Reflections on a Wedding Gig...

Hi Bellas,

I recently did the wedding makeup of a bride, maid of honor, and mother of the bride. Being contracted for wedding makeup is a very intersting experience. I thought I'd share a blow by blow play of my last wedding gig.

Pre-Wedding: For this wedding, I had two timed run throughs on the bride as well as
a run-through on the mom and sister. I also worked with the bride to create looks we thought would suit the bridal party. Fortunately, the clients loved the looks!From there I packed my kit with all the essentials including things you might not think of: altoids and visine.

I also made a face chart for the bride and framed it as a special wedding token.

5:00 A.M
Talk about early morning wake-up. The wedding location is an hour away, and I was meeting up with my clients in the nearby hotel room they were staying at. So I quickly took a shower, dressed in all black (this looks great in pictures where I'm applying makeup on the bride) and loaded up the car. My roomy was my assistant on this gig and came with me.

7:00 am. Arrived at the hotel..it was kind of scary because it was really rainy and dark on the roads but we made it.

7:00-7:10: I chatted with the bride for a few minutes and set up my supplies including the foundation palettes, blush palette, mixing palette, tissues, etc. I made a lil ziplock baggy with specific products I used for each person in order to be as efficient with time as possible. I also had my brush apron which helps so much to prevent extra clutter. My assistant was armed with paper towels and my brush cleaner.

7:10-7:45: The mother of the bride comes to the hotel room ready to go. For 51 years old, she has amazing skin. It’s very smooth and fair and she only has a few wrinkles around her eyes. Putting primer and foundation on her was very easy, it just glided on. To deal with fine lines around the eyes, I added extra Smashbox Photofinish primer on top of her wrinkles after applying the foundation. By concentrating the second coat on problem areas, it filled any lines right up and prevented makeup from unattractively settling into the lines. The lighting was not that great since it was still dark out. Next big gig I’m going to invest in a fold up director’s chair and clip on lamp so I can save my back and eyes. Another issue I ran into was picking a lipstick color that was appropriate for older women. I went with a nice rose color and pink gloss in the end, and I she loved it. When doing makeup on others you have to think what looks best on them as opposed to what you might like for yourself. It’s also best to avoid dark colors in general on mature skin.

7:45-7:50: I threw away any disposable applicators and cleaned up the work area. Melissa handed me the brushes she had cleaned and I prepared for client #2.

7:50-8:40: The maid of honor/sister sat down. Just a reminder, she is the one who has problems with Psoriasis and Eczema, and is also allergic to talc in makeup. I had done a run-through on her 2 days before and her skin was actually pretty clear. The same can not be said for that morning. She had broken out into patches on her forehead as well as her cheeks and had red all over. This was definitely a challenge. I started out by moisturizing her face with a foundation brush and Cetaphil cleanser. Mind you, I scooped out everything beforehand and put it on my steel palette as to not contaminate my products. The moisturizer was used to make sure her face was smooth enough for the foundation. I then applied primer. From there I added concealer using a dabbing motion to get more coverage. I didn’t thin out my cream concealer because we needed max coverage. I then set the concealer with powder and moved to foundation. I used a sponge to apply the foundation so that I could really press it into the skin. From there, instead of setting it off with translucent powder like I usually do, I used my graftobian powder palette to get extra coverage. I then went to the eyes and cheeks and those went according to plan. At the end, I did a dusting of translucent powder and made sure to spritz her with fix plus to prevent the foundation from looking too heavy and cakey. The work paid off because she looked absolutely gorgeous.

8:45 – 9:20: dum dum da dummmm…time for the bride! The bride's skin was nice and clear. She had been strict with her facial regimen and it paid off. I pretty much had a smooth surface to work with. The only thing I had to watch out for was some minor acne scarring and some skin discoloration on her neck. I used two different concealers for this…especially since skin is lighter in the middle of the face for some and darker on the edges. I also added extra primer around where her laugh lines emerged as well as under her eyes. This prevented the makeup from creasing during the day. In doing bridal makeup, you have to find the balance between enough coverage so that it looks good and camera and in person. Everything went according to plan. During our run-throughs we were deciding between a pair of MAC #7 lashes and Wispies. In the end she went with the wispies, which I think was a good choice. I finished everything except for her lips and cheeks. We decided to save these for the wedding venue where a photographer would take a few shots of me doing makeup.
***action shots of me doing her makeup at the hotel

9:30: Arrived at the venue. We had some time to kill since the photographer wasn’t ready yet. With that said...my assistant and I turned into mini-seamstresses for the brides and bridesmaids. If you do a lot of weddings, here’s a tip: carry safety pins, mini scissors, and the double stick fashion tape to hold down clothes. I was pinning and taping like crazy. Anyways, I was able to finish the blush and lips without a problem. I also covered a little pimple on the bride’s chest after she had the dress on. A little powder and concealer and it disappeared.

***Photographer's shots of me doing the bride's makeup pre-ceremony

***Fun Shot of the bride before the walk down the aisle

12:05: I went to the room to touch up the bride. Mind you, this was supposed to be an outdoors wedding but it had been raining all day. Fortunately it was only misting at this point and the area outside had a covered walkway and overhang for the ceremony. The only thing I really needed to touch up was add a little more gloss. After that, I went downstairs to where the bridal party was lined up and passed out altoids (gum is a no no at weddings) and powdered a few people, including the groom who has a bald head!

12:30: I finally got to sit down and enjoy the ceremony. From there, I had my kit but really didn’t have to use it much except a quick lipstick retouch after the ceremony.
***Touching up the bride's lipstick after her walk down the aisle and the big smooch.

***I was able to do makeup for the bride as well as her sister/maid of honor

1:00-5:30pm From there...we went and enjoyed the reception...chocolate fondue fountain...champagne toast...bouquet toss...cupid shuffle...you know the usual...it was a lot of fun!

7:00pm I arrived home after the ceremony. Exhausted, but satisfied at making a bride to most beautiful she could be on her special day.

More Pics...

***Shot of the happy bride and groom...