Saying Thank You

Good news.. I finally finished our thank you's from the wedding! Now, I know they say you have three months to send them out (I just completely made that up.. is that what they say?), but I really just wanted to get them done and out of the way so I could officially start my recaps here on Weddingbee. Because I'm so ants in my pants excited to start them!!

These thank you's were both really fun and the bane of my existence for the past few months. Really fun because it gave me another way to try and be creative, and really annoying because I wrote them all myself (Foxy's handwriting is.. interesting) and it was sometimes hard to come up with the perfect thing to say to 60+ people/couples. Le sigh.

To be honest, I actually got really excited about it all at first, since I randomly stumbled across the perfect cards at CVS two days after the wedding  - they totally matched our invites and part of our color scheme! Even better, they were sold by the pack - 20 cards and envelopes for $7!

Unfortunately, there was only one pack of them when I was there. The second CVS I went to had two, the third had none, and the fourth had one. So it took me about three weeks and four stores to acquire a sufficient amount of cards (with extras in case of any mess ups, too), which accounted for part of what took me so long to get them done. Another reason is that I hate writing by hand. Well.. no, that's a lie. I actually really like it, except my hand gets all crampy really fast. Ah, the joys of modern technology and keyboards! So I could only really write a few a day before I either got antsy, or my hand started revolting against me.

The last reason it took me longer than expected to finish was because I decided that I wanted to include a little "bonus" of some sort with the cards. I know a lot of newlyweds put a picture of themselves from the wedding in their thank you's - which I totally love - but I recently stumbled across the idea of putting a photo of the guests with each card instead.

Seeing as I can never make up my mind about anything.. I decided to do both!

These two are probably one of the most photogenic couples in the world.

One of the things that I absolutely loved about our photographer - something that you might notice with the photos above - was her ability to capture people and moments. I can honestly say that there was at least one heart-warming and lovely photo of every single person at our wedding, which made my job of including one for each person much easier. It made me so happy to look through our photos and see picture upon picture of smiling faces - moments that I may not have seen at the time, but can relive every time I look through our photos. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside!!

I initially had grand illusions of making magnets out of said pictures or including little heart magnets a la our Save the Dates.. but yea. That didn't happen. I got a bit crafty with the envelopes, labels, and included the pictures, but once month three started rolling around, I called it a day. Blame it on all the pretty photos I had been consistently looking at and my eagerness to start the pending recaps!

Did you include anything special, like a picture or two, in your thank you's? How long did it take you to finish them?

The PWC

You would think I was referring to the infamous post-wedding chop, wouldn't you?

Well.. that's not exactly how I roll. Apparently, I like to literally roll.. and decided to get a post-wedding curl, instead!

One of my better looks, no?

Oh yes, it's true. I channeled the 1980's and totally brought back the perm. It's really more of a body wave than a true perm (or what you normally think of when you hear the word perm), but it's definitely a drastic step from my naturally stick straight hair. And I love it!!

And so, without further ado, a little before and after action!

Before

Straighty McStraightpants.

After

That night, with a bit of volume..

..and the next morning, after rewetting it a bit.

So why the big (and complete throwback) change? The thing is, I've actually been thinking of doing this for a good 10 years or so. I've always loved styling my hair wavy, and it used to be that I could just throw it up in a french braid or two, sleep in it, and boom! Awesome waves.

Then I got older, my hair got finer (or I got worse at doing french braids), and it just wouldn't look the way I wanted it to. I'm also usually much too lazy to use a curling iron on my whole head of hair. So I've more or less stuck with it being straight, which has been super for the past 27 years. But it was time for a change.

Normally when my hair gets long, I chop it all off.. then I wish it was long again. It's absolutely the whole "want what you don't have thing", and likely why I wanted wavy hair - because I don't have it naturally. But hey, that's what chemicals are for! (Proooobably not the best thing to say, however.) And a bonus perk was that my hair stylist, Breezy B (same awesome lady who did my wedding day hair!), was up for doing an exchange - she'd do my hair, and I'd give her a massage. How could I pass that up?!

Now, will there be days where I wish I still had my straight hair? Very likely. But it's also the only thing I've ever known.. I literally have no idea what to do with this mop on my head right now! Not to mention, I'm still in that whole "can't wash your hair for a day or two" phase, so that's.. gross. But Breeze was kind enough to send me home with few curly hair products, and I picked up a few more on my way home from her place as well (Curly Sexy Hair, anyone?). So hopefully, with a little bit of finagling and a little bit of luck, I can manage this new, wavy head of hair and rock it for the next few months. Who knows? Maybe I'll keep it up!

One more gratuitous hair photo!

Have you ever gone from straight hair to curly or curly hair to straight? Any tips for a wavy/curly haired newbee? (Ha! See what I did there?!)

Timing is Everything

In other words, the timeline. This thing was both my savior and the bane of my existence.

Initially, I was super excited to write out a timeline for the big day. Heck, we were six months out and I was running around telling Foxy that we needed to get. it. done. now. How could we wait? The wedding was only six months away! I need to know what I'm doing! Everyone else needs to know what they're doing! How could this possibly wait?!

Well.. it did wait. And the week before the wedding, I realized I still didn't have a timeline. I mean, I had an order for the girls to get their hair done in the morning, but that was about it. At that point, I just stopped caring. Wouldn't the magical wedding gods just do their thing and everyone would just know where to go and where to be?

Um.. no. Trust me, it doesn't work that way. Even with a timeline. Thankfully, I had officient Em to kick me in the butt and get me moving on this - AKA, she took her old wedding day timeline and substituted in all my information. Huzzah!

Which is how we went from a vague idea of the hair schedule, to this:

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Wedding Day Timeline

Saturday, June 16 – WEDDING DAY!

5:00am: Steph wakes up, showers

6:00am: Brianna (hair stylist) arrives; Bridesmaids arrive at bridal suite: Arrive with wedding day attire (dress, shoes, accessories, make up, undergarments). Bridesmaids will get ready in bridal suite; Meghann hair

7:00am: Lauren (make-up artist) arrives, begins Steph's make-up; Jess hair

8am: Chasi gets breakfast for the group; Ashley hair

9:00am: Abby hair

10:00am: Steph hair

**In between hair, Bridesmaids should be doing make up**

11:00am: Martha hair; Laura (photographer) arrives at bridal suite; 2^nd shooter goes to Scot's suite

**Don't forget to give Laura accessories, invitation, other details**

11:30am: Mackenzie hair; BMs should be finished dressing at this time

12:00pm: Steph gets dressed!

12:30pm: Florist drops off bouquets; bridal portraits?

**Once each BM is finished with hair/make up, they should take their things back to their respective rooms**

12:45pm: First Look (location TBD on Friday)

**Entire Bridal Party needs to be in front of the Vandiver Inn at 1:00PM**

1:00pm: School Bus leaves for lighthouse; bridal party pictures

2:00pm: School Bus departs lighthouse for Lock House; more bridal party pictures

2:30pm: Scot and Steph's family arrives at Lock House for family portraits

2:30pm-3:15pm: Family portraits

3:15pm: Drive back to Vandiver Inn; back by 3:30pm

3:50pm: Begin lining up; follow Chasi's lead!

4:00pm: Officiant (Emily), Scot, and Adam walk up the aisle

4:01pm: Music for Bridal Party starts

Meghann and John

Abby and Matt

Gaby and Eric

Ashley

Jess

4:05pm: Music for Steph starts

4:30pm: Ceremony is OVER and it's COCKTAIL TIME!

**After the ceremony and recessional please follow Scot and Steph (circle around house, back to gazebo); Jess and Ashley will bustle Steph's dress prior to going to cocktail hour.

4:45pm: Steph and Scot arrive at cocktail hour, no announcement

5:15pm: Guests move to pavilion

5:25pm: Scot and Steph announced at reception, party begins!!

________________________________________________

Yep. Everyone even knew when I showered, which became a running joke of the wedding weekend. Whatever, at least they knew I was clean.

Now, for all my insanity then nonchalance about the timeline, I came to realize that it was absolutely crucial. I had very few people actually ask me when they were supposed to be somewhere or do something, and when they did, they got the same answer as everyone else: Where's your timeline? Look at your timeline! (I promise it wasn't as bitchy as it sounds.. that became the other running joke of the weekend!) Because.. well.. heck if *I* knew what time we were supposed to be anywhere or do anything. To which everyone taunted me with "Where's your timeline?!". Jerks.

I have to say, though, that we ran fairly close to on-time all day thanks to this thing. That, and the mad wedding-coordinator-extrodinaire skills of officiant Em.

At the rehearsal.. you don't want to cross this girl. ;)

Did you or will you have a timeline for your wedding day? Did you end up following it in the end?