makeup | Can't Believe How Strange It Is To Be Anything At All ...

This is the final week of my four part wedding day look series. If you missed any of the previous posts in the series and want to check them out, you can find them here:

But Something Told Her That He Spoke Of So Much More Than All Of This is an in-depth look at the dress selection process.
‘Cause You Don’t Mind Seeing Yourself In A Picture As Long As You Look Far Away covers my three main accessories.
Watch Out When You’re Faced By What You Don’t Know is all about the inspiration behind my hair and makeup choices.

And today I’ll be sharing pictures from my hair and makeup trial.

I know plenty of people who didn’t bother with a hair and/or makeup trial prior to their wedding day. And while it would have definitely saved me some money, I thought it was totally worth it. For me, it was about peace of mind … I didn’t want to go into the salon the morning of my wedding without knowing what to expect. I was already anxious enough … I didn’t want to have to worry about what my hair and makeup would end up looking like on top of everything else!

With regard to makeup, I decided I really wanted the following:

False eyelashes
Smoky eyes
Barely there lip color
Natural looking makeup with just a bit of drama in the eyes

This is what I ended up with:

Please ignore the mess in the background. Cleaning wasn’t exactly high on our list of priorities in the weeks leading up to the wedding. Personal photo.

I feel a little awkward posting a picture like this of my face, but it’s the best one I took after coming home from the salon. I loved the false eyelashes so much that I really want to try putting them on again sometime in the future, maybe for a nice dinner out or other special occasion. I’m a little intimidated by the idea of putting them on myself, though! Overall, I thought the makeup artist really understood what I wanted and I was pleased with the result.

I shared my Sara Gabriel hair wrap in my accessories post. I originally thought I’d end up with it wrapped around my head in a way similar to a headband, but when I showed it to my hair stylist (along with several pictures from Pinterest that I liked), she had a more interesting idea.

With regard to hair, I decided I really wanted the following:

Soft, romantic updo
Loose curls
Some texture (possibly in the form of braids, though I knew they might not show up really well in my black hair)

I don’t usually like the way I look with my hair up, so it was kind of odd that I decided on an updo for my wedding day. The thing was, I didn’t want my hair to start looking really rough by the end of the night (which would be very possible since the ceremony was outdoors and Nebraska is fucking windy). That doesn’t happen to every bride who wears her hair down, of course, but I’ve seen and read enough to know that a fairly large percentage of brides who wore their hair down for their wedding later regretted it because it didn’t look that great as the night wore on. Additionally, I knew I wanted to dance and have fun during the reception and didn’t want my hair in my face.

I tried to get some pictures at different angles because I wanted to send them to my mom to see what she thought, but I also knew I’d be eventually posting them to this blog. I still feel kind of weird about sharing these pictures because, well, who (besides teenage girls) takes a million selfies to share on the internet? But this was a huge part of the wedding planning process … So I should probably share it.

Personal photo.

The lighting in that picture wasn’t amazing, but it’s the only decent shot I managed to get from the front. On the actual day of the wedding, the stylist added quite a bit of volume (which I hated at first, but I’ll go into more detail on that in another post!).

And now for my favorite part … The back!

Personal photo.

Eric actually took the pictures of the side and back for me. I didn’t really want him to see it beforehand, but since we lived together way before we were even engaged, that was pretty much impossible. I figured I’d probably look a little different on the actual day of the wedding anyway (and I did!), and I managed to keep the dress a secret (even though it was hanging in our guest closet once alterations were complete).

And the side:

Personal photo.

You can kind of see the braids in this picture, but, as I said earlier, they didn’t show up that well since my hair is so dark. On the day of the wedding I thought they were maybe even a little less obvious. I got a lot of compliments on my hair, though, so it ended up looking good regardless of whether or not the braids were really noticeable.

My actual wedding day hair wasn’t quite as loose as it was in the trial. I was pretty bummed when it didn’t look exactly like the trial (though I guess I should have expected that it would never look exactly the same), but I think it was probably for the best. My hair stayed put all night (minus a couple of strands here or there), and I think if it had been as loose as it was after the trial, it would have maybe lasted through the ceremony. I guess that’s the trade-off.

I’ll discuss the getting ready process (and the final hair and makeup looks) a bit more when I get into the wedding day recaps, but there are still a few more things I want to cover before then. If anyone is reading this, hopefully you enjoyed the four part wedding day look series!

This week I’ll be writing the third of four posts in a series covering my wedding day look.

I’ve already written about choosing my wedding dress and my accessories. Today I’ll be discussing the inspiration behind my hair and makeup choices.

I had a lot of trouble making a decision about how I wanted my hair and makeup done on my wedding day. I had a few ideas about what I might like, but it was only after I combed through Pinterest that I was able to start putting the pieces together.

The problem, though, is that Pinterest is ridiculously addictive. It’s also kind of dangerous when you’re wedding planning. Why is it dangerous, you ask? Because any search you begin will inevitably lead to about a million results. That definitely makes narrowing down what you actually want much more difficult.

After looking at what felt like thousands of images, I finally found several hairstyles and a few ideas for makeup that I really liked. I knew that my hair and makeup would never be completely identical to these pictures, but they provided me with some visuals for my hair stylist and makeup artist. And if you’re currently planning your own wedding, I’ll tell you that this is so important. Otherwise they’ll have no idea what your vision actually is.

So, without further ado, here are my hair and makeup inspiration photos:

As you can see from these pictures, I was very drawn to soft, romantic updos with loose curls and braids and/or twists.

Although I don’t always like having my hair up, I thought it would probably be best for my wedding since I planned to dance and have a lot of fun. I was worried that if I wore my hair down, the curls would drop out if I got too hot. I did, however, still pin a couple of potential hairstyles that didn’t involve an updo:

As for makeup, I decided I wanted a romantic, fairly natural look with smoky eyes and false eyelashes (since mine kind of suck). Here are the looks I loved when I was searching through Pinterest: