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Receive the best wedding day makeup and hair tips and suggestions for wedding day brides. Hair and makeup is, without any doubt, a crucial part of a wedding day.
Your style may be natural or bold the first thing is to find a hair and makeup company that you love. A fabulous stylist will make a massive difference to how your wedding day photographs will turn out. I have created within this article things worth noting and exploring for a successful hair and makeup experience.
Before I dive right into the topics, can I first ask you what makes you happy? Where makes you happy and how things make you happy. Is it your dream to get married in the mountain or Calgary at the best wedding venues in Calgary? I’m asking you this; your photographs will turn out great for your hair and makeup if you help the day and select a location that means something to you.
There has not bee one wedding over the years that I’m asked, does it matter if the room is small, do we need a big room. What I’m hearing is, we want to save money where we can, which is beautiful and believe me, I know that money doesn’t grow on trees.
But please consider if you’re hiring a true professional to photograph your wedding day and you know the average cost, it will affect the outcome of your photographs. Yes, I’m proud to deliver fabulous pictures regardless of the location, but it does help if the bride wants light and airy pictures but selects a room with minimal natural lighting.
I’m going to dig deeper below, and if you have any questions, please contact me, I’d love to hear from you. Okay, let us explore the top reason why you should consider hiring a wedding hair and makeup artist.
Trial run
I believe that all brides should have a trial run before their wedding day when hiring a professional hair and makeup artist. Looking at an Instagram or Pinterest account and showing the artist the image are great; however, how will that style look on you? You might love it or hate it. Does that stylist know what they’re doing? You want to look awesome on your wedding day, and finding that perfect artist is significant. You might be hosting a mountain wedding venue but your artist is in Calgary if so, connect with them and set up an appointment in Calgary. Likewise, if they’re based in Banff, Canmore, Moraine Lake, or Lake Louise, take the afternoon off work and enjoy the mountains. Point being, go the extra mile and have a trial run.
Blending
Have you seen a lady look yellow in her face, and yet her neck is a different color more in line with her natural skin tone? This is when a makeup artist hasn’t been blended properly. As a photographer, this kills me as I often cannot photograph up close due to the color difference of my brides face to neck and arms. Many makeup artists say oh yeah, this is no problem; however, time and time again, I see it.
Tungsten light
When I see makeup artists using artificial light like Tungsten to apply makeup I feel sick. The look is often a yellow tone and looks horrendous. If you wonder why it’s so different, it comes down to a different color temperature being tungsten is yellower than natural daylight. So, when you walk outside after having your makeup applied quite often, you will look yellow. Yikes. The average wedding photographer might not realize all of these details but to me, they make a huge difference.
Natural light
You cannot beat natural daylight for makeup to be applied. In case you are wondered what natural light, head over to a window with somebody. Turn 45 deg’s to each other and watch the natural sunlight fall across their face is.
Natural light involves no light pollution, i.e., from other sources of light. This is the light you want, and even if the stylist says they use light with natural daylight still opt to sit by a window with natural daylight. After all, won’t you be in natural daylight for your wedding day?
Diffused light
When you look out of a south-facing window on a sunny and bright day, this light is the hardest and often isn’t complimentary. What can be done is to have a diffused fabric eliminating the hard light, thus producing soft light. You makeup artist should know what to do here, but if not, you’re in trouble! North facing windows that do not receive direct sunlight within a building is preferred as it’s soft light and very flattering.
Fun
Getting ready for the bride and bridal party is part of the fun experience. Do not rush this part of your wedding day. Open a bottle of champagne and have a toast or two. Connect with your wedding planner to organize something leaving your wedding planner the stress of working out the details.
Touch up kit
Have someone who knows exactly how to put in your veil as it’s likely to fall out. Your wedding day is beautiful, and things happen. Receive an over-energetic love hug from someone has your vail will be torn out of your hair. Eyelash repair kit with glue plus makeup touch-up for when tears of joy run. Don’t forget a little mirror.
Tanning and spray tans
Vitamin D is essential to our pigmentation. I totally know how energized we feel when we have a tan. Make sure always to wear suncream and protect yourself from harmful rays. On wedding days, I have seen many brides burn due to wearing a gorgeous dress, thus being exposed to the sun all day long. Find out early on what suncream works best for you, allowing for a minimal show of the suncream greasy look.
As for spray tanning, make sure it’s completed outside of a four-week window to your wedding day. If you have it applied to close to your wedding day, you will look orange in your photographs. I promise you, you will look orange, and it won’t reflect well in your photographs. Or even better, don’t spray at all.
Time allocation
Allow one hour per person for hair and makeup on your wedding day. Someone will go over one hour, and others will be less. Working safely with one hour person is a good move for your wedding day. If you have many bridesmaids, double up the stylists rather than add time, so this, in effect, half the time required to get ready.
Final thoughts
I photographed a gorgeous wedding a couple of years back, but the bride didn’t allocate enough time for hair and makeup and the bridal getting ready portion of her day.. Hair and makeup went over by 1 hour 15 minutes. This ate into the creative time we allotted after the first look.
Losing this time meant that we had only 30mins of shoot time for the first look, creative session, and bridal party photographs, which obviously was not enough time. I work hard to make up some lost time, but in the end, they didn’t end up with many creative photos or photos of the bridal party. All of this could have been avoided if enough time was allocated first thing in the morning.
So, set aside enough time for vendors to do their job correctly. Trust me, the only person who’ll suffer is you. Enjoy some extra time, have a glass of bubbly with your girlfriends, have fun.