An Autumn Affair: Get Me to the Church!

On the morning of our wedding, I woke up surprisingly calm.  My cousin, bridesmaid S, and best girl, Sister Beagle stayed over at my house after the rehearsal dinner, while my soon-to-be husband stayed elsewhere.  We decided not to see each other until the ceremony, so my morning was without any major time constraints.  I finished putting the last minute touches on the bouts and bouquets while the girls slept.  Once everyone was up and about, we had a wonderful breakfast at one of my favorite local cafes and then, headed over to Aveda to get our hair done.  I treated all my bridesmaids to a hair-do to keep things simple (I didn't want the out-of-town girls to worry about finding a salon Saturday morning), while my sister and I had our make-up done.  Once everyone was done with our appointments (and a quick at Target), we went back to my house where the girls put on their dresses and I collected my bridal attire, accessories and any straggling wedding/reception items.  It was finally time to head to the church!

I'll admit that at this point, I started getting a little nervous.  It wasn't too terribly bad, but I completely regretted not seeing my husband before the ceremony.  I think it would have nixed all the unnecessary nerves, anxiety, and butterflies.

We arrived at the church about two hours before the ceremony started and camped out in our room:

Shortly after our photographers showed up, our day-of-coordinator arrived fully prepared:

After about an hour or so of chit chatting, I decided it was probably time to fix my hair.  Since I was wearing my hair down, my stylist just rolled my hair and gave me instructions on how to prep it when the time came.  Bridesmaid C and Sister Beagle unleashing the curls:

 

The trick to keeping my locks curly?  Hairspray, hairspray and more hairspray (of this variety- I love this stuff, it's light and lets your hair move while still keeping everything in place):

While we were still waiting, I had many visitors stop by to check on me.  My beautiful mother-in-law (holding one of our wedding programs and wearing the corsage I made/not blogged about...):

And several of my aunts (my mom's sister, far right):

Then suddenly, it was time for me to put on my dress!

*all images courtesy of the lovely ladies at ALCollective

Need to rewind?
- We rehearsed.