Wedding Hair

The only occasions I have ever had my hair done professionally have been for my two weddings. And I don't even count the first time anymore since this second updo kicked my old updo's ass all over the place. Hands down.

 

My wedding dress was a reproduction 50's vintage style tea length dress. So I wanted to keep my little retro theme when it came to hair and makeup. I know I do not have any ability to do this. (See my Military Ball photo for the high end of my hair styling skillz.) So I paid an arm and a leg to have a professional at the Planet Hollywood Spa make me beautiful for the day.

 

 

 

I couldn't have asked for a better updo. And my makeup was fabulous. I felt like a movie star.

 

This would be me as a movie star acting with a dinosaur:

 

 

Having this beautiful wedding hair made it an easy decision to ALWAYS have a professional do my hair whenever my dress costs more than $100. That's a special occasion dress price. Since I'm all done with getting married from here on out, that means Military Balls. I can't wait for the next Ball so I can be a beautiful movie star again... but without the dinosaur. Dinosaurs freak me out.

Wedding

James and I tied the knot in Las Vegas on August 10th. There are a million funny or sweet stories to tell, but I think the story that needs to be shared is a story of a catastrophic wardrobe malfunction.

 

**Let me preface this tale by saying I had just been bragging to some friends that this has been a completely stress free wedding for me. Karma is a bitch.

 

So I was getting ready in my parent's hotel room. As my mom was zipping up the back of my gorgeous wedding dress, the zipper broke. And when I say broke, I mean, the dress was completely zipped up the back but the zipper teeth weren't biting each other any longer. This dress was not meant to be backless, and there were only 30 minutes until the ceremony was supposed to start.

 

I burst into tears. Of course I burst into tears. Who wouldn't? My day was just ruined. I put on a ridiculous green dress (it had pockets-- you can't get married in a dress with freaking pockets) and wanted to back out of the ceremony.

 

James saved the day and called every resource he could think of to save the dress. He finally found a tailor downstairs in the casino mall who would look at the dress. I ran to the tailor with 2 friends in tow. The seamstress replaced the entire zipper in just about 15 minutes. I was zipped back into the dress-- and thank you sweet baby Jesus the zipper teeth stayed biting each other. I ran barefoot back through the casino and arrived at the chapel 10 minutes late.

 

Out of breath, but in a beautiful dress (without pockets), I married the man I love... who also saved the day. XOXO

 

 

 

 

Absence

I'd like to apologize for my unexpected leave of absence. I had a job offer land in my lap that would have been amazing, to say the least. I spent a lot of time trying to get this position, and in the end, I was not chosen. If I had gotten this job, I would have had to terminate this blog. So perhaps, not getting this job was a good thing (for my few readers). As always, something new is in the horizon at work. Let's just hope I can hop on this opportunity.

 

Don't worry, Picasso was still being awesome the whole time I wasn't blogging.

 

James and I are getting married 1 week from today in Las Vegas! Woot! I'm really excited. I'm sure there will be blogs to document this awesome event. And tons of pictures. It's not everyday you can wrangle up your family and best friends in one central party location and have a super great celebration. Yay! 7 days away!

 

I was still being pretty awesome, too.

 

Justin & Karie's Wedding

James and I went to Louisville this weekend for a mutual friend's wedding. I did the typical Army backwards planning to ensure we arrived to the church 45 minutes early. However, I totally forgot that Louisville is in the Eastern time zone, thus making us 15 minutes late for the ceremony. Luckily, the wedding started late (I think quite a few people made the same mistake I did).

 

The ceremony was held in a beautiful tiny church in the middle of a very old cemetery. It had really neat stained glass windows. It was a unique and very sweet ceremony; exactly what I expected from Justin and Karie. I'm really glad we made it in time.

 

 

The reception was in a very swanky country club. I did not expect that from Justin and Karie. Let me give you a little background on the couple: Justin is a Soldier by day and a tattoo artist by night, so almost every guest there was heavily tattooed. Justin is also straight edge. You wouldn't think it, but straight edge folks are more rowdy than people who drink. Karie is not straight edge, however, so they also had their drinking friends there. Just a healthy mix of rowdy and drunk at the ritzy country club.

 

James and I proved to be the drinking friends. James made a sweet Coors Light beer castle.

 

 

 

After the wedding reception, they had an after party at a hole in the wall bar. Literally, there was a hole in the wall next to the booth I was sitting at which kept producing one of the largest cockroaches I have ever seen in my life. It's like it could smell my fear so it kept making an appearance. It would come out of the wall just enough so I could see it waving it's antennas at me menacingly-- taunting me. Then I'd get Justin or James to try to stab it and it would recede back into the wall. I sat at the cockroach booth frozen with fear just long enough for another booth to open, then I hauled ass.

 

Not that I wanted to incorporate a cockroach story with my friend's beautiful wedding. But I have a deep fear of roaches, and every incident I have with one is worth reporting.

 

 

New Tattoo

I'm getting married in 2 months to a very wonderful dude. I wanted to make something right that has always bothered him since we first started dating: my bad tattoo.

Which bad tattoo, you ask? The worst tattoo. The tattoo of my ex husband's name on my right hip. James has expressed his dislike for it once or twice but he was never pushy about me getting it fixed. But it's clearly time for this tattoo to be gone, especially since we are about to get married.

 

Name with the new outline placed over it.

 

I had it covered this evening with a black bird. If you didn't know the name had been there, you wouldn't know this tattoo is a cover up. I absolutely love it. I won't lie though, this tattoo hurt. The older I get, the less I like to be tattooed.

Covered and completely 100% more awesome!

 

Now I feel like I have a clean slate to begin my new marriage. All remnants of the previous marriage are washed away-- or at least, covered up. Yay, wedding in 2 months!

Beautiful Jewelry

Shocking revelation: I am not a girl who wears jewelry. I mean, of course, I wear my engagement ring. But beyond that, I wear nothing on my hands, wrists, neck or earlobes.

 

There are three reasons behind this:

 

1) I can't wear jewelry in uniform. I am allowed 2 rings only (wedding set counts as 1), and a religious medallion around my neck as long as it's tucked into my tan tee. However, I am not religious so that is not something I worry about. Jewelry isn't something I think about 5 days a week, so I don't think about it on the weekend either.

 

2) I am covered in tattoos. I have a full chest piece and I think wearing a necklace takes away from the tattoo. I have a full sleeve and I think wearing bracelets takes away from the tattoo. I also think dressing up the tattoo is tacky. So I will never wear another necklace again if at all possible, and bracelets are open to interpretation. It has to be a really rad bracelet and not on my sleeved arm.

 

3) I'm just not a girly girl. Also, a shocking revelation. I'd rather not clean the dirt out of my jewelry, because I simply refuse to stay out of the dirt!

 

However, my Grandma was lovely enough to give me this ring:

 

 

It meant so much to me that she gave it to me, but it is NOT my style. Not even in the slightest. Just the fact that it is jewelry makes it not my style! The stones are opals, which is my birth stone. I wanted the ring because it came from her and the opals are beautiful. But I had to do something about that setting:

 

 

I simplified it. And I have been wearing the ring daily. I catch myself admiring it frequently through out the day. I love what I did with this jewelry. I want to wear the earrings and ring at my wedding this summer. I think it will be beautiful.

 

But there is a catch, if you know my Grandma, you can't tell her I changed her ring... I don't want to hurt her feelings. So, this is a public Internet secret that must be kept.

1 Year Since...

It has been exactly 1 year since James gave me this beautiful diamond ring and asked me to be his wife.

We set a date before he went to Afghanistan, but since he's been gone, I have been feeling like he's going to be gone for SO LONG and the wedding is SO FAR AWAY... why make solid plans and arrangements?

 

Turns out, he's going to be home in 3 months, and then the wedding happens 3 months after that. 6 months from now, we are going to be in Las Vegas making it legal in front of our friends and family, and all I have is a dress and the venue.

 

Holy crap, I lack the bride gene, I guess, because I should have been in full swing planning mode a while ago!!

Luckily, Planet Hollywood is going to do 80% of all the wedding planning. Getting married in Las Vegas is probably the best way a lazy person can get married and have it be a success! AND it's not nearly as expensive as a traditional wedding, and it will still be classy! I picked a great venue!

But I need to get hot on picking out invitations to send out! August 10, 2013 is coming up faster than I can think!