My beautiful sister and her hero fiancee
Wedding date 11/10/12
This post is sponsored by Dove® ClearTone™ Deodorant – designed to visibly reduce underarm dark marks and even skin tone.
My lovely sister is getting married in November in West Point, NY and the entire family is very excited for her. She is among the people I admire for being a strong single woman who had to remain strong when she had to leave behind her 2 year old baby when she was deployed to Afghanistan to serve as a medic in the Army.
Once back from Afghanistan, she endured several challenges; from adjusting to life after a war to bonding and getting to know her son again who was now 3 ½ years old and only listened to me as I was the only mother/authority figure in his life. Despite of these circumstances she met the love of her life, an Army Captain who miraculously escaped death and healed from battle wounds after serving in the war, now her fiancée.
Just because she wore a uniform for so long and was stripped from her own style due to the Army’s rigid style-less rules it did not mean she forgot how to be a beautiful woman. After her last deployment and not wanting to leave her son ever again, she left the military and in a matter of days was in-touch with her own style and became a very feminine “civilian.”
Today she is busy planning the wedding and as expected, I’m a bridesmaid! We’re both thinking about the different ways we can start prepping for the big day, because let’s face it, it’s all about the girls looking fabulous!
Here are few items we are keeping top-of-mind before the big day!
- Lashes – We’re trying on different lengths, brands and especially different glues. We want to pick out the lashes that look best with the contour of our eyes and glue that’s going to keep them on all night. We might use them over a weekend when going out dancing with the girls and test them out. The last thing we want is to have lashes falling off on the big day.
- Underarms – We started using Dove Cleartone Deodorant to help reduce dark marks for more even looking skin tone. The bridesmaid dresses are sleeveless and her dress is strapless so taking care of underarms is a must. Although you see improvements in just 2 weeks, we have permanently switched to Dove Cleartone Deodorant because it not only improves underarm dark spots it soothes and refreshes our skin.
- Skin all around – I’ve heard of the old and scary story that you’re bound to have a pimple on a very important day. I hope we are not victims of this haunting story so we’re washing our face every night to remove all make up and follow with a toner. My sister goes as far as to using some on her back to avoid breakouts since her dress is strapless and her back deserves as much attention as the beautiful dress. My favorite toner is Neutrogena’s Oil-Free Acne Stress Control Triple Action Toner, it refreshes and soothes my skin because of the green tea and cucumber extracts.
- Teeth whitening – We’ve both whitened our teeth before but we make sure to keep it up with our regular whitening kits and avoid coffee and teas to keep them nice and white. My dentist recommended I use Rembrandt Toothpaste which helps with my sensitivity as well.
- Reduce sodium intake – We usually blame the consumption of too much sodium to justify why we feel so fat after eating unhealthy foods, but deep inside we know it’s just that we indulged without caring of the consequences. But at least 2 weeks before the wedding we will avoid sodium to improve our skin, avoid any swelling and just feel better in our dresses.
I’m also thinking about what we might need on the big day so I will put together a “Bridal Survival Kit” containing all the items that a bride should not go without, among the items are:
- Unscented baby wipes to “freshen up” after dancing merengue with papi, because Lord knows she’ll dance the night away and we don’t want a sweaty bride.
- Dove Clinical Protection deodorant, because she will need that extra odor protection.
- Nail clipper, nail file and the color nail polish that the bride is wearing. Not like I plan to give her a full manicure but if she were to chip a nail, we can trim, file and cover it up.
- Paper napkins in case there are a few tears. Notice I said paper napkins because tissues fall apart and dissolve with the tears and we don’t want traces of it on the brides face.
- Hand sanitizer is a must along with blush, gloss/lipstick for touch-ups.
- Gum or mints. Well, you know why!
At the end of the day, I’m putting so much effort and time into the “Bridal Survival Kit” because it will benefit not only the bride but all the bridesmaids because if you knew my mom you would know that she will panic and stress everyone around her if anything goes wrong.
Hmmm… that gets me thinking about creating a “Mother-of-the-Bride Survival Kit” as well. What would I add to that one? Couple of shots of tequila, ear plugs for the entire bridal party and a ‘pass’ to leave the room when she goes bananas.
Dave, Lichelle and Jacob – One happy family!
Thank you for all the years and continued service in the military to protect this country.
You deserve only the best!
I was compensated for this post by the Clever Girls Collective.com. All the opinions expressed here are my own.
