To celebrate the recent launch of our brand new bridal line – The Cherry On Top – we are starting a recurring blog interview where we catch up with our brides after their big day and get the nitty-gritty breakdown of how it all went, complete of course with beautiful photos. We shall call it

The Post-Vow Post-Wow.

First up is my old friend Andrea who got married last August. We’ve known each other a very long time, and I believe first crossed paths somewhere around 1996 when we both got put onto the co-ed baseball team for misfits. It was a dark time in both of our baseball careers, but one good thing came out of that summer – a blossoming friendship and for me eventually the opportunity to be a part of the most magical day in her life (and possibly mine, seriously).

Without further ado, here’s Andrea’s Post-Vow Pow-Wow!

The Game Plan

What was your vision for your wedding? Did you have a theme? Colours?

The vision for our wedding was really to take all of the amazing elements of a wedding, skip the boring stuff and create a non-traditional evening of casual elegance for all to enjoy. We thought what better a way to do this then by spending a night in Old Hollywood. Our evening was broken down into three ‘acts’: ‘A Wizard of Oz’ ceremony (one of our favorite movies), An ‘Indiana Jones’ poolside cocktail reception (a little something for the gents), followed by a ‘Red Carpet Reception’ after-party. For our colour scheme we tried to incorporate both feminine and masculine aspects including black & cream contrasts, hints of blush pinks and taupe’s with metallic accents throughout (gold & silver).We’re colourful humans!

What were some of the elements you wanted to see in your headpiece?

I wanted to ensure my piece had an element of vintage charm and Hollywood glamour. Originally, I was looking at one piece only as I was torn about adding a birdcage veil to the piece. Headmistress to the rescue – I was SO GLAD that Jillian convinced me to have my cake and eat it too by creating two pieces; A simpler piece for the ceremony that included pearl accents and a birdcage and a more show stopping second piece for the evening complete with a beautiful vintage brooch.

What was the most stressful part of the wedding planning process?

I LOVED the process of planning my wedding from tent rentals to the small little touches. The most stressful part I would have to say was trying to appease family members while keeping with our original vision. However we were very fortunate to have the support of both our families in helping us to create the day of our dreams. 

The Main Event

What were the top 3 highlight moments from the day?

The ceremony – When I stepped onto the yellow brick road and saw all of the smiling faces and my soon to be husband waiting for me literally took my breath away (I may have gasped a bit), our chaplain allowed us to create a ceremony that truly captured who we are as individuals and as a couple making the moment magical!

Walking the red carpet into our reception, having all of our friends and family surrounding us snapping photos & cheering us on, knowing that the fun was about to begin and I mean who doesn’t want to feel famous for a night!

Finally the song that I sang to my husband (cheesy I know) but seeing the look of surprise on his face (and everyone else’s) was a moment I soon won’t forget!

What was your first dance wedding song?

Lovesong By The Cure

We decided to name our new bridal collection after desserts because we think our headpieces are the cherry on top for the modern bride. What type of cake did you serve?

In lieu of a traditional cake cutting we opted to have a smaller round cake made to utilize as part of our decor in one of my favorite flavours of ice cream chocolate chip cookie dough. Surrounding the cake were individually wrapped cupcakes that were served along with our ice cream sundae bar. Cupcake flavours were also chosen based on our favorite types of ice creams including chocolate peanut butter, cookies and cream, red velvet (it does exist) and french vanilla.

The Aftermath

What’s the best part of being married?

Learning something new to love about your partner each and every day – quirks and all!

Do you have any advice for upcoming brides planning their weddings?

Keep calm and carry on. When all is said and done, the day is about you and your fiance and although its important to take into consideration the thoughts, opinions and traditions of family and friends it is just as important to stay true to yourselves, your vision and each other!

Shameless Self-Promotion

What’s your favourite piece from the new Headmistress 2012 Bridal collection- The Cherry On Top?

It’s hard to narrow it down to just one when you have so many deliciously decadent pieces to choose from, but I would have to say its a toss up between ‘Whoopie pie‘ & ‘Strawberry Shortcake‘

All of Andrea’s photos were taken by Taylor Jackson Photography.

Introducing The Cherry On Top, Headmistress’ newest Bridal Collection. We strive to work collaboratively with our brides to find the perfect piece to suit her individual spirit; whether she is elegant, playful, modern, classic, or unconventionally experimental, each Headmistress bridal piece is designed to be as distinctly unique as the woman who will wear it. Just as dessert is the final phase of the wedding dinner, our heavenly decadent assortment of fascinators, feather combs and birdcage veils are the cherry-on-top to complete our bride’s ensemble.

I am pretty darn excited for this one – we’ve been teasing you for weeks now, but finally our brand new bridal collection – The Cherry On Top has launched! This marks the first time I’ve taken on help other than my mom in terms of the design side of things. Kyla is Headmistress’ first ever employee and has been helping out for over two years now. Before Christmas I was lamenting how I needed to get moving on a new bridal collection and Kyla said ‘I’ll do it!’ The rest as they say is history and Kyla’s brain/love child was born.

The result is a brand new twelve piece collection ranging from subtle feather combs to outrageous ostrich feather flapper-bride fascinators, with everything in between. Our goal here is that brides can order ‘off-the-rack’ pieces from the website or opt for a completely customized piece that they create by collaborating directly with Kyla, incorporating ideas from our new collection with their own vision.

I’m really proud of the result especially because of the DIY nature of this project. We did it all ourselves pretty much – our friend Kyle graciously offered to photograph the collection for us and we recruited friends Kristen, Megan and Ernie (both feline and human) to model the pieces.  Kyla did pretty much everything else from designing most of the pieces, to the hair and makeup on shoot day, to writing the descriptions to designing the lookbook and linesheets! A collaboration in the truest sense of the word, representing a brand new page for Headmistress. So please, go have a look and let us know what you think!

We are launching our brand new Bridal collection on monday, so in classic Headmistress style we’ll be teasing you all weekend with sneek peak images. Without further ado – here is teaser number 1!

can you believe it? I know, you’re been waiting too long for this. HEADMISTRESS IS ON PINTEREST.

of course I waited too long so ‘headmistress’ as a username was taken….had to opt for the shortened but also totally likeable ‘headmiss’.

i spent all morning brainstorming hilariously punny pin board titles, so come follow us. I think this is going to be fun!

Calling all Brides + Brides-to-Be : We’re compiling a list of places we want to release our brand spankin’ new Bridal 2012 collection to – and need your help! Tell us, what are your favourite bridal blogs, websites, magazines and Bridal Boutiques? Email us (jillian@loveheadmistress.com) with your favourites and you’ll be entered to win a Headmistress piece of your choice (max. value of $74). Ok, go!

Or, you can add a comment to our lengthy FB list.

We have the first winner of our ‘recommend a retailer’ contest.  And it’s….Charlotte Crawford! Charlotte thought that Headmistress would be a good fit for Ottawa boutique Victoire. We couldn’t agree more and as luck would have it a shipment of several different styles of demi-turbans and our classic fur headbands are Ottawa-bound in the fall.

If you have a retailer suggestion where you want to see Headmistress being sold, send it our way (jillian@loveheadmistress.com). If the store isn’t in an area we already sell in and we are successful in getting an order, you win a Headmistress piece (or pieces) of your choice (value up to $109). Pretty good deal, right?

Another weekend, another photoshoot (I’m tired)! Yesterday we completed the final leg of FW12 collection prep – the headshot shoot. We shot the lookbook and product shots back in January, but headshots showing the product on a model are also needed, specifically for the website.

We assembled the dream team, and once again I’m super excited to see the results. Our Spring headshots ended up being some of my favourite photos from the season so I am excited to see what our photographer, Hannah comes up with!

In the meantime, here are a few behind the scenes shots from yesterday:

Model: Shelbey Love (Spot 6)

Hair/Make-up: Julia Stone

Styling: Monika Tatalovic

Photography: Hannah Sider