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Weddingbee Blog
Makeup.
I thought of it as “make stress,” personally. Like other bees around these parts, I’m not big on makeup. I pretty much rock the natural look…the bulk of my morning “beauty” routine is spent on my hair. My daily makeup application goes like this: some mascara, a little eyeliner (shadow if I’m feeling particularly ambitious), a brush of blush, swipe of lip gloss and out the door.
OK - if I’m being really honest, there are days when I mix it up with concealer or bronzer.
Anyhow, the truth is, I never feel like I have too little makeup on…but I have definitely had times where I feel like I have too much. So, when seeking a makeup artist for the wedding, I really focused on those who had good reviews by brides who wanted to look “natural.”
I know, I know…”natural” is a total buzzword in the wedding world (goes with “classic,” “traditional,” etc) and my “natural” could be very different from your “natural.”
For reference, here’s my makeup “spectrum”: sans makeup (rocking the specs), daily wear and with “fancy” makeup (at a wedding - did it myself).
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| I know - the difference is minimal |
I consider each of these pictures to be natural in their own way - clearly the right being most appropriate for a formal event - if you must choose from the selection above.
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The other day I stopped into my hairdresser’s for a quick trim and a hair trial! If you remember, I already bought some fake hair to extend my ponytail and give the illusion of thick hair. Therefore, I knew going into my trial that I wanted a side ponytail hairstyle. I also thought I’d really like to include some sort of braid into my hair. I’m not big on super intricate updos, but wanted to keep my hair out of my face so I wasn’t tempted to touch it all night long. Now I forgot my fake hair, so you will have to picture it with a long, thick, curly ponytail, but here is what we came up with:
(personal photos ahead)
In between my first dress fitting and bachelorette party, (which I’ll post about next!), this past Saturday, I was able to squeeze in my makeup trial.
I wear makeup every day so I’m not afraid of going for a more dramatic look for the wedding. Bare Minerals is my current choice for foundation and concealer, but thanks to you smart and informed peoples here on the Hive, I learned that this type of makeup does not photograph well. Apparently it reflects the light and can make you look like a grease face. Yeah - that doesn’t sound very bridal to me!
After learning this tidbit of info, I knew airbrush was the direction I wanted to go. I’ve never worn airbrush makeup, but my FSIL did for her wedding and she looked radiant.
My makeup artist, Anjelica, asked that I bring pictures of makeup looks that I liked. Pinterest to the rescue again!
Image via ProjectWedding.com / Photo by AllMadeUpTeam.com
The verdict of the hair trial: success.
I went to the salon that my future MIL goes to out in Pennsylvania. Considering I don’t know a damn thing about salons in the area, I figured it makes the most sense to go with a salon someone knows something about. The kicker is, the hairstylist I am using has done Mr. P’s hair since he was a kid (before he moved to good ol’ NYC). The same stylist now also does a lot of Mr. P’s family’s hair. Keeping it in the family…
Here I am before in my non-makeup glory (okay, I lie, I am wearing a little cover-up stick and pressed powder:
And, here I am after…
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Of the many things that I love about my appearance, perhaps my very favorite physical features are my eyes and my hair. Nearly every time I look in the mirror, I notice one or both of those and I can’t help but smile at my reflection. It’s not vanity, and I hope it doesn’t come across that way. It’s just that I truly believe everyone should have aspects of themselves (physical, relational, emotional, intellectual, etc.) that they can acknowledge as strong, positive features (even if, at times, it’s simultaneous with less positive features—for instance my acne-prone skin).
So, given this love affair I have with my eyes and hair, you’d think I’d have spent more time considering my wedding hair and makeup. But, in actuality, I had one very brief moment of hair inspiration and zero ideas about makeup. I don’t know if it was anxiety or just feeling overwhelmed with other stuff, but I showed up to my trial session with one inspiration picture and almost no ability to articulate what I was looking for. Thankfully my amazing hair and makeup artist Lucy Flint knew just what questions to ask to get a sense of my wedding day vision, and then she began to work her magic. (Side note: She even continued with said magic as the building was rocked by a 3.8 magnitude earthquake. That’s running a business in the Bay Area for ya!)
Over the course of a few hours we tried out a makeup look, with and without false lashes, and two different hairstyles. I was so pleased, relieved, and excited about how great everything turned out that I wanted to go back for a second trial to do a bit of a different hair version. You know how I love me some options!
Forgive the poor lighting—it was dark by the time we finished.
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Yesterday was our first bridal shower so I thought it would be the perfect time to have a hair trial. Not only would I be testing out a wedding day look, but my hair would look great for the shower!
Mr. Ball Cap’s cousin, L, has been doing my hair since I moved to Dyer. She recently had a baby and now works out of her home. I take every chance I can to get over there for a baby fix!
At my last appointment with her, I gave her a print out of looks I had found online. I was drawn to a similar style over and over again.
Image via TheKnot.com
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
After a roller-coaster ride of making a hair and makeup artist decision, I’ve finally found the woman who will be making me up on the day of the wedding. Despite some previously unfortunate circumstances on the glamour front, and having not budgeted any money for my day-of hair and makeup, I was left in quite the predicament. Thankfully, I have the most amazing family in the world, and my parents graciously offered to pay for my dream vendor! A winning situation? I think, YES!
Anyway, enough jibber-jabber. Let’s get on to the good stuffs.
Last week, I met with the lovely Susie Cee for a hair and makeup trial, and boy was I blown away! From the moment I sat down, I knew I was in good hands and knew that the unexpected investment would be totally worth my parents’ money. 
What I typically look like without makeup:
Mr. Seal and me after completing Bay-to-Breakers in SF this past May
Now, you may be wondering why I didn’t show you what I looked like “before makeup” on the actual day of the trial, and I will gladly explain. The only picture taken of me without makeup that day was by Susie…and it was right after I got my eyebrows waxed. When I showed the picture she sent me to the Sealman, he (no joke) laughed for a full minute. Anyway, I’ll let you see the picture below, but I just couldn’t bear the thought of that photo being on the FRONT page of the blog for all to see and laugh at…because I totally look terrifying.
Even though I have someone scheduled to do my hair, I’m a paranoid bride-monster convinced that something dire will happen to my hair stylist and I’ll wind up being responsible for my own hair on the wedding day. (The horrors!)
Most days, my hair is hastily bundled up in one of two clips that I own.
Here you can see I didn’t even get the clip all the way onto the bun. Funnel Cake Fail!
With the wedding approaching and my paranoia mounting, I have been trying to learn ways to do my own hair that look, well… nice. Because frankly, hair in the clip-bun is not-so-nice. Up first on the list of hair-dos are curls.
Curls have been evading my locks for years, as my semi-curly, no-longer-straight hair decides to settle into an awkward wave. Usually, the harder I try to curl my hair, the straighter it winds up. Curling irons and curlers are no help. However, I believe I have now figured out a semi-reliable way to ensure I have curls that last ALL day. You wanna know how?
My wedding-day hair and makeup artist came over today to do a trial run of my wedding day look. I’d talked before about my extensive inspiration—natural, curly, loose side bun or ponytail and fresh, rosy romantic makeup. I was weirdly nervous when Marci from Kyle Lynn came over, since I hadn’t ever had my makeup done and was frankly afraid she’d make me look like Tammy Faye out on the town. So I awkwardly paced around our living room while she set up. She was quiet, which made me think she thought I was weird. As always.
But I showed her my inspiration file, and we got started. She was so great! We nearly nailed the makeup the first time around—we just had to try a couple of shades of lipstick before we found the right one, and tone down the lower lash line’s eyeliner. The hair, too, was about 95% there—the day of, we’ll be doing it a bit looser and less structured, with some more ends showing. But I felt like a total princess—and the bonus is I barely felt like I was wearing any makeup, which is very important for a makeup-phobic chica like me.
First, the before—apologies in advance.
Gah.
And—drum roll—the after!
Hello, Hive! A fever pitch is on the horizon with W-Day less than a handful of weeks away. I’ve completely focused all effort and energy to crossing off to-dos and making the last decisions to impact the look and feel of our wedding. No more time to change my mind, it feels good to find some final answers!
Case in point, my beauty trials. From my initial hair inspiration, Anne Hathaway’s glamorous locks clearly won out.
Image via Real Beauty
And as it has been throughout the planning process, my style turned out nothing like the original vision.
Recently, I went to get a makeup trial done. On the advice of my hairstylist, I went to see her cousin who works at ULTA but also has done bridal makeup for years. I talked to her cousin on the phone and she was super polite and upbeat, so I had a good vibe.
I made an appointment for a trial during an event they were having. That seemed like the easy, affordable way to go, but wasn’t the best idea in the end. Each makeup artists was only allotted 30 minutes per customer, so it felt kinda rushed. Plus, we weren’t really supposed to be talking about bridal makeup…it was a covert operation. So I couldn’t really go into too much about what I wanted, which is really something like this:
Carrie Underwood / Image via Zimbio
When all was said and done, I liked the foundation fine, and the blush was OK, and the lips were good…but the eyes were bad. My immediate thought was, “I look like a zombie.”
Can you guess what happened during the week? Yes, I had my hair and makeup trial. Why else would I feel so pretty? I was armed with inspiration pictures coming out of my wazoo, and I knew what I wanted. Explaining that to my hair and makeup artists was what I thought was going to be the difficult part! It turns out they are both very professional and can interpret my vague requests, so it was all incredibly easy!
First, a before photo, after a long day at work.
Personal Photo
I was actually still on a teleconference when I arrived at my parents’ house for the trial. Not lettting that faze me, we got started with the hair, from my inspiration here.
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It’s been a while since I’ve really talked about my wedding day look, but given that I finally had my hair and makeup trial, I guess it’s time I returned to the subject.
Remember how I originally wanted a loose, soft, curly updo for the wedding? Well the second I showed Mr. Parasol my inspiration pictures, he pointed to the one curly half-up photo I had and said, “Oh, I like that. You should do your hair exactly like that.” Boys. What do they know?
But when I listened to Mr. Parasol’s reasoning, I realized that he actually knew what he was talking about. In the first place, I wear my hair up all the time. Doing my hair requires a lot of work, and most days, I just don’t have the time or the energy to style it, so I usually throw it up into some sort of bun. When I want to dress up and look my best, though, I usually wear my hair down. So in Mr. Parasol’s mind, an updo=everyday casual hairstyle while a half-up=fancy special occasion hairstyle. Plus, he says he really likes it when I wear my hair down and curly. That was the deciding factor for me because, above all else, I want to look beautiful for Mr. Parasol.
I could have stuck with the original inspiration picture that Mr. Parasol really liked:
Image via The Knot / Photography byLaura Negri Photography / Hair by Bob Salon
But I realized this isn’t quite what I want. It’s lovely, but I knew I could find something better.
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A few weekends ago, we trekked out to California for my sister’s college graduation. Why is this relevant to weddings? Well, luckily enough, Mr. CA’s Auntie also lives in the same town, so we were able to get together with her. Bonus? She is also my wedding hair and makeup artiste extraordinaire!
So, of course, we simply had to do a trial while I was down there, right? I mean, come on, who doesn’t love getting themselves done up all nice and pretty like? No one.
Armed with my hair-spiration, we set off. Unfortunately, due to terrible weather across the country, flights were delayed out of Newark, and we missed our connection in Phoenix. Which meant we landed in Phoenix around 1am. Meaning we had to sleep in the Phoenix airport to catch our super-early-morning flight. I was not pleased. Airport-sleeping does not make for a beautiful, fresh-faced Miss Candy A. Yep, I looked pretty haggard. Poor Auntie, she wasn’t going to have much to work with.
Once we landed, we met up with Auntie and Uncle CA for lunch, then the appointment. I dragged my mom along and pressed her into service as our photographer for the day. Mr. CA and Uncle CA also ended up joining us, so it was just a big ol’ Candy Apple party!
Get ready - lots of pics coming your way!
Me, fresh off the Phoenix airport floor with less than an hour’s sleep. Dehydrated. Tired. Sexy. Wait, which of those doesn’t belong?
I’m sure that in days before bridal blogs like Weddingbee, brides had their ways about finding a perfect photographer or place to get their dress. They probably heard through the grapevine about a wonderful photographer or a fabulous baker. Either way I’m a chick who loves hearing about people’s experiences and advice whether to pull the trigger on a purchase or not.
I love seeing how many stars a movie gets before deciding if I should really spend all that dough to see it. Mr. Sweets completely embarrassed me (by accident) when he told the guy at Best Buy that I am totally set on buying a printer based on the stars. And restaurant reviews? Enough said.
But sometimes the reviews surprise me! After waiting to see a flick when it gets to DVD, sometimes I wish I would’ve seen it on the big screen. And there have been plenty of times that I just had to try Restaurant X because of rave reviews, only to be left disappointed and confused about what all the fuss was about.
That’s why I highly recommend a test drive. Even if it is a little pricey. Enter my makeup trial.
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