Weekly Recap #18, 2022

Sheesh, long time no see! Last week was so crazy, between flying back to the U.S. from Scotland and attending all of my brother’s wedding events, that posting my weekly recap completely slipped my mind until now. Unfortunately, I was so caught up in the festivities that I hardly took any photos, including all my cute outfits! I did my best to recreate them below but I definitely slacked on my blogging duties last week.

Monday, May 2

I started my day nice and early walking to downtown Glasgow to get my Covid test, which is still required to reenter the U.S. Thank goodness I tested negative because I would have missed my own brother’s wedding otherwise! I spent the rest of the day packing my things, cleaning my flat, moving out, and taking the 77 bus one last time to the Glasgow airport. I decided to book a room at the airport hotel because my flight was at 6 am the next day, and I was worried about finding transportation to the airport so early in the morning. I’m really glad I made that decision because it relieved a lot of stress!

Tuesday, May 3

Travel day back to the States!! I wore the same outfit as yesterday—my chunkiest sweater, two bras, jeans, and my tall boots—because my suitcases had absolutely no space left. I woke up at 3:45 this morning (yikes!) to walk across the street to the airport. I had been to the Glasgow airport a handful of times by this point, and funny enough, 4 am on a Tuesday was the busiest I had ever seen it.

I flew to Frankfurt, Germany, first and had a three-hour layover there. I was glad to have so much time to kill because I got caught in security and had to entirely unpack one of my bags! (I think my stained glass project, which I had wrapped in multiple sweaters, looked unusual on the screening machines.) My next flight was 11.5 hours to Las Vegas. Phew, that was a longgg flight, and I stayed up the entire time to try and decrease the effects of jetlag. I was so excited to see my family and be back in the States, but I was falling asleep at the dinner table by 7 pm… So grateful to have had such a smooth (albeit long) travel day!

Grey Sweater: Hand-me-down, last worn here | Grey Mom Jeans: Express, $19 ($0.46 per wear), last worn here | Black Knee Boots: Clarks via DSW, $100 ($0.86 per wear), last worn here

Wednesday, May 4

I had hoped to sleep in this morning, but I could hear my brother and his fiancé talking in the kitchen and was too excited to see them to fall back asleep. I worked on a blog post, helped my brother with some wedding-related tasks, and then had a big family dinner. I was beyond excited to finally wear some summery clothes today (or really, any clothes that were different from my capsule wardrobe of the past four months.) Later in the evening, I went over to the Rio Hotel to stay with the other bridesmaids and the bride!

Palm Top: H&M, $15 ($3.75 per wear), last worn here | Denim Shorts: H&M, $25 ($1.92 per wear), last worn here | White Sandals: DSW, $45 ($1.96 per wear), last worn here

Thursday, May 5

Let the wedding festivities begin! Today was SO busy and I don’t know that I’ve ever had so many outfit changes in one day. The three other bridesmaids, the bride, and I started the day by getting ready together in the hotel room, which was so much fun. The first event of the day was the bridal shower at my aunt’s house, and I decided to wear this thrifted fuchsia dress that I styled a few times last year. I kept things simple with these nude heels (which I bought for the wedding) but decided to style a bold lip color, which obviously isn’t pictured here… The other girls told me they liked it but I’m still not convinced it was a good shade for me! After the bridal shower, we kicked off the bachelorette party festivities by getting our nails painted at a salon, which I haven’t done in about a decade.

Fuchsia Dress: Thrifted, $15 ($7.50 per wear), last worn here | Nude Heels: Amazon, $46 ($46 per wear), last worn here

We went back to the Rio for a quick outfit change into our matching tees and heart-shaped sunglasses! The bride is very outdoorsy, so our tees were “Camp Bachelorette” themed from Etsy. The bridesmaids’ shirts said “Getting Lit” while the bride’s said “Getting Hitched”—cute! We wandered around the Strip for a bit, ordered large alcoholic slushies, watched the bride do a few slot machines (she won $185!), and then grabbed dinner at some restaurant in the Venetian.

Getting Lit Bachelorette Tee: Etsy | Denim Shorts: H&M, $25 ($1.79 per wear), last worn here | Black Sandals: Dillard’s, $30 ($0.52 per wear), last worn here | Heart Sunglasses: Amazon, buy here

We had one last outfit change—the dress code was black ‘going out’ tops for bridesmaids and a cute white top for the bride—before getting a ride to the Sahara Hotel to see Magic Mike. Boy, was it an interesting time to watch those male strippers perform! We saw one old lady slap one of their asses and that was honestly the best entertainment of the night. I just bought this black top from H&M on Monday but it’s a little more cropped than I thought… I don’t love how much stomach is on display here (it’s still cute, though).

Black Top: H&M, $15 ($15 per wear) | Skinny Jeans: Express, $42 ($1.05 per wear), last worn here | Black Sandals: Dillard’s, $30 ($0.52 per wear), last worn here |

Friday, May 6

I woke up a little earlier than I would have liked this morning to take my last exam for University of Glasgow, which was an online 24 hour exam for my art history class. It turned out to be really difficult and took most of the day to complete. In the evening, my aunt hosted a huge party in her backyard for all of the guests of the wedding, which was the perfect opportunity to mingle with family and friends I haven’t seen since pre-Covid. I’m bummed I didn’t snap a pic of my outfit, but I wore the navy gingham dress pictured above (this photo is from my cousin’s wedding in 2019) with the same nude heels from the bridal shower and a high curly ponytail.

Navy Gingham Dress: Banana Republic, $80 ($26.67 per wear), last worn here | Nude Heels: Amazon, $46 ($23 per wear), last worn here

Saturday, May 7

Finally, the big wedding day! I met up with the other bridesmaids and the bride at the venue around 11:30 to spend the day sipping champagne and getting ready together. The woman who used to do my grandma’s hair came to do the bride’s hair, and she offered to do mine as well… after watching me struggle to curl it. I mentioned I wanted a half-up style but that historically my hair looks very flat when done like that. Before I knew it, I felt her teasing the heck out of my hair, and while I couldn’t see what was happening, I watched as the eyes of the other bridesmaids’ got bigger and bigger the more the hairstylist teased… My mom just said apprehensively, “It’s very big.” When the hairstylist finally finished and I turned around for the grand reveal, I was quite shocked by (and unsure about) the final product. It felt a little like a 1960s beehive or the Bride of Frankenstein with all the teasing. But the hair dresser loved it and clearly had a lot of fun having her way with my head. The look definitely grew on me throughout the night—and thankfully I like how it looks in the professional wedding photos! Lots of family friends came up to me during the event to say they didn’t even recognize me… I’m guessing because the glam hairstyle and dramatic eye makeup made me look older than usual.

I didn’t take a single photo of just me in my outfit (such a shame) so here is one of the professional photos with the bride’s face blurted out. I love my dress and hope I get to wear it again someday! The bride let us choose our own gowns from David’s Bridal as long as they were chiffon and the color ‘plum’. The only downside is that the tailor didn’t hem mine quite short enough, and the edits in the professional photos really distort the gorgeous purple color of the dress. It’s much more saturated in person! Also, how gorgeous is the bride’s gown?! She looked stunning.

Overall, the wedding was beautiful, and the reception was so much fun—of course, it went by way too fast. All the young people hopped onto two party buses from the venue to the Container Park near Fremont Street to keep the party going. Definitely stayed out later than I should have!

Purple Bridesmaids Dress: David’s Bridal | Nude Heels: Amazon, $46 ($15.33 per wear), last worn here

Sunday, May 8

We all had a bit of a slow morning, as expected, and then had a family brunch at my grandpa’s house. In the evening, we went over to an Air BnB that my dad’s side of the family rented and had a backyard BBQ together before that group left town. It was so fun to have all my family together again.

Lavender Top: Francesca’s, $15 ($3.75 per wear), last worn here | Denim Shorts: H&M, $25 ($1.67 per wear), last worn here | White Sandals: DSW, $45 ($1.88 per wear), last worn here | Lavender Floral Purse: Kate Spade New York, $100 ($12.50 per wear), last worn here

. . . . .

I’m bummed I didn’t take more pictures last week but I suppose that means I did a good job of living in the moment instead. I’m so excited for my brother and his new wife and can’t believe the big event came and went so quickly! As always, thanks for reading.

 

Miles of smiles,

Grace