jacha minerals

Well I will have you know, although I did pin endless amounts of floral arrangements on pinterest, these pictures are from the blog of http://www.villagevinesflorists.com/ .  From the minute I walked into their store in Exeter, Ontario I was in love.   I honestly was getting so frustrated with trying to find linens, and center pieces and flowers, because I didn't want your traditional bridal set up.  But Natalie, is truly amazing.  I sat down with my pinterest board (she had already had most of them pinned) and actually had most of the looks set up in her studio.   During our meeting, dollar signs kept running thought my head, Natalie had so many amazing ideas, and I was super excited, but didn't want to get set up for disappointment when I got the quote.  I assumed for all of her wonderful ideas, my budget was not going to cut it! Well, when I got the quote I was pleasantly surprised and I booked her immediately.

I am the type of person, who feels I can do everything myself, and had been debating whether I needed someone to do the tent and ceremony setup the day of the wedding.  Doing my own DIY projects are very important to me, and I didn't think I would be able to give the control of my decor to someone else.  I explained what I was planning on making myself, and Natalie even gave suggestions on how I can do these projects and respected my decision to have DIY projects.  After meeting Natalie, I know that I trust her completely to make sure things go smoothly the day of the wedding, and have booked her to be onsite.  Instead of being a bridzilla stress case, I am now going to sit back and get pampered the day of the wedding(well I promise to try my hardest).

When I sent Natalie my deposit, I felt a huge relief come over me,  not only had I found the most beautiful lines( I was very anti linens before I saw her collections), the most amazing center pieces and natural looking bouquets   but my head continued to spin about what else she could do!

I found some amazing hair combs on etsy that I was going to order for my bridesmaids and decided I would send her the picture and see if she could recreate them for me.  Well, not only did she recreate this picture, but she made it even better then I had hoped for.  I also decided to get them made for the MC and the readers at the wedding instead of corsages.
We are in the process of designing a wedding headband for myself, because I was so in love with the hair combs!
 Last but not least, I was in search of someone to make silk flowers to be added to my dress, so I asked Natalie if she thought she would be able to do this.  Of course she said she can, and we are starting that task next week!  (please note this is not my dress, just a dramatized version of  a dress with flowers :) )

I hope you enjoyed my blog, to see the end results of the flowers, decor, linens, hair combs, headband and of course the dress...you can see it all in person on Sept.14/2013 or of course check the blog after that date to see the beautiful pictures.          http://www.villagevinesflorists.com/ photos curtisy of www.sandrareiger.com

I have been doing bridal makeup in the wedding industry for years, but now that it's my time to get married I decided to blog about the process.

The first question I am constantly getting asked, is who will do your wedding makeup?  Well I have a few artists up my sleeve, and if they can make the flight for the wedding, I just might be able to convince them to do some makeup while they are in town.   For those of you who are not makeup artists, here are a few tips on how to find a makeup artist for your big day!

1)Products:  Make sure to find out what products they use, this is very important.  You want to make sure they have all levels of foundation coverage from a tinted moisturizer to a full coverage.  Chances are your whole wedding party won't have the exact same skin conditions, so you need to make sure the artist has variety when it comes to foundation.  If you have skin sensitivities, you need to make sure you ask questions about the ingredients in the products.  Note: Hypoallergenic is just a word, and yes we all use it, but their are no guidelines as to what companies can use the word, and who can't.

2) Affordability: A red flag for me when searching for a makeup artist is the pricing, if you look at the price tag and think wow that's a deal, it's probably a deal for a reason.  I like to stick with the theory, you get what you pay for.  Keep in mind a good makeup school costs about $10,000 on average, so if someone is charging next to nothing,  I'm going to guess they either have a two week course in makeup, or they are "self taught".   No matter who you choose for hair or makeup, make sure you get a trial at least three months before hand, if you do not like the look then you can either do another trial or change artists.

That being said, the most expensive makeup artists are not always the best either.  I recently went to the Total Wedding Show in Toronto and decided that I would get a makeup trial of my own done.  I guess I expected to look like a totally different person, preferably better then I looked on a daily bases  and to be honest I think I looked like a less attractive version of myself.  Not the vision I had in mind. My skin felt heavy(not used to the MAC foundation anymore) and looked dull, not full of life and illuminated like I feel a bride should look on their wedding day.

3) Book a trial: Always book a trail for your hair and makeup, and I suggest doing a look that is a little bit out of your comfort zone.  If you always do natural makeup, try doing something a little more glamorous then you were thinking.  This way if you end up liking a look you would have never thought of trying, you are set for your wedding day.  If you don't like the look, you can just take away the aspects you didn't like.  If you book the right makeup artist, you should be able to bring along a tear sheets of looks that you would like to do.  A trained makeup artist will then be able to look at those pictures and give you exactly what you are looking for.  Keep in mind when searching for makeup pictures, you need to find examples with similar eye shapes and features, because different eye shapes call for different makeup techniques.

Last tip, book your makeup artist at least 6 months in advance, I have had to turn down four brides this week alone.  Remember,  although food is very important, it is gone within the hour, your face is being photographed in pictures for years to come, don't under estimate the importance of good makeup.

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