reunion.

Putting on a white dress.

I LOVED everything about my wedding attire. That is the way it should be, right? I see women all over the internet second guessing everything… and I did that as well, so I have no right to stand on a soapbox. But, I am here to say: LADIES, no regrets! Make all your choices with that in mind! It makes getting dressed on your wedding day a lot more fun.

The final four

I thought before I share the pictures of me getting all dolled up, I would talk about some important accessories. There’s usually four essential additional items that most brides want… something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

My something old:

Let's get this started!

Waking up the morning of your wedding day is a surreal experience. I was thinking, "OH, well this is it!" I felt very ready for June 22, 2012.

Remember this? We've come a long way! My personal photo.

We rehearse

Most of you have probably fallen off the radar, but I want to finish up this wedding journey.  I am eager to turn this blog into a keepsake, which means I have to create an ending for this story.

So, here’s to the beginning of the end of a wonderful experience.

Photo by Kristen Taylor Photography

Afterthoughts: Trying out hair and makeup

A long long time ago, I decided to have a hair stylist and makeup professional do my hair and makeup. I am pretty good with updos and smokey eyes, but I wanted to feel special on my wedding day.

 I was super prepared for the hair and makeup trial. I brought Sara (the hair gal) and Jenny (the makeup gal) all kinds of pictures off the internet and from magazines. Most of my favorirtes were from magazines but here's a few from the internet:

Pretty hair found on ProjectWedding

 

Pretty eye makeup found on SMP

 

Décor that dies and thus cannot be resold.

Aka: Flowers. It feels weird to me to spend tons of money on décor that you can’t use afterwards. I am selling most of my wedding décor, so I feel like the money spent on that stuff is warranted. Originally, I wanted only a few flowers here and there to keep the budget down. Things changed when I formed a more solid idea of what I wanted, though... I wanted a fun wedding, but I also wanted elegant touches to the wedding. Nothing is more beautiful and elegant than white tables and white flowers to me. However, all white can look washed out if not done right, so I decided we would use purple as our pop color. Hence, I wanted lots of purple and white flowers. Also, I wanted it to look like we picked everything from the garden.

Some of my inspiration pics. Both of these photos are from StyleMePretty (I think!)

Afterthoughts: To DOC or not to DOC?

Two days before our wedding, I had a bit of a freak-out. No, it wasn’t about whether I wanted to get married or not. It was about whether I had gotten myself in over my head when it came to wedding décor. Ultimately, I was afraid that I wasn’t going to be able to enjoy the weekend because I was too busy setting up and then taking it all down. I think other brides who DIY a lot of things might relate to my fears a little bit. There’s definitely an up side to hiring professionals to do everything on your big day – you don’t exhaust yourself before your party even begins!

We want this...not that...

(photos  stolen from friends of me dancing and me trying not to fall asleep as the end of the night)

DIY: Chiffon Fabric Pomander

SO! You've decided to ignore my warning and you want to know how to make fabric pomanders? Well, I am not about to reinvent the wheel. I used this tutorial from Fancy Nonsense to make mine!

Photo by Kristen Taylor Photography

However, I used chiffon to make mine... so I have a few suggestions:

Great balls of CHIFFON!

There is a gap of time in wedding planning if you decide on an engagement of longer than 1 year. This gap is called “The Idle Bride Vortex”. Oh yes, it is a real thing. How many brides have said, “Oh, all my vendors are booked. There’s really nothing to do before I order the save the dates and invitations!” Answer: Most of them. Now, how many of those brides are super involved DIYers? Based on my well-educated assessment, about 33.333%. That’s right, 33.333% of all brides are susceptible to being sucked into the “The Idle Bride Vortex”. Luckily, my friend Sarah is immune to having idle hands so I can see she clearly is going to make it through wedding planning without having any “silly-overly-thought-out, but-not–well-executed” wedding project.  

I, however, was sucked into that very vortex.

A bride's brain in the idle  bride vortex.

Paddle fan ceremoney programs: A brief glimpse of bridezilla

I am detailed-oriented to a fault. So, unfortunately my mom and Wes’s mom got picked on a little bit when making the ceremony programs.

Let me state my case: 1. They kept asking me for things to do. As far as I am concerned, you get what you ask for. 2. I was so proud of my save the dates and invitations, how could I not want the ceremony programs to be just as beautiful. And, most were…

Mad for Chalkboards

Somewhere along the way, I fell head over heels for chalkboards. Could you tell? There’s just something about them! I love that you can dress them up or down. I love that you can write in a whole bunch of different fonts all over them. I love that dusty look. I find everything about them heart-warming and a bit romantic. I think Kristen Taylor (our photographer) said it best when she called our wedding “casual yet elegant” and chalkboards very much represents that idea to me. I didn’t want chalkboards to overwhelm the wedding rather I wanted them to add to the feeling and be one of a few repeating elements in the wedding.

I hope I didn’t go over the top!

Photo by Kristen Taylor Photography

Big ticket items

The week I took off from work before the wedding was definitely a necessity for all the decor for the wedding to work out. I don't think I realized how crazy of a bride I was until I saw all my wedding "stuff" crammed into my mom's poor house. Thanks Mom (again) for letting us invade your house. Thank you Matthew, my incredible nephew, for bringing so many of the boxes back to grandma's house for us!

The reason why my nephew had to help drive stuff back from Waldenwoods was...because... I had some BIG stuff for the wedding. Remember these?

Flower or no flower?

I was really pleased with my DIY projects! I had one more DIY fail, though, after the mercury glass situation. That would be my hair flower…

I had seen all these breathtaking photos of brides where their hair is adorned with beautiful hair flowers. I ordered some chiffon and organza fabric forever ago and thought I would try my hand at making one. I used this DIY tutorial that seem super easy and figured that it would turn out simply amazing. Here’s the final project:

My flimsy flower.

On the town

So, first was my wedding shower and then, we had my bachelorette party later that night. J SO MUCH FUN. My super-dupa-awesome-to-the-core friend and maid of honor, Colby, planned such a perfect party. She insisted that we get a limo so we could all enjoy the night and be together the whole time. I argued with her a bit on this because money doesn’t grow on trees, but she was right to insist. By far, the best part of the night was riding around in that darn limo. We got to talk and enjoy a “few” cocktails. It was so nice to have so many of my friends mushed into one little box. We were having so much fun in the limo that I guess Colby and I were a little difficult to get out of the limo later that night. The reason was because we got back to my house a half hour earlier that what Colby had paid for. We insisted on using the limo up until the last minute! And for the record, Colby I insist we have a limo for your bachelorette party. Don’t argue.

I have no photos of this portion of the night... probably for the better! So here's a good one of my mom and mother-in-law!

In between limo rides, we did visit was a comedy club and a piano bar. Which were fun! But, the comedy club really didn’t like us. I heckled the comedian a bit and apparently that is a no-no. Oh well. Lesson learned, don’t go to a comedy club when you have had enough liquid courage to heckle the comedian. The piano bar was nearly empty, but that was very good because it allowed us to get up on stage and perform the Unicorn Song.

WHAT? You don’t know the unicorn song?  Please press play as you view the following photos:

I particularly love how aggressive Josh looks in this one.

Overall, the night was a success. Fairly harmless, besides one broken toe. Rachel – I love you. I promise to break my toe at your bachelorette party.

The big difference between my party and Wes’s was that I had all my fun jam-packed in one night while he was able to span his out for a few days in Vegas. The whole “bachelor party” weekend is becoming so popular! Which kind would you want?

A slightly nontypical wedding shower

I was fairly adamant that I did not want a bridal shower. Somehow I ended up with 3. And, I’m glad no one listened to me! But, there is one reason in particular that I did not want a shower…

...because I didn’t want to sit in “the chair”.

I know I am a goof and I am loud at times. But, honestly most of that is because I am making up for the part of me that is really nervous about being looked at and scrutinized. Those chairs put you in the middle of the room are just so everyone can pay attention to you. That really freaks me out! I know, you are thinking, “Come on Megan. You are a jazzercise instructor for goodness sake. And, you present your scientific results at major conferences.” And, you are right. However, I am only able to do that because I try not to think about it too much. In Jazzercise, I am just working out with my friends. At Society for Neuroscience, I am focusing on how excited I am to be sharing my work. Also, I am not receiving gifts when I do those things. I feel super weird about getting gifts. I never know what the right thing to do is… Do I open it in front of them? What if that person was way too generous? How do I respond? Don’t get me wrong. I am so thankful for all of our wedding gifts. I am in awe of how thoughtful people were and all the beautiful things that were written in all those cards. I am grateful to all of you. And, I apologize if I am super awkward sometimes.

Case in point:

My mom and her wonderful friend Lynette put together this amazing day for me. It was a “personal” wedding shower instead of being your typical “give-a-blender”wedding shower. Which made it way more fun. I received such lovely things. And I would like to note, that I wore both dresses that Colby and Rachel got me, so that gift was perfect contrary to popular opinion that day.

The other gifts I received shall remain off the internet if that is okay with you!

The house was gussied up so nice. There were some rockin’ zebra stripped balloons, a nacho bar (YUM) and mini cheesecakes.

Lori and Lynette making those house pretty.

Cutting the cake... Poor Wes had to sit in the other room while the ladies hung out.

I think one of my favorite moments was opening my card from my sister. She is my big sister, so naturally, I search for her approval. Being separated in age and thus in the different positions in our lives, I feel like I have been searching for a closeness between my sister and I for years. Her card was so perfect. Just from that simple card, I felt from her what I had always wished was between us and, most likely, was always there.



It was really wonderful to spend that time with family and friends from Michigan that I don’t get to see very often. It was an afternoon that was essential to starting the week off right. From that point on, I felt myself more focused on relishing in the moment and enjoying the conversations and little details that make each one of my family member and friends such a joy in my life.

If I looked happy on my wedding day, it was partially due to being able to do that all week. (And largely because I was lucky enough to marry my better half.)

Photo by Kristen Taylor Photography

All photos were taken by my mother-in-law except the last one. Kristen Taylor gave me a sneek peak of some of my photos! http://www.kristentaylorblog.com/Index.cfm?postID=410

We're back!

Hello! We have returned from our amazing honeymoon!

There are about a million other things I wanted to post about before the wedding, but things just got so crazy busy. I guess I should have anticipated that. J So, I figured I would keep writing to update you about June and our honeymoon.

Above all, I wanted to send out a general thank you to everyone who made our wedding special. To quote Wes at our rehearsal dinner, I feel blessed. June was such an amazing month. Yes, I mean month. One reason is that I have a wonderful Jazzercise family that threw not one, but two surprise wedding parties for me. I teach Jazzercise in two places, Piscataway and Hillsborough. I love teaching in both of these places so much. They helped make New Jersey home. They are all amazing people and I am lucky to get to share my life with them.

The lovely ladies at Hillsborough through me a shower on a Friday evening. We had such amazing food! Everyone showed off their culinary skils and brought something and I received some amazing gifts. I was particularly blown away by these flips flops one very special lady made for me. I think the best part was seeing everyone dressed up so nicely because usually we are all in sweaty workout clothes!

Surprised!

Leslie, the owner of Hillsborough, who set most of all of the party up!

The dreaded chair. I hate being the center of attention like that!

Opening my gifts!

The card that everyone signed. I was very touched by that!

Some of the wonderful gals!

My flipflops!!!

My Piscataway peeps through me a party during one of the classes I taught. They tried really hard to get these belly dancing skirts for everyone for the party, but they didn’t arrive in time.  No matter because we had a great time and Robin even made me her brownie cake that I love so much and Dean brought his homemade wine.  They all got together and gave Wes and I such a generous gift. And, the next week we had another party during my class with the belly skirts. Here’s the pic of everyone from the second party. Can you find me?

Thank you to the Jazzy ladies! Those experiences started the whole month off perfectly. I underestimated how nice it would be to have wedding showers and I very glad I had to chance to share time with so many of my favorite people. It was a good warm up for the shower my mom and family friend threw me… J

Pretend diaminds are a girl's best friend.

Sometimes I make a big deal out of nothing. Unfortunately, my wedding jewelry turned into one of those things.

I guess the real problem is that I was very torn about what kind of bride I wanted to be. I didn’t want to be all glitz and glamour. I also didn’t want to be boring. A friend of ours who got married in New Orleans wore a beautiful purple necklace and it was a very fun and refreshing part of her wedding attire. The problem with not doing something classic is that you run the risk of looking back at your wedding photos and saying “What was I thinking!” I was nervous that I would regret my decision later... as we've discussed before, I am not very brave. I found something that I thought was a perfect balance of glamour and simplicity at Ann Taylor.

Source

Source

It seemed too soon to buy it and I wanted to wait until I had a coupon or something. Then, out of nowhere, Ann Taylor pulled it from their stores and website. 

Cue the bridal mania.

I looked everywhere to find a replacement. I looked over hundreds of pieces of jewelry on the internet and went to Bloomingdales and Nordstrom countless times… I found one (just ONE!) bracelet and one pair of earrings that I thought I liked. It turned out that Wes didn’t like them together. I know it shouldn’t matter what he thinks, but it does. So, I returned a bracelet and kept these earrings.

I really wanted a specific kind of bracelet and in my head I could imagine what I thought it should look like. I found similar things, but nothing was quite right. That would be the only time that Etsy sellers have ever failed me. So, I decided to make it myself. I bought beads from China which took a month to get here. Then, I taught myself jewelry making. But, all the effort was worth it because it came out beautiful. See?

I used 8mm and 10mm beads on Eightjewelry's shop on Etsy. I purchased the jewlery tools from Artbeads.com. I bought silver wire (half hard, 22 gage) with a coupon at Michaels. And finally, I used this tutorial from Artbead.

THEN, the original jewelry I loved came back to Ann Taylor. I was pretty aggravated about it. I had to order the jewelry because I had a 20% coupon and more importantly, I would never be able to relax if I didn’t see them in person. I got them in the mail and… they weren’t what I expected. They were much more glitzy than the website lets on. I returned them and the good news is that it made me feel that much more confident about my DIY bracelet.

I also found another pair of earrings to wear during the ceremony because I want something simpler with my veil. My veil will come off during the reception and I will change into my party earrings.

So, here it is all together.

I don’t know why, but the things you least expect to drive you crazy during the wedding planning process always end up being the “thing”. I care too much – that’s my problem. But, I guess I wouldn’t be Megan if I wasn’t like that.

If you need me to make you some jewelry, let me know! Because I have some crafty wire curling skills now. J

Crafting with wire

Speaking of being crafty with wire, look what I made!

One of the things that is often forgotten is to bring a nice hanger for you to hanger your dress on while the photographer is taking pictures.

So, these things cost $30 on etsy and I couldn’t bring myself to spend the money, so I decided to make it for $12. The wire is from amazon and I bought a 5 pack of hangers at target. I used a small drill bit on my power drill and used super glue to hold the wire in the holes.

I may have had enough hangers and wires left over to make some more as presents…

Another ceremony accessory

If you remember, I am wearing 4 inch heels. I have been wearing them from time to time around the house and I am fairly confident that I can spend at least 5 hours in them. However, I am not so sure that walking in grass is going to be very easy. Mostly, I am concerned that my heels are going to sink down into the grass and I can just imagine me falling over or losing a shoe while I trying to walk down our grassy aisle. Just as a reminder, here’s where we are getting married:

So, I decided that I should invest in some heel protectors. Have you heard them? I hadn’t until I started reading wedding blogs. There’s a few different kinds and today I ordered two different pairs to compare and contrast:

Starlettos, Picture Source

Solemates, Picture Source

I think this is going to be a good investment. I don’t know how discreet they are, but luckily my dress is long and it won’t show. I will definitely take them off when my photographer is snapping pics of my glorious 4 inch purple sexy shoes. I will let you know what I think about how “obvious” they are. If they don’t look too bad, I might suggest to our moms and the bridesmaids to get some.

For reference, I purchased them here:

Solemates, Size “small classic” in the color clear (they come in size narrow, classic small, and a wider size called classic medium), http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002CWYCQW/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

Starlettos, One size fits most shoes in the color clear, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0070RUXU8/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i01

Anyone else have a pair of heel protectors? Do you like them?