Pursuing the Picture Perfect Wedding :: a blog about weddings and getting great wedding photographs by Gia Canali

Bride Interview: Makeup Tips from Mitra

Although I don’t wear makeup or even know how to really put it on, I do notice wedding makeup. Or, perhaps I should say that I bemoan bad wedding makeup. I don’t think I notice good makeup at all. My friend and former bride, Mitra, was a certified MAC makeup artist a few years ago and did a number of weddings during that time, both through MAC and on her own. She agreed to share some tips, and I must say, as a photographer (who knows what’s flattering) and a make-up-phobe (who groans at the thought of doing it), I think these tips are really helpful. I’m putting in my own two-cents in italics.

Hire a make-up artist, or at the very least, have a make-up artist show you how to do your make-up, take her product suggestions, and practice several times before the wedding. Hiring a make-up artist is easier. Brides have enough to worry about on the wedding day!
A trial run of wedding-day make-up is absolutely necessary. Take a picture of your make-up in several lighting scenarios (natural light, dark w/flash, etc.). And wear the make-up 8-10 hours. See how well it holds. All make-up will need touch-ups (powder, lips, etc.), but the bulk of wedding day make-up should wear that long. (Gia here: Makeup that looks good and makeup that looks good on-camera aren’t necessarily the same thing. Your little test shots will tell you a lot!!)
Everyone looks better with false eye lashes. There are so many ways to do them that look natural and gorgeous, and I think they should be attempted at the trial run before a bride rules them out.
If fake lashes are out of the question, Diorshow Blackout (waterproof) and Make Up For Ever Smoky Lash (waterproof) are both available at Sephora, and dramatically enhance eyes to get the benefit of fake lashes.
When cultivating ideas for the wedding day look, chose a celebrity or two who you resemble in face-shape and coloring, and google red carpets looks for those celebs to get ideas. Bring these pics to your trial run with the make-up artist.
If the make-up artist isn’t staying for the whole event, make sure that you have the lipstick/liner/gloss she used, and powder and a little foundation for touch-ups. Make a bridesmaid responsible for keeping track of these items for you, and put her in charge of checking on your make-up every so often.
Skin is really important to wedding day beauty. A make-up artist can even out skin tone, but there’s not much they can do for texture. Start thinking about this months in advance, and adjust your skin care regimen accordingly. If you’re paranoid about a huge zit cropping up days before the wedding, make an appointment with a derm the day before the wedding, if possible. Should a monstrous zit arrive, they can give you a cortisone injection that will get rid of it by the next day. (Gia here: we’ll have more on good skin for your wedding soon-ish).

Thanks, Mitra! Any makeup tips from anyone else? Former brides, feel free to chime in!

photo: Gia Canali

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Published on March 11, 2010 in D.I.Y., Fashion, Interviews, Photography and Planning. 0 Comments

Eunice & Daniel on 100 Layer Cake!

Eunice & Daniel’s wedding photographs are over on 100 Layer Cake today!! We love being on their very pretty blog! Hurray! Congrats to Eunice and Daniel, the whole Hello!Lucky crew, and all the other talented vendors who worked on this especially magical wedding.

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Published on March 10, 2010 in Gia's News. 0 Comments

Real Weddings :: Eunice & Daniel: One Lucky Wedding

Welcome to Eunice & Daniel’s wedding! Eunice and her sister Sabrina own Hello!Lucky, while Daniel designs video games at Three Rings, and frankly, I can’t think of a craftier, more inventive—or more exuberant!—crew to plan a wedding. Eunice designed pretty much everything and she and her friends, led by sister and maid-of-honor, Sabrina, worked tirelessly to make sure those designs became a reality. Much of the inspiration for the wedding’s design is from Tim Walker’s photographs. Walker’s work has always fascinated me, as it demonstrates, in intricate detail, how Britain was, is, and always will be a magical place, if improbably so. See his work, if you aren’t already familiar with it. You’ll know what I mean. The little stage Eunice and Daniel were married on and the whimsical parade to the ceremony site, led by Daniel with his white unicorn, are lifted straight from Walker’s (or … Eunice-and-Daniel’s) imagination.

{click any image to enlarge the gallery}

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Below: a few images from the ceremony. I love the flower girls dumping the confetti on each other!! The stage was lovingly made by the crew at Because We Can and painted by Eunice and friends. (The stage now has a home behind Eunice & Daniel’s bed, which is the perfect sort of re-purposing of wedding decor, I think). Eunice designed her dress and her friend and colleague, Hello!Lucky’s London office head, Iain Harris Bartlett, sewed it for her.

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The day passed by at lightning speed, as it really always does at weddings. I was so happy to have a few moments with Eunice and Daniel along the winding dirt road and in the wide, grassy fields at {Wilbur Hot Springs}.

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The details of this wedding were myriad, intricate, and marvelous. Nearly everything was made by hand, and much of it by Eunice, Daniel, and their friends. There was so much to look at (and photograph and share!) that I needed a dedicated post to do those details any sort of justice at all. Here are just a few, though. Sharla Flock designed the florals, which were rich and varied and added so much color and texture to the wedding. The cake topper is hilariously cute (worth clicking to enlarge!).

The guests were dressed to match the wedding perfectly, even the littlest ones. It gave me the feeling that we were all in a movie we couldn’t see being filmed.

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As night fell, the party began in earnest. There was square-dancing and Eunice’s sister, Sabrina, sang a song. Their father accompanied the band on his mandolin for another song. And, yes, Eunice and Daniel really did cut the cake with a cleaver. I think Daniel might have a collection …

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For fewer, larger photographs, please see {this gallery} on my main site. And satisfy your floral-detail-loving-cravings {here}. Hello!Lucky posted a great feature on their, site, too, complete with a gallery and diy wedding project instructionals, and it’s {here}.

photographs by Gia Canali; wedding design, Hello!Lucky; paper goods, Hello!Lucky and Joel Dewberry; wedding planning, Lisa Feldman Designs; Daniel’s dapper suit, Al’s Attire; bridesmaid’s dresses, Al’s Attire and Jessica Bobillot; Eunice’s fascinator, Jennifer Behr; cake topper, Publique Living; stage, wooden table “numbers,” and parade props, Because We Can and Hello!Lucky; lighting design, Jimmy Duhig, Creative Lighting Design; Eunice designed her dress and it was handsewn by her friend Iain Harris Bartlett. Go handmade!!

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Published on March 1, 2010 in D.I.Y., Decor, Fashion, Finds, Florals, Inspiration and Real Weddings. 5 Comments

Real Weddings :: Eunice & Daniel: Down to the Details

This post is just for all you lovers-of-minutia. Some of the details will be repeated in the main post about Eunice and Daniel’s wedding (coming later today!), but it’s fun to see them bigger and in context. We especially like the non-numerical table numbers. Had I been a guest, I’d have hoped to be seated at the dragonfly or goldfish tables. The tissue paper pom-poms, Eunice made by hand, are so pretty, too. And, I imagine, were a lot of work!! Click any image to enlarge the gallery.

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photos: Gia Canali; floral design, Sharla Flock; cake topper; PubliQue Living; paper goods, Hello!Lucky and Joel Dewberry; table “numbers,” Because We Can with Hello!Lucky; lighting, Jimmy Duhig, Creative Lighting Design.

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Published on March 1, 2010 in D.I.Y., Decor, Florals, Inspiration and Real Weddings. 4 Comments

Real Weddings: Eunice & Daniel

His & Hers

photos: Gia Canali

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Published on March 1, 2010 in Fashion, Inspiration and Real Weddings. 0 Comments

Eunice & Daniel’s Real Wedding Coming {Really} Soon!

Eunice and Daniel’s May 2009 wedding was pre-slated for publication in Martha Stewart Weddings, so everything had to be top-secret until the magazine hit newsstands. And now it has. Of course, considering how I get around to blogging real weddings, it probably doesn’t seem like much of a wait at all! (Translation: even though I had almost a year to prepare images, I am still mulling them over in my usual poky fashion). So while I prepare blog posts and a gallery for the main site, I thought I would share just this one image.

photo: Gia Canali

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Published on February 26, 2010 in Photography and Real Weddings. 0 Comments

Things I Really Like: Encaustic Paint + Wedding Photographs

Some of you might wonder where I’ve been, and the answer—at least in part—is that I’ve been locked up in my studio cooking up new things. (I’ve also been fixing my computer, hence the blog-neglect, but that is another story altogether). Anyway, I have been drunkenly in love with encaustic painting (and the idea of encaustic painting over photographs) since I first heard the word “encaustic” two years ago in an oil painting class, and even more so since I’ve seen them in real life. Then I saw some pieces by the ever-innovative Starn twins, I knew I had to figure out how to incorporate encaustic into my commissioned work. Over the summer I finally got a chance to take a workshop in encaustic painting and planned to get working on a series of encaustic photographs right away. But summer and wedding season are what they are, so refining the process and presentation has taken longer than I’d hoped. Encaustic paint is made from beeswax and resin, and because it can be both clear and cloudy in places, it’s very dreamy. I am not the only wedding photographer experimenting in this medium; both Elizabeth Messina and One Love Photo are also working in wax. I think these luminous little paintings are going to be one of the next big trends in handmade photographic prints. The tactile quality of the prints shows best in person, but I couldn’t resist sharing a few images anyway. And I promise to share more soon, as I complete new pieces.