Happy May! How are we enjoying the glorious May sunshine?
As it’s May, it’s time to get straight in a see what Swamps has been planning so far! And here she is and it’s all about the hair & make-up!
“So, April turned out to be a busy month for us on the wedding front. It has been SUPER exciting actually!”
We have done our invites which I can’t WAIT to show you! But being as they haven’t gone out to our guests yet I thought I would save them for next month. Sorry to keep you all waiting, but I promise you they’re super cute! It’ll be worth the wait.
One of the things we have done this month which has been MAJORLY stressing me out was the Mother of the Bride outfit. Who ever tells you finding your wedding dress is stressful, IGNORE THEM! That part was easy peasy in comparison to finding something your mum will like, well it was when it came to my mum. The bridal shops often assume that as a Mother of the Bride you’re like 110. We found everything was very old fashioned. After about 3 months of internet searching, and then a days shopping in good old Birmingham, we managed to try on about 60 dresses and came out with one that was FINALLY suitable. Lovely she looks in it too.
Sooooo, once that drama was out of the way I got to focus on the Hair and Beauty side to my wedding. Now this I was super excited about. If you follow me on any form of social networking site you will know that I have a teeny weeny MASSIVE obsession with hair. You may have also noticed this from the pictures I include in each months blog that I have a different hair style every month. I am a girl obsessed! I think you can totally change the way you look with a hairstyle. Due to my completely overwhelming obsession with hair this was a major concern of mine.
I began my search for wedding styles on Pinterest, as you do! If you just google wedding hair you come out with some horrendous ringlet filled up do. There was absolutely NO way that I was going to allow someone to do that to me on my wedding day. I started by looking at some boho, messy styles. I L.O.V.E.D this one.
It was Messy, which was a must – Neat is SO 1990s. I liked the uppy downyness of the style. Yes, I am aware I am fully making up words here but you get the picture. I also fell in love with the little floral head piece. My quest to make my hair look nice with the right headpiece was also a consideration of mine as I was searching.
As much as I loved this one I knew that the bits that were down at the front would drive me absolutely bananas if they were flapping around in my face all day so I knew that I needed something that was a bit more up than down. So next I found this little beauty.
I really like this. It isn’t worlds away from how I wear my hair on a normal day but it is a little more plaited than I would wear my hair normally so it was a bit more weddingy! I also really liked the hair piece again. It is really pretty. I’m not sure exactly which designer it is but it looks just like some of the Jenny Packham headpieces. They are my fave but unfortunately I don’t have a spare £250 lying around for a hair piece. Sadface.
My Number one concern for my own wedding hair is that I am terrified of letting someone else do my hair. I am the ONLY person who can do my hair exactly as I like it. Most days it is like some sort of constructed mess. Not just anyone can produce a mess like I can! I aren’t stupid like, I chose my bridesmaids VERY carefully. One is a florist, and another a hairdresser. They think I chose them because I loved them haha. I did really. However, having a friend doing my hair is both a blessing and a curse. I can be totally honest with them with what I want, and how I want it.
On the other hand, because she’s one of my bestests, she normally ignores most things that I say haha. I mean would you trust this woman with your hair. Amy Winehouse has nothing on this chick, and yes her hair is considerably bigger than this picture! But I am a girl who loves a bit of volume so I trust her fingers can do their dirty work and bouff the bouffant!
So this month I got all of my beautiful bridesmaids around to my little housey to play hair. As expected Natalie did her ‘thang’ and surprise surprise it wasn’t right. She asked me what exactly it was that I didn’t like to which I responded ‘everything’. I think she was ready to bang me out. The words Bridezilla may have exited her lips haha. I have been THE most calmest bride in the whole wide world and I made the conscious decision that hair was the one and only thing that absolutely had to be perfect. So unfortunately this meant that Natalie here took the brunt of it.
After a failed first attempt I agreed to let Natalie loose on my head with no direct from myself. What she actually created was pretty close to what I normally have but just ‘jushed’ up a little. I liked it, hurrah! It was a little too neat for me which Nat really struggled with, but I saw this as the one and only thing I was having exactly my way! So I gave it a little tug in all of the right place and constructed it into a mess I was comfortable with. Hey presto – Hair was all sorted. I would show you a picture but I thought it might be a bit more exciting for you to get to see on the wedding snaps.
What I can share with you though is my decision on colour. I have been quite an array of colours since I met Matt Bee. Here are just a few of the more interesting ones…
I have also been black, brown, a gingery blonde colour, and many more. So the questions on everyone’s lips is always “What colour are you having your hair?” I change my mind on this every single week. At first I kind of thought that I should go natural for my wedding day in case I regret having mental coloured hair, or my mum and mother in law are too mortified by what colour I end up having on the pictures. These people have to display these pictures in their houses after all. But then I kinda thought, sod it! I am going to just have it what ever colour I fancy on that particular week. I recently brought some amazing hair extensions from a lady called Alyssia at Forest Nine on Etsy. They are AMAZING. They are hand painted and they fade from Black to blue to teal. They are clip in’s and they are beautiful. They weren’t cheap at £106 but they were worth every penny.
It just so happen that I am a bit of a dab hand at hair and all things hair dyeing in particular. This month I have had a bit of a play around with my own hair colour yet again. I have managed to get it Navy at the roots fading into a bright blue colour as you can see here. It doesn’t photograph particularly bright but it is in daylight.
So having been able to create this I have come up with what I think I want my wedding hair to be like. I am thinking Navy at the roots into Bright Blue into a Sky Blue fade at the tips. I intend to have my weave put in and have a huge bouffant of hair on the day. So I am going to buy myself some plain blonde hair extensions and hand paint these myself so they look absolutely perfect. I expect that they will take me quite some time to complete but it will be worth it in the end.
I am hoping that I will be able to get it looking something like this…
I am thinking I would like the light blue colour to start a little further up but this is pretty much what I am looking at producing. It’s just another opportunity for me to add in a little bit of Swamps style into my big day.
It won’t match our colour scheme and I won’t be incorporating the blue into my bouquet or anything silly like that. It’s super easy as a bride to get massively caught up on what is important to you on your wedding day. People get obsessed with the details of the day and I can honestly say that when it comes down to it I bet not a single sausage even takes a second to wonder why I haven’t matched my entire wedding with the colour of the carpet at the venue.
All that matters is that we are together with all of our awesome friends and we feel comfortable.
With this in mind, I also came to a similar conclusion about my wedding make up. As you may have noticed from my blog pictures I base my eye make up on a Panda haha! Appropriately named ‘Panda eyes’ by all of my much esteemed colleagues. I had a full on mental dilemma about how to have my make up on the day. People just expect you to go natural on your wedding day, and I very nearly gave into the pressures of society. However, then I had a word with myself and decided I will wear my make up in a way I am both comfortable with and doesn’t make me look like a complete stranger to my friends, family and most of all Matt Bee. He obviously loves me the way I wear my make up even if other people don’t. So without a moments hesitation I booked myself a make over at the one place I know they apply it with a small garden trowel; MAC. A lovely lady called Leona from the Birmingham MAC store inside Selfridges did my make over and she did a wonderful job. I was really nervous when we started I don’t know why. But I loved it. AND they applied my foundation with a brush. I have never experienced this before and it felt really weird and like it was going to be about an inch thick but my oh my I looked good when she had finished with me, even if I do say so myself. I then went on to spend a further £150 on make up. But if you can’t treat yourself for your wedding when can you hey?!?
They also paint you a little picture on a piece of paper to tell you what make up you had on your make over for you to take away with you in case you cant afford to buy all of the things you want on the day, really clever touch. I would highly recommend a visit, even if it is just to pamper yourself a little.
I would NEVER have chosen purple as a colour I would have worn but I thought being as I was looking for some fresh ideas I would give Leona full control over what she did.
I walked out feeling like a million dollars, shame it was like 8pm and I had to take it all off once I got home to climb into bed for a snuggle. I have since been practising over and over again to get it just like she did as I want to do it myself on the day but I think I have finally cracked it :]
All in all I really enjoyed playing around with hair and make up ideas for the big day. I hope you lot do too!
So the moral of this month’s blog post is to do what the blooming heck you please instead of what you feel like you should, just because it’s a wedding. It’s your wedding and if you can’t do what you want on that day when can you. You should be able to get married with a turd on your head if you want too. Try not to stress about all of the small things, just do what makes your comfortable and go with it.
Happy wedding planning Amigos. See you next month when I’ll finally show you our invites. EEEEEEEEEEP!
