I never loved or hated the idea of a garter. I knew that I didn’t want to do a garter toss, but I was never against the idea of wearing one for tradition’s sake. As the wedding approached I had no garter, no time to order something off of Etsy, and no take to make something extravagant. I also knew that the type of garter that I could buy at the craft store wasn’t for me. So, I went to Nordstrom and bought a simple lace headband.
I could’ve easily gone to the craft store and bought a bit of lace, but believe me, days before the wedding any amount of time that I could save seemed like a huge deal–and I already had to go to Nordstrom.
Because my thigh is not the size of my head, I took a needle and thread and tightly hand stitched the headband so that it would have a tighter fit.
My sewing was messy, but I was in a hurry and no one was going to examine the seam. On the day of the wedding it looked great. I added a couple of strips of fashion tape to ensure that it would stay put throughout the night and that was it.
Since we’re all so close, I’ll show you what it looked like.
I loved the simple and classic look. This would be great for a bride with a fitted dress who didn’t want the bulk of something more elaborate.
Did you wear a garter? What did it look like? Did you DIY or buy something you loved?
Peter and I learned a lot from planning our wedding. He likes to say that after the experience, his opinion of the human race will never recover. It sounds a little harsh, but in all seriousness the process was quite an eye-opener. Like many couples before us, Peter and I were shocked by the commercialization of the wedding industry. People try to take a beautiful occasion and use it to pressure you into spending more and more money. The worst vendor for this was our wedding planner. You can read about us hiring her here and you can read about her initially judging us for using friendors here, but I never would have imagined how poorly she would preform at our wedding reception.
I’m taking the review that I posted straight from Yelp and adding it here.
My husband and I hired Barbara Hearne of Barbara’s Brides as our wedding planner after interviewing several other coordinators. She reassured us that even as our “month of coordinator” she would be able to save us more money than we would spend hiring her. She told us stories of other budget brides with whom she worked and ways that she helped them achieve their dream wedding. She never seemed overly friendly, but at the time she seemed experienced and dedicated to doing a good job.
Post-wedding I can tell you that hiring her was the biggest mistake that we made. She never saved us a single penny, degraded us for our budget (which she supported upfront), refused to be flexible, was unable to tackle situations creatively, and delivered the promises in her contract poorly, if at all. Trying to be fair, we contacted her with our complaints after we returned from our honeymoon. Rather than answering in a professional manner, Barbara was belligerent, refused to take responsibility for anything, and then took it upon herself to list everything from our wedding that she didn’t like, most of which had nothing to do with her executing her job as a planner.
I can honestly tell you that her lack of professionalism and inability to plan an event ruined our reception. I could go on and on about the ways in which she failed to deliver, but my advice for anyone planning an event is to stay far away from Barbara’s Brides. We have since reported her to the Better Business Bureau. I only hope that future couples can enter into a contract and receive the quality service that they deserve.
And because that was a bit of a downer for the day, here’s a picture of the two of us the night before the wedding. (We decided to open a couple of presents like we do on Christmas Eve before Peter left for the night.)
I finally picked a wedding ring. I agonized over it here and I really thought that I would get this one, but in the end I chose something different.
That photo is a tad bit hard to analyze, so let’s zoom in on my hand today. You’ll notice that I’ve nixed the bridal pink polish and went for something a little more Halloween-y.
I picked an eternity band that accentuated the circular shape of each diamond. On my engagement ring, all of the diamonds line up in such a way that it looks like each side is flat. This ring forms a sort of wave. Together they compliment one another but they look different.
I liked the differentiation because it reminded me of the difference between each the engagement and the marriage. The two promises compliment each other, but still mean something different. Today I received the last of my rings.
Before we left for the honeymoon I wanted to get a travel ring. I picked the silver ring above, but unfortunately the first one I received didn’t fit. I needed something that was appropriate to wear for traveling, thrifting, volunteering, or jury duty. This plain tiny band is just a single silver stacking ring from the Etsy seller Proteales. I think it’s perfect.
And just for fun, here’s one more ring picture.
I’ll tell you all about Peter’s ring when he eventually gets it. The ring he wore in all of the photos was jus a stand in. The vendor apparently got really backed up with orders and two weeks after the fact we still haven’t received it. It’s a bit of a sore spot around here.
We got our first photo back from our fantastic photographer Mary Sledd!! Here it is.
We’re looking forward to receiving more this week!
And finally starting to feel like we can breathe again. Our wedding weekend was a whirlwind, followed by a very relaxing honeymoon, and then a rush of awaiting responsibilities when we returned home. I’m sitting in our living room surrounded by accoutrements from our centerpieces and left over wrapping paper from gifts. We have vendor issues to resolve and I haven’t exactly started on our thank you notes (Sorry friends and family. I promise that I really am thankful.). We’ve had a shocking plunge into the real adult world, but things are calming down–especially since I was dismissed from jury duty today. Yes, right before the wedding I got a letter asking me to come in for jury duty the day after we returned from the honeymoon. Thankfully that was delayed and then today they let me return to my normal life with my new hubby. Now where’s that list of thank you notes…
{Here’s a photo of my family and Peter at our rehearsal dinner.}
