Planning A Wedding In France {Hair & Make Up Artists}

72 Days to go! Brides of 2018, I know you’ll feel me, I can’t decide if time seems to be getting slower or going faster!? I want our wedding day to come so much, but there are some finishing touches to get in place, so not too soon please! It’s been a little while since my last update, but I hope you enjoyed my Nordic woodland wedding inspiration shoot published last month? As the day is approaching, behind the scenes I’ve been getting on with wedding planning for my company French Bague-ette and also tackling wedding beauty and wedding traditions that I wanted to share with you...

WHY WEAR A GARTER?

You may or may not know why brides traditionally wear garters on their wedding day. It stems from old beliefs that it was good luck for wedding guests to keep a piece of the bride’s gown after the wedding. Sometimes this could even result in crazy guests ripping a piece of the gown off the bride! (I hope there are no guests like that at any of our weddings!) The garter was introduced so that the bride could willingly gift part of her wedding attire to a lucky guest. Some also believed that the removal of the garter was proof of the consummation of the marriage. Sometimes the garter is removed by the groom and tossed towards the unmarried men at the wedding, much like the bride’s bouquet toss, it is believed that the lucky bachelor to catch the garter will be the next to be married! As with a lot of these old wedding traditions, these days, it’s totally up to you whether you want to have a garter toss or even wear a garter at all. Personally, we won’t have a garter toss but I’ve decided that I would like to wear one anyway just because I think I would quite enjoy it!

THE GARTER HUNT

Having made the decision to wear a garter, the hunt was on to find something that went with my wedding dress, that wasn’t crazy expensive, that looked comfortable enough... and it turns out that wasn’t that easy! It’s not something I had ever really thought about before, but you don’t very easily just walk into a shop and find a huge array of garters to choose from, especially not in our seaside town of Biarritz. After trawling Instagram, Etsy and Pinterest, I eventually came across Laura Beaumont Couture and I fell in love with the simplicity of one of her bespoke garters (I would share which one, but Olivier will see and ruin the surprise!) Laura custom makes each garter by hand so she can make any changes you want, like adding an antique pearl for your ‘something old’ or a blue bow for your ‘something blue.’ Laura was lovely to communicate with and I’m expecting my garter in the post today. Luckily Olivier’s away on his stag do this weekend so I’ll have a chance to try it on and prance around the house!

HAIR AND MAKE-UP TRIALS

I’ve had a bit of a mixed experience with the hair and make-up trials and now I know just how important they are! First was hair and it was a dream! I had gathered a few images of the sort of things I liked so I could show my stylist what I was thinking. It’s not always easy to work out if your hair is suitable for some of the super pretty images out there. I think I may have shown her something that would need an extra foot on the length of my hair! My super talented friend and wedding hair stylist, Whitney from Le Brushing, made it look as easy as pie! (which it definitely isn't!) She understood what I wanted, explained what would work best in my hair and created the looks perfectly. Don’t forget to take your accessories and veil (If you’re wearing one) with you to your trial.

WEDDING MAKE-UP TRIAL

Next I had a make-up trial with a local beautician. Again, I took some images with me of the look I wanted and explained what I did and didn’t want. At the time, I thought it had gone quite well but after the experience, the more I thought about it I realised that it just wasn’t quite right. The lady, although she was lovely, hadn’t really followed my requests and she put on a much heavier look than I would want. I didn’t feel comfortable with the look created and although I’m sure it would have been totally perfect for some brides, I just didn’t feel like me. I was concerned about it but it wasn’t until a couple of weeks afterwards that I realized I should try a different make-up artist. At this point I was worried about budget and felt bad increasing the beauty budget so I found the decision hard. However it turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made so far in the wedding planning process. After all, how you look and especially how you feel on the day is very, very important and really isn’t that what the trial is all for?

WEDDING MAKE-UP TRIAL TWO!

I was a little late for my appointment but as I ran towards the building there was a beautiful smiling face waving at me from the window and I instinctively felt more comfortable with this decision. Jenny Jane has recently moved from Paris to South West France and started her business Jenny Jane MUA. I am sure she will have great success as my whole experience was just lovely! Jenny looked at my inspiration images closely, she kept asking me how I felt about what she was doing and she made sure I was totally happy with the look created. She was professional and organised and just so good at it! I feel so much more relaxed and actually quite excited about my wedding day make-up! You can check out the experience in my highlighted stories on my French Bague-ette Instagram.

If your wedding is coming up and you still haven't had your beauty trials, I suggest booking them in ASAP. Give yourself time to choose someone different if you feel like the first one is just not quite right. If you’re getting married in France I can’t recommend Le Brushing and Jenny Jane enough! They both speak English, are willing to travel and will make you look and feel fabulous! Until next time, I hope your weddings are coming together as you wanted. If you feel like chatting through anything, don’t hesitate to get in touch! Lou x