My Best Friend's Wedding

Last weekend was the long-awaited event: Shopping Friend got married!

Of course, because it was the two of us involved, the things I took the most photos of were our outfits; shoes, jackets, hair, makeup, and of course the dresses, got the bulk of the attention in my photos. (Actually, since I was in the wedding I mostly took photos of random things before and after the ceremony. They had a professional photographer doing the real stuff. :))

She had a couple of stylists come and do our hair and makeup, and that was absolutely amazing. It took me a bit to warm up to it, I will admit; I had my makeup done first, and I was a little skeptical while I waited for my turn for hair. I thought when I looked at myself in the camera that I looked a bit like (my idol) Hillary Clinton, and not in a good way.



Once I got in the chair and she started working on my hair, though, I realized it was because my hair was flat and unstyled that the makeup looked out of place. The styled hair pulled the whole look together nicely.


(Mid-do, I try to snap a photo to send to my husband.)

When we were all done, we got a couple of shots of all of us (that's Shopping Friend's Mom on the left), still in our street clothes.





You wouldn't know from our unhurried dawdling that there was only 20 minutes to go before she was walking down the aisle, would you? We kind of lost track of time for a bit...

There are no pictures after that, because it was a flurry of bras flying the air and Spanx getting tugged on and just complete chaos. Here, enjoy a photo of her lovely dress. The wedding planner put rose petals around it so it was the first thing we saw when we walked into the suite. Sweet, right?





And then she was married! It was a lovely, short ceremony, exactly what she wanted.

We went outside for photos. I goofed around with my husband and my other brides attendant (her best man, LOL) in a few shots.





Kicked off my shoes for a bit too. They were pretty and mostly comfortable, but it was a long day.



Some shots from the reception...





My husband, as is his thing, had to wear the veil, at least long enough for me to take some photos. He is always game to wear a silly hat, mostly for the amusement for the little kids around. I'm going to make a book of photos like this some day.





We convinced the bride to stick my husband's pipe in her mouth to lighten up a couple of poses, and I think we got some of her best photos ever.





My lovely, silly Shopping Friend. I'm so happy for you!!!

Now...you guys....

can we talk about my hair now? No lie, it was SPECTACULAR.









Unbelievable. I felt like a princess.

And it only took 27 bobby pins! I counted when I tugged them all out that night. ;-D

Once I got used to it, I have to say that my makeup was pretty awesome too. Never wore false eyelashes before. I loved 'em!







At the end of the wedding, we both switched into our sneakers (heh, it didn't dawn on either of us to bring cute comfortable shoes).





When everyone was gone, the little wedding party went to the bar across the street and had a beer. In our wedding attire and sneakers.




When I got home, we tried to get one full-body shot in the setting sun...



Then I got changed into a t-shirt and yoga pants and took a few more shots of my pretty 'do and makeup.









I don't think I will ever look or feel that pretty again. After all that anxiety about the dress, that is just about the last thing I thought I would feel. But I do.

Best of all, my friend married the love of her life.

All in all, it was a damned good day.