Weddingbee Blog

My trip up north to do wedding things went pretty well. The wine barrel drink-bar-constructing was completed, but the grand plans to build a driftwood arbor were laid aside, since I underestimated the time it takes to gather numerous large pieces of wood around the lake. With no motorboat available, I used a kayak and towed the 7-foot hunks o’wood using rope tied to the stern. It’s a good thing wood floats.

I got about half the wood I needed for the arbor in one day. The next day, I was all set to go out for round II of wood gathering when my dad said to me, completely somber, “Oh, keep an eye out for a body. A man drowned in the lake two days ago and they haven’t found him yet.”

My face dropped as I contemplated both the tragedy of somebody drowning in the lake and the possibility of stumbling upon the body, something my own dad had the misfortune of experiencing on Clear Lake some 30 years ago. I did not want to have to see my first dead body while rummaging around the lake shore looking for driftwood for our wedding day arbor.

Never missing an opportunity to tease me, and probably trying to prevent the inevitable freak-out he could tell was boiling up inside me, my dad then said, “You know, if you find it, you could always tow it back with you on the kayak.”

Not meaning disrespect to the person who drowned––my dad knew the man––but even if it had been a close relative of ours, he would have cracked a joke like that. That’s just who he is.

So, with driftwood off the agenda, and the wine barrel drink bar complete, I decided to get my hair trial done. My brother accidentally deleted all the photos on my camera, but fortunately Papa Paisley took plenty of photos on his camera, which he’s going to email to me, so photos of the drink bar and ‘do are forthcoming.

The hair and makeup trial went pretty well, I was mostly happy with the hair and amazed at the style’s durability. The makeup was soft and undetectable, while the eye makeup was no short of amazing. I showed her these photos for hair inspiration, all found on Project Wedding’s website:

I told her I liked the waves of this one, how they fell against her head and were still wavy even though they were pulled back into a bun.

But I told her I didn’t want a bun; I wanted a side-swept, half-up, half-down sort of pony tail, and that I liked the side-swept bangs and loose curls on this photo:

And I liked the touchable-looking curls of this one:

And this:

And that this one was the closest thing to what I was going for, but with elements of each of the above photos as well:

She listened to me, and basically perfectly achieved the look of the tighter curls in the bun photo, but without the softness or looseness I’d wanted. It was very pretty, but not exactly what I wanted. She used a small-barrel curling iron all over my head until I looked like Shirley Temple, and then used hair spray, then a heavy hair wax to pull each curl looser and add definition to them.

She was great at improvising the side-swept pony tail look I wanted. Although some bobby pins were visible (plus she used yellow pins while I have recently-dyed brown locks). I think I need to go back for another trial with her before the wedding, don’t you think? I have complete faith she can do it, but I’d rather get the exact look achieved before the big day.

The good thing about the hair is that it was finished at noon, then I proceeded to do heavy yard work with my MOH at grandma’s (the wedding location) for five hours…

… It was probably not what the stylist had intended for me to do after getting my hair done. But later that night, after all of the yard work and sweating, and just before I went to bed at 11, the hair was still just as perfect, no joke. The curls hadn’t budged an inch! It was truly kind of weird.

As one of my friends said, there is “something wrong with that picture.” To that I say, it’s not only the hair, it’s the fact that brother Paisley was standing on the porch of the guest house, relaxed as can be, watching us girls work, and not helping! That’s what’s wrong with that picture! (OK, he was taking photos, which was nice of him for my blogging purposes.) Then he later uploaded the photo to Facebook with the title, “I want that whole yard cleaned up nice enough to have a wedding!”

Brother Paisley, you jokester. I love my funny family.

Stay tuned for more photos of the hair, and photos of the wine barrel drink bar, oh… and the makeup, too!

Do any of you ladies know of some great pictures of a wavy, side ponytail look (especially the back view)?

Have any of you experienced difficulty getting exactly what you wanted out of your hair trial? Did you find it was worth it to go back for a second trial?