Went to the Chapel, and it was Great

Eight weeks ago today BF and I were joined in holy matrimony. It was the happiest and funnest day of my life. Here is how it went down. This might require more than one post so bear with me.

Saturday, November 28th was the perfect day. Perfect weather, perfect friends, perfect hair/makeup/nails, and the perfect groom. (He is sweetly sitting by my side as I write this post in Mid-City Cafe)
The day started with me waking up with one of my best friends, Brittany, in a super swank suite at the Stoneleigh Hotel. We dragged ourselves out of bed and headed down the road to get our nails did with the rest of the bridal party. Heaven. That is the only word to describe being surrounded by all of your best friends while getting your feet and hands worked on. Not to mention the fact that my amazing sis-in-law brought all of the components for mimosas. Nothing like starting your day off with a little bubbly.

When our bubble toes were finished we all headed back to the hotel to move into the Penthouse Suite. It was time to start setting up for the reception and meet the hair and makeup artist, Nikki. (She owns The MakeUp Junkie and is amazing. Pretty sure she is some sort of a magical being because she sure made me look and feel like $$$Million)

Setting up the reception was super fun and a great way to pass the time while waiting for my turn in the chair. You might recall from previous posts that the last few months prior to the wedding were spent collecting and painting picture frames and pie plates. I put together an extensive collection of photos of BF and myself and had them all printed in B/W. They all went into the frames and were strewn about the reception site. There were also hundreds of votives.

Here are a couple of our closest friends admiring one of our spray painted works of art.

The reception space was a breeze to decorate and actually needed very little in the way of adornment. It was the original home of the owner of the hotel in the early 1900s and looked and felt like a house. A house decorated by Dorthy Draper, no less. So we kept the flowers pretty light and just accentuated the beauty of the space. Easy enough, right?

The dining room was my favorite room by far. Lovingly named, "The Pie Room," it was the hit of the evening. My dessert of choice is always pie over cake, so that is how we rolled at this wedding. I can't wait for you to see it in the next post. You'll start licking your monitor. Don't worry, I won't tell a soul.

This is where my sweet brother comes into play...again! I'm telling you, he was a stellar component to the success of our wedding. At the last minute (not knowing all of the other work that he was doing for the rehearsal dinner) I asked him to make some signs for the reception. The space is sprawling and I wanted to ensure that our guests knew that they were encouraged to explore. Here is what he came up with. They were a spin off of the napkins that I had made for the reception boasting the phrase, "Eat, Drink & Be Married."

Pretty amazing, huh? He is a genius and I only hope some of those genes made it into me too.

After the decorating it was time to get my hair and face done. I thought that it would be easiest for Nikki if my hair was a bit dirty for styling purposes, but I was wrong. My maid of honor, Katie, stepped up to the challenge of cleaning me up in the tub. That is a good maid, there.

After washing my hair, Nikki started on my makeup and hair. I will let the picutres speak for themselves.

Before:

After: "I feel pretty. Oh so pretty..."

In preparation for the day I had made a special "Bridal Suite" playlist on my i-Pod. The ladies spent the entire day leading up to show time at the church dancing and singing to the likes of Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Duffy, Katy Perry and Rihanna. It was a blast.

Gaga, oh la la...

This post is getting pretty lengthy so we will save the ceremony for tomorrow. It was fun and I didn't make it through the ceremony without crying.