My Wedding Day!

It was a pretty amazing day, I must say. Everything went incredibly smoothly and at the end of the day, I was completely satisfied with the way everything went! The days leading up to it were full of stress and anticipation, but the morning of, I woke up at one of my bridesmaids houses, with the rest of my girls with me and relaxed. When we left the house all of them prayed over me and from that moment on, I was at ease. When I got to the venue at 11 am, we had plenty of time until photos and we began taking our time getting ready.

During the planning process, I debated on whether or not to hire a pro makeup artist. Now as a makeup artist myself, it’s very difficult to trust another one unless you’ve worked with them before. I had a friend at Actor’s Equity who was also a PMA (professional makeup artist) and even spoke to her about it. But basically it was a lot of money to spend on something that I would probably be happier doing myself anyways. I decided to take on the responsibility! And I’m glad I did. Most people agreed with my decision like my mom and fiance, who both argued that I was way to good to let someone else do my makeup on such a special day, and reminded me that I probably wouldn’t like they way they did it anyways. In the end I knew they were right. We artists all tend to be snobs in one way or another. So decision made…I did my own makeup including all of my bridesmaids. My bridesmaids were in the chair first. Always a makeup artist, even on my wedding day…

On my sister in law I chose to do the same general look on all my girls since I think that’s always they best choice for a wedding. Putting all the girls in the same eyeshadow tones really gives a unity to the group in photos which I think is really beautiful. Some people like the, everyone looks different look, I don’t. I think in wedding photos, the most beautiful look, is clean and unified. Now of course, you will always adjust things here and there based on a womens look and face. For instance; on Brenna, my roommate, I added individual false lashes since her eyelashes are naturally shorter and I wanted to add length without doing full dramatic lashes. Those were a total pain to apply but turned out looking great. On Jeannette, I applied eyeliner to the top lid but only in the outer corner of the lower lid since that looks best on her. Amanda and Chelsi had pretty identical looks.

This was an all Mary Kay affair! I used Mary Kay primer, liquid foundation, mineral powder foundation, varying shades of blush, waterproof mascara, and eyeliner. The shadows were Mary Kay Moonstone, Ivy and Granite for the ladies. I also used Mary Kay lip primer, clear lip liner, and several shades of lipstick depending on the girl. Note: I would always prefer to use clear lip liner, it fufills the same purpose without giving you a harsh line when your lipstick starts to wear off. Once the makeup was done, I used a product I love, Skindinavia Makeup Finishing Spray. I have two types, the normal finishing spray, and the No Shine spray for oily skin. This product does wonders. Spray it on in a T then an X and let dry. Your makeup WILL NOT MOVE. So then it was my turn in the chair…

My cousin, who is a professional hair stylist, was on point for hair for the big day. She had agreed to do mine, my matron of honors, and my moms hair for me as my wedding present. She did Chelsi’s first while I was doing my bridesmaids makeup. Then it was my turn! We had done hair trial a couple weeks before and had come up with what we wanted to do, but it was sort of a mix between two styles she did, so on the day of, she just kinda went for it. It turned out so incredibly beautiful! We were both pleasantly surprised and excited about it. The look was just right, soft and curly with a hint of vintage. She placed the hair clip my mom had bought me and my veil went under the “bun”. I loved it! It was exactly what I imagined it would be. Once my hair was done, it was on to my makeup…

Some would think that I did a makeup trial on myself before the big day…not the case. Nope, I pretty much had an idea of what I wanted to do and just, did it. I of course used all Mary Kay products. I started with Mary Kay Oil Matiffier, which I recommend for anyone with incredibly oily skin like mine. Then goes the primer, the foundation, mineral powder foundation and finally, eye primer. For my eyes I stayed with similar colors with only small adjustments. I used Moonstone for the highlight (inside corner of eyes and below eyebrow). Then I used Granite in the crease for a nice shadow. Instead of green, I decided I wanted to use some purple to match with our wedding colors a bit and I happen to think it looks good on brown features. I chose Sweet Plum for the color pop from the middle of my eye lid to the outer corner. That gave a really pretty deep color that I loved. After the shadow was placed, I used a black eyeshadow for the upper liner and then did regular black eyeliner on the bottom, using Sweet Plum to smudge the lower line a bit. After that, it was waterproof mascara (seen above) and penciling my brows a bit. The look was finished off with lip primer, clear liner and a lipstick called Frosted Rose. Then I was done!

Everything looked the way I planned and I was stoked and ready! It was such an incredibly perfect day, and in the end, I got to marry my best friend. What more could you ask for. I am the luckiest girl in the world.