Wedding Beauty Preparation: Do’s and Don’ts

{Posting by Julia Bowden, Before the Big Day's Hair & Make-up Expert} Any wedding lead up is stressful. How's yours ticking along? So many things to remember, and I bet you have lists coming out of your ears. That's why this week I thought I'd take one task off your hands and create your very own Wedding Beauty Do's and Don'ts Check List. It's sure to keep you on the straight and narrow as you prepare to walk up the aisle.

{Photo Credit} Julia's make-up brushes!

DO
Have lots of make-up trials at beauty counters. Whether you’re doing your own wedding make-up or hiring a professional, this will freshen up your product knowledge, and help you understand what looks and feels right and wrong. Why not get a trial at MAC, Bobbi Brown, Estée Lauder, Lancôme or Laura Mercier? Often you can redeem the cost of your wedding make-over against product purchases.

DON'T

Use products on your wedding morning that you haven't practiced or trialled first. You're risking allergy, colour, and comfort issues on your wedding day.

DO
Get a wedding make-up trial {if you’re going with a professional}, as close to your wedding day as you can. There's no point having a trial a year in advance, as the look won't be fresh in your mind. You want to be able to discuss any last minute changes with your wedding make-up artist with confidence.

DON'T

Try a crazy new make-up look for your wedding day. It's great to experiment, but make sure you feel comfortable with the look you have chosen. On their wedding day, brides should look like a more polished and shiny version of themselves, NOT like someone completely different.

DO
Experiment with professional brow shaping and lash implants two to three months before your big day. This means you'l have time for re-growth or tweaking if anything doesn't go to plan first time.

DON'T

Get a fake tan a few days before for your wedding day. As with brows and lashes – experiment a few months in advance so you know exactly how you look, with fake sun-kissed skin.

{Photo Credit} Wedding Hair & wedding make-up by Julia Bowden Weddings

DO
Leave plenty of time on your wedding morning. Your make-up artist should plan this with you, but if you're doing your own wedding make-up you can never underestimate how quickly time passes on a wedding morning. Allow 2 hours for your hair and make-up, and an hour each for mothers and bridesmaids. This way you are bound to have some contingency time. Always aim to be ready and in your dress 30 minutes before you are meant to leave for the ceremony.

DON'T

Worry if you feel caked in make-up and you're not used to it! No-one is going to be studying your face up close, it's all about the overall look – and you need those extra touches to make you stand out in photos.

DO
Think about the time of year and the setting. Summer or winter, indoor or outdoor – make-up can be tailormade to suit. For example, a candlelit wedding would suit a more dramatic sparkling look, whereas bright summer sunshine requires softer wedding make-up.

DON’T
Squeeze any spots, or go for facials a few days before the wedding. Your wedding make-up artist will be very experienced in covering blemishes, so leave it to the expert. Facials are great but can drag out the impurities, so you may end up making your skin temporarily worse.

DO
Create your very own bridal beauty scrap book. Once you start it'll become addictive, and you’ll soon learn exactly the kind of wedding make-up and wedding hair you like. This will also helpyour wedding make-up artists at the trial stages. Take a look at Pinterest – it's an online scrapbook with thousands of wedding ideas.

{Photo Credit} Funky Photographers

DO
Get a touch up kit for the day - foundation, cover up, powder, anti-shine, mascara, liner, lips and blush – they're an absolute must…just get your bridesmaid to carry it for you on your wedding day!

DO
Analyse your skin a few months before your wedding day so you have time to address any issues you may have. There are plenty of solutions out there, from a brilliant moisturiser to a quick trip to the doctor – whatever it is, get it sorted and under control in advance!

DO
Get a reputable professional on board to do your make-up if you want a wedding make-up artist on the day. Love Hair is a fantastic agency providing an excellent wedding service for bridal hair and make-up. Make sure you take lots of pictures once you are happy with the end result, and ask your stylist for a list of products they used so you can pick them up for your touch up kit. You may end up with me on the day, as I'm one of their wedding make-up artists. Alternatively, you can book me direct - do get in touch.

Good luck! JB x

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Five Easy Ways to Avoid Breaking Your Wedding Budget

I'm yet to meet a bride who doesn't have to work within some sort of budget. Even the luckiest of girls balk at spending tens of thousands on what is ultimately a one-day affair. Here on Before the Big Day, we're all about saving pennies, whether it's through DIY projects, or clever compromises, but it wasn't until my best friend started planning her wedding, that I realised just how many thrifty hints I had in my back pocket. Here are a few of my favourites - I hope they help you stick within your budget....

{Photo Credit} Tanya Lippert Photography

1. Go online for your wedding favours, stationery, decorations and general wedding supplies. There's a reason the high street is failing, and it's because savvy shoppers buy everything from Amazon or eBay. Before I buy anything, I compare the prices on Amazon and eBay, and any other relevant online shops. I've found giant white balloons priced at £5 each on some websites, while you can find them on eBay for less than a pound - particularly if you're buying in bulk. It's the same with paper lanterns.

2. Wedding cakes are another wedding detail where you can make massive savings. A designer cake can cost over a £1000, and although they'll be beautiful, and taste fantastic, not everyone can stretch to such a massive sum. If your mum's not up to baking a fashionable naked wedding cake {the icing is the hardest element to recreate}, then buy your tiers from M&S or Waitrose, and DIY your own decorations using fresh flowers or fruit, or even butterflies.

{Photo Credit} Anna Louise Crossley, more from this pink themed wedding

3. Look out for secret sales and voucher offers online. It's amazing how many big name boutiques offer discounts on their dresses and accessories on their websites. Find the bridesmaids dresses you want on the high street, and then go online to see if they're cheaper. You could even do a spot-check on your iPhone from the changing room! 

4. Wedding flowers are easy to DIY. I recommend spending money on professionally tied bouquets and buttonholes, but fabulous table flowers are easy to create on your own, using blooms bought from your local flower market, or online. If you're not artistic, then avoid fancy arrangements and fill lots of small vases or jam-jars with the same flower, and mix and match.

{Photo Credit} Paige Jones

5. One of the biggest expenses of a wedding is the reception meal. Three-course meals are pricey and often unnecessarily extravagant. Instead host a BBQ with a selection of table salads, a picnic {complete with baskets and blankets} or a vintage tea-party. With fun styling, no one will notice you're trying to save money. Offer wedding cake for pudding, or keep it cheap and very cheerful with a DIY ice-cream station, complete with cones, toppings and 99p flakes.

** For more money saving tips - How to Buy Your Wedding Dress for Less **

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Five Ways to Fabulous Wedding Inspiration

Can I let you into a secret? When I started planning my wedding, I wasn't even engaged. In fact, it was about six months before my boyfriend asked me to marry him. I was so excited about the concept of planning a wedding - all the creative fun of it - that I had a secret file of ideas on my computer. That quickly turned into a less secret file when I started Before the Big Day wedding blog {three months before my engagement}, and by the time my boyfriend finally put a ring on it, I was stuffed to the brim with wedding ideas and inspiration. But what if you're not like me, and you're newly engaged, and you haven't got the slightest idea of where you're going to find your wedding mojo, and get inspired? Or, if you're more like me, and have too many ideas, and you're not sure which is really 'you'? Hopefully these five wedding tips will help you on your way, out of the wedding maze, and into the land of {almost} perfect wedding planning.

{Photo Credit} Ice-Cream Parlous Bistro Table & Chairs Set by The Atomic Attic

1. Find pictures that inspire you. They don't all have to be wedding pictures - for example this picture of two chairs and and a table got my creative juices flowing this morning. There's something about them that promises a future life together as a couple, sharing rose al fresco, and enjoying romantic trips to Parisian bistros. They'd start me thinking of a vintage French-themed wedding, maybe in the South of France, where you serve harvest-festival-style buffet tables of charcuterie, creamy cheeses and baguette. Your waiters could wear Breton-style t-shirts, and your wedding invitations could be reminiscent of bistro-style daily menus, with the table plan written in white ink on a vintage mirror. Wedding favours would be macarons, and you could have a photobooth stuffed to the brim with French-themed fancy dress; berets, strings of garlic, sophisticated moustaches and feather boas. Do you see what I mean? All that from just one picture!

{Photo Credit} M&J Photography - see the whole wedding..

2. Save the pictures that inspire you via Pinterest. If you haven't signed up yet, you really should! It's the best way to create mood boards for your different wedding ideas. My advice is to create one for every theme you're considering, and then one each for key extra items e.g. Favourite Wedding Dresses, Favourite Groom Looks, Bridesmaids Ideas. Take a look at my Pinterest boards to give you an idea. Once you've opened your Pinterest account, and added the Pin It function to your web browser, you can save every scrap of wedding inspiration in one place.

3. Have you discovered Etsy yet? It's a-mazing! Basically it's an online marketplace, where the most creative people in the world sell handmade or vintage items. It is chock-a-block packed with wedding ideas and inspiration, and I'd really recommend signing up for their weekly wedding emails, and reading the Etsy Wedding Blog. Folksy is another similar website which is quite a bit smaller, but more UK-based. I recently found these gorgeous botanical banners on Folksy, which completely inspired my friend's up-coming spring garden wedding.

{Photo Credit} Peony & Thistle bunting

4. Trawl the wedding blogs. I suppose I'm bound to think this, but honestly the wedding blogs are the best place for free wedding inspiration. Personally I recommend checking out the Real Weddings section of any wedding blog. That's where you can beg, borrow and steal other brides' wedding ideas, and keep up on all the latest wedding trends. My favourite UK wedding blogs include Rock My Wedding, Rock n' Roll Bride, Love My Dress and OMG I'm Getting Married.

{Photo Credit} Caught the Light - see more pictures of my wedding

5. Find wedding inspiration from your life as a couple. Think back through your courtship, your first date, your first holiday together, where you got engaged, where you live, your hobbies, what you love doing together, eating together, watching on TV. Do you both love travel? Live in London? Love Chinese food? Did you both grow up in the countryside? Did you meet thanks to a shared love of music? All of these little details about the two of you as a pair, can grow into a big wedding inspiration idea. For example, on a trip to New York, a lady in a shop gave me a tiny vintage key. It happened to be one of the best days of our holiday, and the key always seemed a romantic talisman of that day. Two years later we celebrated our Secret Garden themed wedding, with a vintage key motif!

♥ Want to see wedding advice? ♥ Or how about more wedding theme ideas? ♥

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Before the Big Day Wedding Trends of 2013 - Antlers Theme

Today's Wedding Trend of 2013 is definitely slightly left field. It's grown out of the new natural fashion for woodland wedding themes, and while wearing elegant antlers on your wedding day might not be every bride's idea of glamorous, it does look fabulous! If you're not quite ballsy enough to go the whole hog and get your horns on, there's tonnes of other fantastic ways to reflect a deer or antlers- themed wedding. Take a look at the gorgeous pictures below, and for many more ideas, do check out my Pinterest board. P.S. If you follow me on Pinterest, you'll get sneak-peaks of all the trends before everyone else!

{Photo Credit} Laura Fulmer Photography, styled by Jessica Santos Gallo of Fine and Fleurie. First featured on Rock n' Roll Bride

{Photo Credit} 1. Tyler & Katie Branch, first featured on100 Layer Cake, 2. The Nichols

{Photo Credit} 1. Deer Head Antlers Wedding Invitations by Haute & Homespun, 2. Bryan Rupp Photography, styled by Amy Allen. First featured on Style Me Pretty wedding blog.

More posts like this one:
✽ A Quirky Music Themed Wedding
✽ A Black Veil - would you?

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Before the Big Day Wedding Trends of 2013 - Bright Cakes

The days of the traditional white tiered cake are long-gone. Last year naked wedding cakes were all the rage, but wedding fashions have flown by, and now it's all about the bright cake. Make a statement with contrasting cake and icing, or pick a pastel shade. Ombre shading is still a huge trend, although rainbow cakes are making a come-back, and I reckon we'll see the end of ombre by the end of the year. Cake toppers are changing too - it's no longer about figurines - abstract and floral toppers are top dog. Take a look at my fab wedding cake board on Pinterest for more amazing bright cake inspiration!

More posts like this one: 
✽ Incredible Ombre Wedding Cakes
✽ Glamorous Ombre Wedding Dresses

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Before the Big Day Wedding Trends of 2013 - Winter Weddings

Traditionally the great British summer was the wedding season. But if you talk to wedding photographers, planners and florists, you'll find a growing trend for couples to celebrate their big day in the winter. Pluses include cheaper venues, chic decor options {Christmas trees & ever-greenery}, and guaranteed bad weather. Warm the cockles of your wedding guests with hot chocolate, mulled wine and a shot of sloe gin, and serve them a tasty roast at your wedding reception. Wedding favours could include marshmallows or chestnuts for roasting on an open fire, and tartan blankets for chilly knees. Bride-wise, why not add a muff to your wedding outfit, and wrap up warm in a cosy white fur shrug. For more winter wedding inspiration, check out my fabulous winter wedding inspiration Pinterest board!

{Photo Credit} Jennifer Eileen - more on Ruffled Blog

{Photo Credits} 1. Ryan Ray - more on Style Me Pretty, 2. More on Martha Stewart Weddings

More posts like this one: 
✽ Snowy Weddings
✽ Real Vintage Winter Wedding

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Introducing PreOwned Wedding Dresses

Wedding dresses are way too expensive, and {mildly controversially} I reckon wedding dress designers take advantage of brides by overcharging. Nervous brides want to look their very best on their wedding day, they're often nervous about being the centre of attention, and they're willing to spend crazy-money to make sure they feel super-special. There's no escaping the prettiest wedding gowns tend to be the most expensive. But now there's a way you can get the wedding dress you want, without breaking the bank, and it's all thanks to PreOwned Wedding Dresses. This AMAZING website is the modern bride's way to buy a wedding dress. With over 10,000 new sample, and used wedding gowns, The One is out there waiting for you, with a bargain price tag. PreOwned Wedding Dresses list gowns from all your favourite designers, {think Monique Lhuillier, Jenny Packham, Vera Wang & more} plus stunning pre-owned wedding accessories as well. Here's just a few of my favourite wedding gowns on sale now, but check out the website for your favourite designer.

{Photo Credit} Pronovias wedding gowns

{Photo Credit} Jenny Packham wedding dresses

{Photo Credit} 1. Jenny Packham wedding gown, 2. Vera Wang wedding dress

{Photo Credit} Caroline Herrera wedding gowns

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Walking Your Way to Your Wedding Weight

{Posting by Alice Cowen, Before the Big Day's Personal Trainer & Nutritionist} Are you wondering how you're going to drop a few pounds before your wedding day? Did you know that walking at a moderate pace for 30-60 minutes burns stored fat, and builds muscle, which in turn speeds up your metabolism? You can burn up to 500 calories an hour depending on your weight, and the speed you walk. What do you reckon, could you make time to fit walking into your life? How about walking to work? Or start walking with your future husband or bridesmaids at weekends. Here in Majorca at Bootique I do a 45 minute walk nearly every Sunday. I find it very relaxing, and end up daydreaming my way there and back, while listening to my iPod. Often I completely forget I'm exercising at all - now that's got to be the best solution for a future bride who hates working-out! xaLx

{Photo Credit} Danielle Aquiline via Elizabeth Anne Designs

♥ Want more wedding fitness ideas? ♥ Or how about wedding recipe ideas? ♥

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Choosing Your Wedding Venue - 6 Questions to Ask

You're engaged! Congratulations! So where are you getting married? If you don't have an obvious venue, this can be the question that strikes fear into a bride's heart. If you're finding it really hard to choose where to celebrate your wedding day, don't worry, you're not alone. I have two newly engaged friends, who are right now tearing their hair out over where to get married. They're both very different - one couple are looking for the perfect field and farm, the others are on the search for the best London landmark, with Kew Gardens high on their list. The venue is key to the type of wedding you'll be having, and that's why it can be the hardest decision. Until you know your wedding style, it's hard to pick your wedding venue. And until you pick your wedding venue, it's hard to pick your wedding style. Argh!! But fear not, help is at hand thanks to Before the Big Day. Here are five questions to help you make a decision.

{Photo Credit} Caught the Light

1. How many people do you want to invite?
2. Home or abroad?
3. Urban or countryside?
4. Decorated or empty?
5. Smart or casual?
6. Budget - big or small?

Or there is the Lucky 7th option....have two weddings like we did! One in France, and one in London. One large and one small. One expensive, one budget. One countryside, one urban. One inside, one outside. One casual, one elegant. The best of both worlds!

♥ Want to see some wedding theme ideas? ♥ Or how about wedding decoration ideas? ♥

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Welcome Before the Big Day's Wedding Personal Trainer

Exciting news! Now that Before the Big Day is over 5 years old {my baby, so big!}, it's time for this boutique wedding blog to get growing! I'm all about roping in as much wedding expertise as possible, because I want you to be able to plan an exquisite wedding, with tonnes of beautiful details to make it stand out from the crowd. But I also want you to feel your very best! So.....{drum roll}....I'd like to welcome Alice Cowen of Fitness DNA to my wedding blog team. Alice is a personal trainer to the stars {actual proper famous people you see in Hello!}, and she's also a nutrition expert. She specialises in weight loss, body sculpting and toning, and she's agreed to be Before the Big Day's Personal Trainer - woohoo! I reckon nearly every bride and groom wants to drop a few pounds before their big day, and Alice is going to help us on our way to body-beautiful. She'll be posting diet tips, fat-free recipes, fabulous toning exercises, and inspirational features that will make getting wedding-fit easier.

{Photo Credit} Butler-Madden Weddings

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