I had a makeup trial last night and I'm not sure what exactly I don't love about it, but there's definitely something that I'm not a fan of. Tell me what's "off" please!

(Ignore the dreadful hair. I just pulled it back randomly when I got home) Are the eyes too dark? I feel like the darkness on my eyelids makes my undereye circles look darker. Here's what they look like closed:

Verdict? Suggestions?

Wow, I cannot believe it's Tuesday already. This weekend flew by so fast, but I was able to get a lot done so that's good. First up, hair trial. After looking around quite a bit for someone in the area who didn't still do 1980s hair styles (ick!), I asked a friend who she recommends and she sent me to Colby. I loooove Colby! Seriously, you cannot even imagine my relief at having this "to do" checked off my list! We started by trying my everyday hairstyle with a little more volume. But I didn't like it because it looked too much like me everyday-- and I want to look a little better!

Then we tried it with some loose curls. You can see by the progression of my facial expression that I liked this better than the first style, but I still wasn't completely sold on it.

Finally, we kept the loose curls but added some more volume at the roots, then pulled one side back and up. Pulling that side back also created an anchor for the flower fascinator and jewel pin that I ordered to add to my veil.

Which reminds me... I ordered this flower fascinator from etsy because I couldn't decide between it and then my gorgeous pearl broach that you've all already seen. The broach is very heavy. We'll see how the flower looks when it arrives.

Anyway, you can clearly see that this was the winner for me. I liked how it looked without the veil on, and how it looked with the veil, which means I'll be a happy camper both for the ceremony and for the reception :)

So that equals one great big CHECK! Not only is Colby great and very funny (bummer that I didn't make her take a photo of herself for me to show you), she is also inexpensive. $20 each for me and my mom (my mom has short hair too) and $30 each for the other 5 girls in the wedding, who all have long hair. She's planning to come to our hotel the morning of the wedding with all her gear.

I picked up my wedding dress from my tailor's yesterday and I was so excited when I finally had all the buttons fastened and turned around to look in the mirror. It fit! It looked exactly how I wanted it to! For more than a year, she's hung in my closet waiting to be altered-- a lot. I had this image in my head of how I wanted the dress to look on me, but had never actually gotten to see it. Until yesterday.

I held myself together very well at my appointment, didn't even make my lovely tailor take photos. Then I promptly rushed out to my car, clapped my hands together and shrieked "eeeeeee"... then went home, put my dress back on, and took lots of photos. Thank goodness for the still timer! Because of that, I have to apologize for the quality and angle of these photos, I propped my camera up against a picture frame. Hey, it worked, right?
So here she is, as I first tried her on (and yes, the dress was blue when I tried it on! I was a little nervous ordering it in white without seeing it in white beforehand! :)

I loved it from the moment I put it on. But there were a few things that had to change. First, I didn't want a strapless dress. I knew going into dress shopping that if I fell for a strapless dress, it would have to be one that would look good with straps added. I was psyched when my lovely saleslady told me that we could order the dress with a lower scoop in the neckline and higher "starters" on the sides, to allow straps to be added without making it obvious that, well, we'd added straps.

Second, I didn't want a long train. I know a lot of girls love their bustles, but I don't see the point of dragging around a train all pinned up- just not for me. So I knew that I wanted the chapel train chopped off. If you've gotten alterations yet, you know what a hassle it is to cut off a train and then hem the dress back up with all the layers that are in/under a wedding dress... my tailor is seriously a saint.

Then in addition to those two changes, the dress was about 2 inches too big all the way around, and I wanted bra cups put in so I didn't have to wear a bra underneath. The back of the dress is just low enough that I would wonder all night whether my bra was showing! So now, altered and finished, here is my beautiful dress! Can you tell I'm insanely excited in this picture? Note to self, don't smile so big that your nose crinkles in the wedding photos... not pretty...

The only way I could manage to get a full-length photo was to photograph myself looking in the mirror. Lovely. Like the fan in the background? :)

And of course, I had to try on my DIY birdcage with the dress to make sure the whites matched. And they do! Score.

So there you have it, my insanely exciting Thursday night :) Want to know two things that made my night even better? All those alterations only cost me $100 and on my way to the tailor's shop, I found out that I'm getting a bridal shower on April 5th! Which isn't that far away, considering that we now only have 78 days left until the wedding. No one is kidding around with you when they say that time flies once you're under the 100-days mark!

It's been cold, dreary and snowy. When the snow melts during the day, it freezes overnight into ice. It's been an endless cycle, one that's made me more than a little grumpy.
On Monday, I woke up to a day just like all the ones before it: snowy, slushy, icy, windy, cold. And then something happened while I was sitting at my desk at work all morning, trying to get a million things accomplished, knowing it was pointless with half the staff gone for the holidays. The sun came out. The air warmed up. Mr bekapaige came to my office with lunch in one hand and keys to his car in the other. Into his car I went and we spent a lovely lunch hour enjoying the glorious weather... and driving to the county courthouse. 


Yes, friends, we got our marriage license! For so long--oh so long-- getting our marriage license has been way up on the to-do list, towards the top, closer to the wedding. And now we are here. We started our countdown to the wedding at 701 days and now we are at 116. We are finally closer, almost to the real stage.

Delusional I may be, but personally, I think the sun came out just for me today.

People tend to split on one side or the other when it comes to the question we'll all answer about a million times between now and when we say I do: what are you doing with your name when you get married?

There are many options. For example: I could stay Beka Paige or take his name and be Beka Hislastname. Or I could hyphenate and be Beka Paige-Hislastname or I could make my last name my middle name and be Beka Paige Histlastname. We could both hyphenate, both keep our own names or together come up with a new name.

I know a lot of brides have really strong feelings about this-- and so do lots of grooms. Mr bekapaige and I are no exception. I have strong feelings about what I want to do, and a large part of it stems from my background in marketing. In my career, my name is my "brand." If I'm in a point at my career when I want to increase my market value, then what sense does it make to change my brand name?

But that wasn't all. I like my name, I like my family, and I didn't want to change my name. I didn't like the history of it, the fact that this tradition came from the days when wives had no rights, when they were literally invisible in law and society. When we got engaged last November, one of my aunts interrogated me about my name-change plans, then yelled at me in front of my entire family at Thanksgiving for not planning to change my name.

Mr bekapaige has tried so hard to understand where I was coming from, but he had strong feelings too. He had always imagined his wife having his last name, and he had a hard time believing that my not taking his name didn't mean that it would be easier for me to leave him. And the poor guy really did understand what bothered me about the tradition, but it wasn't until I offered a compromise that things changed. I said that I would hyphenate my name with his if he did the same thing. When he wasn't willing to do it, he realized how hard it was for me.

We've gone over the different options, and while we both are very convinced of what we individually want, we both have tried really hard to make the other one happy. And we both think that we've arrived at the perfect answer for us: Each of our names will stay as they are. Socially, if people refer to us as "The Hislastnames" that's fine, but professionally and legally, my name won't change.

So what do you think, has this been a no-brainer issue for you and your fiance or have you wrestled with it like we have? What did you decide to do?

Image credit

Hey girls, I'm asking for some help. Mr bekapaige and I have been working on writing our ceremony and vows lately and I'd love some feedback. I'm a little worried that mine are a little too sappy :) 

Mr Bekapaige, today I promise to love you every day as your wife and as your best friend. Today I take you to be my partner, my love and my family. I promise to build with you a home in which we can find rest, joy, excitement and comfort, and to try every day to not take you for granted.
Today I thank you for all the ways you've supported me and loved me in the last four years. Thank you for being patient, for seeing me, for all the laughter, for all the tears, for all the hugs and kisses and adventures.
Today I promise to walk through this life beside you, to share in all the celebrations
and challenges that this life will bring. I will follow you, respect you and support you in all your goals. I will never forget that the ways in which you differ from me are the very things that make you "you." I promise to remember your birthday, love your family and help you make dinner.
I love you.I trust you. I will be here for you when you are hurting, and when I am
hurting, I will not leave.
I will always love you.

What do you think? Too sappy? Are they too long, would you be bored if you were sitting at our wedding (and you KNOW you all wish you were ;)? If you've written your own vows or chose a twist on traditional vows, I'd love it if you shared them!

photo 1: mrs.pootiekins photo 2: mrsanayisnin

Lately mr bekapaige and I have been working on writing our ceremony and vows. We've decided to say the traditional vows, followed by our own vows to each other. You know how you see lovely pictures of ornate, detailed cards with the vows written on them? Cute. Knowing me, I'd be reading my vows off a coffee-stained 3-by-5 card. Not cute.

So when Atlanta Bride mentioned modifying these programs to hold their vows, I was psyched! What an awesome idea! And really, how cute are these? And after the wedding, we'll have the little book to hold our vows. I like.

 
My mom had her wedding dress designed and sewn 28 years ago, and she has a ton of scraps left over. I think I'll ask her for some scraps from her wedding dress to use for the cover of these pretty little books.

Equally exciting, these little beauties are by Martha Stewart Weddings, which of course means that she gives directions. Because I'm helpless on my own. Here they are, in case you love these too!

Program Jacket How-To

You will need: scalloping shears, 4 1/2 -inch-wide moire taffeta ribbon cut to 7-inch length, program printed on 6 1/4-by-4 1/4-inch paper, paper clips, thin satin ribbon 18 3/4 inches long, pins, and sewing machine.

1. Fold program in half; crease. Fold wide ribbon in half; iron to crease. Center open program on unfolded ribbon; clip in place. Center narrow ribbon on outside of wide ribbon, perpendicular to fold, and pin close to the crease.

2. With booklet open to center, sew through all 3 elements along the fold. Tie off thread and trim excess. Remove clips and pins.

Check out this awesome sign that excited bride got from etsy seller SignsbyDiane. Is it awesome or what? Gorgeous. So I checked out Diane's other designs and I gotta say, it's a little bit of love.

Are you using any fun signs for the wedding? I painted a sign on muslin with pink ribbon that says "brides last name-grooms last name wedding" but since it has our last names, well, yeah. But I am so in love with the above sign, we may need one for the house........

Look at this gorgeous little thing! I'm so excited about this, it's a little ridiculous.

I hadn't really thought about any sort of ring pillow or anything for the ceremony, but I wondered upon this on etsy while looking for gift ideas for my best friend's birthday. I fell in love! It's a gorgeous little ring bowl with string for holding the rings, and the engraving is custom made by etsy seller palomasnest.

And then here's my confession: all the examples on her shop profile were of nice things like "you, me forever" and "with this ring, I thee wed" and "set me like a seal on your heart." So what are mr bekapaige and I having engraved on it?

You're My Lobster.

If you don't know the reference for the phrase, you're not cool. Maybe it's not quite as sacred as it should be, but it cracks us up! :) (and if you don't know why the lobster quote, or if you do know and you're dying to watch it, here's the clip!) What do you think?

Who fell for a very body-conscious, curve-hugging dress. Which wouldn't be an issue except that there are no curves for the dress to hug. Well, actually I take that back-- my butt has started growing at an exponential rate in the past couple of years while my chest still looks exactly like my back. Now, I am aware of the fact that I can get rid of the nasty bony looks of my elbows, wrists, collarbone, hips and knees by building muscle. But I'm lazy. And I'm liiiiiittle. Yes, I bring that excuse out quite often. Don't want to take the trash out? But mr bekapaige, I'm liiiiiittle. The laundry basket is too heavy? But mr bekapaige, I'm liiiiittle. But I digress.

Here is what I want to change: First, my shoulder blades. Um yeah. Do I even need a caption for this photo?

Second, my arms, elbows and wrists. They are probably the thing I hate most. I would have loved this boudoir photo but I can't stand it because of the darn bones. Also, exhibit A on the whole chest looking like my back thing.

So here's the plan. First, Winsor Pilates. I know it's goofy, but this program has worked for me over and over. I just can't seem to stay consistent. Second, the One Hundred Pushups workout program to define my upper arms. Gotta thank Amanda for turning me on to this idea.

So that's my plan. We'll see how it goes... Any advice? Anything in particular that worked well for you?

Second photo by rpetersphotography