Styling Help Needed (Pretty Please)

Ok so up until this point in my life I've always had long thick straight hair. Styling was not something that occured to my hair. It was either down or pulled back in a pony. On rare occasions I'd go ahead and curl it, more times than not I had someone else curl it. Now I had to get my ahir chopped (not a story I want to get into) and have no idea how to style it.

The cut is basically a whole bunch of layers. The longest one in the front hits ust above chin and the shortest ones end ust about eye level. The back is what really kills me. The ends look like a bowl has been stuck over my head. I'm thinking about maybe seeing if the stylist could change the back I think its called stacking...... or something

So I was thinking it would look half way decent if I could make it flip out. Yet I have no idea how to do that. Someone told me to get a flat iron or to use a curl iron. Which is the better way? If you could give me some advice or just point me in the right direction I'd apperciate it. I really am a noivce. PLus I have two weddings to go to here soon so I need to get control of this ASAP. Thanks