I’m trying to decide how I feel about this veil that I picked up recently. I’ve had a hankering for a bird cage veil for a long time and I was super excited the first time I tried one on in David’s. The second time, I wasn’t as thrilled. When I saw this one, I figured the price was so good that I should just do it and try it with my dress when it gets here.

Whatchoo all think? (photos behind the cut, for those so inclined to remain in the dark *ahem*)

This is also a lovely shot of my parent’s bathroom. It’s small. Also, why so serious, NEPA Bride?

That’s a little better. Also tilted the veil at a steeper angle. Maybe that’s the key?

Ok, I’m finished. Clearly we are over it.

What do you think? I like it, but I don’t know if I really love *any* of the veils I tried on. I want to wear one though, so maybe shorter is better. I want to get a floofy flower to wear with it as well. Sigh, I don’t know yet. Opinions are welcome!

I took today off to run errands and we got a lot accomplished. Our menu is chosen, and we met our florist and pretty much decided on all of the flowers! I don’t necessarily think I need an inspiration board now, my vision for our wedding is getting pretty clear as NEPA Groom and I visit a lot of vendors, but I was cleaning out my wedding folder today and found some old copies of my inspiration photos. What’s nice is that now we have a bridesmiad dress, and a wedding dress, so I tweaked my board over at Polyvore with these updates. Check it out:

(Once again my dear, this has dress photos. No clicky)

Purple, Black & White Wedding by jeannie21284 featuring D&G brooches

This arrived at my house the other day:

An unassuming little box that carried something I’d been waiting for… my veil! I found it on Etsy – the talented Tessa Kim makes them and sells them for extremely reasonable prices – mine was $35 after shipping! Compare that to what, $100 for something the same size at David’s Bridal. It’s a no-brainer!

I ordered the veil and a few days after it shipped, I decided to check in on it. She works out of L.A. so I knew it would take a while, but imagine my surprise when the tracking data indicated it had arrived safe and sound in HAWAII that day. EEK!

I emailed her in a small panic, and let me tell you, she is totally the sweetest thing ever. She called the post office for me while I fumbled around on their website and they assured her it was headed in the right direction. It arrived a few days later and she kept checking in to make sure I got it. She even went so far as to offer to send a replacement.

So you wanna see it? (NEPA GROOM – you know the drill. If you don’t wanna know, do not click!)

Sitting on my bed. The next time I have makeup on I’ll do some real shots.

Check out that comb. It’s metal! I love it because it actually stayed put. My hair is so thick it won’t hold anything, but this didn’t budge!

Maybe it didn’t make it the whole way around the globe, but it definitely took quite the trip!

One thing that I’ve learned recently, the hard way, is the need to take care of yourself. It may be that you’re stressing really hard about your wedding, trying to please everyone. Or maybe work is dragging you down, and the stress from your office follows you home. Or maybe you have some bad habits, like poor posture or unhealthy eating, that are starting to take their toll. Whatever it is, take some time to STOP and re-evaluate.

I haven’t felt good since January. I started to have pain in my back and arms – burning and tingling nerve pain that got worse with each passing day. I know I’m very, very stressed, but I don’t think I realized how bad it was. While I’m lucky to be able to take steps now to eliminate the stress in my life, I had to hit the bottom before I started to change. I was falling behind on work, I couldn’t blog very well (hence a lot of half done posts that were scheduled for March are just appearing now at the end of the month), and I couldn’t get anything done. My doctor sent me to see a chiropractor and prescribed muscle relaxers as a temporary solution. They help, but they also make me pretty useless.

I was lucky enough to have my doctor refer me to Dr. Malcolm Conway at the Conway Clinic, who found that I had severely under used muscles in my upper arms. As a result, they were contracting and the tightening was pinching my nerves and causing pain up and down my arms. It’s been a long road, but I’m starting to feel better through a lot of physical therapy.

As brides, I think we really get overwhelmed with stuff and it can be easy to let things like your health reach the breaking point without even realizing it. This is my small effort at telling everyone to always remember to take time for yourself. If something is stressing you out to the breaking point, take a step back and re-evaluate the situation. Can you fix it, or should you look for alternatives? You don’t have to get stressed until you POP, trust me, I learned it the hard way!

Back around my birthday in February, I decided to splurge a lot little and get myself a treat. Something small and pretty that would help me feel my best, especially with a wedding on the horizon. What did I get? Behold the Mia:

The Clarisonic Mia! I’ve been drooling over it for, oh, a year, and with a little bonus I got from work, I decided it was time. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to take some before and after pictures of my face, and I’m not sure I really want to get all up close and personal with all of you like that!

Anyway, I got it in pink, and it’s very cute and portable. It comes with the “sensitive” level brush, which has worked well on my skin. I was afraid I’d need to get the delicate brush, but this is just fine. I use it according to instructions once per day, usually in the evening before bed. I’ve noticed that a lot of my smaller breakouts have stopped, though I’m still sprouting the occasional stress zit. I also found that a lot of the blackheads on my cheeks and right across the bridge of my nose are smaller. The only issue is I have them pretty bad on the end of my nose and the vibrations make me sneeze when I use the Mia there, haha.

Overall, I think it’s been helpful for my skin, though I think it should be a little less expensive. If you’re looking for a skincare splurge, it’s a nice tool to have!

Have you tried the Clarisonic Mia? How has it helped your skin?

One really great part of visiting David’s Bridal was that we found the bridesmaid dress!

WOO!

I knew I wanted the girls to wear dark purple, preferably a-line, and not floor length. Other than that I didn’t really care. After I was finally freed from the the grip of the Wedding Industrial Complex, the mothers went off the look at mother of the bride dresses and the girls and I headed over to the bridesmaid dresses. I gave them my requirements and we started looking. After a bit I went to check on the moms. When I got back I was informed that they had voted that the dress would not be strapless. Fair enough.

Finally, each girl picked a dress and headed over to try it on. They each came out and all three dresses looked amazing! I forgot to pull my camera out for pictures, but they all looked great. I figured they might each pick a different dress, but all of them turned to each other and thought for a second, then picked one dress as the winner!

I emailed Bridesmaid E later that night and she was a fan as well. Is it really so simple?

Our runners up were:

The DB F12942 (or something really similar)

The DB F13620

Aaand our winner, in PLUM, is:

The David’s Bridal D02101

It’s got a lovely bow in back and meets all of my requirements. They’re happy and I’m happy. And I thought this would be the hard part! Did your bridesmaids pick out their own dress? Was it easy or did it take a long time?

I just wanted to share this in case any of you wonderful NEPA brides out there were interested. There’s a bridal expo happening next weekend, on Sunday the 21st, down at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre. I won’t be attending since I’ve already had my fill of bridal expos, but brides early in the planning process might find it useful! They’re doing a big giveaway too, and that’s always fun.

If you attend, let me know how it went and what parts you loved. I also recommend creating a new email address just for signing up with vendors at the expo, because some of them can occasionally be pretty spammy. Better safe than sorry!

Even though I still haven’t asked my bridesmaids if they’d be in the wedding party yet, I’m thinking about what kind of cute gifties I can give them. I scored some CUTE little black & white damask bags in the dollar bin at Michael’s last week that I want to fill with things for them to start:

They’re not very big, but I thought they could hold some beauty supplies, like nail polish, files & trimmers. I love the shades in the OPI Fairytale Brides line, and there are some good shades in their Sephora line as well!

Now I’m off looking for other bridesmaids gifts that I can include with this little bag. Favor Warehouse has some cute things that I could personalize with our wedding date (once we have one!). These bath salts would go perfectly with the gift theme I have in mind. They have a ton of custom labels, but the sample one, with the black & white swirls, actually matches perfectly!

I’m still looking around to see what I can find on sale. Buying some of the beauty gifts this early might not be the best idea just in case they have a limited shelf life, but at least I’ll be ready to go when the time comes!

What kind of gifts are thinking of getting your bridesmaids?

I took last Friday off from work in an attempt to keep my sanity and besides lounging around, I made an appointment at the Woodhouse Day Spa in Kingston, PA. If you’re looking for a Northeast PA spa, this is the place to be. I know there are cheaper places around, but at least for me, it’s about the whole environment and not just the end result. I like feeling completely isolated from the world, even if it’s just for an hour or so in their cozy massage chairs.

While she was working on my feet, the girl doing the pedicure was telling me about the bridal parties that they host there. I was thinking it would be a cool thing to do before my wedding, if I could swing it. Have all the girls and the mothers come in for a manicure or something, you know?

However, I don’t think we’ll be doing what one bridal party had done that morning. They made their own mimosas and brought them in! It sounds amazing in theory, but she said the mother of the groom actually got drunk and was sliding out of her chair. She didn’t realize it and couldn’t figure out why her robe kept sliding up higher and higher. LOL!

So manicure/pedicure before the wedding is a yes. Getting drunk at the spa, a big fat NO.