Throwing My Veil in the Trash

Yesterday morning after work I had just enough time to stop at Target for some things, head home for a  change of clothes, and then it was off to pick up my sister on my way to Seal Beach for my wedding day hair trial!  My appointment was for 10:00 am, and I was worried when it appeared we would be a few minutes late.  I needn't have worried-- the stylist (a friend of a friend that I'd never met) was stuck in traffic.  She was a good 40 minutes late, but my sister and I kept ourselves amused talking about wedding things and looking at hair magazines.

I wasn't totally sure what to do with my hair.  When I've talked about wearing it up, Robert hasn't seemed thrilled by the idea.  It's not something I do very often, so it probably seems like an odd proposition to him.  Others have reminded me that it has taken a long time to grow my hair out again (I had just chopped it all off for Locks of Love when R proposed in '07).  So true...  I was extremely disappointed by his timing!  I didn't want short hair for my wedding.  As it turned out, I lost my job shortly after his proposal, and we could no longer afford to have the wedding when and where we were planning.... Bad for us, but good for my hair!  Since it was tedious growing it back out, I don't want to put it all on the top of my head in some fancy updo that could just as well be hair extensions.  It's long again, so I want to flaunt it!  I also want it to cover my back, since my gown is halter style and leaves me feeling too exposed.

The dilemma is how to wear it down and still have it look special.  That isn't as easy as it seems like it would be!  Because I had good luck wearing it straight for my shower, I was thinking about doing the same for the wedding.  But I don't want it all down-- too boring!  So I was toying with a half-up style.  I mentioned this to the stylist, so that's what she gave me- stick straight tresses with the top back combed and pinned up for a little bit of height.  She spent a lot of time with me, and was very nice, but...  I hated it!  It was so dull!  I'm going to have to think of something else, and maybe even schedule another session with her.  It didn't look awful, but it just didn't look great.  Maybe because she heard from our mutual friend that I'm a "natural style" girl, she didn't want to do anything too big or styled, but it was painfully plain.  Or maybe the problem was that I dressed the part of someone ultra conservative.  I didn't mean to, but during my stop over at the house, I didn't have time to put on makeup, and my favorite jeans were dirty so I had to wear something else.  I guess my appearance wasn't quite what I wish it had been for the session. 

I took my veil and the earrings I'm thinking about wearing with me, and we did play with the veil a little bit.  After the appointment, my sister and I went to a Greek restaurant next door to the salon to grab some lunch.  As we sat in the booth, she photographed me trying on the veil with the still-intact hair updo...  and here's where the story gets interesting!  I'm sure the other restaurant patrons found our activities a little odd :-)  We did that for a few minutes, finished our meal, and headed back to her house in Long Beach, where we played with makeup for a little while.  Then she asked me to try on the veil with the makeup so she could take a few more pictures...  and the veil was nowhere to be found.  It was the oddest thing!  It wasn't in my car (we checked twice), nor was it anywhere in her house.  We called the restaurant as well, and were told that we left with it.  We couldn't exhaust ourselves looking for it, because it was time for her to pick up the kids from school.  So resigned to the fact that it was somehow gone, I hopped into my car and started to head home.  Then it occurred to me- I had thrown a plastic bag away at the restaurant, and when our food was served, there hadn't been a bag!  Our server had handed us two plastic plates!  Ah ha!  That bag I tossed contained the veil, the earrings, and a stack of magazine clippings with up-dos I liked.  I pulled over, called information for the restaurant phone number, and hastily called the place.  The man who had served us answered, and seemed slightly annoyed that he was receiving a second phone call about the matter.  He reiterated what he'd said already, "you had it with you when you left", and I quickly explained that I'd worked the night before, was extremely tired, and had thrown it away in the trash.  He replied that he'd already taken the trash to the dumpster outside.  He didn't seem all that helpful, but I wasn't going to let that stop me.  I told him I was on my way back from Long Beach. 

The drive back was not long, but I was so tired (at this point it was 6 hours past my usual bedtime, and I had to work later).  Visions of dumpster diving danced in my head, and I wasn't looking forward to it!  When I arrived, I parked, fed the meter, and headed into the restaurant with a sense of dread...  But the kind restaurateur (who had seemed so lackadaisical about the whole thing) had already retrieved it for me!  Thank you, Athens West Restaurant!  It quickly became obvious why I had tossed it-- it was in a plastic bag with 'Thank You' printed on the outside-- like you get with Chinese take-out.  It's easy to see how I could have mistaken the bag for trash (in my memory, I'd put everything in a Target bag.  Oh, the imperfect human brain!).    Still, it's amazing to think that I tossed my wedding veil!