Great Hair & Makeup Advice

When I first told my friend who is a Mary Kay consultant as well as my hairstylist about my engagement, they both launched into plans for the wedding. I've read enough posts around the hive to be aware that having a good plan in place ahead of time can save you a lot of hassle in the long run and avert a possibly crisis.

So, hive, I will share with you what these two lovely ladies have told me in hopes that someone else (especially with my type of skin or hair) may benefit from their expertise.

Skin care: My skin type is combination skin. That means I have some areas that are normal, some that are dry, and some that are oily. I've been blessed in the skin department people. I've never had any terrible outbreaks or bad acne, even in puberty. But choosing the right products that make my skin neither dry nor oily has been a delicate balancing act. I use a Dove Bar on my face and skin because it has amazing moisturizers in it. I use Oil of Olay body lotion as well as Palmer's Cocoa Butter. My skin stays smooth and healthy because of it. We also do a number of Mary Kay products that are targeted towards someone in my age range. There's a long list of products I use, But I use them all every day for the most part, in addition to drinking lots of water.

Image: Oil of Olay Lotion via Bzz Agent

Image: Palmer's Cocoa Butter via Oh My Beauty

Image: Mary Kay TimeWise Night Restore Complex

Image: Mary Kay TimeWise Eye Cream

Image: Mary Kay TimeWise 3-in-1 Cleanser

Image: Mary Kay TimeWise Moisturizer

Image: Mary Kay Tinted Moisturizer in Bronze 2

That's a lot o' products for real y'all. We didn't add them all at once. I first tried the lotion back in 2007 and we just added the tinted moisturizer a little over a month ago. NEVER add multiple products at once if you can help it. How else can you identify what's working and what isn't?

Make-up plan: We are doing a classic Mary Kay Color Party for all my bridesmaids and Mr. Kettle's maid of honor MOH Sis. We will each get to play around with makeup colors and get a personally designed color palette for our day of makeup that will be based off our skin tones and the wedding colors. I don't know when in the world we'll get it scheduled, but I'm looking forward to it!

Hair care: My hairstylist has told me that keeping my locs healthy all the time is very important. There's not much we have to do for preparation for the wedding in terms of normal maintenance. But what we are focusing on is hair color. My locs are not my natural hair color. I can play with color a bit more because the hair won't get brittle or break since it's not being combed/brushed. But it is important to keep it from getting too dry. We deep condition my hair so it says a nice color and doesn't end up brassy or faded. She makes her own hair care products and if she gets a website or begins to sell it online, I'll let you know. Anyone in the Chicago area with specific questions, just ask and I'll pass on the info.

Hair plan: We're searching for the perfect hairstyle. But we're also playing with color now so we don't try a dye job two days before the wedding that I hate. Right now my hair is red, but I may want to go more golden brown in February. The plan is to try in out in January in case we need to adjust it lighter or darker.

Wedding Planning Tip #8: Have a real plan in place for your pre-wedding beauty regiment. Please don't shock your skin or hair right before your wedding.

Do you (did you) have a pre-wedding skin and hair care plan? Did it work?

You're Not Seeing Double, No Need To Adjust Your Screen

In our wedding, we have lots o' people. That may have been mentioned once or twice so far. Our wedding will look like this:

Image: 34 Person Wedding Party / Photography by Digital Photography School

That wedding had 34 people. Ours is just shy of that. We are including everyone in our count because they're all important. Mr. Kettle and I both have a Best Man and Maid of Honor. So that's 4.

He has 8 more groomsmen, bringing our total to 12. I have 2 more men standing up with me which brings our total to 14. I also have 6 more bridesmaids, bringing our total to 20. Add in 2 jr. bridesmaids and we're at 22. Then 2 ring bearers and 2 flower girls and we're at 26. Tack on 3 hostesses and 2 ushers and the number is now 31. Don't forget our 2, yes 2, officiants and we're at 33. Don't forget Daddy Kettle, Mr. Kettle, and me. That makes 36! Yup. 36 people.

I want to take this time to answer I've gotten in comments on previous posts. The question was about our hostesses and ushers and what exactly they were. Some people double groomsmen as usher, helping to seat people as they arrive to the ceremony. That's not the case with us.

Momma Kettle, ever the etiquette stickler (I get it honest, you know, so I  know exactly what to rebel against), tells us we should have one usher/hostess for ever 50 guests. This is particularly important when our venue is at a house that has thousands of square feet spread over 3 stories. We'll need people to help get all those people into the ballroom conservatory for the ceremony, out to the rest of the house for cocktail hour, then back into the ballroom for the reception. They'll need to know where to sit and when. The mansion provides staff to do this, but having extra people on hand could only help out.

Think of a combination between a hostess at a restaurant mixed with a regular usher at a wedding, and that's what our hostesses and ushers will be. Why not make them honorary bridesmaids and groomsmen? Well, because then they'd get their names on the programs and we'd get no work out of them! Just kidding, but I know they'd want to be involved more than just in name.

One of our hostesses is my niece, Hostess Cheery, who's 19 and too old to be a jr. bridesmaid. The other is a high school girl I mentor, Hostess High,  who's friendly with Mr. Kettle ever since they were both in the wedding I met Mr. Kettle at last summer. The third is one of his nieces, FNIL Sniffles, who's also in college and also to old to be a jr. bridesmaid. One of our ushers is my god-brother and the other is Mr. Kettle's cousin. They're both in high school.

Our wedding has been used as a tool to accommodate all our close family and friends that have been in our lives for a long time. Besides the flowers girls and ring bearers who are both 6 years old, we've known everybody else in our wedding party at least 10 years (including the officiants).

So, yeah there are a lot of folks, but they're our close friends. We're both just super friendly people who are close to our families. It happens.

And now for your viewing pleasure, some lovely photos of random wedding party members.

Personal Photo: our two flower girls. My lovely new nieces. Aren't they adorable twins?



Personal Photo: our two ring bearers. They're also twins, they just don't look it as much.



Personal Photo: FNIL Sniffles and Hostess High at our engagements party.

GM Hubby, MOH Sis, GM Mac, Mr. Kettle, GM Cuz, GM Light at the engagement party. I really should do something special for whoever can keep all these folks straight!

BM Doc, BM Mon, BM Law, BM Libra, BM Milk, me at our engagement party

 BM in this case stands for Bridesman and Bridesmaid. We're still sorting out exactly what to call everybody in our wedding party.

Personal Photo: GM Dark at a gig we all went to. I love the look on his face. He was resigning himself to being the only single and never-married one of his friends. His level of melodrama fits in nicely with Mr. Kettle and I.

Personal Photo: I love this pic.
From left to right: FNIL Tiny, Mr. Kettle, FNIL Sniffles, and BM Cuz's daughter who's my new great-niece.

Soooo many people. Judging by the engagement party, I know our wedding will be exactly what we want: a big party that includes all the people we love and cherish. I will now stop alluding to our engagement party and actually give recaps in my next posts.

Bridesmaid Dress Stress, But A Solution Arises

In my last post, I left off with ominous words. Yes, we left David's Bridal and headed to Eva's Bridal. This wasn't the Eva's Bridal in Tinley Park where I bought my dress. This was the Eva's Bridal in Orland Park. They had dresses and were up the street, so we figured we'd check them out so the day wouldn't be a total waste.

After the magic with the first dresses, I didn't think we'd find it again. But I went through the same routine nonetheless:

1. Have the girls pick out dresses they all seriously like.

2. Veto the ones I hate on sight.

3. Have them try on the dresses they picked.
4. Have other girls try on dresses as I decide they work on each successive girl.

We changed it this time and made Step #3 "make sure the dress is available in our color choice." We looked at all the purples and ultimately chose that same blue-ish purple color we now know is called Regency.

I didn't have high hopes that we'd find yet another dress that looked amazing on every girl. They're just too different. They have seriously different body types. Kind of like this.


Image: Keen Eye Style post on Body Types

 We did manage to find something that worked. After trying on a number of dresses...

Personal Image: MOH Sis trying on a great satin dress and looking super tiny. I really didn't like the dip in the back though.

Personal Image: BM Law trying on another great satin number. Can you tell I was trying to stick with satin at this point? And who doesn't love pockets?

Personal photo: sorry for the skinny photo. I had to crop out half-naked MOH Sis. Apparently, not wearing pants runs in the family.



Personal Image: BM Libra trying this one on. Still cute. At this point I'm thinking maybe my commitment to satin isn't so firm.

Personal Image: BM Law trying it on too. Still cute! I was pretty much sold at this point. I just needed the girls to okay it.

This A-line, floor length was really the ticket, even though they all have great legs. The surprise to me was the empire waist. I figured a natural waist would be more universally flattering. I don't care about being wrong because this dress is just fabulous.

Here's the dress we ended up deciding on that day.

Image: BIll Levkoff #537

We're getting it, of course, in Regency.

Personal photo: Regency is the one all the way to the left.

 This dress is all over weddingbee, much like my wedding dress. It's because it's awesome and fits a variety of body types. Momma Kettle worried that putting my bridesmaids in a dress longer than mine (dress hint!) would be backwards, but I figured it would be okay.

We let the jr. bridesmaids also try on dresses though we knew at this point we'd just get them the coordinating dress.

Image: Bill Levkoff #53702

Personal photo: This looks too much like an overgrown flower girl dress in my opinion, I wanted my girls to look like young ladies.

Personal photo: Even worse. I just had to show this photo of when bustles go wrong.

So we were all set, right? Not even close. I don't want to get into all of it here so I will gloss over the details, but just know that this whole situation made me bury my head in the sand for a few days and not answer phone calls or texts from my girls for a few days until they worked it out amongst themselves.

The price was an issue. BM Law expressed on behalf of some of the other ladies that they couldn't afford the price at Eva's. After some drama in which she ended up apologizing for speaking for people out of place, we settled it. They really wanted this particular dress, so they would make it happen.

I had already talked to each of my girls about what they could afford, but I ended up finding the dresses for much cheaper at >House of Brides online.  If we order them all together, we'll save a bundle on shipping and insurance. So I'll be collecting everyone's money this week and ordering the dresses.



Our bridesmaid dresses will be here by mid-December. Mima Kettle just informed me the flower girls dresses have arrived (let's pray those 5 years olds don't grow too much in the next 6 months!). Now we just have to find 7 more dresses and we're done.

What 7 more you ask? 3 dresses for my hostesses. One for Momma Kettle, Grandmother Kettle, Mima Kettle, and FSIL Grand. They're very important ladies in this whole thing too!

D-I-Y Didn't I Outsource... A Banner For Our Save-The-Date Mailings?

Hive, I have a confession. I'm crafty, but my intentions are not pure. When I first discovered Weddingbee, the blogger in me was dying to become a part. I wanted to be a Bee blogger so bad.

Knowing how they encourage DIY projects, I figured I'd have to do a couple and get them on my blog so when I applied, I would be a more appealing candidate. The benefit of these first couple of projects to my actual wedding were very very secondary. Whew! I feel good for getting that out.

I saw, on the lovely wide world web, lots o' DIY project of hand-made things for the bride and groom to hold while posing for pictures. Some say "thank you" and then are used for special order thank you cards for after the wedding.

I loved this idea and thought I could incorporate it into something fun as one of my first DIY projects. I wanted to make a banner for our STDs (hehe, still funny even though Bee after Bee has immaturity moments with this).

Bunting seemed like the easiest thing to do, so I went with it. A trip to Michael's secured all the supplies. And a large dining room table to use courtesy of Mima Kettle supplied the work area. I went to Michael's to pick up supplies for this and my other DIY project (a "thank you" wreath).

When I got back to the house, I set to work. It was a lot of steps and because I was working on both projects at once, it took all day. Plus I ran out of ribbon and had to take FNIL Tiny ('cause she's tiny) with me to Wal-Mart to find more. But FSIL Hon helped out tremendously. When I told her I was taking pictures in hopes of blogging about it in the future, she refused to let more than her hand be photographed, but I will get more shots the next time she's back stateside.

That's FNIL Tiny. She's waaaay high up in the tree in front of Mima Kettle and Kettle Dad's house. She's very helpful and she's going to make a great jr. bridesmaid!

To Make a Save-The-Date Bunting, You'll Need:

At Least 11 large pieces of felt. I got felt from Michael's in 8.5 by 11 sheets. I got two different colors from our wedding palette. Felt was better for us since our e-pics were being taken outside and I didn't want the wind to affect our photos.

Lots and lots of buttons. I think I bought a pack of 50 assorted white buttons, and that was just enough, no more no less. I picked that color so they'd stand out. I thought about painting them, but decided against it once I saw what the white looked like.

Glue sticks and a glue gun. This was my first time using one. It was pretty easy to figure out. You almost burn yourself once and you tend to avoid doing it again.

Ribbon. For the edges of the bunting triangles, the highlight of a sparkly ribbon make it stand out even more and camouflaged any uneven cuts. I ended up needing two spools of whatever the standard length is they sell on the spool at Michael's and Wal-Mart.

Scissors. If I have to explain why you need this, well never mind. You need scissors to cut the bunting triangles, the ribbon, etc.

String. You need something to string your triangles onto I chose a sparkly tan and gold string that FSIL Hon braided to make stronger. We didn't cut the length though on the chance we could re-use it for something.

Needle & Thread. Get a short yet strong needle and get thread that's also strong and closely matches the color felt you buy.



A paper template of the shape I wanted each triangle of fabric to have. I did this quickly on Microsoft Word. I stacked the felt and started cutting, not the smartest way to do it. If done over, I could cut out the shape, just pin it to each sheet individually and cut it out. It's felt, so it doesn't matter if you cut in the perfect center of each sheet.




FSIL Hon's hands gluing ribbon onto the edge of a cut-out triangle. We put the ribbon on first so we'd know how much space we had to measure out each letter in buttons.



This isn't the best quality photo, but it's trying to show you to put the glue on only a little at a time. And the glue goes along the edge, but completely on the front, not the side of the triangle. As you're pressing the ribbon in place, be aware that it's hot, get a cook (like me!) who's used to touching hot pots to help. Also, don't cut out ribbon lengths ahead of time, you'll just waste ribbon.





This is what you should have on your hand after gluing the ribbon to the edges of each triangle. This was important to do first so we'd know just how much space we had to place out each letter in buttons.




FSIL Hon and Mima Kettle put a lot of time into making these letters just right. I would have just laid them down randomly and gone to work. They look much better with the organization and symmetry I must admit. All the rest of the stuff on the table is from the Thank You wreath I also did that night.




If you look closely, you can see a ring of glue I put on the button. I glued each button into place one at a time so as to not mess up the lovely layout my new family worked so hard on.




We laid out each letter after it was glued to admire our work and figure out what to do next. At this point MOH Sis (Mr. Kettle's maid of honor and sister) came in and expressed her wish that she could be as crafty as us. I offered to teach her and got a nice non-committal "sure"





I'd planned on folding the top rectangle over to make a tube on which to string the bunting, but I hadn't yet figured out how. It was at this point I decided needle and thread would be the safest, most durable (pesky Windy City), but not quickest way to get this done.

 



I pinned the flap down and got to work sewing. Please ignore the crazy nails.

 


On the front side of the triangles, I made sure to put the needle back through as close as I could to where it came out. I wanted that invisible seam look you'd get on hemmed pants. That way, from the front, all you could see was lovely magically together bunting.

 

After I sewed the flaps down, we noticed it needed more definition. Though we were tired at this point, we kept going. The glass of wine Mr. Kettle poured us helped. I glued the ribbon down across the top and it looked sweet!





Did I mention Mr.Kettle also has a cat? She lives with his parents and will stay there since she doesn't have claws but my cat does. Since she's black, her name will be Kitty Pot (like the pot calling the kettle black when it's black? Get it? No? There go those crickets again.) At this point, FSIL Hon is trying to see about stringing her braided string through the triangles and Kitty Pot had to get in on all the string action. It's her way of helping.




She continued to help by sitting on top of the thread and holding up progress while we took a wine break. Kitty Pot doesn't think she's people like Kitty Kettle does. She knows she's a cat.



Kitty Pot then thought it wise to try and drag our entire bunting upstairs to play with. That's when the fun and games ended. She was not about mess up my first big hours-long project!

Our finished project looked lovely. We hung it on the curtain thingees so we could see what it looked like. Success!



Belle will now be called Kitty Kettle, named by Weddingbee! She's giving me her Family Guy disapproval eyes cause I was trying to snap her picture before heading to work when she wanted to eat. She really thinks she's people y'all.

I'd have to say this first big DIY project was a success even though I though it would take 2 hours top and it took closer to 9. But it turned out beautifully. You guys will love our e-photos with it. All that work for one freaking photo!!

I think I finally understand the term bride brain. I still think making that bunting was a good idea...

How did your first DIY go? Did it make you want to do more? Did you get help from family (human or not?)