Hello and happy Friday – the wedding recaps continue! If you missed any of the previous recaps, check out our wedding page here on the blog to get all caught up first. I hope you guys enjoy reading these posts at least half as much as I enjoy writing them! It’s so fun to relive the weekend through these posts and I’m loving all the photos I’ve seen so far from our photographers! 🙂
Getting ready with the girls on our wedding day was such a blast.
Everything took place in a studio on the property at Rosemont Manor, our wedding venue. It was so perfect because we didn’t have to go anywhere, we just simply walked on over after we ate breakfast! This is also where I did my hair and makeup trial a couple months prior, so I knew what to expect. As soon as we arrived, a Katy Perry Pandora station was turned on and the party started. 😉
For the hair and makeup services, we hired a team from KLH Makeup Artistry, recommended by our venue. They all did a fabulous job and were very friendly and professional – highly recommended! A woman named Patty Vance did my hair, my mom’s hair, and Matt’s mom’s hair. My family also paid for the bridesmaids to have their hair done however they wanted. Kelly Angstadt, another stylist, came along to do the bridesmaid’s hair!
Hair in action! You already knew what it was going to look like from my hair trial post, of course. I loved it – very pinterest-worthy. 🙂
Once my hair was done, it was over to makeup! My makeup (and my mom’s, Matt’s mom’s, and my grandmother’s) was done by Kerry Hellwig, who owns KLH Makeup Artistry. Again, highly recommended. Very friendly and chill and she totally nailed the look I was going for – nice and even for photos, but not too overdone or intense looking in person. Basically, I still looked like me, just a little better. 🙂 For all of us, she did a form of foundation that uses an airbrusher. It was cool – very even looking and nice and light, too.
Meanwhile, miss Gretchen was doing the makeup for my bridesmaids! (Any photos in this post not marked with the official photographer stamp are courtesy of her.) It was a family affair – her big sis Jenny was my MOH and their brother Ben was our photographer. Lol! Gretchen isn’t a professional makeup artist but she’s awesome at it and loves it – I was in her sister’s wedding a few years ago and she did all of our makeup for that, so I knew she’d do a great job for the girls. She also serves as my official makeup artist anytime we travel to blog events together. 😉 Thanks again Gretchen, you rock!
Gretchen in action:
The girls, ready to go! I told them to just do whatever they were comfortable with for both hair and makeup. Everyone looked beautiful!
Clockwise from upper left – Jenny (my MOH), Jess, Turner, Kris!
Since they finished up a little before me, the girls went and got their bridesmaid dresses and my bridesmaid Jess and Matt’s mom set to sewing a couple loose stitches on to everyone’s dress to hold the green ribbon sashes in place. They could easily cut it off later but this way it wouldn’t be moving around on them during the day. Perfect!
The bridesmaid dresses are from JCrew – the girls were excited because it was legitimately a dress they would wear again. Without the sash, they look like normal cocktail dresses (and were apparently really comfortable). The dresses are all silk chiffon in Newport Navy; Jenny went with a strapless version, and the other girls picked this version with straps and a pretty V front and back.
As for the ribbon, it was a super cheap pickup from Joanne Fabrics! Jess simply cut it the day of while they were sewing them on to everyone. So easy and cost effective, too.
Before we knew it it was time to head back up to the main manor house to finish getting ready! Once the girls were all ready to go, we reassembled in my parent’s room in the manor house to put on my dress. This is when it started to feel real. 🙂
For those that wanted more details about my dress, we got it at Global Bridal Gallery in Old Town, Alexandria. As far as I know it wasn’t any particular brand and I’d really recommend the shop if you’re local and looking for a dress – it’s a really small shop and the staff are all very nice and sweet (I feel like some of the bigger bridal shops can be super snotty or intimidating), and their prices are really reasonable, too. Hence me having rather expensive shoes. 🙂 I’m happy to say the shoes survived the grass throughout the day and I will be wearing them again as often as I can!
Back to the dress – it probably looked like it was all one piece but it was actually two! There was a satin nightgown/slip underneath and the lace section was an overlay. I love this picture below – in I go!
Umm, help! Where’s the head opening?! 😉
It was so exciting finally putting the dress on and knowing that I’d get to wear it for more than a few minutes at the dress shop! My favorite part of this dress was hands down the back. It was what sold us all on it way back when I first went dress shopping. Global Bridal Gallery was the only shop we went to and this was the very first dress I tried on, too! Of course I went on to try on about 10 more dresses, just for good measure, but we all kept coming back to this one. I just loved that it was unique but classic, romantic but flirty. And comfortable and lightweight, too!
Oh and yes, those were all REAL buttons. The girls were like… seriously?! 😉 How many bridesmaids and moms does it take to do up all those buttons? It looks like 4 from this picture. 🙂
My mom also sewed a couple quick stitches around the bust area to make sure the lace overlay wasn’t moving around separately from the satin undergarment. We were going to do tape or something, but this was much easier!
Putting on my earrings and the final touches:
And last but not least, the veil. If I didn’t feel like a bride yet, I definitely did when this went on. We bought the veil from Global Bridal Gallery as well and it was just a very simple fingertip length veil – actually the sample veil they had me try on when I tried on this dress for the first time! We didn’t want anything that would overshadow the dress, so it was perfect. The earrings were from Global Bridal Gallery as well. 🙂
We finished getting ready around 1:30 (they fed us lunch while we were getting our hair/makeup done) and headed outside to take my solo portraits and some of our fun bridesmaids pictures!
Meanwhile, the boys were arriving back from golf and starting to get ready nearby…
Team Bridesmaid was all over the guys making sure they called when they came back to the property so we weren’t standing right out in front taking photos when they arrived. Thank you, ladies!
I think this was Matt writing my “love letter” that we incorporated into our ceremony (more on that in the ceremony recap post)!
Oh and they had whiskey. Where was our whiskey, ladies? 😉
Too cool for school. 🙂
Stay tuned for the next post in the wedding recap series coming early next week – the official pictures from our individual portraits and separate groomsmen and bridesmaid pictures, taken prior to the ceremony!
A big thank you to our wedding photographers Ben and Taylor from Ben Powell Photography for getting these pictures to me so quickly!
