Wedding Blog

I did a ton of research when I looked for someone to tackle my hair and makeup for the day of the wedding. Just when I thought I might schedule a trial with someone, I would find someone who I liked the sound of even better. Finally, I decided upon Whitney Lowe of Faces by Whitney. She was just getting started in the business, but came recommended by our photographer. Whitney had done our photographer’s hair and make-up for her vow renewal, and they had worked together on a couple photo shoots as well.

Source: Krystal Muellenberg

I immediately contacted Whitney, and she came to the house one Friday evening for my trial. For my makeup, I didn’t have anything super-specific in mind, I just that I knew I wanted it to be eleglamantic* and kind of Audrey Hepburn-esque. For my hair, I showed her this picture of the look I wanted in the front, and didn’t give much direction for the back.

Source: Modern Bride

Here’s my ’before’ picture. Don’t let it scare you away. I was trying to look as bad as possible, kind of like those before-and-after shots on infomercials, so you’ll think the ’after’ shot looks extraordinarily good.

I told Mr. Fondue to take a bunch of in-progress shots, but this is all I really got:

And after!

Those are my real eyelashes, not fake ones.

Don’t mind my frizzy, two-toned hair. It’s a long story, but basically I had to bleach out some color a couple years ago, and my hair does not respond well to bleach. I’m growing it out as long as possible right now, in hopes that I can get it long enough to chop off most of the damaged part before the wedding, so that it will look smooth and shiny. We tried a couple of different things with the top too, so that’s why it might look a little bumpy in some spots.

I wanted to see how well it would hold up, so here I am 24 hours later at the wedding of one of my co-workers. No additional make-up had been added, although I thinned out my eyebrows a little bit (going from practically non-existent to extremely full was a little much for me). Also note that this picture was taken after I bawled my eyes out at a special song that the bride wrote for the groom and was sung during their ceremony. The waterproof mascara actually does work.

Look familiar?

You can’t tell from that photo, but I kind of liked the way it had fallen down a bit in the back on the second day, so I think I’m going to ask her to make it slightly looser, more like my photographer’s hair was.

I was pleased with my trial, so I promptly hired her for both the wedding day and our engagement photo shoot, which came as a package deal for a great price. She will also be tackling my bridesmaids’ hair and make-up.

Were you pleased with your hair and make-up trial(s)?

*This, of course, is a portmanteau of elegant-glamorous-romantic. You’ll notice that I make up words from time to time.