A Woodside Wedding: We Get Tossed, Part 2

After I did the bouquet toss, it was time for the garter toss! If you remember, I'd hand sewn my own DIY garter:

(personal photo)

Because it was such a hot day, I didn't put on my garter until right before the tosses, and I never ended up putting on my old and blue other garter. I knew Mr. Cola was going to have enough trouble locating one garter under my eight layers of dress, without adding a second one in the mix!

And struggle he did, it took him what felt like a good two minutes of reaching up my dress. I love the laughter on everyone's faces in the background of our pictures--his struggle with this was pretty hilarious!

Still looking....

Come on, dude, it's not that hard to find.....

Success, he's finally got it!

Then it was time for some tossing! The guys gathered (we had a whole lot more single guys than single ladies at our wedding).

(Two above pictures are guest photos)

And it was our MC groomsman who caught it. Look at him, showing off!

It was pretty funny because this was our groomsman's 3rd garter he's ever caught, just like it was the 3rd bouquet that my cousin had ever caught. And they're both currently living in Texas...hmmm! ;)

I love this photo of Mr. Cola right after the garter toss. It really captures how much fun doing these silly traditional tosses were!

And oh yeah, I had to yell at my friend, who was supposed to catch the garter. I'd been telling him for a year that he was the target, considering he and his girlfriend have been dating for 8 years, and already own a house together. But he didn't even try to catch it!

(A lovely guest photo, capturing me yelling "Dude, you were supposed to at least try to catch it!")

If you are doing the bouquet and/or garter toss, will you have "targets" in mind of who you're going to throw to?

Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:

- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress
- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors
- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves
- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties
- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements
- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees
- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
- The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
- Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
- We got to see each other for the first time on our wedding day at our first look
- We took some time for bride and groom pictures in the park
- I gave you a behind the scenes look at our family, friends and DOC setting up our venue
- Arriving at our venue and getting ready for the ceremony to start
- Everyone walked down the aisle
- Excerpts from our ceremony, and reading the vows we wrote for each other
- I interrupted our officiant, we exchanged rings, and with a kiss we were officially married!
- Wedding party and family portraits, and my thoughts on missing pictures
- Our guests enjoyed cocktail hour while we took a few more photos
- Everyone ate a delicious dinner, and our siblings gave beautiful toasts
- We didn't practice, but we had a very special and wonderful first dance as husband and wife
- I showed you some disposable camera pictures, which were totally worth it to include on our tables!
- I found a target and tossed my bouquet at her

(Unless otherwise noted, all photos in this post were taken by the very talented photographers of Shoot Me Now Photography)

The Secret Life of Bees: Cola Edition

I thought I’d share some funny stories from my childhood. These aren’t that big of secrets if you knew me when I was in elementary school, but they’re not things I go around telling people these days because they're a little embarrassing! I was scared for life from some very distinct times in my life, but I guess we all are to some extent, right?

I Experienced Several Hair Traumas

1) When I was 4 years old I thought it would be a good idea to cut my own hair. I’m not sure my exact train of thought, but I do remember sitting at my little desk in my room, looking at my little round tipped red scissors and then it just happened. That’s really all I remember, but apparently I either knew I shouldn’t have done it, or looked in the mirror and knew I did a bad job, because I put on my jacket with my hood on right after, and my dad and I went to go pick up my mom from her work. I had to use the bathroom, so my mom took me, and when she took off my coat and hood, she discovered my handiwork. Some of my hair was still below my shoulders and normal length and some of it…well, some of it was about a half inch long. Needless to say, my parents were not happy with my DIY look!

(Luckily my hair had grown out by kindergarten, as you can see in the above picture from my birthday party when I was 6, I'm the one the red arrow is pointing to. And yes, I totally took a picture of a picture from a scrapbook page that an old friend of mine framed for me!)

2) Part way through 3rd grade, my mom thought it would be just adorable to give me a short pixie haircut. I’m not sure what possessed her to do this to me--I have never been able to pull off a short look and never will. These chubby cheeks have been with me my whole life! But I got the cut, and immediately hated it. However, there’s not much you can do when you’re a kid, and they won’t let you wear hats to school.

The day after my cut, I had to go into school late for some reason, I think it was because of a dentist appointment. When I walked into my classroom, everyone was in the middle of reading time, with their books out. I came in and sat down quietly in my seat near the front, and after a minute I heard a comment from behind that just mortified me. Some boy in my class raised his hand and asked, “Teacher, is there a new boy in our class?” Yes, he was referring to me, with my horribly short haircut! I really don’t think I’ve ever lived that one down, which is why I’ve never again had hair shorter than my shoulders, and part of why I was so sensitive about my bad post wedding chop.

I Romanticized Breaking A Bone, Until I Realized I Hate Pain

I was kind of a crazy kid in that I spent a year in elementary school trying to break my leg. I was obsessed with reading (I read more books than anyone else in my library’s summer reading club 2 years in a row) and my favorite was the Baby Sitters Club. Remember the one where Claudia breaks her leg because one of the kids she is sitting plays a prank on her? Yeah, well because of that, I thought it would be *so cool* to have a broken leg. Thoughts of wheelchairs and crutches, and awesome casts getting signed by my friends danced in my head. I had romanticized being injured for some odd reason.

And as a result, I tried everything from dropping rocks on my shins, to spending recess jumping off the highest part of the jungle gym over and over. I think my parents thought I was insane, but they never really tried to stop me (at least not that I remember). Maybe they thought if I ever did manage to break my leg, I’d learn my lesson because of all the pain I’d be in (and I’m a huge wimp about pain).

It took me a year or so to put two and two together and realize that my breaking a bone would actually hurt. And as I already mentioned, I cannot handle pain. Or even the thought of it. I totally fainted and puked the first time I got my ears pierced. I still can’t even watch the show House when they show the bloody parts or, like, needles going toward someone’s eye. If I don’t look away in time, a cold sweat washes over me and I have to run to the bathroom (although I’m ok, and have never actually puked from watching gross TV, I just think I might!). And don’t even get me started on if I cut my finger chopping veggies for dinner….on more than one occasion Mr. Cola has had to finish cooking for me, while I sit in the corner and try not to think about my bloody finger!

So now I do whatever I can to avoid pain. I’ve become a very careful person, and to this day I’ve still never had a broken bone. The closest I ever came to my dream of a broken leg was for Halloween, in 5th grade, I dressed up as a car crash victim. My mom helped my cover an old snow boot with white medical tape, and I decorated it like a cast with markers. I thought I was so cool…

(This is from my 5th grade Halloween party, I’m the one in the middle with the car crash blood stains on my shirt. Another photo of a photo from my framed scrapbook page, it’s the best I could find without pestering my parents to dig through their storage unit.)

My American Idol Dreams Were Trashed Before The Show Even Began

I cannot sing to save my life. No really. I know lots and lots of people say that, but have they ever been told by their music teacher in 4th grade that they have no talent? For reals.

I had sort of an odd music teacher. Or a great one, it’s hard to tell. She was obsessed with Trinidad, and always made us sing songs from there, which made for some odd concerts for the parents, but I guess made us more cultured? Anyway. There were always drums involved, which I thought were really cool. And if you were playing them, you didn’t have to sing as much, or she didn’t notice you I guess. But at one point, in 4th grade, we had to all sing something without any kind of drums or instruments. Bad idea on her part, because without me being distracted by playing instruments, I was free to belt it out. And, yeah. I was literally told to “just mouth the words” in front of my entire elementary school music class. This has totally scared me for life, especially after I broke out my tape deck and recorded myself, to see if I was really that bad. I was. And still am.

So to this day I do not sing where anyone can hear me, ever! At birthday parties I only ever mouth the words to Happy Birthday. I detest karaoke, and will not go, for fear someone will try to force me on stage. There are only two places I’ll actually sing out loud now: someplace where the music is too loud for anyone to hear me, like at a concert, where everyone else is singing, or in my car. I’ve got some serious mid-90s rap skills (well, in my head I do), and my car is the only safe place for me to bust a rhyme. Dogg Pound or Eazy-E anyone?

(Of course this experience didn’t stop me from staying in the chorus class, because you got out of something else if you were in it! This is a lovely photo from my 5th grade yearbook.)

Now it’s your time to share, tell me one of your childhood secrets that has impacted you as an adult!

A Woodside Wedding: We Get Tossed, Part 1

About 45 minutes after dinner ended and we had our first dance, it was time for some wedding activities! First up was the bouquet toss.

I know lots of couples decide not to do the bouquet and garter tosses these days, but for us they were just fun traditions, that have been done at almost every wedding we've been to. So we figured, why not?

Our MC groomsman made the announcement, and ladies started gathering to one side of the bar. I surveyed my targets.

I finally spotted who I was going to aim for, and made sure she knew my eyes were on her!

Then I did a fake out throw! I love the below guest photo because you can see just how badly our officiant's girlfriend wanted to catch it, and my sister looks like she's saying, "hey, what the hell is with the fake throw!"

(guest photo)

I figured more than one fake toss would just be cruel, so I went ahead with the real toss.

I quickly spun around to find out who had caught it.

(guest photo)

Turns out it was my cousin (with her arms in the air in the above photo). This was apparently the third bouquet she's caught, so hopefully good luck comes in 3s in her case!

(guest photo)

Are you planning on doing the traditional bouquet and/or garter tosses at your wedding?

Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:

- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress
- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors
- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves
- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties
- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements
- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees
- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
- The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
- Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
- We got to see each other for the first time on our wedding day at our first look
- We took some time for bride and groom pictures in the park
- I gave you a behind the scenes look at our family, friends and DOC setting up our venue
- Arriving at our venue and getting ready for the ceremony to start
- Everyone walked down the aisle
- Excerpts from our ceremony, and reading the vows we wrote for each other
- I interrupted our officiant, we exchanged rings, and with a kiss we were officially married!
- Wedding party and family portraits, and my thoughts on missing pictures
- Our guests enjoyed cocktail hour while we took a few more photos
- Everyone ate a delicious dinner, and our siblings gave beautiful toasts
- We didn't practice, but we had a very special and wonderful first dance as husband and wife
- I showed you some disposable camera pictures, which were totally worth it to include on our tables!

(Unless otherwise noted, all photos in this post were taken by the very talented photographers of Shoot Me Now Photography)

A Bee’s Life: Cola Edition

How I found Weddingbee:

Well, I got engaged on March 5th, 2009, on vacation in Mexico. We got home from vacation on March 9th….and it wasn’t more than a week or two later that I discovered Weddingbee!

(Personal photo from our Mexico trip, little did I know, I’d be engaged 2 days after this photo was taken!)

I already knew about the other big wedding website out there, and had tentatively looked at the prices of a couple local venues (hey, I knew the ring had already been purchased, just wasn’t 100% sure when I would receive it!), but it was through a Google search while looking for wedding inspiration that I found Weddingbee. And I never looked back—it just felt like home!

I stalked the blog and boards for a good couple months before I worked up the courage to start commenting, and once I finally started contributing, I found it to be such a fun experience! Reading the wonderful advice on this site, being able to ask questions in a friendly environment; it was really a great discovery for this newly engaged bride. I was so inspired that in June of 2009, I decided that I was going to start blogging myself, with hopes of someday becoming a Bee!

Applying to Weddingbee:

I’ll admit it, I tried to be very strategic about my application to Weddingbee.

First of all, just because I decided I would start blogging in June, a full year before my wedding, didn’t mean that I started publishing blog posts right away. I had to see if I could even cut it first! I had written for my college newspaper, as well as contributed tons of vacation trip reports to various travel sites, but I’d never really written about myself before, and put it all out there with a distinct audience in mind. So I started slowly, by first looking at all the projects I had planned for our wedding, and making a list of about 90 ideas for blog posts. Not bad, I thought to myself, maybe I could do this!

Slowly, over last summer I started writing more and more draft blog posts, but still didn’t pull the trigger on publishing them. Until last August, when I finally started to feel more confident in my writing, and I was hitting an average of 3-4 posts a week. I then went back through my drafts, cleaned some up, trashed some others, and felt ready to unleash my wedding ideas on whoever managed to stumble upon them on the internet.

I began to build a small following on my blog, and continued to write with enthusiasm over a few more months, always keeping in the back of my mind the thought that I was ultimately blogging to apply for Weddingbee. Come last October, when I reached the required 8-months-from-your-wedding-day date, I finally got up the courage to apply.

I spent a good two weeks tweaking my application email and really trying to express who I was and why I wanted to write for this amazing site. I knew that the applications were usually reviewed on weekends, so I swallowed my fear of rejection and submitted my application on a Wednesday in late October. And then early the following week I strategically posted a really cool, set-me-apart, “wow, she’s so creative, we’ve got to accept her” DIY project. Hoping, of course, that my application would be reviewed that weekend, and the committee that reviews the blogs would see my super-cool DIY skills front and center when they visited my blog. I was a sneaky one! Whether or not this actually had any bearing on my acceptance, I really have no idea. But it was worth a shot, right?

Either way, exactly two weeks after I’d held my breath as I hit “send” on my application, I got THE EMAIL! The one that every Bee hopeful both can’t wait to receive, and dreads opening. But it was great news, I was officially a Bee! My 5 months of planning out my blog ideas, finding my voice, and editing and re-editing until I felt my posts were strong enough had paid off.

On Being a Bee:

Honestly? I feel like it’s been such an honor blogging for the hive! I know it sounds a little cheesy, but it’s so true.

The feeling that my contribution has made a difference in other bride’s lives is so rewarding. Be it advice I gave, an inspiring project I wrote about, or just sharing something that other brides have felt too—it’s a wonderful feeling. And I feel like what I’ve contributed has been repaid 20 fold, in the lovely comments, suggestions, ideas and “hey, I used your idea” PMs I’ve received over the past year. I love hearing from you guys! And that’s what makes this such a great community, the support we all have for each other.

But I won’t lie, it’s also quite a lot of work blogging for Weddingbee (but definitely fun work!). On average I’d say I probably spend at least 10 hours a week taking pictures, sorting and editing them, writing blog posts, uploading photos, editing, saving, editing some more, and then editing my posts again. And working on recaps have taken even longer! I always save my posts as drafts for a week or two, because I always seem to find something to improve upon, or something that needs to be worded differently. It’s quite a commitment, both in the time spent blogging, and also in putting yourself out there for the world to see/read about 3-4 times a week! But again, the reward is SO worth it!

So thank you for reading my blog posts the past year. I’ve still got some more in me, but I know sooner than later my time as an active Bee will be over (sniff, sniff!). And Mr. Cola also thanks you. Without the hive, he would have had to endure a whole lot more of my talking his ear off about our wedding!

(Photo by Shoot Me Now Photography)

The rest of the Bee's Life series can be found here.

How To: DIY Wedding Curls That Will Hold Until Your Last Dance

First, I want to thank everyone for the nice comments on my blog post last week about my bad Post Wedding Chop. Hearing from everyone that you still liked my new, shorter haircut really is helping me get over my disappointment, so a big THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to comment.

Secondly, quite a few of you asked me to go into more detail about how I did my new curly hairstyle, what products I used, etc, since you were considering a down and curly look for your wedding day hairstyle. Well, this weekend I took some pictures while getting ready to go to a friend’s wedding, so I can show you all what works for me to get lasting curls. I did my own hair for my Trash The Dress photos, as well as my boudoir session basically the same way that I’ll show you here.

(I'm pretty sure these example boudoir hair pics below are aren't too bad for work, but please don't scroll down if you're concerned.)

{Photos by Jessica Winn Photography, aka Ms. Fondue)

{Photos by Adeline and Grace Intimates}

I should note though that everything in this post is only what works for my hair, and may not work for everyone. If you are planning on doing a curly look for your wedding day, or other wedding events, I suggest you do at least 4-5 trial runs. I’ve been curling iron and hair product obsessed pretty much since I started high school, so I’ve had years and years of practice and experimenting to figure out which products work best for me, and I suggest you spend some time figuring out what works best in your own type of hair.

First, let’s start with product. I’ve tried many of the more expensive salon brands, and nearly all the drug store brands of products, and for my hair, I’ve found it’s really not worth the price for most of the salon brands. My favorite shampoo and conditioner is Garnier Fructis Fortifying for color-treated hair. However, about every three months I switch over to Dove’s shampoo and conditioner for a couple weeks, to make sure I’m not getting any build up from only using one kind of shampoo and conditioner.

{Source}

About once a month I also like to use a MOROCCANOIL Restorative Hair Mask for about 10 minutes in the shower. My hair is on the dry side, so this really helps hydrate it, but it also makes it a little more sleek, so I only do it before I know I’m going to wear my hair straighter for a few days.

{Source}

Now, for the products I use to achieve the curly look: Garnier Fructis Curl Construct Mousse and Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine Hairspray. Again, these are just what works best for me, because I think Garnier products make my hair look a lot less “crunchy” and hard after using them, but other brands may work better for you.

My other must-have is my curling iron. I use a 1.5 inch professional iron, by Gold ‘n Hot. Helen of Troy is also a good pro brand. These curling irons are usually not sold in drug stores, but you can get them at beauty supply shops, like Sally Beauty Supply, or online and they’re around $30. You have complete control on the temperature, most up to 500 degrees, which is the temperature setting I use. But definitely ease into these high temp curling irons, you don’t want to singe your hair! Experiment, gradually turning the temp up until you find the right setting for your hair type. And make sure you get one that has the black tip a the end, getting a curling iron that has the hot part go all the way to the end is just asking for a burn!

{Source}

Alright, now on to the styling. I start with wet hair, and brush in a nice handful of mousse, concentrating on the ends and bottom layer of my hair (since the bottom layer is next to the warmth of your back, and has the weight of the rest of your hair on it, it usually doesn’t hold curl as long as the top layers). Then I blow dry, being sure that it is completely 100% dry. Any wetness left will just make your hair not curl as well, so give it an extra minute or two of blow drying after you think your hair is dry, just to be sure.

(please excuse my lack of makeup in these photos!)

Once my hair is completely dry, I clip up the top layers, so just the bottom is exposed. No matter how much or how little I’m curling my hair, I always do it like this, in layers. You want to be sure you’re getting all the layers evenly curled, and it’s much easier to grab them if the higher layers are out of the way.

I then grab about a 1 to 1.5 inch section of hair, and lightly spray it with hairspray. Again, this is something you’ll want to experiment with, if you have more delicate hair, and your curling iron is turned up too high, this could cause burning.

After spraying the section of hair, quickly wrap it around the curling iron. Don’t grab the bottom of your hair with the iron and curl up, as this will just concentrate the curl at the bottom, and it will go flat more quickly. Instead grab the strand of hair with the iron about half way up, twisting the iron in your hands, and work your way down until the end is wrapped around the iron, and hold for a minute or two (obviously, the longer you hold, the tighter your curls will be).

TIP: Starting the iron half way up your hair enhances the curls higher up, which tend to hang themselves out sooner than the curls at the bottom of your strands of hair, so doing it this way ensures your curls hold longer. If you’re not familiar with this technique, you may want to practice with a cool iron a few times, until you get the turning and grabbing with the curling iron down.

I tried to demonstrate this as best I could without burning my hair (all this photographing while curling was hard!):

Continue to grab sections of hair and curl all around your head until the bottom layer is completely curled. Spray the heck out of it with hairspray, both the top and bottom of it, and let it dry for a few minutes.

Then, unclip the rest of your hair and bring down another layer to repeat this process on.

TIP: I like to curl every other layer the same way. So I’ll curl the bottom layer with all curls going to the back, and the layer on top of that with all curls going to the front, the next layer with the curls going to the back, etc. This helps you avoid all your curls curling into each other, since you don’t want to end up with just one giant curl! Also, gently shaking your curls out with your hands is helpful every couple of hours, to keep the curls separated.

Once I have my top layer of hair down and ready to be curled, I pause to get rid of my flyaways. This works best to do it before you curl your top layer, because smoothing flyaways into the curls doesn’t make for a smooth look. So I apply a tiny amount of Pureology Shine and Control DryShine Styler to the top of my top layer of hair, which instantly gets rid of the flyaways. I also use this product when doing my straighter hairstyle, a little bit goes a long way to separate my layers and give my style texture when it’s just barely curled under at the tips. See, you only need a little:

For this hairstyle that I’m demoing, I did 4 layers of curls, all with the same process: grab a section of hair, spray it, hold each curl for a minute or two with the iron, and once the layer of curls is completed, spray it a lot and wait for the hairspray to dry before pulling down the next layer. If I hadn't been stopping to take photos constantly, this would have taken me about 45 minutes to do all the curling.

Once all your layers are curled and hairsprayed within an inch of their life, let your hair sit for about 15-20 minutes. I like to do my makeup and get dressed during this time. I’ve found that as my curls cool down, they will initially hang themselves out naturally, and start to look less structured, and more like the loose curls I’m going for.

After I’ve let my hair cool, I always come back and give my hair a little shake with my hands, to make sure none of the curls have curled together. I then give the slightly looser curls it one final spray, and I’m good to go.

Now, the above pictures of my completed hairstyle were taken at about one in the afternoon. After driving about an hour to my friend’s wedding, walking around, eating, putting on and taking off my jacket, boogieing on the dance floor for several hours (yes, Mr. Cola was actually in a dancing mood for once!), and driving back home, here is what my hair looked like at about midnight that night.

(Still pretty dang curly for partying at a wedding that went from 3pm until about 11pm, right?)

The only thing I did to it in the eleven hours since I’d curled it was just shake out the curls gently every few hours, to keep them separated. TIP: if you’re doing lots of sitting, or riding in a car, be sure you gently move your hair in front of your shoulders before you sit back, or flip your hair over the back of the chair. Leaning back on your curls will make them go flat a lot quicker.

So that’s it, that’s my little tutorial on how I get my hair to still have curl at the end of the day! Please let me know if you have any questions, and I’ll try to answer them in the comments as best as I can. And I can't stress enough how important trial and error is! Experiment until you find what works for you and your hair.

Will you be doing your own wedding day hair, or your own hair for any other wedding events or photo shoots?