Wedding: Getting Ready

Our wedding feels like it was forever ago now! It was really just over 2 months ago, but a lot has happened in that time including our minimoon in the Cotswolds. But we’ve now got our official photos back from our photographer and I’m finally ready to share ALL the details about our wedding day on 26th May. You’d better ready for photo overload, because there are so many to share that I’m having to split this into a series broken down into different parts of the day and different elements.

First up: the getting ready. Or at least, my getting ready with my family and bridesmaids – Ben and his groomsmen did their own photoshoot of their getting ready that I’ll share another day!

We started early: I had to get up at 6.30am to wash my hair before having it set in rollers. For some people, it’s recommended not to wash your hair on the day, but mine needed to be damp to get it in the rollers because my hair does NOT take curls well – they normally fall out in a couple of hours! I’d worried I’d have a terrible night’s sleep because I would be thinking about everything, but I actually fell asleep ridiculously quickly for me which I was really glad about. When I woke up just before 6am though, I was wide awake – it was my wedding day!

If you’re interested in seeing more posts from our wedding day, check out the posts below:

The morning was crazy! I had my 5 bridesmaids there, all arriving over the next couple of hours. Once my hair was in rollers and I was under the machine, my hairdresser, Kellie, moved onto the next bridesmaid, my sister, then the next and so on. I decided to go with my usual hairdresser as I wanted to make sure I felt comfortable with whoever I had on the day – I’m not the most assertive of people, so if there was something I wanted changing, I would be too shy to tell someone brand new! Kellie also knows how ridiculous my hair is and how long it takes to do anything to it, so we were well prepared!

As the girls arrived, they each opened a present bag I’d prepped for them with a pair of Bluebella pyjamas each from Figleaves for getting ready and a simple gold bracelet to wear on the day. I wore a gorgeous watercolour robe provided by Eva Lingerie for getting ready and I couldn’t love it more – I’ve worn it multiple times since (see more shots of it here). My parents were also busy providing us with glasses of fizz and picking up sandwich platters that we’d arranged so we wouldn’t get hungry! My mum then went off to her hairdresser for a couple of hours and my dad escaped to the garden to do a bit of strimming and weeding – he couldn’t deal with being the only man in the house!

Once I’d had my allotted time under the hair machine, I was moved to make up prep. We decided that bridesmaids would all do their own make up since they had their own styles and plans, but I’m notoriously bad at make up so I booked a local lady called Vikki for mine, then she also did my mum’s when she returned too.

I was initially nervous about booking someone to do my make up as I wear so little on a day to day basis that I didn’t want to not feel like myself on the day. I searched for a while to find someone who could do a natural style that would enhance rather than hide, and I’m so pleased I went with Vikki. She listened to exactly what I wanted and kept everything simple, but it lasted all day long.

At some point in all this, my mum’s friend, Jane, who did our flowers arrived with her daughter, my friend Kiki, to drop all the bouquets off. They weren’t able to come to the wedding due to a family commitment so it was really lovely to get to see them on the day, even just briefly. I think it’s probably easier to talk about the flowers when I do the full outfit reveals though – too much to say about them!

Around 11am, our photographer, Jemma King, arrived. She got to work straight away, snapping photos in and around the house of trinkets from the house I’d grown up in, us all getting ready and chatting, then some shots of all the bridesmaids together. We opened the rest of the gifts and cards I’d prepared for them, and had a surprise gift of a bracelet from my parents too and a not-so-surprise gift of handpainted Disney themed TOMS from Ben (it may have been a strong suggestion in the form of links sent to him ;D).

We had a really tight schedule to stick to on the morning, and despite thinking we’d have ALL the time, at this point, it started to feel pretty rushed! My bosses were driving me, my family and the bridesmaids to the wedding in their VW camper vans and arrived with plenty of time to spare, but none of us were even in our outfits yet! The bridesmaids and my parents were ushered upstairs to get dressed while I snuck the dress downstairs for Jemma to capture some shots of it against the backdrop we’d planned, and then it was time for me to get into it!

My mum, Charley and my Beth (my sister and sister-in-law are both Beths so I need to distinguish with a “my”!) had been there when I bought the dress and at fittings, but no one else had seen it, so they helped me into it while Jemma snapped photos, then it was time for the big reveal!

This was a totally surreal moment – my bridesmaids and parents were lined up in the garden room as I entered, and my bosses were at the other side. It was crazy to experience that moment that you’ve seen in photos and see everyone’s faces light up as you walk in.

As I said, I’ll get to the details of the dress, the rest of the outfits and accessories in another post as this one has already gone on far too long for just one morning of getting ready! Funnily enough, there seem to be more photos of this part of the day than any other – as we looked through them together for the first time, Ben was like “Haven’t you even got the dress on yet?!” It was a crazy morning but one of the best!