Wedding Dress & Make-Up Tips from a Photographer's View

Makeup - On a Budget?
If you can afford it, hire a professional. If you can cut anything else in your wedding to ensure you have the $30 or $40 to have your makeup professionally done, do it. Why not pay someone $30 that can make you look like a million bucks? This is the most important and most photographed day you will probably ever have, why not look the best you ever will? Besides, don’t you want your husband to look back on his wedding day and think, wow, I’ve never seen her glow like that.

Less is more. This is the digital age and trust me, the camera picks up everything. There are important things to keep in mind to tell the person doing your makeup. They will need to know if your event will be indoors and or/outdoors and if it will be dimly lit, etc. For example, if you are getting married on a beautiful summer day at 2 p.m. outdoors, you would want your make up to be a little bold. The more lights and the brighter the lights, the more the lights will wash out your color. This is the opposite for dim lit conditions.
** Let’s say that you are getting married indoors and the church is very dimly lit, not a lot of windows, and the lights are a yellow tint. If you told this to the professional doing your make up, they would try not to use makeup with a yellow tint, and would make sure that your make up was modest. Do not wear bright lipstick, really dark eye shadow and especially watch the blush. You can, but I assure you that you will probably look on the “clown” side because dim lights exaggerate the colors. Now, that’s not saying you can’t wear bright colors with dim lights, a professional makeup artist can use bright colors in a way that is flattering, but a friend or family member will more than likely end up making it worse because of their lack of knowledge. Okay, you’re probably thinking well, should I have good lighting for the formals? Well, or course, but unless you want big umbrella lights and light stands on at your ceremony, your pictures will be in the normal lighting of the church or location. Most receptions are also in dim lit conditions. It’s better for your makeup to be in accordance of the settings without lighting assistance, as we as photographers for your formal pictures can adjust our lights accordingly to flatter you as best as possible.

Always bring clear lip gloss and touch up makeup with you. Through out the day your makeup will “melt” and/or fade out. We strongly recommend bringing oil blotting paper in lieu of powder, because every time you reapply powder, it will start to look “caked on.” Most professionals will offer you samples to use throughout your day for purchase or complimentary.

The Dress - Don't be in a Hurry!
Make sure that the top portion of your dress is not too tight. When you try it on at the fitting, move around in it in the mirror and make sure it’s not cutting in and making bulges that you normally don’t have.
Make sure that it is also not too loose – you don’t want to be pulling it up the entire day. We often see a Bride’s frustration throughout the day, constantly pulling up her strapless dress.
Make sure that if your dress shows cleavage, that you look in the mirror and bend over. Ask yourself if that is the amount of cleavage you want your family members and guest to see (and all of your pictures to show) because most brides comment when looking through their pictures that they had no idea that they were showing that much cleavage when cutting the cake, leaning in and/or over for poses for the photographer and family members, dancing, etc.

**We also suggest taking a small handheld mirror with you. Sounds silly right? But having two teenage girls I often make them do this – take the mirror and hold it above your cleavage – now look up into the mirror looking down your dress. Wow right? Often women forget that men are taller than most women, and their view is, you guessed it, the same you see in the mirror, straight down your dress.

Even if you have already purchased your wedding dress, you can always get these things altered. We understand that you are planning a wedding with a budget but the dress fitting is not something to skimp on. How you look and feel in your dress is always reflected in your photographs whether you like it or not. Too many times we can see the bride’s frustration in her dress being too heavy, too tight, too loose and flat out uncomfortable. If you can afford it, or course we would suggest purchasing a separate wedding dress for the reception if your ceremony dress is too big and awkward for dancing and having a good time in. If you are like most brides and cannot afford a second dress, we strongly recommend that at your fitting you ensure you have a good bustle to tie up your train.

And please, don’t wait until your wedding day at the reception to figure out how to do it. Too often we have seen guest waiting for 20 minutes for a bride to get her dress bustled up because the person they delegated did not practice before hand. Brides, if your maid of honor or mother, or whom ever is the person that will be doing this task for you, make sure that you take them along with you when you purchase your dress and at your fitting and have the professionals there show them how. You cannot possibly show them how to do this with your dress on. We have seen time after time a bride become so mad because their mother or maid of honor cannot tie a bow right, knot or button, zip or bustle their dress. Why ruin your happy joyous mood? Don’t make the mistake in assuming that it’s easy and they will know exactly what to do and can do it fast, always do a test run and make sure they can do it and do it right and fast. You’ll thank yourself later and you’ll have pictures of you relaxed in your dress, not pictures of you giving your maid of honor or mom a look of frustration.

Of course, these are my opinions, from a Photographer's view - Angel Canary from Angel Studios Photography.