Every girl dreams of walking down the aisle to meet her prince charming, the thing is, we don’t realize at 10 years old what planning goes into making it all happen! We envision our husband-to-be waiting for us at the end of the aisle, ready to say I do, and no matter what style dress or wedding, you imagine yourself looking your best. Girl, that doesn’t just happen on its own, beauty takes work!
For most of us, we have some type of routine that we go through every day to get ready and look our best. Whether you are a 10 minute girl, or your like me and you take your time and stretch it out to an hour and a half, we all care what we look like to others. For the biggest day of your life, this is going to be the longest get ready session in history! You are going to want to spend some time and follow the tips below to look your best as you walk down the aisle.
I sat down with my go-do beauty girl, Jeanell Bowker from Mario Tricoci to get some great tips of how to prep for your wedding day. She shared her top insider tips below but if you would like your own bridal beauty consultation you can contact Visions to get a complimentary consultation.
Not a bride but want beauty tips? Skip to the bottom of the article to see how you can look your best, and find out what colors you don’t want to wear to a wedding!
Head to Toe Beauty Tips for Brides:
- Hair Care Tips - Wash your hair the night before or better yet, receive a blow out from your hair stylist, this way the hair is clean and yet has enough texture to put your hair up for your special day. Make an appointment to receive your blow out for your rehearsal dinner and now you are all set for both occasions!
- Inspiration is Priceless - Bring pictures to your stylist. We all have different textures and style of hair so it’s important to bring to your stylist what you envision for you big day, but more importantly (and I have seen this time and time again as a wedding planner) your terminology of soft curls may be different from your stylist. The last thing you want is to tell her the look and get something completely different on the day of. Pictures will ensure you are both on the same page.
- Be Realistic - It’s best to take the recommendation of a professional. If your stylist truly is a professional she will consult you regarding the silhouette of the dress, accessories, shoes and the formality of your wedding to give you the best style for your hair type.
- Practice Makes Perfect - Jeanell recommends getting a trial run no matter how long you have been seeing your stylist or how much you trust her work. With the trial you will be able to try different options as well as take pictures to make sure it’s exactly what you want. Bring the photos you take from the trial with you on your wedding day because stylist see hundreds of clients in a month and you want to make sure you get the style right. Take a front and back photo to get the overall feel for the style and as a rule of thumb get a trial done about a month out. This way it’s fresh in your minds but you still have time if you need to tweak some things.
- Timeless Elegance - Remember, hair should look timeless. Trends are fine to set the tone of the style but you don’t want to look back and tell what decade you were married in by your hair.
- Beauty is Pain - Bobby pins can be painful if you aren’t use to them. It’s a good idea to have Advil on hand before the evening gets underway (If you hired a wedding planner she should have all the essentials in her emergency kit). Just like a ponytail or a headband can apply discomfort after a whole day, so can bobby pins!
- Less is NOT better - This is probably one of the few instances when less is NOT more! There are two main reasons why your makeup artist will cake on the products. 1) Photos, the camera will produce a shine and diminish the smokey eye just by the flash alone. Also to ensure that your photos depict how beautiful you were in person, your makeup artist will want to be using the correct products (yes there are a list of products not to use specifically for photos) and will make your eyes a bit darker. 2) This is your wedding, you don’t want to look like you do every other day, you want to look like you are dressed to the nines for your big day and makeup sets the stage.
- Loose the Orange - A nice glow is a must, but tanning too much before your wedding makes it very hard to custom blend your make up and to match your skin tone. Not to mention you don’t want to look back at photos and say, ‘Why didn’t someone tell me how orange I was!”
- Pucker Up - Lip color is the biggest debate. Think a little outside the box and try your professionals recommendations. Lip color changes by the season and although you still need to feel comfortable you may want to push your boundaries and try a color you would never think of wearing. Sometimes your makeup artist knows best, and just like a dress, try them all because often the tone you least expect to be complimentary is the best fit.
- The Best Accessory - Shoes… girls love them and our feet hate them! Remember that on your wedding day you will want to flirt a little with the camera by showing some amazing heels but by the end of the night you will not want to be dealing with those extra 5 inches. As Jeanell shared with me, her grandmother gave her some great advice, “No matter what, a real lady never takes off her heels in public!” Whether your whole bridal party gets matching flip-flops or ever Dr. Scholls flat slip on’s, it’s better to have these as options than to be in your beautiful dress shoe less, think ahead.
Tagged as: beauty, brides, hair, makeup, wedding planning