Here we go with the first post of the big wedding. Perhaps you are wondering about the title. Why “imperial”? This is a word play with my daughter’s new sure name which is “Kaiser”. Translated into English it means “Emporer”. I always said that my little princess becomes an empress. Anyway, let’s finally start with the story.

Just look at that arsenal!

I was pretty cool until Monday of the wedding week. I got nervous for several reasons. One was the time management on the wedding day. But there was also the big (and to me very important) task to put my daughter into her wedding dress. Another reason for my nervosity was my plan to sing a song in church for them as a surprise. So the closer the day came the more my restlessness grew.  But I wasn’t the only one, my daughter and I were having a contest… lol. And then it was Saturday.

After I was done at the hairdresser I drove to my daughter’s packed with her huge wedding dress (she left it with me in order that her fiance doesn’t see it) and with all of my stuff like dress, shoes, purse, scarf, and whatever I needed for then and later. When I arrived, my sister (cosmetician, color expert, and style coach) was already busy with Vanessa’s make-up. She was so sweet sitting there with the diadem and the bridal veil in her hair.

Make-up done!

After she was done it was my turn with getting my make-up. While my sister was busy with me, the bride maids and maid of honor (my daughter’s best friend) arrived. My sister was done with me sooner than I expected and so we had some time to have a glass of champagne together. I had to be careful since I had not eaten anything on that day yet (and I did not make it to more than 4 1/2 hours of sleep during the night). I should have been relieved that there was still some more time left than I expected but in fact, that waiting made me even more nervous. So what, we had some mini snacks from the oven and all of a sudden it was time to get my daughter into that dress with its thin net on the upper part, its 1000 tiny buttons, and the heavy seven layers of tulle, and the crinoline. I prepared the dress and put the crinoline already inside it that Vanessa only had to step in. We were taught how to lift everything in order that it stays in one piece. We made it! Phew!!! And she looked gorgeous!

You see my shiny face and at that very moment, it did not come from joy… lol! I think I was at button 93 when the picture was taken.

A first look at her dress and how busy we were in getting every layer in place.

Finally, I could turn to my own plans, get dressed, change the content of bags, divide again what I needed now and later, put my jewelry on and leave for the church in order to have a quick audition for my song before the first people drop in. I was already about to leave when I heard some discussions from upstairs: “I cannot close the dress. Can you help me? Oh, no, I cannot close it either. My God, what shall we do? ERIKA!!! Can you help us, please?” And so I took off my shoes again and in my floor-length tight dress, I rushed upstairs. The problem was that the zipper of the dress of the maid of honor got stuck. Everything was ok but at that part, the dress was thicker and the zipper was just a bit too small to make it over the beading. There were still 3 to 4 inches left. Three of us were holding, pushing, pulling… then I got some soap to make it glide better. But it only helped a little. Very slowly we made it bit by bit. I was afraid to break the zipper but then I would have simply stitched the dress together. After a time which felt like forever, the last little zip was made. My head had the color of a tomato and I was steaming. That did not really calm my nervosity…. haha. I left the house as quickly as I could and enjoyed the autumn air to support me cooling down… remember there was still a job to do for me in the church…

One of the bride maids helps the maid of honor to get off the car when they arrived at the church.

To be continued… but… it can take a while until the next post is published since I have to wait until the newly married couple shares the photos their photographer took. They are still on their honeymoon and so it can still take at least a couple weeks. We did barely take photos and I did not even take my phone along for the whole wedding and party.

In Love and Light