Last weekend I got to finally get all of my bridesmaids together to celebrate my upcoming wedding! All of my bridesmaids have been with me through different phases of life and not all of those phases overlapped. Caitie (my sister and maid of honor), my bridal assistant Gillian, my mother, Jared and I went to a bridal expo back at the end of January, and we won free facials and makeovers for my whole bridal party. It took a lot of coordinating between me and my party to make it happen but we finally found a day to make it work.

A few days earlier I received the bridesmaids gifts from Crafting Mind Shop. Sarah was fantastic through the whole process and had the best prices I could find on Etsy! I only wish that the bows came already done how they were pictured (rather than in ribbons) because that was one of my favorite parts. As you can tell we couldn’t figure out to bows for the tops so we found our own way! Anyhow, I was so excited to show them to everyone.

Caitie and Maura helped set up everything the night before and get all of the brunch and mocktails ready for the following morning.

That morning Caitie, Maura, and I got up early to get ready. Maura helped straighten my hair (my shoulder at this time is not working since the injection failed) and then Jared helped me downstairs as people started arriving!

Pam from Mary Kay, was fantastic and she was quick to set up while Maura and Caitie were getting everyone mocktails. We started out by getting to know everyone and then started the facials. Pam dedicated her time before the party getting to know each of us and our skin type to make sure that everything we tried was tailored to each of us individually. I was surprised to fall in love as much as I did with the skin care and charcoal masks. (In an upcoming post, Stephen and I were given the masks, skin care brushes, and skin care line to review- Thanks Pam!!) Overall I was not super impressed with the makeup besides the eyeliner,  but we all had such a fun time! For anyone who wants to do this with their bridal party, reach out to Pam here. She was very kind, not pushy at all like many people worry about with direct sales, and I will definitely work with her again as I was so impressed by her character.

Shortly after brunch started and we all just spent time getting to know one another. Following brunch we cleared the table for a toast and dessert. In my toast, I wanted to thank everyone for being on this journey and for understanding that things are different. Jared and I didn’t know that we would have a wedding because we thought I was going to need a massive surgery that couldn’t wait. We had prepared our families that we may just have to go to have his family from PA come up, have my dad marry us, and then have the surgery. Thankfully my team said we could wait until after the wedding and the OSTSI. This journey to getting married has been as stressful as they come and I wanted to make sure that my party knew how much I appreciated each of them.

If you want to hear the toast click here.

Ultimately we had an amazing day and I am so excited to have everyone in my party… only 53 more days!

from L to R: Maura (lifelong best friend), Ally (OST Coach and one of my best friends from college), Me, Caitie (Sister & MOH), Tia (high school besties), and Amber (my amazing cousin.)

For anyone that wanted a closer look at the tumblers, you can check them out below!