Well hello again and happy Thursday! #TBT to our Italian wedding LOL.

I am once again super excited to share more of our wedding experiences and photos with you. It only happens once… at least we all hope so!

With sooo much to share, I am trying not to overwhelm you guys with wedding stuff. I also don’t want my blog to become a “wedding only” blog when I’ve got so much other great stuff I want to share.

So let’s continue story telling, shall we?

Every wedding should tell a story from start to finish. I’m slowly dividing our storyline into parts that make sense, so you guys can see everything as if you had been there. Wouldn’t that have been fun?!

Last I left off with describing how we chose our venue and wedding destination, Positano! Anton and I both continue to feel absolutely thrilled that we chose the perfect villa and the perfect town for us, our family and our friends to celebrate in. If Italy has made your top ten list of potential venues, please check out Villa San Giacomo. The staff were simply amazing and the venue was divine. Our photos are so great– with or without us in them too haha!

And aren’t weddings really all about the photos?

And the memories?

And the experiences?

I want it all… simply executed… and my way!

I think waking up sober and feeling great is the best way to start your wedding day. Now if you happen to have celebrated with a few too many cocktails like the adorably honest Lauryn Evarts Bosstick from the Skinny Confidential, that’s okay too! You just have to be prepared with an ice roller, facials and lots of massages and detox ideas.

I admit, I totally followed Lauryn’s advice and bought myself an ice roller from amazon.com and it totally came in handy. Hangover or no hangover, when I am stressed, I puff up like a puffer fish!

Oh and every other morning of hangovers it totally came in handy. 🙂

Our wedding day stress was no exception. Being the sole organizer of an eight day celebration for your closest family and friends can be quite stressful if you’re as OCD as I am.

Quite frankly, I wanted everything to be perfect.

NO, we were not very traditional. We totally slept in the same room the night before our wedding. I admit I’d thought about staying with my Mom but then I just thought the idea was silly. We’ve lived together for years and we all know Anton and I are not virgins. And being in such a romantic spot, why would we want to spend a night separated?

Realness for real life and simplicity, right? Why complicate things and room hop. 🙂

So what did we do the morning of our wedding? Well, we woke up and had a delicious Italian breakfast to start. We were the first ones up too, so it was kind of romantic staring at the ocean sipping our caffeine. I stuck to berries, capuccino and one egg so my dress would zip up (hah). Anton, however, definitely enjoyed his complete breakfast of eggs, breads, fruit, lattes and anything else yummy our Italian chef made.

I guess he thinks he’s got an eight pack of abs, huh? 🙂

Then we parted ways. I really didn’t want any appointments but I did need a polish change. So at 9am I had a lovely manicurist from the local mani and pedi spa come to the villa to change my shellac color.

One great piece of advice ladies, NEVER LEAVE YOUR VENUE THE DAY OF. You’ve got too many things to do and well, quite frankly, it’s safer to stay close to your dress and celebration! A lot less can go wrong that way. I may sound paranoid, but it’s a pretty important day in a girl’s life, right?!

My mani was probably the biggest thing that went wrong. My manicurist didn’t have a blue color for my nails 🙁 🙁 :(. I should have been prepared and brought my own polish so I totally blame myself.

Ladies, note to self on another piece of advice: when getting married bring your own nail polish just in case.

My one and only traditional move: I went with a natural French manicure. My only consulation being that it totally complimented my French Mode De Vie Fit blog. Ha ha, I had to think of something to justify the color swap!

Alrighty then. After getting through my traumatic mani, I kinda started playing OCD crazy bride and followed my wedding planner Mirna around. I even helped her put our name cards on the ceremony chairs. Am I cuckoo or what? Mirna actually laughed and said it was the first time she’d had a bride help her with that. LOL.

Btw, if you ever need an Italian wedding coordinator, she’s your girl! Regency is fantastic.

I checked on my flowers, the table set up, our chef, the catering and even the laundry hahaha. Then I put my swimsuit on and headed to the pool for some sun. I stuck with water and rolled my face with that ice roller for about an hour and a half. Even my chunky monkey nephew Levi loved the ice roller and gave his full approval.

Where was Anton during all of this? Well, after FINALLY getting him out of our room and GONE after breakfast so I could hang my dress and prep the room for some girlie time, he grabbed his wedding attire and took it to another room. Then he and the guys left for a hike and ocean swim. I told him I’d kill him if shark got hold of him, (OMG) 🙂 so lucky for him he survived unscathed. So from about 9am on, we didn’t see eachother until the actual wedding ceremony which was nice.

Next, at about 1pm the girls joined me in my room for some girlie time. Everyone had their choice of cocktail except me because, well, Miss Puff Ball didn’t need anything else to add to her puffiness! My friend and wedding guest Susan, a professional hair stylist, came over to work on my hair. Lucky me! Susan is amazing… if you’re in the OC area message me and I’ll send you her info. She’s super fun, creative and fabulous.

My Mom was a happy yet nervous wreck haha and my sister was worried her hair flowers were way too bushy! I decided to be nice to her and have the florist cut them down to a smaller size. 🙂

Okay so MAYBE I relaxed a bit too much wandering the house micromanaging the wedding staff. My makeup was a little rushed. And if you’re wondering, I chose to do my makeup myself for two reasons. One, I enjoy doing it myself and am so ticklish I can’t stand anyone putting anything near my eye lashes! And two, certain things at the villa were uber expensive like $450 for wedding makeup! Sheesh…

So of course I put my foundation on in the wrong order HAHA. My friend was like, “You know you just did that backwards?” OMG at that point I didn’t even care because I HATE being late and I didn’t want to be late for my own wedding.

The makeup probably came out a little too natural I have to admit, but hey, better that than giving myself my old ballroom dancer drag queen look haha. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved that look when I was dancing, but for my wedding I wanted a more natural, highlighted look. (I definitely should have practiced more but oh well, the photographers caught some decent moments I suppose.)

Our photographers and videographer were really excellent. And I must admit, it’s scary hiring a photographer you have never worked with before for your wedding, but it saved us from having to fly someone from San Diego and spending another lump sum of money. I’d rather have that money in my bank account if you know what I mean. And besides, if you have a five star venue like Villa San Giacomo recommending vendors, you know they must be good!

I highly recommend lots and lots of photos. We took pictures of my dress, shoes, hair, friends and family… pretty much everything and everyone. The view, the weather, the light wind– the Roman Gods clearly liked us that day because it could not have been a more perfect day!

And of course there’s that special moment when you see your Dad all dressed up and he sees you… it lasted about a second for us haha. Then we went into our silly mode and started laughing over I can’t even remember what.

Overall, our pre wedding day was pretty relaxing. I was so happy to see everything being created as I had envisioned it to be. My flowers were divine. The tablecloth I had specially made for us was perfect. And I think our villa guests really appreciated the fact that we had no set pre wedding agenda. Guests could join us or not.

One of the reasons I didn’t have bridesmaids was because I didn’t want people to feel obligated to “play a role.” I just wanted everyone to relax and have an amazing time.

And rumor was that Anton had made it back safe and sound. (As you can see in the photos, he enjoyed a shot of tequila or two before our ceremony.) So of course I micromanaged the photographers and told them to ignore when he waved them away. I warned them I wanted lots of pictures of my Dad, the groom and his guy friends.

More advice: know what your groom will try to get away with ahead of time haha and make sure you have a plan to get what you want!

Well, I know I wasn’t going to overwhelm you guys but I think I’ve just written 90293874 words so I’ll let you go. I’m off to start getting my fashion pieces together for a blog shoot tomorrow. Should be fun but it always stresses me out some. Shooting on location requires car and public bathroom changes with perfect hair and makeup hahaha.

I’m crazy I know.

And on that note…!

xx Shanna