Bridal Shower

My Bridal Shower was Saturday. Ashley and her mom Jackie and sister Taylor through me an awesome party! It was alot of fun. Plus there was such yummy food and Ashley made a VERY pretty cake! Pasta salad, bruchetta, and chocolate covered strawberries are some of my favorites! I made out like a bandit too! Got plenty of wine glasses and shower curtains! Which you can never have enough wine glasses and the shower curtain I picked is nice fabric so I am going to use the extra as the curtain for the bathroom window and just have it draped to the side. Some other awesome gifts are my mom got me that narrow bathroom cabinet that I wanted from target and Janet got me a Kitchen Aid mixer and a knife set. Really all my gifts were great and I am so glad that so many people could come have fun! Here are some pictures.

So many presents!

me with my boquet of bows...

My Gma, me , my mom

Janet and I

Also here is a picture of Don and Liz's beautiful house which is the wedding location!

Rehersal Dress

So I am on the fence about whether I am going to make a dress or buy one. I like this butterick pattern alot.

Which says it is easy. I would probably try to add pockets too it. Since I LOVE dresses with pockets. It was the closest pattern to this dress from Ann Taylor that I LOVE. I would probably pick some kind of similar fabric to the Ann Taylor dress for it too, but I think I may just like it two toned rather than all one color.

This one is super similar but longer... and from J. Crew.

Now sometime after the first I think I will go shopping with my mom since her dress has apparently turned into a "sack". I guess she lost weight? I wish I could say the same... So maybe I will look for a dress then and if I can't find anything then I will attempt to make this dress? Though my sewing skills aren't the best... and I have no idea how I would find the time. I do really like this Express dress, however that pale pink doesn't look too good on me. I feel like that color always washes me out.

For whatever reason I have been drawn to these light seaglassy colors. I definately want a springy dress. No black or dark colors. I am sure I will find something!

Wedding Makeup : Update

I did end up going onto the live chat on MAC 's website. Here is what they suggested with pictures of all the products after.

First off ( I will use my Bare study paint pot first by applying it to my eyelids to help keep the eyeshadow on and keep it from creasing)

Begin by applying Naked Lunch Eyeshadow as a base on your eyes with brush #242. Sweep Sable Eye Shadow through your crease with brush #222, then add Vanilla Eye Shadow to your brow bone using brush # 242. Line your eyes with Teddy Eye Kohl Pencil. Add Coal Black Pro Lash mascara to your lashes. Blush your cheeks using Cubic Blush. Complete this look with Beurre Cremestick, Hug Me Lipstick and Lust Lip Glass. ( Note: I do not want lip gloss so I would ex off the lip gloss).

I mentioned my freckles and she suggested I use Mineralize SPF Foundation/ Loose. " this powder contains minerals for a smooth natural finish and medium buildable coverage. The formula is oil-free and non-acnegenic."

I then asked about fake lashes. She said she always suggests lashes for brides and recommended # 7 Lash, it is slightly spiky and adds subtle volume and enhancement to your lashes (perfect for brides).

She suggested Select Cover-Up which is a liquid concealer for under the eyes, and suggested to use brush #213 to apply it.

So here are the pictures:

                              Bare study paint pot (already own)

Naked Study Eyeshadow

Sable Eye Shadow

Vanilla Eye Shadow

Brush # 222

Brush # 242

Teddy Eye Kohl Pencil

 Pro Lash Mascara Coal Black

Cubic Blush

Beurre Cremestick

Hug Me Lipstick

Lust Lip Glass (won't use)

#7 Lashes

Select Cover-Up

Brush # 213

Now If I actually wanted to purchase all of these things... seeing that the only item I have is the Paint Pot, it would cost me $270.00.  YIKES. Now minus the lip glass and its...$256. Still rediculous. If you get rid of the brushes it takes it down to $182.50. That is still a ton of money. Would I have been better off hiring someone to just do my makeup? What would be the right things to cut out of the purchase? At least with the mascara (I have needed a new thing for a while), eyeliner, eye shadows, and lipstick are all things I could re-use since it is a natural look. I dont own any blush or lip products or foundation since they aren't things I wear regularly or...ever. Would I be better off making an appointment to go in that day, have one of the MAC makeup artists do my makeup and simply spend $50 on some MAC makeup products? What would you do? What do you think of the look? I like the shadows and everything, not sure about the blush. I am just so torn on what I should do for this! I definately want to make sure I look good for the wedding and all the pictures though. However I definately dont have $200 or more to spend on Makeup.

Wedding Makeup

First off. One month left until the big day!!!!!!!

Now like alot of things I am attempting to do myself, makeup is one of them. Well me and one of my bridesmaids Bekah has offered to help.

I am starting to wonder if I should have just hired someone for this, but both Bekah and I are pretty good with makeup so hopefully we can work it out. One of the things that pretty much everything I read says if you are doing your wedding makeup yourself make sure you PRACTICE it several times. So far we have one practice run down.

Now we've already done one thing wrong based on the tutorials I've been watching. We used shimmery eye shadow pretty much everywhere. Apparently it is better to keep the shimmer to a minimum and keep it on your lower lid so that in pictures you don't get a glare on your upper brow. So already I know I need to get some matte shadow. Also we did not try out the fake lashes on this trial run amd I need to invest in some waterproof mascara. I also definately need to figure out a different lip color. I know I want to stick with a lipstick rather than a lipgloss, because I really hate how sticky lipgloss is. I'm sure Zach doesn't want to kiss me with lipgloss either! I know he doesn't want glossy lips!

In my search I found this website which has 101 makeup looks including links to tutorial videos. It is by far the most helpful thing I have come across. I particularly liked number 5. I thought she explianed things really well, plus it was with MAC cosmetics which I love. I am considering going to the MAC website and going on the forum to ask a specialist for ideas. Bekah also suggested I go to her website for Mary Kay and use this virtual makeover to test looks out. So maybe I will do that!

Flower Girl Accessories and then some

Sunday my Aunt Jooji and her daughter Gooby came over to help my mom and I with some wedding stuff.
We made the little bird seed pouches. They were actually a little more difficult and messier than the M & M's since the birdseed was so small. I will probably regret this decision when I get a mouthful of birdseed. Oh well, its tradition right!? Here is what the finished product looked like:

After we finished that task we decided to make the twin's head wreath's and decorate their flower girl baskets. I did not measure their heads I just made the wreaths a certain size and we can pin them on their head. I am sure they will not wear them any longer than the ceremony and pictures...

I started off by wrapping the barkwire into a circle about three times around.

It was wire so when I had it wrapped around the way  wanted it I just wrapped the ends around the wire to secure it. It looks kind of like twisted vines, which I like. Now we decided to add some of these little guys, which we picked up at A.C. Moore a while back. Our intentions were to use some in the bridesmaids hair and where ever else we decided. We didn't even make a dent in them...but we snagged each bunch for $.50, so not too big of a deal if we don't use all of them. I am sure we can find homes for them though.

The ends of these were wire so I just used that to wrap around the bark wire. 

At this point it looks like a Roman laurel wreath... so now it is time to add some flowers! We got out our handy glue gun which uses these massive glue sticks!

Then we glued some flowers on in the same style as what we did with the baskets...I'm going to jump to the baskets then I will reveal the finished picture...

For the baskets we decided just to decorate them with flowers based on an idea we saw in a magazine. So we just glued flowers around the lip of the basket.

Gooby had the fun job of plucking all the flowers for us. Having multiple people as an assembly line certainly helps to move things along alot faster.

we ended up adding a few leaves in on the underside beneath the flowers too. Here is our finished product!

It was pretty easy with the exception of a few glue gun burns on our fingers and it didn't take long either. Around three hours for four of us to make 160 pouches of birdseed, the head wreaths and the baskets. We may still add some ribbon to the baskets and the wreaths...but thats super easy.

On another note tomorrow will mark the "One Month Until the Big Day" how crazy is that?!

Don and Liz's house is pretty much done as well. They are moving in this weekend! I havent been there in a few months and can't wait to see how nice it all looks! We are meeting Bill (my tent rental guy) and Joanie (my caterer) at 9am next Wednesday at the house to figure out how exactly we will be laying out the tents and tables and everything. Pretty exciting. Me and my bridesmaids also have our nail appointments set. So the day before the wedding we will be enjoying tasty treats and mimosa's for about four hours while we all get manicures and pedicures. Party at the nail salon!