In less than two months, my name will be Emily Bratcher, not Halonen, and I’ll go from fiancée to wife.
As the wedding quickly approaches, my planner—not BlackBerry (I’m old school)—is becoming increasingly filled with appointments, parties, and meetings.
For instance, last weekend I visited my trusty stylist at Aveda for a much-needed haircut and highlight. I hadn’t gotten either since November. And for the wedding I want hair that looks good but not too done, you know? Alex (she’s the amazing stylist photographed here) advised me to come see her for a touchup a couple of weeks before the wedding.
She also had good advice concerning the up-do run-through. I always thought I wanted to wear my hair down in romantic curls, but considering that our wedding day is probably going to be sticky and hot, I thought it might be better up. Alex highly recommended I do the run-through with the stylist. She said she won’t even do a bride’s hair on her wedding day if she doesn’t first practice it. The stakes are too high, and bad hair (like Hannah’s hair in her almost-marriage to the Scottish dude in Made of Honor) can be a major point of contention and anxiety.
The con is that it costs, but it might relieve some anxiety on the part of the bride and also the stylist. At the end of July, Drew and I are flying out to another wedding in Tennessee, so I’ve scheduled my practice up-do for that time.
We’ve also scheduled a consultation with our photographer. We have yet to meet him and need to talk about the style of photos, the different shots we want, and the schedule for the wedding weekend. Drew and I aren’t planning on seeing each other until we bust open the church doors and I walk down the aisle toward him with my dad, so we’re going to have to juggle the photographer between the boys’ side of the church and the girls’ side until “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” signals the start.
My bachelorette party is scheduled for the weekend of July 11 in New York City. Yay!
My mom and I have a couple of appointments/dates planned—one at the bridal shop so I can be fitted for my wedding dress (it came in last week!) and another at our favorite winery, Tarara, to chat about last-minute wedding stuff.
Drew and I, of course, have lots of dates together, but they will be increasingly wedding-centric: printing and assembling the programs, buying and wrapping gifts for the wedding party, continuing to finalize the reception’s playlist, planning out our honeymoon, etc., etc., etc.
Then, a couple of weeks before, I’m going to get manicured, pedicured, and waxed, which is mostly fun stuff. And of course, I need several sunny days at the pool so my skin won’t match my dress.
Then it’s off to the wedding weekend with a bridesmaid brunch on Friday morning (Thanks FMIL!), the rehearsal, the rehearsal dinner, and then a sleepover with the bridal party. And finally the wedding and reception and honeymoon. I can hardly believe it!
Emily, a Washington bride-to-be, writes every Friday about planning her wedding, which will be in Nashville this August. To follow her adventures from the beginning, click here.
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