Guest Post: Planning your wedding day makeup look
Posted
Photo by Katheryn Moran Photography
By Ashley Thomasson, Love Beauty
The time is finally here and all the months of planning and dreaming of walking down the aisle are about to come to fruition. The venue, booked. Your dress, bought. Rings, sized. You’ve finished making all the centerpieces and other decorations and now there is just one thing left to think about: You. Planning a wedding is a lot of work, and although it is a day often considered to be “all about the bride,” sometimes it can actually be hard to really stop and think about yourself when there are so many tasks at hand. But, since it is your day, you need to remember that you and how you look are every bit as important as all the other details of your wedding.
As a makeup artist, I love the consulting process. I love helping a bride take her visions and dreams of how she has always wanted to look for her wedding and help bring those to reality. Throughout this process, I’ve come to learn a few tricks, tips and thoughts for helping my clients decide on their wedding day makeup look and I am excited to share some of these with you. So I invite you to take this time to pause and do just that – start planning for your look that will complete your journey as a bride!
The time is finally here and all the months of planning and dreaming of walking down the aisle are about to come to fruition. The venue, booked. Your dress, bought. Rings, sized. You’ve finished making all the centerpieces and other decorations and now there is just one thing left to think about: You. Planning a wedding is a lot of work, and although it is a day often considered to be “all about the bride,” sometimes it can actually be hard to really stop and think about yourself when there are so many tasks at hand. But, since it is your day, you need to remember that you and how you look are every bit as important as all the other details of your wedding.
As a makeup artist, I love the consulting process. I love helping a bride take her visions and dreams of how she has always wanted to look for her wedding and help bring those to reality. Throughout this process, I’ve come to learn a few tricks, tips and thoughts for helping my clients decide on their wedding day makeup look and I am excited to share some of these with you. So I invite you to take this time to pause and do just that – start planning for your look that will complete your journey as a bride!
Define how you want to feel
As women, we all know that how we look on the outside is connected to how we feel on the inside. And all of us have those pieces of jewelry or clothing, certain colors we wear, or ways we style our hair that capture and carry with them a set of emotions that we continue to feel throughout the day. Often, that’s even how we remember ourselves in the days following certain events.
Your wedding day is going to be one of the most memorable days of your life, so when planning your look it’s important to consider how you want to both feel on the day of your wedding and how you want to remember yourself. Do you want to look and feel sexy? Romantic? Soft and natural? Glamorous? Bright? Earthy? The list could go on and on, so feel free to be creative and thoughtful!
Consider the dress you bought, your accessories, wedding colors and how those can play into this feeling as well. But once you define the feeling you want to emulate, run with it. I promise it will be a lot easier to make decisions about your look when the time comes and your stylists should be able to use this to take your personalized look one step further.
As women, we all know that how we look on the outside is connected to how we feel on the inside. And all of us have those pieces of jewelry or clothing, certain colors we wear, or ways we style our hair that capture and carry with them a set of emotions that we continue to feel throughout the day. Often, that’s even how we remember ourselves in the days following certain events.
Your wedding day is going to be one of the most memorable days of your life, so when planning your look it’s important to consider how you want to both feel on the day of your wedding and how you want to remember yourself. Do you want to look and feel sexy? Romantic? Soft and natural? Glamorous? Bright? Earthy? The list could go on and on, so feel free to be creative and thoughtful!
Consider the dress you bought, your accessories, wedding colors and how those can play into this feeling as well. But once you define the feeling you want to emulate, run with it. I promise it will be a lot easier to make decisions about your look when the time comes and your stylists should be able to use this to take your personalized look one step further.
Photo by Elm & Olive
Consider hiring a makeup artist
Alright, alright. I am a makeup artist after all, so you probably saw this one coming, but I know many who have passed on a hiring a professional artist and later regretted it. We all know we need a hair stylist because it’s hard to do an up-do when we can’t see the back of our head, but when makeup is so often a part of our daily ritual it is easy to decide to do it ourselves and save that room in the budget for something else, but I hope you’ll take a moment to consider all that one can offer.
A trained makeup artist’s bag of tricks is unlimited and they can help talk you through the feeling you’re going for and decide on a look and color palette that will suit you just right. They also know how to apply the makeup in a way that will both enhance your beautiful, strong features and make them pop so they show up well in your pictures without allowing the light to wash you out.
Photos are often the biggest investment you will make on your wedding day and so to get the most out of that investment it is worth it to consider a professional makeup application. With a makeup artist, you are also more likely to be ready on time, have your makeup last all day and have a look you wouldn’t otherwise be able to achieve on your own.
Just like you would with any vendor, shop around! Interview your top two or three candidates and make sure you click you hire someone you click with. Your beauty stylists will be there for a very intimate part of your day so it’s important to hire someone who you enjoy spending the morning with.
Use Pinterest … wisely!
Pinterest is such a great planning tool and a little piece of me will always be sad it wasn’t around when I was planning my wedding five years ago. It is absolutely a great place to quickly find images that can show your stylists (and other vendors) what you want to articulate and there are so many pictures that can inspire ideas you may not have previously considered. But when looking at Pinterest, there are a couple things to be mindful of.
First, understand that many of the images you see are highly edited and although your makeup artist will be able to give you the look you see in your picture, the amount of product required to obtain that look may be more than you bargained for, so talk with them about what to expect beforehand.
Second, keep in mind your skin tone, hair color and eye color and screen out images that don’t match up. All these things play into choosing the best color palette for yourself, so if you have blonde hair and blue eyes with fair skin, opt for looking at pictures of Reese Witherspoon over Eva Longoria, and vice versa. It will help you narrow down the best options more quickly.
Alright, alright. I am a makeup artist after all, so you probably saw this one coming, but I know many who have passed on a hiring a professional artist and later regretted it. We all know we need a hair stylist because it’s hard to do an up-do when we can’t see the back of our head, but when makeup is so often a part of our daily ritual it is easy to decide to do it ourselves and save that room in the budget for something else, but I hope you’ll take a moment to consider all that one can offer.
A trained makeup artist’s bag of tricks is unlimited and they can help talk you through the feeling you’re going for and decide on a look and color palette that will suit you just right. They also know how to apply the makeup in a way that will both enhance your beautiful, strong features and make them pop so they show up well in your pictures without allowing the light to wash you out.
Photos are often the biggest investment you will make on your wedding day and so to get the most out of that investment it is worth it to consider a professional makeup application. With a makeup artist, you are also more likely to be ready on time, have your makeup last all day and have a look you wouldn’t otherwise be able to achieve on your own.
Just like you would with any vendor, shop around! Interview your top two or three candidates and make sure you click you hire someone you click with. Your beauty stylists will be there for a very intimate part of your day so it’s important to hire someone who you enjoy spending the morning with.
Use Pinterest … wisely!
Pinterest is such a great planning tool and a little piece of me will always be sad it wasn’t around when I was planning my wedding five years ago. It is absolutely a great place to quickly find images that can show your stylists (and other vendors) what you want to articulate and there are so many pictures that can inspire ideas you may not have previously considered. But when looking at Pinterest, there are a couple things to be mindful of.
First, understand that many of the images you see are highly edited and although your makeup artist will be able to give you the look you see in your picture, the amount of product required to obtain that look may be more than you bargained for, so talk with them about what to expect beforehand.
Second, keep in mind your skin tone, hair color and eye color and screen out images that don’t match up. All these things play into choosing the best color palette for yourself, so if you have blonde hair and blue eyes with fair skin, opt for looking at pictures of Reese Witherspoon over Eva Longoria, and vice versa. It will help you narrow down the best options more quickly.
Photo by Andria Lindquist
Practice Makes Perfect
In addition to making sure you get a trial run for your wedding makeup, there are other ways you can prepare yourself for your day-of look. Whether you are someone who typically wears little to no makeup or someone who regularly applies a full look, now is the time to practice! Really, this is simpler than you might think. Pick one thing to focus on that you normally don’t – be it eyes or lips or cheek color – and play around with it over the course of a month or two.
Sprucing up your daily routine even just once or twice a week can help you get used to wearing a little more than you typically do, which is what you are likely to do for your wedding. Not only that, but it will allow you to take a little creative control over your look and learn more about what colors you think look best on yourself, which you can then articulate to your makeup artist.
Well, there you have it! Just a few of my tips on how to start pulling together you wedding day makeup look. I hope that this has been helpful as you reflect on your dreams for your day and wish you the best in all your planning endeavors.
XO,
Ashley
In addition to making sure you get a trial run for your wedding makeup, there are other ways you can prepare yourself for your day-of look. Whether you are someone who typically wears little to no makeup or someone who regularly applies a full look, now is the time to practice! Really, this is simpler than you might think. Pick one thing to focus on that you normally don’t – be it eyes or lips or cheek color – and play around with it over the course of a month or two.
Sprucing up your daily routine even just once or twice a week can help you get used to wearing a little more than you typically do, which is what you are likely to do for your wedding. Not only that, but it will allow you to take a little creative control over your look and learn more about what colors you think look best on yourself, which you can then articulate to your makeup artist.
Well, there you have it! Just a few of my tips on how to start pulling together you wedding day makeup look. I hope that this has been helpful as you reflect on your dreams for your day and wish you the best in all your planning endeavors.
XO,
Ashley
