La Boda: Getting Ready Time

The morning of our wedding was pretty chill compared to the night before. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the mess that was our home the day before our wedding because we were busy running around like mad persons. Suffice it to say that I did not meet my DIY deadline, and ended up finishing our programs with Mr. Tortolito like at 11pm the night before our big day. Luckily, everything got done and the stress was manageable, but still. It was hectic.

We are forever indebted to our homies and day-of coordinator for their help the day before. My awesome friend Gloria came over and let us fill up her car with cases and cases of soft drinks and Jarritos (wait, did she come the night before our wedding, or two days before? Shiz..I'm already forgetting things!) Anyway, THANKS GLORIA. Our bar would have not been stocked with Mexican coca colas and Jarritos without your support. Our other awesome friend, Anthony, also came over to help us load our day-of coordinator's 4 Runner with loads of wedding crap. I really wish I would have taken a picture of that 4 Runner because, holy crap, it looked like they were going camping for two weeks.

{Note: Our day-of coordinator was aaamazing! Not only did she let us fill her truck to its capacity with wedding stuff, but she helped me assemble our macaroon favors and stored them in her fridge at her house all night. She probably had to empty her fridge because we had so many of those damn favors, but she made it happen. She exceeded all of our expectations. On the real: anyone looking for a day-of coordinator in the Southern California area get in touch with me for her info. She's just starting out her business and is really affordable, by the way.}

Anywho, after the insanity that was Friday Mr. Tortolito and I checked into our rooms at the Westin Bonaventure in downtown LA around midnight.

{Westin Bonaventure Hotel}
Foto courtesy of the ever-talented bro-in-law Tortolito who really needs to buy himself a nice camera so he can keep taking pretty pictures.

My sister and cousin came over to spend the night with me. Mr. Tortolito stayed all by his lonesome self. Oh, and we hadn't eaten a thing since like 2pm that day, so I snuck over to Mr. Tortolito's room shortly after checking in to take a bite of some crappy room service food which probably tasted like poo, but was heavenly after not having eaten all day. After getting our rooms, grabbing a bite to each, and kissing my groom-to-be goodnight, things were smooooth sailing.

I woke up with my ladies around 5am that morning. The hair and makeup ladies were set to arrive around 6am, but of course were late (due to my Mom having to get her hair and makeup done over in their city before they headed out to LA aaand of course my Mom was late to her 5am appointment). Thanks, Mom! No worries, though. We had scheduled plenty of time to get everyone ready and we didn't run behind schedule at all.

{First picture of the day! My sister and cousin are going to love that I just posted a picture of us in our I-just-woke-up faces.}

So basically, there was a lot of this going on (see below). We cuddled and ate oatmeal while waiting for people to get to the room. I wanted to drink coffee, but fought the desire because I was already a little nervous and coffee makes me even more of a nervous wreck.

Finally, Isabel (my hair lady) and Connie (makeup lady) arrived and they got to work. Mr. Tortolito's mom was first. She really had no idea what she was getting herself into.

Mr. Tortolito's little sister (and our junior bridesmaid) was next:

Some of the other bridesmaids opted to do their own hair/makeup. Again, there was more lounging going on.

My little sister (and maid of honor) is a diva and had her own hair lady come in to do her rockabilly hairstyle. Luckily, we had two bathrooms in our suite and they did their hair thang in there.


Soon enough, it was time to get my makeup done.

Sooo, I kinda have a confession to make: I wasn't in love with my makeup and I sorta wish I would have invested more time in looking for a professional make up artist. I slacked on this area of the planning and booked my makeup lady based on a personal reference. She was a friend of a friend, and I felt bad not booking her. I did a trial with her and everything, which I also didn't love. I trusted that she would do a better job on our wedding day - which she did!- but I still didn't love it. On the bright side, I saved major dinero by not booking a professional. Plus, she was a really sweet lady and had a really fun personality. Really, in the grand scheme of things it did not matter. At all. No one else noticed that I didn't like my makeup. No one told me that it looked bad. But of course I am my worst critic, and I know I've had better makeup days. Oh wells! It didn't take away from the happiness of this day, so I guess it doesn't matter much. Just thought I'd put it out there.

Up next: Isabel works her hair magic. My hair lady is the shiz. I've been going to her for all my important hair days for the past 9 years or so, and she has never let me down.

Before leaving, she showed my sister how to secure my veil in my updo. We still had a couple hours before leaving to church, and Isabel had to leave before that.

{The end result.}

Note: we didn't have our professional photographers arrive during the entire getting-ready time because we had such a big gap of time between getting-ready and getting to the church. All of the pictures shown here are from our own personal cameras. Not to fret - I've got some prettier pics coming up in the next installment.

Overall, we had a great morning. I was more excited than I was nervous, and was surrounded by people that I love. Can't ask for much more, right?