Putting Lipstick on a Clownfish: Hair & Makeup Trials

Hope you're all prepared to see some pretty awkward photos of me today, because I'm sharing the results from my hair and makeup trials! This was the one aspect of wedding-prep I was the most nervous about. Having someone else do my hair and makeup for the easily most photographed day of my life was stupidly stress-inducing for me, a self-proclaimed control freak. Like most ladies, I do my hair and makeup the exact same way every single day, and I'm not one for much experimentation in either of these areas. While I was nervous about giving free reign of my face and hair to a stranger, I knew without a doubt I would be hiring a professional to handle my wedding day beautification.

Just to make sure my hair and makeup artist and I were on the same page, I scheduled an in-salon trial and started praying for the best. Several months ago I booked an incredibly awesome and experienced artist, Rikki from A Little Off The Top Salon. I was seriously impressed with her hair and makeup portfolio, and reached out to friends who had used her for their own wedding day services. I arrived at the salon with a few inspiration photos in hand (er, on iPhone) and a nervous smile plastered on my face. As much as I trusted Rikki to do an amazing job, I wasn't sure if I would be able to speak up for myself if I didn't exactly love the final product, or I wanted to try another style. 

Rikki calmed my nerves with her upbeat personality and assured me that she wouldn't let me leave her salon that day unless I completely loved my final looks. After about an hour and a half in her chair, I realized that I shouldn't have worried at all. That lady is a hair and makeup magician and I would trust her with my first born child. Seriously.

For my hair, I told her I wanted it all down and curled in a looser, non-Shirley-Temple way. The incredibly silly person that I am went to the salon with couple-days-old hair, so the curls don't look their best in the below photos. On our wedding day of I'll be arriving with freshly washed and blow-dried hair, as Rikki assured me that cleaner hair is always better for curl staying power. She used this incredibly amazing volumizing powder on my hair at the roots to give me hair some serious lift and teased the heck out of it. At first the top of my hair was looking a bit too crazy, so I kindly asked her to lower my "bump" down just a teense. I'll be pulling half my hair over my right shoulder, and keeping the rest behind my back (like in the photos below). We tried to pin the left side back but it looked a bit too severe not being able to see any of the hair on the left side of my head. Although my hair won't be shellacked and frozen into place, I prefer it that way. Soft and romantic was my goal, and I think Rikki did an awesome job achieving that!

I opted to keep my incredibly grown-out bangs down so I had some hair framing my face.  There is also a pretty little hair comb in the back left side of my head, but I honestly forgot it was there when I was taking these photos, so just try and use your imagination. As soon as I got home from the salon I stuck my veil and earrings in, just to see the whole "look" together for the first time. There's just something about an ivory piece of tulle to make you feel like you're a bride and not just getting glammed up for a night out with your girls. 

(All photos personal)

For my makeup, I told Rikki I wanted to keep it neutral yet dramatic. My exact words were, "Please don't make me look like a drag queen." She layered shimmery brown shadows and dark brown eyeliner to make me feel like a glammed-up version of myself, which is definitely kicked up a few notches from from everyday look. She also darkened my eyebrows just a bit and applied lots of mascara. Although I didn't get false eyelashes during my trial, falsies will definitely be making an appearance on the wedding day!

Because I told her I don't regularly wear foundation, she kept the coverage light and used the prettiest shade of pink blush to make my cheeks pop and give my face some color. For lip color, I brought along my own lipstick and lipgloss that I had picked up from Ulta during an impulse stop-in one day after work. My lips on their own have less-than-stellar pigment, so I was so happy to have found a shade that compliments the makeup without being too dramatic. 

 I left the salon so excited about my bridal look and feeling even more pumped for our wedding day.  While I was nervous about handing over my wedding day "look" to someone else, I'm so happy I went with Rikki and decided to just trust her. I'm looking forward to working with her again in a little under two months (SAY WHAT) and can't wait to be prettified again on the morning of the best day ever! 

The Clownfish Invitations: Full Reveal!

Oh how excited I am to be sharing the full reveal of our wedding invitations today! RSVP's have started to come in, which makes this whole wedding thing seem to much more real. Wait, you mean the wedding I've been planning for the past year and a half is really happening?

So, without further ado...the Clownfish wedding invitations!

My very best friend and MOH Schmo hand addressed ALL of my invitations, for which I will be forever grateful. We spent several hours putting these bad boys together, and there may have been some blood (from the countless paper cuts), sweat (when we decided it would be a great idea to work on these outside during a humid summer night), and tears (when the envelopes ran out after too many address mistakes were made) involved, but I couldn't be happier with the final outcome...

Like I've said in my previous invitations posts, I really wanted to keep our invitation suite simple. I feel like there's a huge pressure on brides to design/put-together the most lavish invitation suites, just because it's what's expected (thanks Pinterest!). While I could have gone a hundred different directions with our invitations, and spent hundreds of dollars on countless pieces of paper, fancy envelopes, and professional calligraphy...I'm so happy I kept it simple. 

As for the actual construction of the invitations, I'll start from the inside out. The invitations and RSVP card were printed at my college's printing room, and cost me a whopping $22. When it came to envelopes, I knew I wanted to choose an envelope color that complimented the invitations. After searching online for weeks, I was seriously bummed to find that most companies only offered envelopes in quantities of 50. Since we expected to only be mailing out 60 invitations, I didn't want to pay for the extra 40ish envelopes, only to have them left over after the wedding. If this was the case, I knew I'd be mailing Mr. C and I's Christmas cards out in pastel pink envelopes for years to come. Because I didn't think he'd be a fan of that particular option, I opted to find a way to buy my envelopes from a brick-and-mortar store. 

I ventured to Wal-Mart, Target, and finally, Staples, before finding the right envelope for our invites. Staples had the best selection of pretty pastel pink envelopes, sold in packs of 10. I took a copy of our invitation along, just to make sure they were the right shade of pink, and picked up 6 packs of envelopes that very day. Each pack of 10 was $4.99, so we ended up spending $30 on our envelopes. While I may have been able to find them cheaper online, we didn't have to pay for any shipping, and if too many mistakes were made and extra envelopes were needed (um, guilty.), I just had to run by a Staples and pick up an extra pack. 

The paper doily envelope liners were an abstract idea born from a generous wedding hand-me-down. Bridesmaid Cat used paper doilies on her own wedding invites a few summer's ago, and had hundreds of these pretty doilies left over. She offered them to me, and, being the frugal bride that I am, I started searching for ways to use them in our own wedding invitation suite. I tried wrapping the doilies around the invites (nope), cutting them and using them as a sort of belly-band (ever worse), and finally, finagling them into an envelope liner. Ahh...just right! While they may look pretty and simple enough to DIY, do not be fooled. These little demon envelope liners are a serious pain in the ass to work with. They're incredible fragile. So many ended up ripped, puckered, and torn...and that was before I attempted to get them inside of the envelope! Thankfully the final look was worth the hours of annoyance and sticky, glue-covered fingers.

The stamps were purchased at my local post office, and look so incredibly lovely with our wedding invites. I was able to get all of my invites hand-cancelled, and while I wasn't able to see this process happen, I've seen enough Snapchats of our invites to know that they turned out well. Not seen: the return addressed hand-written on the back flap of the envelope. 

Invitation cost breakdown:

60 printed invitations and RSVPS: $22
Envelopes: $35
Stamps: $15
Paper doilies: free
Glue: $3
Pen: $2

Total invitation cost: $77
Cost per invitation (60): $1.28

Overall, I would say our simple DIY wedding invitations were a success! I absolutely love how they turned out, and even Mr. C is a big fan. For any bride that wants to design their own invitations and have a hand in the construction process, I say go for it. The money saved is so worth it in the end, even if minor little frustrations pop up along the way.

Were your wedding invitations a major priority for you? Did you design your own?