Desk Dreams

My work office is in the midst of a major renovation. Like the tearing up all the carpeting, installing new lighting, and painting all the walls kinda overhaul. Not a pretty sight at all.

And myself, being a cosmetic product developer, has a TON of stuff. My office is stuffed to the gills with bins and trays of cosmetics. And my desk is often completely covered in product submissions. Needless to say, it can get a little overwhelming. Not the most creative of environments.

Well this past week and a half I've been doing a major cleanse. Tossing all the old and only keeping necessities and the pretty things to bring a bit of personality to the workplace. It's been kinda cathardic and I'm liking where it's going but I'm not quite there yet.

I've been looking around for a bit of inspiration and I came across these photos of Aerin Lauders home and work offices. They're so inspiring! Now I know Aerin Lauder and I are in the same line of work, and I know that she's Aerin Lauder and I'm not but why oh why can't I have an office like hers?

I'll take her desk from her home office above...that gold z desk is to die for!...or even her business office below. It's so clean and pretty and organized. But where does she keep all of her stuff? Must be nice to be a Lauder :)

Images: via this is glamorous

Reality Check

Well I guess it wasn't a dream after all! We're finally back from our honeymoon and we had a wonderful time but now the time has come to try to get back to reality. I have to tell you that it's a really really hard thing to do. I'm still on this bridal high and I'm not exactly sure how to reacquaint myself with normalcy.

The whole wedding kinda seems like it was a dream. I'm really thankful for the tons of pictures that have been coming in from various family & friends. I need them to show myself that our amazing wedding did, in fact, happen!

Our apartment still looks like a wedding bomb went off with presents, extra favors & welcome bag supplies, and various other wedding accessories scattered all over the place. We even have our dresses hanging from both our closet doors. Basically there's no where to walk. Needless to say we'll be on opperation declutter very soon.

So now's the time to start the recap. I want to share everything with you guys but I'm not exactly sure where to begin. I guess I'll start by sharing a few pictures from the morning of.

The amazing Central Park view from our suite

It was such a special time. My sisters Lisa & Krissy along with J & myself were whisked from our hotels downtown to our salon for hair. It was such a great time. It almost felt like we were in Steel Magnolias taking over the salon. It was exactly what J & I had always envisioned.

My ceremony hair flowers

My sister Krissy's hair rocked!!!

Then we headed back on uptown to le Parker Meridien where we were joined by our fabulous makeup artist Erika. Seriously, she is the greatest makeup artist that I've ever worked with. I was so thrilled that she was available to work her magic on our wedding day.

Erika at work on my sister Lisa

And I cannot forgot our amazing friends Natalie & Courtney. They showed up at the hotel bright and early and were there the entire way making our day totally unforgettable. We love those girls, they're basically like our sisters, and it meant so much to have them there with us to share in the events of the day. They even documented the whole thing with a ton of pictures & video. AMAZING!

Love these girls! xoxo

I have some video too that I'll share sometime soon. That really captures the fun, loving, lighthearted, unforgettable time we had that morning.

Where To Get Dressed Distress

The past few days has revolved around us planning the flow of the day. Where and when will we each be getting ready? The whole thing is a bit tricky because we don't have confirmation that we will have early check into to the bridal suite at the hotel on the day that we get married. Also we were trying to get early check-in for our wedding attendants so they would have a place to get ready but it looks like that wont be feasible because the hotel will be booked. It just happens that it is the US Open that weekend and many of the tennis players stay at le Parker Meridien. Oh how convenient...

So then you ask, why don't you book a room at the hotel for the night before the wedding to avoid all the stress and confusion. Well that's not going to work because we are doing hair early in the morning at a salon near our apartment so we should just sleep at home that night to avoid a mad rush downtown from the hotel the morning of the wedding.

Another layer of confusion is where and what time will we be getting makeup done? We were planning to do it at the hotel but, like I said, we don't have guaranteed early check-in. We have to be ready for pictures at 2pm and I think right now they're guaranteeing a 1pm check in. I was hoping for more like 11am. I'm hoping we can convince them to accomodate us.

So as of now 2 of our sisters have reserved rooms at the hotel for the night before the wedding so that they at least have a place to get ready. You would think that we could just get ready in one of their rooms but unfortunately the rooms are on the small side and it won't be possible to pack a bunch of people in the rooms.

Can you tell that I'm in stressed out bride mode yet? We have a To Do list a mile long but I'm just going to take a deep breath and sit back and try convince myself that it will all work out :)

Image: Angelica Glass

Things Are Lookin Up!

Ok so over the past few weeks J & I have taken turns having MAJOR panic attacks over what's left to do before the wedding. I have to admit that I'm thankful that we've been taking turns and not having them at the same time since one always calms down the other. But getting back to the point I was trying to make, one of the major things we've been panicking about is not having a makeup artist.

Now this is something I really haven't spoken about because everyone who knows me outside of the blogosphere can't believe that I'm having a hard time with this. I mean I've worked in the cosmetics industry for 15 years now. You'd think this would be a piece of cake. But the truth of the matter is that I don't really work with cosmetic artists all that much. I've worked with a few on photoshoots in the past and I have worked on developing some products with Laura Geller a few years ago but I either didn't hold onto their contact info or I didn't really feel all that comfortable asking them to do my wedding day makeup. I don't really know why, but that's the way I felt.

So about a month ago I had a makeup trial with an artist that I had heard rave reviews about. I was really excited about the trial and couldn't wait to go. Unfortunately I absolutely HATED the way it turned out. And I'm not really the type of person to freak or complain much but I totally looked grey and unnatural and really just not like me at all. Many people agreed with me as I'm sure you all would. Not good!

The girl kept saying how I'm so much darker than anyone she's ever worked with before. And I mean, come on, I'm really not all that dark now. I have a tan but big deal. Don't lots of girls?

So I decided not to book her even though I spent around $180 for the trial. And the whole thing was just freaking me out because I didn't have an alternative. I had other options for more trials with other people but how much money would I have to lay out? It was starting to get ridiculous. Especially when you consider that we're two brides so you're looking at around $400 per bride on top of the cost of a trial.

So I decided to turn to my sis for help. I absolutely LOVED how my makeup turned out at her wedding last year. The girl was just fantastic. And none of us, including my sis (she's really brave), even had a trial with her. She just showed up the day of and worked her magic. Just amazing!

Anyway, my sis had been having a hard time tracking this girl down. She only had the salons contact info. The owner is a friend of a friend. And the owners been on vacation for a while. Once she got a hold of her she found out that the makeup artist no longer worked at the salon but that she still does freelance work for them. The owner just had to get in touch with the girl to see if she was available.

So fast forward a few WEEKS (I didn't think it would take so long to find out someones availability!) and MANY panic attacks later...I just found out that she's available to do our makeup for the wedding! I'm beyond thrilled! No trial necessary and she's just amazing! Makeup meltdown avoided! Or at least halted. Whew!!!

Next meltdown I hope to avoid is one tonight at the dress fitting. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I Need A Staycation!

Or at least a few days off from work/life to dedicate to wedding planning. Our apartment looks like a bomb went off right dead smack in the center of it. We have shower gifts, some attendant gifts and reception items scattered everywhere! We even have a stack of boxes that runs the entire height of the wall and up and over our dining room hutch. I can't think anymore. I always used to watch wedding shows and see how that happened to people but I never thought that we'd actually be those people...

It's an exciting time but there's just too much to do. We're getting married this Saturday in Connecticut and we still have to finalize our vows. Sprinkle in a few other tasks - makeup trial Thursday night, cake tasting Friday afternoon, finalizing the guest list and laundry, packing for CT and our nephews high school graduation tomorrow and there's just no time for anything else. We have to get our shower thank yous out. Where's the time for that?

It amazes me how every other girl manages to get it all done. It should be easier for us...we're two girls and we have awesome planners. I guess I just need to take a deep breath and run on adrenaline.

Image: found here