What comes before "I do?'' Hairdo.

Getting Tamara ready

By MIKE WILSON

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 22, 2000

Bride-to-be Tamara Eggert checks her makeup Saturday in the natural light outside BodyWorks in St. Pete Beach.

ST. PETE BEACH -- The wedding Saturday of Tamara Eggert and Christopher Burrell came off splendidly. That was the easy part.

The hard part was getting ready. Eggert, 25, and Burrell, 26, both of Reston, Va., spent months choreographing every detail of their wedding. For the ceremony they chose Pass-a-Grille Community Church. For the reception, the Sirata Beach Resort.

But the detail Eggert may have paid the most attention to was herself.

"I want to look like me," she said before the wedding, "but a little bit more glamorous."

She chose a hair stylist, had a wedding dress made, engaged the services of a makeup artist, got a wax job, spent a day at the spa. Her parents, Duane and Margaret Eggert of New Port Richey, drove all over creation picking things up and dropping them off. Burrell did whatever he could to help, following instructions perfectly.

Such elaborate goings-on are common during this, the busiest season of the year for weddings. In separate conversations leading up to Saturday, the people involved in the Burrell-Eggert wedding talked about what it took to get the couple -- especially Tamara -- ready.

MARGARET EGGERT, mother of the bride: "Her wedding is much more elaborate than ours was. We got married in '71 and we had our plans and everything figured out in probably a weekend. My mother and my husband and I made our wedding dress by hand. It cost $25. Tam's having a designer wedding dress made just for her. With the dress and the fittings, it's about $3,000."

When she arrives at Pass-a-Grille Community Church, Eggert’s hair and makeup are perfect but the rest of her is a work in progress. Bridesmaids (from left) Megan McCalley, Erica Hasiuk and Kimarie Eggert, Tamara’s sister, are on hand to help Eggert get dressed.

GAIL MALECOT, owner of CC's Boutique in St. Petersburg, where Eggert bought the dress: "When a girl puts on the right dress, there's a look on her face. ... We zip up the dress and the bride just immediately starts to get a look on her face. She kind of like pats her dress, feels the fabric, it's kind of like she's bonding with that dress because she even realizes it. Tamara did that."

TAMARA EGGERT: "My thing is I have a really beautiful dress, so I certainly want to do it justice."

KIMARIE EGGERT, sister of the bride: "It is the most beautiful dress. Oh my gosh."

MARGARET EGGERT, mother of the bride: "Tamara's not a tiara-type person but she got a special tiara and a special veil made just to go with this gown."

TAMARA EGGERT: "I don't want people to look at me and say, "That doesn't look like her,' but I certainly want to look pretty."

At the start of her preparations bride-to-be Tamara Eggert is all nervous intensity and curlers.

GAIL MALECOT: "The dress is very contemporary and very feminine and very cool and comfortable for Florida."

TAMARA EGGERT: "I'm wearing my hair up. If I wear my hair up on a normal day, it's usually in a ponytail."

KIMARIE EGGERT, the sister: "I'm getting my makeup and my hair done. It's unusual for me. I'm, like, a natural girl, I just get out of the shower and go. Tamara does her hair all the time. ... She gets her hair colored, but all of us do. I'm natural, but not entirely natural."

STELLA HILL, hair stylist at BodyWorks, the salon Eggert chose: "I did a practice run on Tamara. She has nice, very fine hair. But lots of it."

KIMARIE EGGERT: "There's a lot of bobby pins. I took them out for her later that night. Oh my gosh, there must have been 100. I had a handful. It was pretty bizarre and funny. Then I had to brush her hair. It was just all over the place. They don't use a lot of hair spray. She wants it to look natural, you know."

STELLA HILL: "You want her to be satisfied. It's her special day. You want to have things done right, because when she leaves the shop you want her to be happy, not go up to her room and re-do it, right? They work with you. They will tell you if they don't like something."

KIMARIE EGGERT: "She thought it would be a brilliant idea to wax her body so she wouldn't have to shave on her honeymoon. I can't imagine her doing that, you know? Just the other day she went and got her armpits waxed and her legs waxed so she wouldn't have to shave for like a month. She's hard core. She's going all out."

BARBIE SCOTT, Eggert's makeup artist and manager of BodyWorks: "A bride's worst fear is, "Oh my god, am I going to look like Tammy Faye Bakker?' Actually, Tammy Faye Bakker had good features. She was just made up wrong."

When the primping is over and the tiara is in place, left, there is nothing left to do but get married.

TAMARA EGGERT: "What has Chris done to prepare? Yesterday he went and got his haircut because we drug him to the mall."

CHRIS BURRELL, the bridegroom: "I was planning on getting a haircut anyway. It was, like, 19 bucks. Looks fine to me."

TAMARA EGGERT: "He didn't buy a tux, he's renting one. So that's about all he's doing in terms of beauty. When it came to picking out his tux, we did it in about 10 minutes."

BARBIE SCOTT: "I have had mothers cry when they look at their daughters, because that's their little girl leaving them. I've had brides cry. I say, "Don't cry, don't do it.' I don't want to have to do that eye makeup again."

DUANE EGGERT, father of the bride: "I'm just hoping for her to be happy and to enjoy the day, that's all I'm really hoping."

CHRIS BURRELL: "I'm ready to go on the honeymoon. Don't tell her, but we're going to St. Thomas."

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