You and Me: Relaxing in the Bridal Suite

When it comes to weddings, even the best laid plans can go astray - which can be hard to take if you're an obsessive-compulsive planner, like I am. Our plan upon entering our reception venue was to relax in the bridal suite for around half an hour, having a drink with our bridal party and taking a moment to catch our breath. While we were doing this, our guests were due to arrive and begin their cocktail hour on the balcony.

Well, down came the rain. And in came the guests to get out of the rain, early. And oops! Someone at the venue misplaced our bridal suite booking - so we were left standing around awkwardly in the foyer waiting for it to be sorted out. That's just part of a story for another day... suffice it to say that we eventually found ourselves a quiet spot to relax in for a little while with our bridal party and our parents.

And after that, relax we did! We had a glass of champagne, nibbled on a canapé or two, took happy snaps together and bounced around like balls of nervous energy, listening to all of our guests outside mingling in the foyer.

Some of the pictures that our bridal party took during this time turned out to be some of my favourites of the day, including these hipstamatic shots that I plastered over everything in the days after the wedding. Swoon!

Our make-up stylist, Jenny, was also on hand - she was a guest at the wedding and popped in to take a few pictures for us. She charmingly offered to quickly touch up our hair and faces, which were looking a little worse for wear after our pictures in the rain. She gave me the option of changing hairstyles for the reception, but I'd grown rather attached to my sde 'do and decided to stick with it - it was perfect up off my face for dancing! Jenny is responsible for these next two pictures, both of which I love.

Seriously, are my girls not stunning? What beauties - inside and out.

Now... for a bit of a backstory.

I wasn't particularly fazed about my dress bustle. I know lots of Bees stress out about how they're going to tie up the dress during the evening, or have trouble deciding between which style bustle works the best with their dress... but I didn't mind. As long as I could hook it up and out of the way before the dancing, I was happy.

Our seamstress added in a ribbon/button hook ready to just link up and tie, and it looked quite nice when it was yanked up and tied. Don't ask me what style it was: it was pretty much style-less. Let's call it the 'hoisted train bustle', shall we? You can sort of see the top half of it here:

Anyhoo, that didn't end up going so well... as when I got out of the wedding car to take our photographs in the rain, that button snapped off - leaving us with no bustle option AT ALL. My mum whipped out her creative genius and ended up looping the skirt ribbon up over one of the lower buttons on the gown, and it held... for about ten minutes. Jase and I were practising our first dance together (first time with a big skirt on!) when PING! The buttons flew off and the train collapsed.

I wasn't quite sure WHAT to do next - it looked as though I'd be holding up the train the entire evening. Luckily, I had a few seamstresses on hand to help patch me up. Enter my mum... and my new mother-in-law! They whipped a sewing kit out of thin air and began literally sewing the ribbon/bustle on to the gown.

I never imagined I'd have so many hands up and under my gown before the reception had even started!

After some panicked moments and a few deep breaths, the dress was bustled - and I'm thrilled to say that it held up all night. So well, in fact, that I actually needed to have my mother cut the thread at the end of the evening so that I could get out of the gown!

With the bustle situation sorted, it was almost time for our reception to start!

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.

Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.

We finished off our last minute projects at home.

I had some girly time the day before the wedding.

I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.

A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!

The girls had their hair and make-up done.

The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.

It was finally my turn to get beautified!
I put my dress on & became a bride.
My bridesmaids and I rush, rush, rushed to the church & arrived early!
The wedding began with a processional...
Our guests waved us out of the church with our home-made ribbon wands.
We took some bridal snapshots in the wind and rain.
I took a few moments with my new husband, just he & I.
Our bridal party posed with us as the daylight began to fade.