Hair Trials

I recently had a hair trial with my friend Mark, who also happens to be my hairdresser and also one of our witnesses for the wedding! Well, actually I had 2 hair trials - but I'll get to that later.

Here's me, all prepared for a couple of hours sitting still doing nothing!

Meanwhile, Mark patiently sewed the clips into my hair extensions. Please ignore the very lazy dog int he background.

Next, mark curled the hair extensions.

Then he got started clipping them onto my head - as you can see, he's not always gentle!

Next came about an hour of curling and spraying, before he started pinning all the curls up.

When he was finished, I was pleased with it - I love the messy, unstructured look to it because my hair will never, ever stay in a style for more than an hour or two so I wanted something that would still look good if it started to fall out.

However, I wasn't as impressed when we put the veil in. I originally wanted the veil to be attached low, so that it was coming out from the bottom of the hair. This didn't work too well with this style, as the curls are pinned quite low on  the head, so we attached the veil above the curls instead.

I do like how this looks, but it completely covers the hair style. I figured there was no point spending ages on styling my hair if the veil was going to cover it up anyway.

So we decided to have another hair trial, where we would pint he curls higher in order to accommodate the veil. We also decided to use rollers instead of a curling wand, to get more volume at the crown.

So, fast forward a week and we're at hair trial number two! It was much the same process as the first one, so I wont bore you with the same pictures again - let's just skip to the finished product.

I really love how this one turned out. There is more volume and Mark used this foam pad thing attached to a comb to make the curls sit higher.

Also, we can attache the veil underneath the curls! Hurray!

Obviously we'll tidy it up properly so that the comb wont show. But how nice does this look? I'm so happy with it all.

I even went out for a meal for my friends birthday with it in, to see how well it holds up!

This is about 5 hours after the style was first done - I think it has lasted quite well, but even though some curls have dropped and some pieces fallen out, it looks good.

Photo Booth Props: Speech Bubbles

Remember how my dad made me some wooden speech and thought bubbles to use as props in our photo booth? Well, I finally got around to painting them!

I used black chalkboard paint, which was about £7 from B&Q:

They also had this chalkboard paint in bright pink and bright blue, which looked amazing, but in the end I decided to stick with good ol' classic black.

I think I put about 3 coats on in the end, just to be safe. The instructions say to use at least 2 coats, and after two coats it did look good. I'm just cautious like that.

I also painted the backs with a single coat, even though no-one will really care, and the backs wont be shown in the photos or anything. I just like it to look neat.

After they dried I had to go out and buy some chalk so we could test them out!

How cool did these turn out?? I really love them, and I can't wait for our guests to use them in the photo booth. I hope people get really creative with them!


Quick cost breakdown:

wood: free (my dad had it lying around)
labour: free (my dad did it)
paint: £7.99 (although we still have about 3/4's of the pot of paint left!)
chalk: 99p

So that makes the total cost under £10 - and we have enough left over to be able to make a few more if we want to. Total bargain, if I do say so myself!

Little updates: bridesmaids and favours

The bridesmaid dresses arrive (super quickly!) and they are gorgeous! Only problem is, they don't fit. Fortunately, we were able to send them back to be replaced with the next size up so everything should be fine. The eBay seller that we ordered them from was so lovely and really helpful - and I really do think the dresses look lovely - even if they wouldn't fasten all the way up!

Excuse the slightly weird expressions on my sisters' faces - they did like the dresses, I promise!

I also bought the test tubes for our Damson Vodka Shot favours!

100 tubes, with caps for £15.99. Bargain!

I'm really excited about these - the plan is to make little cards to attach with ribbon, which will double as place cards. I think they're going to look really nice.

Spending money = eek!

There have been several wedding related updates since my last post - arguably the most important of which is that I finally ordered my dress! Hurray!

I'm so excited - I can't wait until it is ready and I can try it on!

I also ordered a simple bolero to wear with the dress, which I got off eBay for £15. I will try to remember to take a photograph of it at some point.

The second very exciting purchase this week was the bridesmaid dresses. You might remember the post where I revealed the bridesmaid dresses and how I mentioned that I wanted to order them soon in case they became unavailable. Well, guess what? When I checked again, I couldn't find them anywhere! Just my luck. But it all worked out okay, because while looking for the original dresses, I found some other dress that I loved!

This dress is very similar to the first dress I chose - it has the same halter neck, very similar bust and same flowing skirt. The only real difference is that this dress is chiffon instead of satin, but I think chiffon will be more comfortable in August anyway!

This dress is available from an eBay seller called Dresselicious for just over £40 each. I have ordered 4 of them, but 2 of them are pre-order because they didn't have the correct size left in stock, so they will take 6 to 8 weeks to make.

Just last night, I decided to buy the test tubes that we will be serving our Damson Vodka Favours in. I got 100 of the 20ml tubes, with caps for £15.99. Absolute bargain! And this past weekend, we got the hair extensions that I'll be wearing on the day.

It is really nice to actually be able to buy things for the wedding, as opposed to just looking, and bookmarking websites! I am really enjoying be able to choose things and not have people say "well, come back when it's a bit closer to the wedding".
However, it also feels a bit weird - to be actually spending the money in "the wedding fund" is a very strange feeling indeed!

One thing that is making me feel better however, is the quote from our venue. The final figure was less than I was expecting (not dramatically less, but pleasingly less!) and I feel like I can relax now, knowing exactly what money will be going where.

Anyway, we will have a busy wedding related weekend coming up - we're going to finalise the guy's suit choices on Saturday, then off to a wedding fayre at our venue on Sunday. I can't wait!