Beauty school drop-out - Thank goodness I can pay to have someone else do this for me!

I should be crunching numbers right now, but when faced with the task of widdling down the national deficit blogging about things like hair and make-up sounds so much less stressful. And apologies for the delay in posting, but I've been one busy bride with the countdown under a month now!

So on to the good stuff.

Saturday, April 4th was my bridal shower. More on that later. I decided to take full advantage of the picture taking I knew would occur and have my hair and make-up trial runs. OK, let's be honest, I needed something to occupy me while my mom and sister set up the shower. Otherwise I would have driven them batty.

I had the hardest time finding an inspiration picture. I had seen a gorgeous bride on one of the many blogs I follow months ago and said to myself "Wow, her hair is stunning. I wish I could pull that look off." Then I dismissed the post and moved along to the 101 others in my reader that day. The hairstyle apparently stayed in my subconscious because as decision time for my hair came near I thought about that post more and more. "Alright," I said, "maybe I CAN pull this look off. In fact, I think it would be perfect with my new brunette locks and vintage style dress." So for weeks I searched for that elusive post to no avail. I gave up hope and decided to try another route.

Finally, in the final hour, quite literally as it was midnight on Friday, I found my inspiration! It was not the original blog post but better. It was Kiera Knightly in Atonement. And it was perfect.

So this is what I took my hairdresser, Leigh:


And this is what she gave me!


I have a few adjustments to make but overall I love it!

As for the make-up I had fortunately been smart enough to pull out a picture I had seen in a magazine a month or two into our engagement. It was dewy, golden and very natural looking. The end result is this: