Wedding Day Prep

The months leading up to the wedding I knew I wanted to try to work in a yoga class the morning of my wedding.  When it came down to the night before, most of my friends/bridesmaids who were in town decided to pass on the 6:30 wake up call.  I was honestly ready to scrap the idea, realizing that it was just one more thing to do on a giant to do list for the morning.  Thankfully Abby told me I should just decide in the morning and if it was something I really wanted to do, we would work it into the schedule.  How is it that best friends always know exactly what to say?

I woke up around 6:15 that morning unable to believe that it was finally October 18th, the countdown was finally over!  Abby and I threw on some yoga clothes and headed out the door and I'm so glad we did.  The yoga class was very low key and it was pretty awesome to watch the sunrise out of the second floor window knowing what the rest of day would hold.  I'm not always great about staying present, even in my yoga classes but I somehow managed to put all the plans for the day out of my mind and really focus on how awesome it was to finally be enjoying my wedding day.  Yoga and a quick stop at Starbucks; I highly recommend all wedding days start out this way.

It wasn't long after we got back to the hotel that all the wedding day hustle and bustle began.  My sister and 3rd bridesmaid, Kristi, arrived around 9:00.  She was followed by my fantastic hair stylist who made the trip out from Baltimore to do everyone's hair for the big day.  The girl doing our make up arrived at 10:00, followed by the photographer at 11:00 and most of the day was spent getting ready. drinking champagne and hanging out with some of my favorite girls in the world.  It really was such an awesome morning in that hotel room.

(All pictures below except the last one are courtesy of Erin Dickson Photography)

We headed to ThorpeWood around 2:00 which is when things really started to feel real.  The girls all got dressed in a nice dressing room in the basement while the guys I'm told, hung out upstairs in the loft until it was time for pictures.  Mike and I both decided that we didn't want to see each other before the wedding.  It was a decision I struggled with because I wanted to have as much time as possible to enjoy with our guest.  But Mike was pretty adamant that we do things the traditional route, and in the end I'm really glad we did.

We spent about an hour taking pictures with our families and bridal parties.  I'm told the picture taking with the men was not quite as smooth since they had to deal with an 8 year old temper tantrum.  Garrett had a hair cut before the wedding and I told him he could keep it long and messy (his terms for his hair "style") for the wedding.  He took that to mean that he didn't need to brush it and when the photographer tried, he apparently lost it.  He insisted that I said it could be messy and was devastated that no one believed him.  They got it brushed somehow but it will definitely be one of those stories that comes back to haunt Garrett when he's older.....

He looks super happy right?