And it all leads up to this…

The room that Nicol, Lesley, Madi and I stayed in the night before the wedding had one king-size bed and a pull out couch. Lesley and Madi slept on the pull out couch and Nicol and I slept in the king-size bed. Nicol has a tendency to wake up pretty early and Saturday, November 28^th was no exception. No one else was awake yet, so she decided to grab her phone and play solitaire. She switched it to silent so that it wouldn’t make any noise, but it vibrated when she switched it. Oddly, that small vibrate was loud enough to wake me up. Nicol didn’t realize that I had woken up and she continued to play on her phone. I leaned over very quietly and when my face was right by hers I said (very loudly), “I’m getting married today!!!” I think that she jumped about a foot…it was pretty funny!

After that, Lesley and Madi woke up as well. We decided that coffee was a MUST and looked up Starbuck’s and Caribou locations to see what time they opened. Because we were downtown and it was a Saturday, our options were limited. But we found a Starbuck’s at the City Center that opened up at 7 and headed over there. We all got our coffees and stopped at Bruegger’s on the way back for some breakfast. I think it was around 8:00 when we got back to the hotel. Madi decided that she should start doing Nicol’s hair. Lesley and I decided that we should run to Target to get some snacks for the day. When we got back, it was around 9:00 or 9:30. My mom and PJ showed up a little bit after that to hang out with us while we were getting ready.

The make-up artist I had found, Lianna Colestock, was scheduled to arrive to do my make-up at 10:00. We had done a practice run a couple weekends before for my make-up so Lianna would have an idea of what I wanted the day of the wedding. It was funny when we looked at the pictures we took of the make-up because Lianna went pretty light. As a make-up artist who does weddings all the time, she told us that she often hears brides say they want to have a “natural, I’m not wearing any make-up” look on their wedding day. I don’t even want a “natural, I’m not wearing any make-up look” on a random Tuesday…I certainly don’t want that look on my wedding day! And come on people, that “natural, I’m not wearing any make-up” look is not fooling anyone…we can all tell that is not what you look like when you wake up in the morning! Long story short, I told Lianna to cake it on…

I have to say that I could definitely get used to having someone do my hair and make-up for me while I sit and drink Starbuck’s or a sugar-free Red Bull!

Nicol’s hair was all pinned up and Madi wanted to get started on my hair. We had practiced it a couple weekends before the wedding and knew it was going to take some time being that the style that I chose for my hair was pretty intense, so Madi wanted to get started on it early. She got started on setting it before Lianna arrived to do my make-up. Shortly after that, Lianna showed up and started to work on my make-up. Then shortly after that, Preston arrived to start photographing all of us getting ready. His assistant, Kevin, showed up shortly after that.

 After Lianna was done with my make-up, Madi started to work on my hair. The hairstyle that I had chosen was the hair that Heidi Klum had for the Oscars one year. It was HUGE and glamorous and I fell in love with it the second I saw a picture of it. When I showed it to Madi, she had said that the up part of the hair was a hairpiece and it might be really hard to recreate…but she was willing to try. Madi is the Updo Queen, so of course she was able to do it! The funny thing was that Heidi’s was a hairpiece, but mine was pretty much all my hair. There was one hairpiece inside the bun for a little extra volume and there was one hairpiece wrapped around the bun on the outside, other than that though, all me! When I got to see it in the mirror for the first time when it was done, I was totally blown away. It was so beautiful and exactly what I wanted…thanks Madi, you are the best!!!

  

During the time that I was getting my hair done, Nicol was getting her make-up done because she had to be ready at the same time as me. She was going to tag along with Jason and I for our outdoor pictures to help us if we needed it. I know I have said it in previous posts, but she was the best maid of honor anyone could ever ask for!!! Anyway – after Nicol’s make-up was done, she got dressed and she, Lesley, and Madi all came up to the honeymoon suite with me to help me get dressed. My mom stayed in the room with Lianna and got her make-up done as well.

Nicol, Lesley, and Madi helped me get my dress, shoes, and jewelry on up in the honeymoon suite and then left the room to send Jason up so that we could see each other for the first time privately. Well, as privately as you can get with two photographers in the room there to capture the moment! During the time that we were waiting for Jason, Preston took some pictures of me by myself. 

 

 

 

 

Once Jason was outside the room, Preston and Kevin had me hide in the bathroom so that I could walk up behind Jason. This way, they would be able to photograph both of our faces when we saw each other. Once Jason was positioned in the room, Preston had me walk up behind him and then he told him when to turn around. I am really glad that we did this because we were doing our formal pictures before the ceremony, so we missed out on that seeing each other as I walk down the aisle moment. This moment was just as amazing. We hadn’t seen each other since the night before and it was amazing to see each other all ready and excited for the biggest and happiest day of our lives! I do have to say though that you could definitely see “Holy shit, her hair is big” running through Jason’s head as he saw me! LOL!!! After the “big unveil” we kissed and talked for a while with Preston and Kevin capturing the whole thing on film.

 

 

 

 

After that, we had to get all of our stuff together because we wanted to go to the Stone Arch Bridge to take pictures together. We headed down to the other hotel room to grab Nicol and my purse so we could head out.

 

 

 The high was 46 and it was beautiful and sunny. We were a little worried about the weather being that it was November 28^th and in Minnesota that could mean a world-stopping snow storm. But we really lucked out with the weather. We left to take pictures around 1:00 or 1:15 and it was so nice out that I didn’t even need to wear a coat! Our hotel was right next to Capella University, where I work, so as we were walking to the car, we stopped to take an ultra cheesy picture next to the sign.

 

 

Jason rented an SUV for the day so that we wouldn’t have to pile into one of our tiny Yaris’. We all got into the car and headed over to the Stone Arch Bridge. Jason dropped me, Nicol, and Preston off and we went to the bridge to take some pictures of me by myself. Kevin snapped some pictures of Jason by himself as well.

 

 

When Jason met up with us, we did a bunch of pictures of the two of us together. We did a bunch of them on the bridge and then we headed down the (blocked off) stairs to the river. We got a lot of really cool shots down there as well. One of the walls was covered in graffiti and it looked really cool in the pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At about 2:45, we headed over to the Metropolitan because we had told everyone that formal bridal party and family pictures were going to be starting at 3:00. When we got there, we did family formals first. It was still light out and the temperature was still pretty warm, so we decided to do family formals outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After family formals were done, we went inside and did bridal party pictures. I don’t know that I have ever listed our full bridal party in any of my blog posts, so I suppose I should do that now…

Nicol Hamilton – Maid of Honor

Sean McGregor – Man of Honor

Kirsten Jaglo – Best Woman

Matt Pedote – Junior Groomsman

Nick Pedote - Junior Groomsman

Jack Fogelberg - Junior Groomsman

Erick Fogelberg - Junior Groomsman

Kaleb Gale - Junior Groomsman

Jackson Jaglo – Ringbearer

Adair Fogelberg – Junior Bridesmaid

Mia Fogelberg – Junior Bridesmaid

Madison Pitonyak – Junior Bridesmaid

Eleanor Gale – Flower Girl

Sydney McGregor - Flower Girl

Devin McGregor - Flower Girl

Lesley MacPhail – Personal Attendant

Jennifer Madison – Personal Attendant

Jenny McGregor – Personal Attendant

Bradley Coleman Johnson – Officiant

PJ McGregor – Reader

Jacie Fogelberg – Reader

 

 

 

 

 

The family formals turned out beautiful and I am very glad that we did them, however, they took FOREVER and as we were nearing the end of them, I almost had a little nervous breakdown/Bridezilla moment. My wonderful sister saw this and stepped in so that I didn’t have to be the crazy person yelling at everyone to get together for the final photo of everyone in their Team Jaglo sweatshirts. Thank god, because no bride looks pretty yelling at people!

 

During the time that we were taking our formal pictures, my personal attendants and some other family members were busy putting our centerpieces together and getting the tables and everything else set up. I will do another post about it another time, but I had put together all sorts of spreadsheets and instructional packets for everyone so that everything would run smoothly the day of the wedding. Although it was wildly dorky, I am so happy that I did that because it kept the day stress free – i.e. I didn’t have people asking me questions constantly about what needed to go where and so on…

This post is getting a bit long, so I think I will take a break for now and pick up at the ceremony and beyond in the next post…