Deerly Beloved: waking up to church bells

On the morning of our wedding, Mr Elk and I awoke to the glorious sounds of church bells at 9 AM- a beautiful start to our wedding day!  Only by church bells I really mean screaming children in the hotel room next door, and by 9 AM I mean the screaming started at 7 AM and didn't END until 9AM, and of course by a beautiful start I mean the most miserable start one could imagine. (Oh, and yes, that does mean that Mr Elk and I spent the night before our wedding in the same room- we are not particularly traditional or superstitious.  But maybe this was punishment for not abiding by tradition?)  And did I mention it was raining?

Anyhoo, after realizing that our original plan of sleeping in gloriously late and waking up to a beautiful sunny day was nay going to happen, Mr Elk and I got an early start on our big day! Despite the not so great beginning and my obvious contempt for screaming children (which is funny considering the fact that I am currently training to be a pediatrician...), we were both in great moods.  We kept looking at each other with gigantic smiles, saying things like "can you believe we are getting married today?" and "tomorrow I am going to have to call you my husband! That's super weird".

At about 10:45 Mama Elk arrived at the hotel with a spread for breakfast (including the left over rainbow cookie cake- which is obviously what I had for breakfast), and shortly after my bridesmaids started piling into my room followed by my hair stylist and makeup artist.  It was so much fun to get ready with everyone together! I was quickly whisked into a chair and makeup was applied  (all photos in this post are via guests)

Makeup was quickly followed by hair, which included my notorious fake piece which you can see me petting here.  (Please note that I am showing you this picture for the sole purpose of seeing my fake hair!  Obviously if I had a better one of my petting a hair piece I would have chosen it, but unfortunately this is the only one that exists...)

  Here you can see my ACTUAL hair being coiffed:
the final product (isn't the fake hair like the PERFECT shade?):   
once I was all done, I got to enjoy spending time with some of my favorite ladies MOH L (aka cousin L),Grandma Elk, Me, Mama Elk, Bridesmaid A (aka cousin A)

As the morning activities were winding down, I started to collect the things I needed to bring with me and placed them all in this adorable tote that bridesmaid K had given me;

And before I knew it, it was time to head over to the venue.  Oh, and during my fun filled morning the rain seemed to have stopped- woohooo!!!!!

Miss a moment? Catch up here:
1. The Elks part ways with their pooch, and eat WAY too much rainbow cookie cake