8 People in the Group Chat
A girl's trip in the Georgia mountains turned into a podcast for two high school friends. Find out how they met and what keeps them connected over 25 years after high school graduation.
8 People in the Group Chat
The Bridesmaid
Join us for a rollercoaster ride through the sequins and chiffon as Yola recounts the honor, hilarity, and sometimes the awkwardness of being a bridesmaid recently. It's a world away from the carefree days of our 20s, and oh boy, do we have stories for you—from the elusive hunt for a dress that flatters every curve to the heartfelt admissions about whether we still fit into this tulle-wrapped tradition. You'll get an honest look at the modern bridal party experience, where we celebrate the differences in our bodies and the dresses that, let's face it, we may only wear once. Special shoutout to the incredible Breanna Bennett (@SpicedFacesMUA), whose magic touch dazzled at a recent wedding.
What's up? It's your girl, yola, and guess what Bonus episodes have entered the chat. That's right. Sometimes, as you know, we get to talking and our conversations run a little too long for a regular episode, so now you can get caught up on some of the stuff you missed when we had to do some editing. This week you're going to hear about my adventures as a bridesmaid Shout out to the Browns. So stay tuned, my friend got married in October.
Speaker 1:I've known her since I was four years old. She is a great person and I'm thrilled for her, and they have been together for a bit oh congratulations, friend. Yes, but I did not expect and.
Speaker 2:I shouldn't say that.
Speaker 1:I say that I was honored enough, like she valued our relationship enough, to invite me to be a bridesmaid. I value our relationship enough to accept that invitation. So I was a bridesmaid at 44. And I did not. I've been a bridesmaid twice before, but in my 20s I was tired and I didn't even do much and I was like I just did not realize that bridesmaid. It seems different. Have you been?
Speaker 2:a bridesmaid I have.
Speaker 1:Have you been a bridesmaid recently?
Speaker 2:The last bridesmaid. The last wedding I was in was in my brother's wedding, which was five years ago, so I would say that was.
Speaker 1:That's relatively recent.
Speaker 2:Like I, what are you saying? You feel like it's a lot to be a bridesmaid.
Speaker 1:I feel like bridesmaid is a young girl I don't know about, just I felt.
Speaker 2:Why do you feel that way? What do you what? What was your experience? Why do you say it's a young girl's game?
Speaker 1:And let's be clear you are still young, ok yes, I am still young relatively, but let's be honest, there are certain things that you do in your 20s. True, I'm 24, like my knee hurt and I'm just sitting here, right, true, but I did. I like I think maybe I'm just wasn't well burst because I have only, like it was, it's been 20 years and I think maybe that's more what it was.
Speaker 2:If I say that loud for the first time like I.
Speaker 1:Just I think I almost didn't even know what to expect. I said I did very little because I, when I was right, maybe right, maybe last time- you sound like me.
Speaker 2:You know, that's what she says. Brought me.
Speaker 1:But I am trying to think. I think the last time last time was not to the first time with our friend Casey, who's also in the group chat, and I love my drill.
Speaker 2:Oh, I had brunch with, not too long ago, casey and I did, casey and I did. Yeah, I thought about you and to she's a friend of the group chat?
Speaker 1:Yes, she is, we love. She also went to high school with us, yes, so and speaking of Jen, she was also a freshman. And Right, what Um, but we got our dresses. Our dresses were made for us by a wonderful one See, I like that I like it Also ended up making my wedding gown. So because I had such a good experience and so I so Casey dress that went to that dress Brashe's dress was my favorite, just because it got, it was made for me.
Speaker 1:Hey look to your body. Yes, and I was 22. So I was cute Um this particular like I was. This dress. I don't feel like it flattered me very much. I didn't have a lot of saying in it.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So Brian had, she had a vision I respected that Like I said I love her. I've noticed that I was four years old and I just I don't know, I just it's hard to put into words.
Speaker 2:I'm also.
Speaker 1:I don't want my friends to listen to this to be offended, because I really enjoyed that experience and the celebration of her. I just, I just don't think that. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a bride. That's made, maybe that's what it is, maybe it's me, maybe. I'm literally having this thought in real time.
Speaker 2:Maybe it is, I don't know. You know, I've always been. I always said if I were to have a decent size wedding when I say decent because now I'm at a point in my life if I were to get married, we can literally just go to the JP and call it a day. But if I were to have a wedding, formal wedding I would just say you know I'm not going to pay. Pick out a couple of dresses, maybe four. Have the bridesmaids choose for me, because I feel like they have to pay their money for it and you should not have to pay for something that you don't like and, let's face it, most of the time you never wear it again, right?
Speaker 1:She did do that. Okay, she's hit, not like it Did do that. It's just that none of the options were flattering, but let's take this. I do not think they were flattering on me and but I guess you know I I love her. I sucked it up. I wore the dress. It worked well enough. You know, that's it. I'm not going to wear it again. I have nothing, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, most people don't I mean who really wears their bridesmaids dress anymore after the day of the wedding? You don't. You put in the back of your closet and it collects dust. But I do agree with you about that because I do feel like the people that you have in your wedding. You have to think about body types and what may look good on them.
Speaker 1:I just did not like me and I wouldn't like. I want to practice but like people to fully understand, I am talking only about myself when I say I did not like this. I did not think it was suited for me.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what Kind of goes back to what we talked about last week in securities, no one really knows unless you know that person and it has been shared with you. For the most part, you don't know what that person's insecurity is.
Speaker 1:So maybe it was one of those things that could have been, one of those things that, oh you know, I just sent you because I see where you're trying to go and I'm sending you a text with the picture from the wedding so that you know that's not the case this time. It just doesn't look good.
Speaker 2:I actually like the dress. Well, but what I'm saying is what you see and what other people see are two totally different things. You may not be comfortable in it, but you know, no matter how many times a person may say, oh my God, you look good, good. And if you don't feel good in it and feel comfortable in it, no amount of compliments is going to make you feel different. I think it looks good, but I get what you're saying. You just didn't feel like it fit your body type, but I like it.
Speaker 1:I did not feel comfortable.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:I made jokes that if I didn't already have a man I definitely wouldn't go. Catch nobody in that.
Speaker 2:I'm yo, Almost made me choke.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Crazy, because that is. That is what is the word I wanna use. That is so it's the word I wanna use. Dramatic, that is so dramatic. I do not feel that way. I think the dress is. I think you look good in the dress Well you are my friend and I love you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, but yeah, it's even a bit of a but it was just.
Speaker 2:It was an experience.
Speaker 1:It was very, I think, also like I. I don't know, I just feel like I was able to contribute the way I thought bridesmaids should. And don't get me wrong, she didn't ask. She didn't ask a lot of us at all.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Just to support and celebrate her.
Speaker 2:She didn't ask for the bridesmaids to do anything. No, she didn't have any crazy questions.
Speaker 1:She was probably the most low key, like she had some things that she wanted because, well, it was her wedding and she was praying for it and that's what she wanted, right, but I don't think she was. She was not a bridesmaid about any stretch. She was very low key. As brides, though, okay, there was no like people got to wear their hair the way they wanted to, they wore the shoes they wanted to. I mean, I think her one request about a parent was like no loud off cold, like not a symptom off cold, but like nail polish when you can. You know, just for the aesthetic. That aesthetic, but nothing, which is very reasonable.
Speaker 2:Got you.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I like it.
Speaker 1:Like she didn't force us to get, like I said, I hear it done in a certain way or by a certain person. She actually covered the makeup artist for us, so that was a gift. That was a gift, yeah, she did. She gifted us very many things, so she gifted us the jewelry she gifted us the makeup she gifted us. I have. You know I love anything with my name on it, so I have a set of matching stimulus champagne flutes with my name on it. I had a robe with my name on it.
Speaker 2:Ooh, oh, she gave us slippers I have.
Speaker 1:I came away with a lot of stuff from her wedding. I was like I feel very much thanked and appreciated having this experience. Oh my gosh, her mother made the most beautiful bouquets, oh so she made the bouquet for the wedding.
Speaker 2:Her mom did Her mom Very nice.
Speaker 1:The beautiful, her mother's very talented and she worked with a really good the major look events, which is some folks that I know and the combination of those two talents together, like it was absolutely gorgeous. Okay, okay, I like it. The atmosphere is so. It was a beautiful wedding, just a beautiful bride, and I liked the most was they were just happy, Like they were happy to get married.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the wedding and they just had a good time and people celebrated them and had a good time. It was, and I know- I say I felt like I just felt. I think, like I said, the issue about being a bride made and being tired is me just based on all the stuff that's going on in life.
Speaker 2:So that's not about the bride, by any stretch, please don't make fun of her. No, no, no, no yeah.
Speaker 1:Because I felt like she and her husband did a fantastic job on like this is a celebration of us and our love and our union, and that's what the focus is gonna be. So, whatever it was you think you about to be doing hey, about that it is not happening. So I like it was a good time. It felt like, you know, we talked about weddings and celebrations and it felt like that.
Speaker 2:I like that and I like the fact that she gifted you the makeup Cause, let me tell you, makeup to get your makeup done is it's, you know, for several girls that could be kind of pricey. That was a very nice gift. That was a. Yes, it's a very nice gift, very, very nice gift.
Speaker 1:And I rarely painted, so I I don't wear makeup.
Speaker 2:But the makeup was good in the picture. I'm looking at it.
Speaker 1:It was a beautiful experience to just kind of sit back and let it be done. Well, thank you. Yeah, I wish I remember the other ladies name. I'll have to try and put in the show notes. Well, I didn't have one issue with the makeup artist who did my makeup. She doesn't like the whiz. He's on down. He's on down the road.
Speaker 2:What Girl do you know what's up? You know what's about to be on Broadway, right?
Speaker 1:Again yeah.
Speaker 2:Again and I'm going yes.
Speaker 1:So I would go, you just like the whiz Didn't make the whiz, and then I made the whiz. But no, it was funny because she and the other makeup artist, all right, yeah, I got friends and colleagues, and so when she said that I guess her friend and colleague did not know this, we were all like what Wait?
Speaker 2:she didn't like it or she's never seen it?
Speaker 1:She's seen it and it's not openly bond of it.
Speaker 2:Would she prefers the Wizard of Oz?
Speaker 1:I can't even remember. I was so shocked at that point.
Speaker 2:I like both of them, but I love the whiz. I do like both. I love it.
Speaker 1:The whiz is gifted itself.
Speaker 2:Actually I have pinned that because I do want to talk about that for another chat and I want to talk about on the heels of wedding. I think we should talk about wedding etiquette. I think that should be a topic. Oh, yes, Wedding etiquette. So I have put that down because I think that's a big topic and I have very strong views about wedding etiquette. So there will be something to revisit, don't you?
Speaker 1:I do, I do and I will say, my friend did have some guidelines about guests etiquette too, so that'd be great. That also gives us some gifts onto the show, some folks we can talk with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I know we got to wrap up, so let's talk about this black owned business we're highlighting this time around, this go round. We are turning on our notifications for Brianna Bennett. Brianna is a makeup artist. She's been in the beauty industry for about 10 years now. She specializes in mostly weddings, but she is phenomenal at anything, and you can find her on Instagram at Spiced Faces, mua. Again, that's Spiced Faces, mua and we will share this on our Instagram and in our show notes. Shout out to Brianna Bennett at Spiced Faces, mua. She did a phenomenal job on my makeup for my friend's wedding, so you'll get to see pictures of that soon. See you in the group chat.
