Your Bridal Style

“What Is your Bridal style?” This is one of the first questions I will ask a bride

The reason why as a hair and makeup artist, I ask this question, is it helps my brides quickly pinpoint on where to get inspiration for their hair and makeup.
It avoids a lot of overwhelm and confusion about what they would like their hair and makeup to look.

Hair and Makeup Inspiration

Thanks to the Internet and social media, brides these days have soooo many channels to get inspiration for their big day – Pinterest, websites, magazines, Instagram etc.
A few clicks on your phone and you can spend hours (yes hours!) looking at beautiful dresses, gorgeous venues, hair and makeup looks and everything in between and wondering how to narrow it down and decide what you want.

Brides who are unsure and “I don’t know what I want for my wedding” sit in my chair for their hair and makeup trials every week!
They do have a regular style for when they go to work or when they go out with friends.
But trying to narrow down a particular style for a wedding can be a little more confronting.
I don’t blame them for being confused given the reasons above.
They like this. And that. And the other. They can’t decide!

Bridal Styles Vs A Bridal Trends

In these situations, it helpful to think of trends vs styles and how they work with the theme and overall look and feel for the wedding that you’re trying to create.

A style is the mood or feel you want to convey for your wedding.
This could be modern, classic, glamour, vintage, boho, rustic, etc.
They are words that you would use to describe your day (think of how you’d describe your personal style in your fashion sense or home décor for example).

Trends on the other hand are currently popular items or ideas that help define your style.
Trends can be anything from, photo booth props, to specific colours and flowers.
How trends relate to hair and makeup is often with certain products or makeup techniques – Remember when everyone was asking their foundation to be “baked”
It looked terrible in real life but looked great in photos.
Or remember the trend when everyone was wanting mermaid or unicorn coloured hair?
There are now thousands of girls trying to grow out their over processed bleached hair. It was certainly on trend for a little while!

Stick To Your Style And Add A Trend!

Styles and trends are exactly the same for weddings as they are in fashion and makeup. If the style of the wedding is glamour – then the dress, hair and makeup should reflect that. You can always add touches of a current trend to your overall style!

I see a lot of trends in makeup thanks to the myriad of YouTubers and Instagrammers out there.
These girls often showcase a LOT of makeup with many products and layers with heavy contouring and highlighter, over exaggerated brows and lashes.
These are all makeup trends (popular right now) – not styles

Add Touches Of A Current Trend

For bridal hair and makeup these trends usually do not always work well.
A vintage styled wedding should have vintage inspired makeup and not seek to incorporate a lot of the YouTube trends mentioned above.

A way to keep give vintage inspired makeup a more modern vibe is to keep up with the current trends in eyebrow shape.
Vintage eyebrows were plucked to oblivion – so keeping the current eyebrow shape will give it a modern vibe and this also goes for hair.
We often use the term vintage inspired – we can create a hairstyle that has a vintage profile or shape, but the styling details are mote on trend.
Like using soft waves rather than stiff finger waves or braids instead of chignons.

Similarly over glam looks like heavy smoky eyes, winged eyeliner and dramatic false lashes won’t work well for the boho bride –she would look better with a nice braid, flowers in the hair and a lighter more natural look.
You can add a hint of trend by using a watered down version or choosing just one trend element rather than incorporating every current one!

The point is you don’t want consistency and a streamlined look as that’s what creates a beautiful look.
Trends come and go so it’s important to try and stick with something more timeless.

Timeless Beauty Is Always On Trend

I can pretty much guarantee that brides who don’t do this will have some regrets down the track.
Of course if the bride is adamant that this is what she wants (because it makes her feel more beautiful) then we can incorporate those trends but all I’m saying is that it’s important to look at the bigger picture.

So where to from here.

I encourage all brides to show me as much inspo as possible –a good way is to pin it all on Pinterest mood board where we can go through it detail.

Why Have A Hair And Makeup Trial?

As part of the consultation part in my bridal trials , I use my experience in colour analysis.
This helps to understand styles and trends to work closely with the bride to determine a wedding style that reflects who the couple are.
It also allows some trends (eg.ombre décor, photo booths, certain flowers etc) fit perfectly into that style then we add them in to create a lovely personalised wedding that’s on-trend and uniquely represents the brides!

Of course, that includes designing makeup looks for you and your bridal party that are complimentary and reflect your personal style.

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Till next time
Peggy xo