Day 108: Mirrorless Wedding Makeup - Trials and Tribulations.

The "after" shot is what I HOPED I looked like after my makeover...
(FYI, this makeup "application" was done by me, using www.taaz.com)

According to The Knot's Bridal Beauty: Countdown to Gorgeous list, it's high time that I start worrying about my wedding makeup.  At the "3-4 Months Before" mark I'm commanded to do the following:

Make consultation appointments with potential makeup artists.  Be sure to take pictures, then analyze them.  Do your features stand out?  Do you look like you're wearing a mask?

Decide on a makeup artist and book him/her for your wedding date.  Set up a day-of-wedding schedule.

The B.B.C.T.G. list, of course, assumes that I (and all brides) have the bucks to pay for a professional makeup artist on the big day.  I find this assumption really obnoxious.  That said, up until a few weeks ago, I also assumed that I'd hire a pro to take care of my makeup.


But now things have changed.  I'm going to do my own wedding day makeup.  Without mirrors, but with a little help from my friends.  How did this happen?  Have I lost my mind???

Alternative wedding day look:
Lighter eye makeup, dramatic red lips!

In a nutshell, I tried the makeup artist thing (check, check), but ... it didn't go as amazingly as planned.  Then I looked at my wedding budget, and that also wasn't going quite as amazingly as planned.  Here's the story:

It was the morning of the "couples shower" that my sister was hosting for Michael and me.  My parents were in town for the event, and my mom and I had plans to get our makeup done at a local salon.  This was to be my makeup trial, and I felt pretty psyched!  I enjoy my girly pampering things, and it doesn't get much girlier than a professional makeup application. Plus, my mom would be paying (or so I'd hoped).

The experience itself was luxurious, and the makeup artist (who's own makeup looked awesome, I thought) was incredibly sweet and personable.  After 55 minutes of dabbing various brushes into various pots and compacts and then my face, I felt optimistic about the results, and imagined how amazing I probably looked (at least more amazing than normal, no?).   The makeup artist stepped back to look at her work, smiled with a satisfied sigh, and said "Oooh, you look soooo great!" My mom nodded in approval (though not vigorously, as I later recalled).


I happily scampered off for a blow-dry at the hair-doing side of the salon, and my mom sat down to have her own makeup done.  But an hour later, I picked up on a few clues suggesting that... perhaps my made-up face didn't look quite as fabulous as I'd hoped:

Clue 1: My mom's makeup didn't look much different from her usual self-application.  Except the foundation was kind of settling into her pores (and out of her non-pores) in a weird way.  Wait, were those crows feet? And she looked a little pallid.  Was she even wearing mascara??!  Hrmmm...  

Clue 2: Then... when it was time to pay, my mom hesitated, and then asked "Sooo... how do we want to do this??"  And we ended up paying for our own services.  Note: my mom has a fairly predictable habit of buying stuff for my sister and me whenever we're looking particularly cute.  When it comes to clothes shopping, haircuts, and now makeup applications: if we're lookin' good she often treats, but we always have to pay for any uncute (in her opinion) clothes/hair/makeup by ourselves. Hrmmm... again.

I got nervous on the way to the party and asked my mom if I should be worried.  She said I looked "fine," but admitted that she didn't think it was worth $50 (for the trial), much less $150 (for the big day).  This would have been really depressing news, had she not mentioned that my very own self-applied (sans-mirror!) makeup looked BETTER!  (Recall: I've developed a carefully crafted routine for applying my makeup sans-mirrors.)

"BETTER?" I asked?  (Incredulous, yet still hinting for compliments)

"Yeah," she confirmed, "I think you would just need more eye makeup than usual for it to feel more formal. But somebody else could do that, right?"  Hrmmm.... indeed!

A quick calculation confirmed that NOT hiring a makeup artist would save over $600 (plus tips!).  The math was in favor, but I wavered for a moment; would my bridesmaids find it tacky if we didn't offer them a professional makeup makeover??  And then I remembered something important:

I don't need the Bridal Beauty: Countdown to Gorgeous list (or anyone else, for that matter!) to tell me how to get married.  

Oh, and my bridesmaids are all competent and sane women who won't give a fig about missing out on unaffordable (and crappy) makeover.  Finally, if my mom thinks my cosmetic application skills suffice, well.... that would be good enough for me!  (Good enough is good enough, right?)  And that, my friends, is how I decided to do my wedding day makeup myself (with a little help from my friends).


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