Last Thursday I arrived in Boston after a quick day trip out to Albany for some meetings. After unloading my car with all my things (I did not pack light for this trip!) I met up with two of my fellow besties and bridesmaids, Teenie and E, for dinner at Barcelona. Even though the three of us live in different cities (Chicago, DC, and Atlanta, of course), we all had various work obligations in the area during the day so we showed up for dinner post-work and in our work clothes. It struck me as funny and so nice, because I realized that this would be what it was like if we all lived in the same city and could regularly meet for post-work dinner and drinks. I’ve been “long-distance friends” for so long with these girls that doing something simple like this was so nice and something I wish could be a part of my normal routine more often.
We’re old ladies and had a busy weekend and the girls had husbands/fiances arriving in that night so it was an early evening, which suited me just fine. I did some foam rolling at the hotel and then went to bed, getting up early to get in a 5-mile run along the Charles. I really love running in Boston and this morning was nice and crisp and a great way to start the day. I didn’t stop to take any pictures this time but I snapped a post-run selfie in the bathroom of the hotel, where I silently had foam rolled, showered, and changed for the day, while my friend’s fiancé slept!
After a few hours of camping in Starbucks, I met up with the girls to begin wedding weekend festivities!!! Oh my gosh, it was so fun.
First stop in pasting on the layers to get me beautified and ready for the wedding began on Friday with appointments for manicures and pedicures. I was excited to get my nails done since it is not something I do regularly (at least for my fingernails.) One of the reasons I don’t often get my nails done is that I am impatient. I am not good at sitting still and not using my hands. I love pedicures, but struggle to keep my hands still for a while. Even when I was younger, I’ve always needed to keep my hands busy while I am in meetings or watching TV or doing things statically. I tap my fingers a lot of times when driving or running and just like to keep busy. More often than not I smudge my fingernails before they dry when I get them done.
Because I didn’t want this to happen for the wedding, I asked my friends if they would be okay with me getting my nails done first. I figured that if I sat in the chair first, and finished first, I would be forced to just sit and wait until everyone else finished and therefore give me time to let my nails dry. My friends laughed, but agreed, and I sat down to get my nails done first. They started with a pedicure and slowly everyone else ended up sitting down in the chairs. I am not sure exactly what happened, but all of a sudden I started to notice people’s feet getting finished up before me and starting on their nails, or people having another technician working on their nails the same time their feet were worked on. I have no idea how, but believe it or not, despite being the first person sitting down, I was the last to finish getting their nails painted by about 10 minutes. HOW does this happen!?! Oh well, they turned out nice.
Everyone was laughing a ton and it became a joke throughout the weekend, because obviously something like that would happen to me.
From nails we went and had an amazingly delicious lunch with the bridal party before a little down time and then the wedding rehearsal! The bridesmaids were actually the first people to arrive at the rehearsal (fist bump to the bridal party for being on time!) so we actually started getting a rundown of our duties from the priest early. The priest was VERY strict with what he was explaining to us about we needed to do and how we needed to do it in order to look nice. Everything that he told us not to do, he finished with the threat, “IF you do XYZ, it will look TERRIBLE.” He said it so many times it became a little bit of a joke to us. But we were also noting all the rules to be sure to be nothing less than the best for Meaggie’s wedding day.
The evening ended up a gorgeous and delicious dinner along the Boston Harbor where we ate, laughed, and had our final moments of hype leading up to the big wedding day!
We started at about 8:30 a.m. meeting up at the bridal suite in the Ritz in downtown Boston. Because we fancy. It was a fun morning of pampering, laughter, hair spray, food, dancing, and just total happiness and celebration. KO and I danced in the windows. Meaggie looked like a princess. We all helped come up with ideas of what would be best in each other's hair. We ate. We cried (some of us.) We helped one another get into our dresses. And we celebrated Meaggie's last moments as a "single" woman.
I was really happy with the way that my hair and my makeup for the wedding. They were done by a team called "Eye 4 Beauty" and the woman who owns the company's name is Jaime Berkman. I highly recommend anyone getting married or needing hair and makeup for a special occasion in the New England area to check them out! They were a lot of fun and did a great job of getting us all wedding ready! I ended up going with a side ponytail, which at first, I felt a little lame about, because I wear a side ponytail pretty much every day of my life. But she made it beautiful and different and I thought it was the perfect look for the dress and for me!
We took pictures in the bridal suite and then boarded the trolley to head to the church. I had a full on dance party throughout the morning in the bridal suite and kept that going on the trolley to the church. We had to wait for all the guests to arrive and we were counting down the minutes until showtime but we kept the energy fun and happy on that bus!
From there we went to the church, for a beautiful ceremony where the bridesmaids managed to not "look terrible" (or so I hope) and we saw our beautiful friends officially get married! There were a few more pictures in and around the church and from there, the party started as we got back on the trolley that doubled as a party bus. Meag and Jon met ON a party bus, so it was only fitting for this to be our ride around Boston during the wedding weekend.
The weather was absolutely perfect this wedding day and I cannot wait to see how the formal pictures came out as the backdrop of Boston Common was totally amazing. I saw as the photos were being taken that they were going to come out totally breathtaking and I can't wait to see them. We continued to smile, laugh, and be silly throughout the day and had a number of mini bridesmaid photo shoots on our own. Last year E said that when she was going through her professional photographer wedding pics there were so many fun ones that she'd seen we had taken while her and her husband were getting their portraits done. She was excited to do that this year, so I made sure to oblige her! I also snuck in a portrait too. I am nothing if not always down for a good photo opportunity!
From the photo shoot we waited on the bus a bit before returning to the reception. My nonstop dance party that had been taking place all day long continued on that trolley while we were waiting for Meaggie and Jon to finish their pictures. I have always loved dancing as a way to express emotion. I just was feeling happy all day last Saturday so I shared it all by making whereever I was a dance party, even if just of one! I did manage to get a lot of stares and smiles from passerbys in downtown Boston and if I happened to make any of them smile, than all the better!
The reception was just a great night and an all out dance party where I certainly WAS NOT the only one on the dance floor. That thing was packed from the very beginning of the night! Our dinner was amazing, the girls and I gave a joint bridesmaid toast, we danced, we celebrated with our parents (who doesn't love a wedding with their mom there?!), we drank, we bustled our dresses, we laughed, we had a private super sweet toast with the wedding party, Meaggie and Jon surprised everyone on the dance floor with their Boston spirit, and the whole wedding was perfectly them. Including their table names that were all references to different dates they have been on, including our infamous Gobble Wobble Thanksgiving 5K that we all run together. It is where we all first met Jon and where they later asked me to be a bridesmaid!
The night was amazing and so much fun. There is nothing like a best friend getting married. A best friend you've had since childhood whose family you know, whose cousins, family friends, college roommates, adult friends, etc. you all know. It makes for a great party and a great support as they start their married life together. Congrats Meaggie and Jon!
We’re old ladies and had a busy weekend and the girls had husbands/fiances arriving in that night so it was an early evening, which suited me just fine. I did some foam rolling at the hotel and then went to bed, getting up early to get in a 5-mile run along the Charles. I really love running in Boston and this morning was nice and crisp and a great way to start the day. I didn’t stop to take any pictures this time but I snapped a post-run selfie in the bathroom of the hotel, where I silently had foam rolled, showered, and changed for the day, while my friend’s fiancé slept!
After a few hours of camping in Starbucks, I met up with the girls to begin wedding weekend festivities!!! Oh my gosh, it was so fun.
First stop in pasting on the layers to get me beautified and ready for the wedding began on Friday with appointments for manicures and pedicures. I was excited to get my nails done since it is not something I do regularly (at least for my fingernails.) One of the reasons I don’t often get my nails done is that I am impatient. I am not good at sitting still and not using my hands. I love pedicures, but struggle to keep my hands still for a while. Even when I was younger, I’ve always needed to keep my hands busy while I am in meetings or watching TV or doing things statically. I tap my fingers a lot of times when driving or running and just like to keep busy. More often than not I smudge my fingernails before they dry when I get them done.
Because I didn’t want this to happen for the wedding, I asked my friends if they would be okay with me getting my nails done first. I figured that if I sat in the chair first, and finished first, I would be forced to just sit and wait until everyone else finished and therefore give me time to let my nails dry. My friends laughed, but agreed, and I sat down to get my nails done first. They started with a pedicure and slowly everyone else ended up sitting down in the chairs. I am not sure exactly what happened, but all of a sudden I started to notice people’s feet getting finished up before me and starting on their nails, or people having another technician working on their nails the same time their feet were worked on. I have no idea how, but believe it or not, despite being the first person sitting down, I was the last to finish getting their nails painted by about 10 minutes. HOW does this happen!?! Oh well, they turned out nice.
Everyone was laughing a ton and it became a joke throughout the weekend, because obviously something like that would happen to me.
From nails we went and had an amazingly delicious lunch with the bridal party before a little down time and then the wedding rehearsal! The bridesmaids were actually the first people to arrive at the rehearsal (fist bump to the bridal party for being on time!) so we actually started getting a rundown of our duties from the priest early. The priest was VERY strict with what he was explaining to us about we needed to do and how we needed to do it in order to look nice. Everything that he told us not to do, he finished with the threat, “IF you do XYZ, it will look TERRIBLE.” He said it so many times it became a little bit of a joke to us. But we were also noting all the rules to be sure to be nothing less than the best for Meaggie’s wedding day.
The evening ended up a gorgeous and delicious dinner along the Boston Harbor where we ate, laughed, and had our final moments of hype leading up to the big wedding day!
We started at about 8:30 a.m. meeting up at the bridal suite in the Ritz in downtown Boston. Because we fancy. It was a fun morning of pampering, laughter, hair spray, food, dancing, and just total happiness and celebration. KO and I danced in the windows. Meaggie looked like a princess. We all helped come up with ideas of what would be best in each other's hair. We ate. We cried (some of us.) We helped one another get into our dresses. And we celebrated Meaggie's last moments as a "single" woman.
From there we went to the church, for a beautiful ceremony where the bridesmaids managed to not "look terrible" (or so I hope) and we saw our beautiful friends officially get married! There were a few more pictures in and around the church and from there, the party started as we got back on the trolley that doubled as a party bus. Meag and Jon met ON a party bus, so it was only fitting for this to be our ride around Boston during the wedding weekend.
The weather was absolutely perfect this wedding day and I cannot wait to see how the formal pictures came out as the backdrop of Boston Common was totally amazing. I saw as the photos were being taken that they were going to come out totally breathtaking and I can't wait to see them. We continued to smile, laugh, and be silly throughout the day and had a number of mini bridesmaid photo shoots on our own. Last year E said that when she was going through her professional photographer wedding pics there were so many fun ones that she'd seen we had taken while her and her husband were getting their portraits done. She was excited to do that this year, so I made sure to oblige her! I also snuck in a portrait too. I am nothing if not always down for a good photo opportunity!
The reception was just a great night and an all out dance party where I certainly WAS NOT the only one on the dance floor. That thing was packed from the very beginning of the night! Our dinner was amazing, the girls and I gave a joint bridesmaid toast, we danced, we celebrated with our parents (who doesn't love a wedding with their mom there?!), we drank, we bustled our dresses, we laughed, we had a private super sweet toast with the wedding party, Meaggie and Jon surprised everyone on the dance floor with their Boston spirit, and the whole wedding was perfectly them. Including their table names that were all references to different dates they have been on, including our infamous Gobble Wobble Thanksgiving 5K that we all run together. It is where we all first met Jon and where they later asked me to be a bridesmaid!
The night was amazing and so much fun. There is nothing like a best friend getting married. A best friend you've had since childhood whose family you know, whose cousins, family friends, college roommates, adult friends, etc. you all know. It makes for a great party and a great support as they start their married life together. Congrats Meaggie and Jon!
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