All You Need is Love: Getting Ready!

Need to catch up on the previous recaps?

Here are all the things we DIY'ed for the wedding/reception
Here are our flowers
Everyone started arriving on Thursday
Friday, pre-rehearsal
Then we rehearsed
And of course ate
Then we woke up and my mom & I got our hair done

As I alluded to in my last post, after my mom and I left the salon, wedding day mishap #1 (of 2) occurred. We are about 15 minutes away from the salon and we get a call from Kim, the hair stylist, telling us we forgot my tiara! For some reason I had brought it inside the salon with me, but then completely forgot it when we left. We start to turn around to go get it, with me freaking out because there was a tight morning timeline and simultaneously calling my dad to tell him we would be a bit late getting to the church.

Then my dad saves the day! He tells me he will go ahead and drop the bridesmaids off at the church (per the plan) but then go drive an hour roundtrip himself to go get the tiara. Yay! No more me running late though I felt bad he had to drive all that way. So- lesson learned-- make sure you have EVERYTHING before you leave :)

So my mom and I arrive at the church right as my photographer, Kasey, and her second shooter arrive. A few minutes later the bridesmaids arrive, and the getting ready begins!

Now a little plug for our makeup lady. I had contacted her about two months prior about doing my makeup and the original plan was to do just the regular powder makeup because though I wanted the airbrush it was a bit more than we wanted to spend. When she arrives, she tells me she will do the airbrush for the original cost of the powder-- not charging us anymore! She was so sweet and you could tell she just loved what she did. I absolutely loved how my makeup came out and it stayed all day. So if anyone is getting married in Houston-- contact her! Though not anytime soon-- she is expecting a baby any day now!

The church had a huge parlor we got to spread out all of our stuff in along with a full-length mirror, so it was perfect for getting ready. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves now.

All pictures by Kasey Lynn Photography

Hair & Make Up Trial! Part A

I went home for the weekend with the original intention of working all day Saturday and then getting my first fitting for my wedding dress Sunday. Well, then my mom texted me one day to let me know that I had an appointment for a 'dry run' of my hair and make up on Saturday morning. There goes the productivity, but it was still really good and a lot of fun.

Before I show you pictures from Saturday, first for a little background. I don't wear that much make up. I wear eyeliner daily, and on special occasions I wear mascara. That's it. The only time I wore more was when I was on my drill team in high school and we had to look like hookers for performances, complete with bright red lipstick, blush, and brown eye shadow. Because I was never a girly-girl, when I have tried to put on more make up than my standard, I instantly reverted to drill team make up. Not good.

So, while I know that to look 'good' in your wedding photos you need to have more make up on than normal, I also know that I still looked OK in my engagement pics. For that, all I wore was eyeliner, mascara, and some eye shadow. And, most importantly, Matt wants me to look like myself, not like some china doll. Whenever someone starts telling me I need to do X, Y, or Z before the wedding, I block it out. The wedding day is about the beginning of a marriage, not about a photo shoot. I want my husband-to-be to instantly recognize the young woman walking down the aisle towards him. 

I say all of this with the obvious point: I want to look like myself. I want to wear a bit more make up than normal (i.e. blush, foundation, etc), but I know I do not want to rely on myself to do that. Enter in Kim, my normal hair stylist who also does make up. You may remember the Bridesmaid Weekend from a couple of weekends ago-- we stopped by a Chanel counter and this was the result:

I liked it a lot, especially that 1) it stayed all day and 2) I felt my skin looked amazing and felt 'real.' 

So on Saturday, I didn't give Kim many guidelines, other than something natural that somehow emphasized my eyes. Here is the result:

Looking at it now, it seems pretty similar. I feel the first one is higher quality make up, but obviously the price follows. This one kind of took me a while to warm up to, but now I'm really happy with it. Though it's hard to tell in that pic, both my mom and I agreed that for bridals & the Day we'll ask for a lighter shade of brown, but otherwise it was good. Of course Kim wanted me to wax my eyebrows so I could get more of an arch and blah blah blah. I have avoided doing any of that kind of stuff because it seems to be one of those things like shaving- once you start you can't stop! But I digress...

And since this post is long enough, I'll save the hair for a later post. But, what do you think? Make up A or B? Thoughts on modifying part of yourself (i.e. eyebrows) so you'll look 'better' in pictures?