Vicki’s Bridal Beauty Bible: Everything A Bride Needs To Know To Plan Her Wedding Day Beauty
My thoughts on bridal beauty
Our family had a big surprise 80th birthday party for my mother just recently. There were pictures of my mom on display all over the various tables at our venue ranging in age from when she was a baby to just last year. Scattered among the many photos were some of my parent’s wedding day.
The one thing that struck me was how classic my mom looked on her wedding day. My parents were married in 1958. My mother wore a classic wedding gown and her makeup was fresh and polished with a pop of colour on her lips. Her hair flowed naturally and effortlessly but neatly. She looked really gorgeous!
My niece just recently got engaged to a firefighter! We’ll all thrilled for them! While my niece was looking at her “Grammy’s” makeup she said to me “I want makeup like that on my wedding day too.”
That’s when you know as a bride that you chose a classic and timeless beauty look.
59 years later it’s still a winning bridal look.
The Trends of Today and Why You Need To Ignore Them
I’ve noticed in the past couple of years that a lot of brides are choosing more trendy makeup and hair for their big day. I’ve been seeing extreme contouring. Not to mention horribly bright highlighting that you can see from space and brows that look frighteningly artificial! Trendy brides are also displaying overdrawn matte lips 🙁 in very unflattering colours that often don’t photograph very well. Some of these new age bridal makeup trends are verging dangerously close to theatrical.
Trendy style hair updos are taking on a new look as well with unstructured do’s that often display loose untamed braids. Hairstyles that look good for around 2 hours and then fall apart in a big hot mess. Not ideal for a bride who needs her hair to look amazing for 15 + hours or more!
One could say these sorts of trendy makeup and hair looks have no place on a bride. I would be one of those who says this. 🙂
Remember class and elegance never go out of style. But trends do. When you choose a bridal hair and makeup style think about how you’ll feel when you look back at those photos 10, 15 and 20 years from now. You may not want your photo’s screaming “I got married in 2017!”
[clickToTweet tweet=”When you think bridal makeup and hair, remember, classy never goes out of style.” quote=”When you think bridal makeup and hair, remember, classy never goes out of style.”]
Choose Your Bridal Beauty Wisely
It’s so important when choosing your desired bridal look that you stay true to yourself. If you’re a woman who never wears makeup or you don’t normally wear that much makeup you won’t want to wear heavy makeup on your big day. Not only would you be unrecognizable to your groom but you would feel uncomfortable all day long.
The same thing applies if you always wear makeup and like it to look a certain way, you’ll need to stay true to yourself. If for example, you wear liner everyday then you should wear eyeliner on your wedding day. Think about Kate Middleton’s wedding makeup. Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge always wears dark eyeliner on her bottom lashes. I may not feel it’s the best look for her but she stayed true to herself on her wedding day.
That’s my point.
You want to create the best version of yourself not someone unrecognizable.
Pinterest: Keeping it Real
(follow me on Pinterest for loads of wedding inspo!) 
I use Pinterest with all my brides. I started creating private boards for each of my brides a couple of years ago and found it really helped me to understand my bride’s vision long before I actually met her. My brides continually tell me how much they love using this tool and how it has helped them focus on their desired bridal look.
It has become an invaluable tool in my business and I’d be lost without it now! Although I’ve come to love Pinterest it’s important that brides-to-be have a very clear understanding of the look they desire. It’s easy to get carried away with beautiful images and start pinning them to a bridal beauty board only to realise that the desired look is not clear. Focusing on 1 or 2 makeup and hair styles will help you pinpoint your perfect look.
My Secrets to Flawless Skin
I’m quite obsessive about skin looking like skin on my clients. Not artificial or plastic looking skin but real skin that breaths and looks healthy. Women of all ages who claim to have terrible skin in most cases don’t. What they normally have are certain areas of their face that are troubled. The trick to making skin look flawless and realistic is to concentrate on the areas that need correcting, that need that little extra umpf! The rest of the skin should be covered lightly with foundation leaving the good skin to shine through.
Skin Preparation is Key
Plan your skin prep early and stick to it. That means getting regular facials, using quality products (quality doesn’t mean expensive!) and being very consistent with your skin care routines. In other words, take your makeup off every night, exfoliate regularly, do some facial massages and treat your skin like silk.
Lisa Eldridge explains how she incorporates facial massage into your regular skin care routine in this video below.
Your Colour Scheme Should Flow Seamlessly With Your Bridal Look
When you’re choosing your wedding day makeup look keep in mind the colour theme of your wedding. For example, if you’re getting married in the spring and your wedding colours are rose and gold you may want to choose soft makeup colours to compliment this look. Soft pinks, creams and pale gold would compliment this colour theme. Likewise if you’re getting married in the Autumn and your colours are cranberry and forest green you could try a more dramatic look for your makeup by adding a pop of cranberry to your lips.
The most important thing to remember is your colour scheme should work with and compliment you throughout your wedding day.
Understanding How Light Works With Photography
How and where you’re photographed on your wedding day is important. Consideration into how various lighting affects your makeup look is something many brides don’t think about until it’s too late.
Most brides have photos taken outside in various natural lighting during the day and artificial lighting in the evening.
When your makeup is applied it’s usually done near or around natural light. There are a few things to remember when having your makeup applied early in the day. The first is how the transition of light can affect the way your makeup looks. So what looks one way in the morning may take on another look later in the day.
Another thing to consider is how timing throughout the day will change the look of your makeup. It’s true that professional makeup applied by an experienced artist means your makeup will last a considerable amount of time but your skin condition plays a role into how long any makeup application can realistically last. Understanding this and discussing this with your photographer will help you choose the most optimum lighting for any close up photos.
Ideal lighting that photographers love
Most photographers love to take photos either very early in the morning or later in the afternoon. Just after the sun comes up or when the sun is about to go down provides the best diffused light. It’s called “the golden hour” or “the magic hour” and photograhers love it because they can take the absolute best photos during these times. You want some gorgeous images….think about the time of day you get photographed.
Why It’s Important To Have Consistent Looks Throughout Your Bridal Party
Consider for a moment the amount of money you’ve just invested into your wedding day photographs. I have yet to meet any bride who doesn’t want beautiful photographs yet many don’t consider what goes into making each image picture perfect.
Hiring the best photographer is obviously important but finding the right makeup and hair artist/team for your bridal party is just as important.
Let’s say your bridesmaid and good friend has just recently started experimenting with trendy makeup techniques. She is really into contouring and strobing and watches online videos and swears she knows what she’s doing. She has no formal training and isn’t really too concerned with flash photography. Her main focus is how amazing she feels she looks, not how her chosen makeup and hair will photograph alongside your other bridesmaids.
Well your friend/bridesmaid shows up minutes before you’re about to get into your gown with dark uneven unblended contouring and a highlight that could be seen from space along with a lipstick shade that isn’t even close to what everyone else is wearing in your wedding party. Her hair is down and barely curled. All the while everyone else in your wedding party including yourself has chosen natural makeup, soft pastel colours and a neutral lip shade and has beautiful soft updos.
Having a consistent style throughout your bridal party doesn’t mean everyone looks identical. What it does mean is that your bridal party beauty will flow well and will photograph effortlessly.
Watch for Flashback!
At some point I’m sure you’ve seen images like this one below where a celebrity is photographed and her face looks completely washed out in certain areas. Scary stuff! No doubt your photographer will use flash on his/her camera at your reception and you need to be sure you don’t get flashback!
This ‘flash back’ is caused when certain makeup products are incorrectly applied on you that contain reflective particles. Some of the known culprits are some strobing/highlighting products and some HD powders. In natural light you would never see this issue but add flash to a shot and bingo! You suddenly have a ghostly look to your face that wasn’t there when you left in the morning!
Not all reflective makeup products are bad but they must be applied correctly. Remember that celebrities in the picture above had their makeup applied by “celebrity makeup artists.” These makeup artists are no doubt very experienced but for whatever reason didn’t think through their application technique with flash photography. Therefore these poor celebs were left with a hot mess.
When you’re searching for the perfect makeup artist for your big day watch carefully for these things:
- verify credentials; this means check to see how long they have been in business, check reviews, do a little digging! Nowadays it takes very little effort to find out about someone’s background or to check into their day to day online presence
- take a good look at their online photos; is their work published in magazines? Can you verify it’s really their own work? (BEWARE! The makeup artist industry is full of con and rip off artists! Don’t be fooled by a faker!)
- check for images that show both natural light and artifical light; when in doubt, ask to see both in their portfolio of work
Remember All That Glitters Is Not Gold
The beauty industry is packed jammed full with flashy glossy ‘business owners’ who claim to be something they aren’t.
With so much online presence these days people can pretend to be anything they want and expect us to believe them. I personally know makeup and hair artists who get professional lifestyle photos taken of themselves. They then show flashy lifestyles on social media that in many cases are fake. The fact is, full time working makeup and hair artists work very hard. They work odd hours, travel all over and often work in very unglamorous situations. Some of my clients don’t even want their pictures plastered on social media! They are private, well respected business women who need to maintain a professional image. They are paying me for my professionalism not my online social popularity.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Remember that looks can be deceiving” quote=”Remember that looks can be deceiving”]
Dig deep and learn who your beauty vendors really are before hiring them
This is your wedding day and not a day you should blindly believe what’s being sold to you. If flash and glitter is all they can represent, walk away. Instead search for those artists with true talent that offer you more than just a pretty smile. Hire experience not flash on your wedding day.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Who Should Pay For The Bridesmaids Makeup & Hair?” quote=”Who Should Pay For The Bridesmaids Makeup & Hair?”]
If there was ever a topic that causing more confusion with brides this is it! Over the years I’ve worked with hundreds of brides. Those who pay for all their wedding party makeup and hair services and those who expect their bridesmaids to pay for their own makeup and hair services. Here’s what I’ve observed:
Brides who pay for all the bridal party makeup and hair services:
- brides consider this a gift and a thank you for being part of their big day
- more say in how each bridesmaid looks providing a more cohesive style
- everyone gets their beauty services done together which creates a more intimidate fun experience
Bridesmaids who pay for their own makeup and hair service:
- bridesmaids often end up using different stylists and makeup artists based on price alone which often times leads to inconsistent looks across the wedding party
- pre-wedding bonding time with bridal party is often non-existent because everyone is getting ready separately
Find Your Bridal Inspiration
The Au Naturel
The Bronzed Babe
The Icon
Peachy Keen
Ageless Glow
Diva for the Day
