Dumping my first vendor

Breaking up is hard to do y'all.  Seriously.

I am very picky when it comes to my hair.  And I'm not just your average picky girl.  I grew up in a salon.  My mom was a nail technician, and also did make-up and facials, and I would go there after school when she didn't have a baby-sitter for me.  When I was too old for a baby sitter, I became the salon mascot of sorts.  I swept hair, folded towels, folded foils, cleaned out sinks, ran errands, etc.  The stylists tipped me out, and I had it made.  I never once paid for hair cut/style/color/products, and the girls experimented with my crazy thick hair when they were bored.

I had an amazing guy in Madison who did my hair.  At this ridiculously amazing, sort of punk-rock salon that I adored.  (here is their website if you want to check it out:  http://www.chachahair.com/)
Unfortunately, Jason doesn't really do up-dos.  He sort of hates them.  So I felt bad asking him to do mine for the wedding.  I asked a friend of a friend, and over the holidays I had my trial.  I went to her armed with these inspiration pictures.

Source

I have no idea where this one is from, let me know if you do.

What she gave me was a frizzy, lopsided mess. 

She kept saying things like "on the day of, I will smooth it out, on the day of, I will curl it a little".  What I couldn't figure out, is why she was charging me for a trial, yet not doing the things she would do on the day of? 

I think my face here pretty much says it all.  I was not impressed.  So I emailed/pleaded with Jason, and he basically laughed at me for not asking him sooner.  Then I broke up with my  stylist over an email.  Some things just have to be done.

Have you had to break up with any vendors?

*iPhone photography of the hair trial mess by the lovely bridesmaid Vero, who I think may have been laughing at me a little bit.  You should see the pics from 2 hours later when the hair was completely falling out.  Not pretty.

Laying some ground rules

(Sorry for my lack of posting lately.  Things have been a bit crazy lately with work/wedding planning/life.  What I need to remember is that blogging actually helps relieve the stress, rather than adds to it.)

On Thursday evening, I was happily waiting for the street car on St. Charles with P and his friends that had just arrived for his bachelor party.  (Don't worry, I was about to peace out to my friends house for the weekend so they could have a man-fest, but I spend the first night with them, which proved to be an amazing time.)  While we were waiting, I noticed I had a voicemail from my mom.  Now, if you've been reading this blog, you know that my relationship with my mom is an interesting one, and she really doesn't call me that often.  I was hoping that she was calling me to let me know how amazing our wedding invites were (that she should have receieved over a week ago), so I happily called her back.  Instead I received some serious drama on the other end when she picked up.  She tried to pull me in, once again, to the drama surrounding my brother and his never-ending divorce with my former MOH and very dear friend.  She basically accused me of some ridiculousness, and instead of fighting with her, I decided to try a new route.

I played the bride card.  That's right folks.  I told her that I did not want to hear about my brother and his drama, her drama (she is apparently about to get her 4th divorce, but she has been saying this every few months for the last 4 years), or anything else negative UNTIL AFTER THE WEDDING.  If she wants to call me and talk flowers, programs, dresses, unicorns, and fairies, that's fine.  But if she wants to talk about family drama, she can turn elsewhere.  I said this all very calmly and sweetly (with an underlying tone of "if you don't like it, you can shove it") and then I ended the conversation. 

It was so liberating.  As I've grown older and wiser I've realized that sometimes it's OK to be selfish.  And this is one of those times. 

Has anyone else played the bride card to put an end to some nonsense?  Did you feel as liberated as I did/do?