Finesse Arts: Weddings are Fun!

So, part of the reason I made this blog was to advertise that I have skills of an artist and hopefully find people that would like to pay to make stuff for them, so that's kind of what this post is about. Hopefully it doesn't end up sounding like I'm bragging all over the place.... anyway, last month, I was in the wedding of a very dear friend, and she just started posting her wedding photos. That inspired me to do a wedding post! I've had the honor of helping out and making things for a good bunch of weddings, so I thought I'd share what I've done (with the permission of the brides, of course!).
The first wedding I helped with was that of my big brother Ben and his lovely bride, Angie. Her favorite type of flower is the daisy, and when I (somewhat shyly, I'm sure) asked if I could make myself a daisy wreath to wear, she really liked the idea and asked if I could teach the other bridesmaids to make them too, so I did. It was exciting; one of the moments that helped me bond with my new big sister.

Here we all are in our daisy wreaths!

When I have the photographers name, I will put it here.

That was before I went off to college. A few years later, during my junior year, several of my good friends got married. All of them wanted to save money (yay for smart friends!), so I was able to help with a bunch of different things for their weddings. The first one was a medieval/fantasy themed wedding for a dear friend (another Angie!). My biggest job was gathering dozens of stones from a river with the help of my longtime best friend, Alyssa, and writing bits of the knights' code on them for reception centerpieces or some such. I calligraphied(?) the whole code on a nice big rock as a wedding gift, but don't have pictures of any of that expedition... It was a lot of fun, though, and I was so honored to help!

The next wedding was for college friends, Ashlea and Kaleb. My main appointed task was to be the bridal hairdresser. How cool to be trusted with a friend's hair on such a big day! I also helped with some decorations and whatnot, including lining the flowergirls' baskets with satin, something the likes of which I'd never tried before. It was a fun little project, and was one less stress for the bride, which is always the goal for a bridesmaid. I also retouched the photos, which were taken by another accomplished friend, Jael Bewick.

Wedding Hair!

The bride had a lot of pretty hairpins she asked me to use.

Sparkles and braids!

One of the flowergirl baskets.

Don't they look lovely? And Jael took terrific photos.

The last wedding I was in that summer was for another pair of college friends, Becca and Nathan, and was my second stint as bridal hairdresser. I don't have as many photos of her hair, but here's what I do have.

The bride and her mother (and me, incidentally).

Photo by Ashlea Marshall

Don't they look lovely too?

Not sure who to credit for this photo yet, but when I know, his/her name will be right here!

Then, the next year, I got engaged! I was also in another friend's wedding; third hairdressing gig. Sadly, only one photo exists of this shindig, but here it is!

Look, it's me hairstyling! I was pretty proud of those super long ringlets.
Photo by Oran Weaver

I diy-ed a lot of my own wedding stuff too; check out this, this, this, and this. Also, check this out to see some jewelry I made for my cousin Joanna's wedding, which was just a few months before mine. All those are links to previous posts of mine, which is why I didn't go into a ton of detail about those projects. The only thing I made for my wedding that I haven't posted is my flowergirl's dress, which I made. I loved it and so did my flowergirl. These photos are by my big brother, Benjamin Hardy.

Here she is!

And here's a close up of the bodice. I wish I could remember who
decorated the basket for me... Maybe my mom or dad
will let me know when they read this (wink wink)!

So, to conclude, here are some photos of the most recent wedding. My roommate through most of college (and consequently best friend), Andrea, and her shiny new husband, Josh, let me help out. I got a new duty as wedding florist, and then, on a whim, became her hairstylist too (she had pinned a really cool hairstyle on her Pinterest wedding ideas board, and I couldn't resist asking if I could do it. She let me!) Bouquet photos are by me. The actual wedding photos are by Rebekah Dreisbach.