A Maine Wedding: Getting Ready at the Spa

I woke up very early Saturday morning after getting hardly any sleep.  My stomach was doing flips and I remember taking a couple Pepto tablets to see if it would help me calm down before I jumped in the shower.  I didn’t need to do much to get ready, since I was going to get my hair and makeup done at a nearby day spa.  My girls and I headed down to get breakfast in the main house of the inn before, and I made myself eat some toast and fruit but definitely didn’t overdo it.  We took a couple group pictures before leaving and this became one of my favorites from the entire weekend: 

I found those zip-down hoodies on OldNavy.com early last Spring - pretty sure they were only $15 a piece.  I know a lot of brides tend to do monogrammed or initialed hoodies or robes for their girls to wear the day of, but I didn’t want these to be personalized at all.  I really wanted something that my girls could wear again in the future, so they were left plain.  I still wear my white one since I never personalized it.

We finished breakfast and headed to my car in the parking lot.  Since hubby had my car overnight, one of the groomsmen had to follow him to the inn early that AM so they could leave my car before they went to eat brunch at a small diner in town.  Hubby left me some flowers and a wedding day card in the front seat, which made me a little teary but I held it together.  Is it bad that I never had time to give him my card until we drove home the day after the wedding?  Oh well – he’s not really into cards anyways, I guess it’s just a girl thing :)

Anyways, we headed to the salon in Portsmouth, NH, which was only about 20 minutes from York.  I highly recommend the Portsmouth Spa – all the staff there are very welcoming, friendly and attentive, and they are pretty reasonable with prices.  I got my hair and make-up trial done about a month prior to the wedding, and then me and two of my girls had our nails done earlier in the day before the rehearsal.  There were two stylists for our group of five and then also a make-up artist who did my make-up and for two of the girls.  We got there a little before 11 and were all done by 2. 

I knew pretty early on in the planning that I was going to grow my hair out to do a half up/half down hairstyle.  I have curly hair and wanted to to show it off the day of, but I also didn’t want anything in my face as I was planning on dancing all night at the reception.  I was SO happy with how my hair came out.  The curls lasted all day and held up very well. 

Lots and lots of curls!  I kinda miss my long hair but it was so high-maintenance being that length.  Took lots of gel to control all that!

I made a hair flower from a rose I found at Michael’s.  I took apart the flower and left out the stem that connected it, and then glued the petals back together so they laid flat.  I added a clip to the back and then some pearls and crystals to the front for the center.  Probably cost me about $5 – definitely something I saved money on by DIYing  it myself.

I was also pleased with the outcome for my make-up.  She really highlighted my best features and it looked very much like me, but just a little more done than normal.  The make-up held up pretty well, though my face did get a little shiny about halfway during the reception.  I had bought oil-blotting sheets but totally forgot to use them later in the night.

I didn’t give my girls too much restriction with how they wanted to do their hair.  They all ended up with some sort of curly updo, but each one was different enough so they didn’t look like clones.  My sister insisted a getting a little poof just like Snooki, but it wasn’t too over the top. 

 

Right before we left, the finishing touch got put into place…my veil!  The veil I wore was actually my “Something Borrowed” as it was Bridesmaid J’s veil that she wore for her wedding.  It was the perfect length and had a beaded edging which is exactly what I was looking for.  The minute the stylist put the veil in, I had to fight back tears so hard.  It was finally becoming real!

And here we are, all done up:

I had calmed down a little by this point, but now I was getting concerned with if we would have time to set up all the reception stuff once we got back to the inn.  Next up…a slight meltdown before I get dressed!