The Moment I Wake Up....Before I Put On My Makeup...

Warning, this post contains A LOT of pictures of me, including an unsightly one of me without any makeup on or my hair curled. You've been warned!

Alright, now if any of you are still reading, I'm ready to share my hair and makeup trial with you! I first started researching stylists and MUAs around the 10 months until the wedding mark. I knew this was going to be very important since I was going to be the center of attention all day (along with Mr. Cola, of course). My hair and makeup are super important to me on a daily basis, so the wedding day had to be extra special!

Enter Yelp, OnceWed, Project Wedding, Weddingbee, The Knot, every site I could think of to find reviews of bridal stylists in the area. I contacted several for their prices, and to find out if they're good with working with long hair, but one stuck out to me, Aimee Lam. At the time I'm writing this she has 29 reviews on Yelp, of which 27 are five stars, and the other two are four stars. And all the reviews were so glowing, I just had to have a trial with her!

I decided to go to the trial with my regular "day to day" makeup on, but without my hair curled. I really wanted something more special and glam for my wedding day look, since I wear a fair amount of eye makeup usually (I have a serious mascara and eyelash curler addiction!), and wanted Aimee to have a reference. These were the inspiration pictures I brought in:


(photos from The Knot, Brides Magazine, Google Images, and YouTube screenshot)

I also brought in these hair accessories, along with my bumpit:


(cheapie rhinestone pins from Claire's and a flowers from a silk flower stalk I got from Michael's for $9.99, photos taken by me)

Some pre-trial shots of me with my normal makeup on, but uncurled hair:


Upon arriving at Aimee's I sat down with her to go over the inspiration pictures I'd e-mailed her ahead of time, then I took off my makeup and she took this (scary!) shot of me:


(my Cover Girl Lip Stain was still on though!)

Then Aimee got to work on beautifying me! She airbrushed my face, which I'd never had done before, but loved it. It felt so light and airy, hardly any different than the pressed powder I normally wear. She then gave me sexy smokey eyes, and applied false lashes. Aimee actually layered two sets of lashes on each of my eyes, one set that was longer and one set that was fuller, for a great full and long look! I would have never thought to do this, but am totally gonna try it next Halloween!

Next up was the long process of curling my hair. I have very coarse, thick hair, that curls well, but tends to hang itself out by the end of the day because of the weight, so I shared my concern with Aimee, so she knew to spray the heck out of it. It was then that I learned another neat trick, she used a smaller barrel curling iron on the bottom two layers of my hair, since those bottom layers usually go straight first. Another thing I plan to try at home, since I spiral curl my hair all the time for a loose wavy look! She then used a larger barrel curling iron for the top layers, and after everything was curled, she proceeded to pin my curls into a work of art, with strategically placed rhinestone pins and the flowers (my bumpit wasn't needed, but I still love it!).

And here is the final look!


(Aimee took these great pictures in her on-site photo studio, and e-mailed them, and lots more, to me later that night.)

I, of course, signed her on the spot to do our wedding, along with hair and makeup for my 3 bridesmaids. She'll be bringing an assistant too, since my hair alone takes so much time. I'm so excited, I know she'll do a fabulous job again on the wedding day!

And at the end of the day, after playing with my parent's dog, going shopping, changing my outfit, and leaning back on the couch to watch TV, this is how my hair held up:


(Not too bad in my opinion, a little frizzy and not as curly, but I did a lot of stuff while it was done, and didn't make an effort to be gentle with it, to see how it would really hold up to a night of dancing. And I think by the end of the night a more tousled look will go just right with my after party dress.)

Here's how the makeup held up. You can't really see it in these pics, but there was a bit of makeup gathered in a line in the crease of my eyelids. I'm used to this though because of my deeper lids, and a quick scrape with my fingernail takes care of it.

(Sick of looking at pictures of me yet? Yeah, me too!)

So all in all, a great trial, and I have my wedding look from the neck up all set! The only down side was it took Mr. Cola about 15 minutes to help me get all the pins out of my hair. Aimee really had them in there, which is great for the style, but will be a pain on our wedding night! 53 total pins were used, plus the accessories!


How many hair and makeup trials did you have before finding the perfect stylist? And did you try more than one look, or did you know what you wanted from the start?