Bride Brain

Over the course of wedding planning, I have found that I become completely scatterbrained during the more high stress times.  Well, more scatterbrained than usual.  I call this phenomenon "Bride Brain." 

Bride Brain likes to manifest at inopportune times.  Like in the Cleveland airport.  Last weekend, Mr. Biscuit and I were on the way to Menomonie, WI (say that three times fast!) for a wedding.  In order to get to Menomonie, we needed to fly into Minneapolis via Cleveland and we had only a 40 minute layover to get dinner, a beer, and reading material for the flight.  Yes, all of these things were necessary.

Mr. B and I branched out at the Hudson News.  He bought a cycling magazine and a music magazine.  I bought Self and Cosmo.  I chose to read the Self on the plane first, but got through it pretty quickly.  So, I decided I'd move on to the Cosmo, even though I wanted to save it for the ride home.  Well, I looked at the cover and what did I see?

Yes, I'm a genius.  I bought a Cosmo in Spanish.  And being the stubborn person I had, I refused to feel like an idiot for doing so.  I used my rudimentary knowledge of the Spanish language (hey, I took four years of Spanish...10 years ago) to read that magazine.  The sad thing is, I'm pretty sure I got out of the Latin Cosmo what I would out of one in English even though I read Spanish at a six year old's level.  Context clues are clutch.

Oh, and Mr. Biscuit still almost wet himself from laughing so hard even though I tried to play this blunder off.

What has bride brain done to you? 

Something awesome to come home to.

This past weekend I was in Menomonie, WI celebrating a close friend's nuptials.  It was a fabulous weekend, and a great trip.  When we came home, we were greeted with a facebook status from one of Mr. Biscuit's aunts.  It turns out, that the hotel where we are having our wedding is completely booked on our wedding date.  How did this happen?  Well, our room block has been long gone, as my side of the family and my friends jumped the gun and booked their rooms in March (thanks friends/family!).  Mr. Biscuit's family, however, had not booked their rooms yet.

And during that period of time between March and May, participants in a motorcycle convention booked our hotel.  The largest motorcycle convention in the area, called Mountainfest.  If you've never heard of Mountainfest, a few competent motorcyclists and thousands of others who need their license revoked flock to my town and rev their engines for a weekend.  It's harmless fun, and the patrons are very polite and bring a lot of business to Morgantown, but most of the area does try to refrain from leaving their house for those 3 days.

So, my wedding is going to occur in the middle of motorcycle fest.  A+.  It is almost impossible to drive anywhere when these folks are in town, and equally as difficult to find hotel rooms.  I may or may not need a stiff drink.

Anyone else have a major event in their town on their wedding day?

Leaving the EST Time Zone

Mr. Biscuit and I have yet to book our honeymoon.  I know, I know, we have less than three months and we should get on that.  I assure you, we're working on it.  We've had some trouble with the itinerary.

I've done some traveling in my 24 years, and I have a firm knowledge of what I like and what I don't like in a vacation.  I'm one of those people who loves Disney World or even--gasp!--cruises.  There's always something going on and something to do.  I really don't like laying around on a beach all day and have a hard time justifying paying thousands of dollars to vacation on an exotic beach.

I've also been to a few tropical-ish places.  Hawaii?  Check.  The Caribbean?  Check, multiple times.  They were nice, but they just weren't places I'd want to spend a huge chunk of money on for a nice vacation.

Mr. Biscuit didn't really have any input in the matter (as per usual), so all the decision making was up to me.  The only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to get Mr. B out of the time zone, because, well, he's never been out of the time zone.  Never.  He has traversed up and down the EST, but really, those lines are like asymptotes for him.  He can approach CST, but never reach it.

Mr. B put me in charge of the honeymoon because of how much I traveled, which is kind of laughable.  He's seen about 1% of the world, and I've seen MAYBE 2%.  So, logically, it would make sense to put me in the pilot seat for planning, but really, neither of us are exactly jet setters.

Trials and Tribulations: Makeup Edition

I have been vacillating over whether I should DIY my makeup or get a pro to do it for awhile.  My wedding is at one in the afternoon (thank you Catholic scheduling!) and my hair dresser doesn't do makeup.  Just when I was about 99% ready to do my own makeup (and possibly have shiny face or no eyelash syndrome) one of my bridesmaids said she found someone in town who did airbrush makeup for $50.  I looked up this salon and found out it was about 1.5 driving minutes away from my hairdresser.  Serendipity, my friends.

I scheduled my trial for yesterday morning, and was incredibly excited for what was to come.  People hype up airbrush makeup so much, that I was sure I was going to look amazing.  I half expected to walk out looking like Jessica Alba.

Of course, when you set the bar that high, there's going to be some disappointment because I'm no Jessica Alba. 

Don't get me wrong, I am extremely happy with my complexion and blush.  I asked for a smokey eye though, and I probably should have specified a brown smokey eye because it turned out a little dark.  So dark that when Mr. Biscuit came home he likened me to Elvira.

via AHollywood.info

via Seattle Twist

The funny thing is, you can't really tell in pictures.  In fact, in pictures I don't look that shabby.  On the day of, we're going to do some fake eyelashes, but I asked that they be minimal and not crazy finger things.  I just need something to open my eyes because they (like the rest of my face) are small.

So, without further ado, here's a few gratuitous pics.  Remember, I'm thinking about going more brown on the eye instead of black on the day of.  The lipstick I applied (my own) had pretty much worn off by the time I took these pictures, but I like the color it turned to.  A nice rich berry stain.

Excuse the weird smiles.  I'm trying to hide my braces because I'm sick of looking at them.

I'm glad I did this trial, because I don't think I'd be happy with the end product day of; however, the airbrush makeup really is great.  It's not coming of and makes my complexion look flawless.  I highly recommend it to anyone who is a little slow on the makeup uptake (like myself).  Up next: the hair!

How did your makeup trials go?  Is anyone DIY-ing it?

Can I win at shoe again?

Recently, I've been a little worried about my wedding shoes.  Remember the beauties?  As much as I love them, I know I'm not going to make it past the ceremony in them no matter how many gel soles I put in them.  I'm not exactly graceful when walking in heels.  Unfortunately, my dress is currently hemmed for my 5" shoes.  So, if I switched to flats for the reception, I'd be tripping all over myself.  A+.

So what's the answer to this predicament?  Easy: find cute shoes that are super comfortable and almost as high!  And that I did, today while shopping.

via Must Have Shoes

Come on, don't tell me these aren't the best shoes EVER (aside from the ones you're wearing, and ya know, the other ones I bought).   I'm hoping to get some more leverage out of them, but for the $80 price tag at DSW I can live with just traipsing around my house with them.

Did you choose a different, fun reception shoe?

And Now--for something I really don't care about

Yes y'all, I'm talking about what the groom/groomsmen are going to wear.  I'll be honest, at first, this was something I didn't care about at all.  Mr. Biscuit could wear tails, a tuxedo, a suit, boxers and a cowboy hat as far as I cared. 

But then, I saw this really pretty wedding on Snippet & Ink and fell in love with the use of teacups and the adorable outfit of the groom:

Images via Snippet and Ink/Photography:Erin Hearts Court /Florist:Heavenly Blooms /Groom's apparel: tie: Jimmy Au’s / Tux & Tulle

They're my far more stylish wedding twins!  Yippee! 

The Princess Diaries

As soon as I found out the blogger bees were going to write about their Royal Wedding predictions, I jumped at the chance to join in!  And then I realized that I know nothing about flowers, designer gowns, and really anything royal wedding related.  It's OK though, I've been watching all the TLC specials, and I feel like I may have some semi coherent predictions.

1.) The dress
 Many have speculated that Kate will wear a more form fitting gown.  I disagree.  While I can't imagine Kate in a ruffly ballgown, I also can't see her in a trumpet sheath.  She will have to have a decent train.  It takes about 4 minutes to walk down the aisle, and she will be photographed from the ceiling.  There needs to be some sort of wow factor. She also needs to stand out amidst the thousands upon thousands of people who are there. 

For some reason I have this idea in my head that her dress will look a bit like Princess Mia's in The Princess Diaries 2, except it will be poofier with a longer train.  I also think that she'll stay on trend and have a separate dress for her after party.  I think she'll keep it long but still form fitting.  Her veil for the ceremony will probably cathedral length, and I think it will drag around three feet in front of her. As for the designer, I think she'll stay classic with McQueen, with Issa doing her reception dress.

via Order of Splendor/Disney Pictures

via InStyle/Netaporter