Weddingbee Blog

When we awoke on Friday, it was time to get down to business. And by get down to business, I mean get manicures and pedicures. All of the bridesmaids and I had bought a Groupon for mani/pedis at a spa in downtown Houston. But when I called a week before to schedule an appointment for all of us, it turned out that the spa only has two nail technicians. So it would’ve taken hours for 11 of us to get our nails did. (At that point, it was the bridesmaids, my cousin, two friends from out of town, and me. We were rollin’ with a pretty big crew.) I solved the issue by finding another spa that could accommodate our large group.

We ended up going to Urban Oasis Day Spa, a sleek, fancy-pants spa in Midtown. I was a bad blogger and didn’t take any photos (really, it’s hard to with wet nails!), but here’s a photo of the “luxury pedicure lounge”:

Urban Oasis Day Spa / Photo via Urban Oasis

I love me some mani/pedis, but I very rarely splurge on them. So this was my first shellac experience. Girls, shellac polish is amazing. My manicure lasted three weeks (it survived our outdoorsy honeymoon!), and the pedicure is still going strong one month later. I’m going to try to talk Mr. W into working a monthly shellac pedicure into our joint budget now that we’ve combined finances.

Anyway, back to the primping. We all picked out pretty polishes (I chose an understated blush color for my nails and rosy pink for my toes) and sat down at these pedicure thrones (see photo above). The whole time I was pretty much gawking at how high the ceilings were and how fancy everything was. We chatted away, and it was the best girl time I had had since my bachelorette party a couple months prior.

With freshly painted nails, we stopped for some coffee at a cafe around the corner and then headed back to my house, which looked like a disaster area by that point. There were sheets of card stock and striped paper straws everywhere. The “wedding room”—one of the guest bedrooms—was piled high with boxes of mismatched glasses, vases, and Coca Cola bottles. Luckily, we had a team of dashing guys to help clear everything out and transport my hoarder collections to the wedding venue. I don’t have a visual, but the photo of my car during my recent move is a pretty good stand-in:

Sheer chaos—substitute the books for boxes of vintage knick-knacks and an overwhelming collection of vintage vases and glassware.

Before the guys left with everything loaded into a pick-up truck, we all grazed on snacks and sandwiches my mom had picked up at Costco. I was busy trying to print out last-minute signs and doing who knows what else. I ran up and down the stairs probably 50 times that day. With all the fun I had dreaming up DIY projects during wedding planning, I now felt a little burdened with making sure all of the loose ends of every project were wrapped up and transported to the wedding venue.

I have only one regret from the wedding weekend. On Friday, I never double-checked that all of the boxes and projects were packed to take to the wedding venue. So several boxes of (painstakingly) handmade decorations never made it to the wedding. Hive, if you labor over DIY projects, make sure you carefully pack them up, label them, and arrange all of the boxes in one central location before your wedding. And before you leave, do a couple walk-throughs to make sure you don’t miss anything. Our sweet, helpful guys never would’ve guessed that a vintage suitcase leaning against a wall in the living room contained some special wedding projects.

We left ourselves plenty of time to get ready on Friday afternoon before the rehearsal at Oak Tree Manor. Every mirror in the house was occupied as we straightened hair and applied mascara. Finally, everyone was ready to go, and we piled into several cars and set off.

Up next: we rehearse, we wine and dine, and some family drama ensues!

What did you do the day before your wedding?

Miss a recap? Previously:

• We got our pro pics in the mail, and I freaked out just a little.
• Orlando and his crew at A Sweet Film whipped up a sweet little teaser from the wedding.
• We p-a-r-t-ied with close friends and fam, Persian style. (We’re taking “Gangnam Style” to the next level.)