The morning of the wedding, I woke up at The Residence Inn in Bloomingdale, Illinois.
The church was just a hop, skip and a jump away but we had hours to go until I got there. I jumped in the shower at 7:30 a.m. Allison and Christine were in the other bedroom in the suite and Nydia, Beth, Stacy and Amber were across the hall. Jackie was at her parents' house, but would be joining us later. At 8:00 there was a knock on our hotel suite door. Right on time. It was Angelica and Antje from Tigerlilie Salon. We had arranged that they would come out to the suburbs with their hair dryers, rollers, bobby-pins, curling irons and make-up kits to get us all prettied up. A consultation and a trial with Antje confirmed that I would be wearing my hair like Rita Hayworth's.
The bridesmaids would be sporting vintage style up-do's... like these:
Before long, we were taking turns getting our hair done, reading magazines, sipping mimosas and munching on the treats Beth and Nydia had gone to pick up for us, including Pirate's Booty.
After our hair was done, Antje and Angelica did our makeup. Antje had recommended that I get some MAC foundation and lipstick for the day so I got that out for her. We waited on the lipstick, though. She wanted to put that on after I put my dress on. So... on it went. Nydia and Stacy came in with me and my mom. It sounds like a lot of people, but there were a lot of buttons... and high heels.
On went the lipstick... the high heels... the veil. Time to be a bride.
Now as my bridesmaids know, I bestowed upon them the decision of picking out their own bridesmaids dresses. I did set limits, giving them a choice from fourteen dresses (that's twice as many dress choices as bridesmaids) and they each happened to choose different ones. This here is a little photo collage of what they picked out. I thought that, now that the wedding is over, I'd post some pictures of some of the other dresses I was considering for all of them to wear. You know, just for fun... I know these are small, but they're all I could find now that the whole thing is out of date... sorry...
We had a big discussion tonight about the wedding party and I think we've finally got it all settled. I've already asked Amber to be my maid of honor and Nydia to be my matron of honor. Now I just have to ask the rest. I don't think Joe has asked anyone yet. I guess he's just thinking of how he's going to do it. XOXO
