Vendor Review - Hair: Suzy at Hair Connection

I was fairly picky about how I wanted my hair. When I did my trial, I bought in a collage of pictures of hairstyles I liked and let Suzy kind of interpret the look I was going for. 

for sources see this post

I thought she did ok with my trial, but it definitely wasn't what I asked for. One thing that all of the pictures had in common was loose, side swept bangs. She pinned mine back and sprayed them down. After I got home and fixed my bangs, it looked like this:

So when I went in the morning of the wedding I took only one style for my inspiration picture. I told her to basically give me this girl's hair: 

source for both

I think she got semi-close to the look I was going for. She made the curls tighter to start out with because she knew they'd fall as the day went on, which was good. They were closer to what I wanted for pictures and the ceremony.

The morning of the wedding, she was pretty friendly and easy to work with, which was nice because she had kind of rubbed me the wrong way during the trial. I think it's just her personality and she's not an overly friendly or outgoing person. 

Overall I think she did an ok job, but it didn't really look like my trial or exactly like my inspiration picture. Maybe she decided to kind of meet in the middle of the two. I wish it would've been closer to my inspiration picture, but I was content with it and it really wasn't a big deal in the grand scheme of the things. I'd probably recommend her, but I'd encourage other brides to try other stylists in Wichita too before booking her.

My rating: B

Ch-ch-changes

...With my hair! For the longest time my hair has been two (or more) different colors. Usually it's lighter at the ends than at the roots, so when I have it up in a messy bun - which happens to be my style of choice most days - I somewhat resemble a skunk. Not surprisingly, that's not exactly the look I'm going for on my wedding day, so I made a hair appointment with one of my friends last week. Just look at the miracle she preformed:

I can't believe I'm even posting the before pictures - I promise my hair isn't usually that poofy/frizzy/unhealthy looking

Eeeek.

Ok, are you ready for this??

It's not as red as it looks in the pictures, but it's definitely warm and rich looking! I absolutely love it, and I think it'll look so good with the style I choose for the wedding day (which is now 2 days away!!! Eeeee!!). I'm going to try to post a couple more times this week with some projects, but if I'm not able to I'll be sure to share everything I'm getting done after the honeymoon! I have some wonderful ladies lined up to write guest posts for next week, so get excited! :) 

Did you make any major changes before your wedding?

Hair Trial!

I debated back and forth for weeks about whether or not to do a hair trial. I really wanted to, but since it wasn't included in the price of my 'up do' and the style I want is fairly simple, I decided I'd rather use that money for other things. BM M works at the salon that I'm using and after I made the appointment for the day of, she texted me and said she was going to pay for my hair trial as her shower gift. I couldn't believe her generous offer! She told me she decided to do that for both me and her sister who is getting married 2 weeks before me because we're both the type of people who won't do/buy something because of the cost and then regret it later. She knew it would calm my (and her sister's!) nerves on the big day, and I think she was totally right.

I went into the appointment with several pictures of the look I was going for. I'm pretty picky about my hair and there was a certain style that I really wanted. I made a collage of several of the inspiration pictures I'd saved and brought it in with me:

sources for top row: 1 and 2

sources for bottom row: 1 and 2 are unknown and 3

Overall, I think the stylist did a pretty good job of recreating the style I wanted:

My veil (which I'll be blogging about tomorrow!) will go under the curls that are half up for the ceremony. I really like the back and don't want to change anything about it. The two things I'm going to ask her to do differently are to part my hair back futher and to let my bangs fall more naturally - I had already messed with my bangs in the pictures because she had pinned them back. One of the things I like so much about all of my inspiration pictures is the way each bride's bangs are loosely side-swept. Other than that, I was really happy with it! The curls are still pretty tight in the pictures, but loosened up quite a bit as the day went on. I wish I would've been able to try it with my veil and my hair flower, but my mom and I hadn't made my veil yet and I forgot to bring my hair flower home. I'm not worried though, I think it will look great with both!

Did you do a hair trial? And were you grateful you did?

A Flower for My Hair

I'll be wearing a chapel length veil for our ceremony, but I'm sure I'll be sick of it by the time we're done with pictures, so I wanted a hair flower for the reception. I know there are multiple tutorials out there for DIY hair flowers, so I won't post another in depth one. I basically followed the tutorial Penga from Convention of a Wedding posted a few days ago, and it was super easy!

The only materials you need are a flower (I used a white rose from Michaels), fake pearls or beads, a hair clip, and a hot glue gun. 

I used the same rose Penga used and took it apart the same way:

source 

I took out all of the plastic pieces and I didn't use the top two layers of petals because it made the flower really thick. I glued the rest of the petals together, and then added a few pearls to the middle. I used four larger pearls and one smaller one in the middle from this package I found at Michaels:

And here it is:

 

  

(I apologize for the crappy pictures - I'll take better ones once I have a clip for it!)

I still need to buy a clip, so I wasn't able to try it in my hair yet, but I think it'll be perfect! Here's a cost breakdown:

Silk rose - $1.99

Package of pearls - $2.99 (rest of package can be used for other projects)

Hair clip - Probably $2 or less

Total: $7 or a little less

That totally beats the insanely overpriced hair flowers at bridal salons AND it only took about 5 minutes!

Are you wearing a hair flower? If so, did you go the DIY route or did you purchase it?

Hair Inspiration

I've been gathering inspiration pictures for my hair since before we got engaged. I'm not sure why, but a girl's hair is usually one of the first things I notice in pictures, and I just love the look of loose, big curls. I know I want at least a section of my hair pulled up because my hair is extremely thick and will be hot in June. For some reason, my hair doesn't hold curl especially well (I don't know why since it's wavy to begin with), so I'm debating having a style that can be altered a little bit for the reception, when I'll be moving around/dancing my booty off/sweating! I'll be wearing a chapel length veil-which I'm making, so I'll post a DIY tutorial as soon as I do!-for the ceremony, but will probably wear a hair flower for the reception, so I'd like a style that looks good with both (or possibly that can be easily changed to look good with both).

My inspriation for the ceremony:

 

source for both

*I think this is the inspiration picture for the majority of brides that want a half-up style - I've seen this picture everywhere!*

 

*Taylor Swift has the best curls!*

 

*I like the poof in this one*

And for the reception:

 

**I don't have sources for most of these, so please let me know if you know where they came from!**

Ok, so maybe I need to even out the inspiration a little bit. Logistically, though, I'm not sure how it would work as I don't really want to be re-doing my hair just before the reception.

So, what do you think? Should I just scrap the idea of changing my original hair-do and hope my curls stay in place (or that I'll be too happy to care if they don't)? If so, should I still try to wear a hair flower with my original style? Do any of you have any inspiration pictures-since I'm obviously a big fan of them-of half-up styles with hair flowers? I need your help with this one!