Weddingbee Blog

Warning! Photo-heavy post ahead!

The duckling to swan metaphor is the best one I can come up with for my experience at my hair and makeup trial last week. My hair and makeup artist lives on the North Island, so our family road trip was the perfect time to have my trial. I always knew I wanted to leave my beautification on the wedding day to a professional, as I am completely, utterly hopeless with anything to do with that sort of thing. I did feel a little guilty at first spending money on myself like that, but then Mr E surprised me by saying it was an important thing for him that I find a professional so that I feel completely confident in myself on the day (ahh…he knows me well). I stumbled across Nicki after seeing numerous happy reviews on an NZ wedding forum from brides who had booked her.

Let me tell you—now that I have met Nicki I can say that all those reviews were spot on. She is completely lovely to work with and has a gift for making you feel completely relaxed and sure that in her hands you can’t help but turn out beautiful (which is the confidence I desperately need to have in someone!). I am so so happy we made the decision to book with her. I was incredibly (and weirdly) nervous for the trial. I think it was because I want so badly to look and FEEL gorgeous on the day (like any bride does) but I haven’t been feeling very confident that the vision I have in my head will actually translate to reality on the day.

Anyway, I needn’t have stressed over it. As you know from my inspiration posts here and here, I had some rough ideas of what I wanted going into the trial, but was still feeling indecisive. So I gave Nicki the pictures of styles I did like, then just told her the kind of “vibe” I was going for: Vintage-y (yes, I chose to go more this direction in the end), but not over-the-top, natural and “fresh” with a bit of “pow.”

Ha. Well, she took that description and did something with it that was SO much better than I could have thought up. You’ve had enough talk from me; let’s just get to the pics:

I was too excited to get a “before” pic for the hair, but you will be able to tell that these first pics are without makeup! (Also, excuse the dingy motel room we were in, it was the place Dad picked at random for us to stay in. It was not the best for pics…)

Nicki curled my hair in ringlets (as my hair naturally falls in ringlets anyway) with the magical ghd. She gave me a “side-swept” fringe and a bit of a vintage bump in the back, slipped in my hairpin, and the result is this:

Close up of my hairpin (a gorgeous Balinese silver one that my parents gave me):

The back of my hair:

I haven’t really talked about it before but I will be wearing a veil as well, at least for the ceremony. Mine is a simple single-layered fingertip veil that I had custom-made at an amazing shop in Christchurch called Grace & Lace (NZ brides, take note!):

(The veil is a bit rumpled from traveling and we didn’t put it very firmly in the hairstyle for the trial…we were just playing, really)

On to makeup! This is where I really started to feel transformed.

You know how I talked about being pale? Well I wasn’t kidding. Apparently I am one of the palest people Nicki has ever had to work on! To add to that, I am “deceptively pale” (her words :P)…as in you might think a product is pale enough for my tone but as soon as you put it on me it shows up. So, she said that she will hunt down the right foundation for me and we will do a “mini trial” a couple days before the wedding just to make sure it matches perfectly. That sounds good to me!

Nicki suggested I try some individual false eyelashes (not full sets). I was dubious at first, but I liked the results!

Pink lips and smoky bluish eyeshadow finished the look off.

My sisters had to come over and examine it:

And then Mum wanted a profile shot:

I call this trial a success! The look makes me feel amazing and I think it fits into our wedding even more perfectly that I could have imagined. I’m a visual person and not being able to visualise what I will look like at the wedding was driving me nuts, but now it is falling into place.

What do you think, everyone? Those of you who are having a professional do your hair and makeup: are you having a trial?

*All photos either by my Mum or by my sister, MOH earrings