Au or Faux naturale? Bridal Hairstyles

At the moment, with it being Black History Month, there seems to be a lot of talk about race, intelligence and beauty. Always a thought-provoking topic! There are films like Chris Rock’s ‘Good Hair’, and Channel 4's insightful documentary series, ‘The White Beauty Myth’.

All this has got me thinking even harder about my choice of bridal hairstyle, and the possibilities seem to be endless. Nonetheless, I am finding it surprisingly hard to find inspiration for bridal hairdos for black women.


Do I go for a long, sleek and very versatile Caucasian style weave, afro-centric hair extensions, to give me that bit of length that I so desire, without necessarily conforming to the ‘straight + long = beautiful’ mantra OR do I figure out something to do with my own natural 1 inch head of hair.


Before I go any further, I just want to clarify that I think everyone is free to wear their hair as they please (sing it India!). On a personal level, I want my bridal hairstyle to represent the way I view myself at this stage in my life - and that is proud to be a black woman, very comfortable in my own skin and realising that I truly am not my hair and that I can wear it any way I wish and still be me. An empowering revelation! At the same time, I am no Whoopi Goldberg and sisterlocks are not for me. I simply want a bridal ‘do’ that is different and a lot more special than the way that I usually wear my hair – TWA (teeny weeny afro)…after all it is my wedding day! At the same time, it has to be tried and tested style that I know I like the look of! The big day is no time for beauty experiments, is it girls!


Aside from kinky twists and braid-outs, I can think of little else I can do with my, albeit beautiful, very short and rather kinky hair. Had I been brave enough to shave my head and grow out my natural hair a few years ago, perhaps I would have had more length to play with. If I did, these are some styles that I find really pretty and would definitely have considered.

This now leaves me with two options 1) Afro-centric extensions and 2) Caucasia-centric sleek weave…or is there a third option after all, a curly weave, giving me the length, without leaving guests wondering if it really is me beneath all the make-up and tresses!

Here are some styles that I am currently salivating over!

The Afro-Centric

The Caucasia-Centric

Afro-casia-centric?  is it ‘OK’ to just make up words…tehehe

...so many beautiful styles...so many decisions...only 66 days to go! Wish me luck...

Melvina

x

Biscuiteers!


Boy oh boy have I found a find!

Biscuiteers is this fabulous, and I mean fabulous little company which goes by the slogan - Why send flowers when you can send biscuits instead? I told you, fabulous.

http://www.biscuiteers.com/wedding-bells-tin

How does it work? Simply, the same way that you might order flowers online, you can order biscuits. The fantastic thing is, you can choose biscuits by theme. These are not just any old biscuits, these biscuits leave custard creams hanging their heads in shame! These biscuiteer biscuits are beautifully decorated, beautifully packaged and probably too pretty to eat!

And get this Brides-to-Be --- you can get wedding themed biscuits!!!! How very lush! I think these would suit a Bridal Shower just as well as they'd suit your actual Wedding Day, and I think would be a stunning alternative to cupcakes! You can personalise these biscuits too, so every guest could have their own bespoke biscuit favour! It can't get better than that right?

Wrong! You can even send a biscuit card to cookie loving husband-to-be on the morning of the wedding!

So sweet....literally!

Confetti-quette




Confetti - Small pieces or streamers of colored paper that are scattered around during the course of festive occasions. Nowadays, throwing flowers is more common...thank God the days of throwing rice are over, my Mother always did discourage me from playing with my food!

So what's confetti-quette then? Of course, it's the etiquette of confetti throwing!

I know, the world has gone mad, right? Wrong, confetti-quette is something that really is worth thinking about, for no reason other than 'the confetti shot'! 

We all want the perfect shot, right, where the petals fall slowly enough through air to allow a couple of shots to be taken in quick succession...thus allowing our photographer to delete the ones where either our eyes are closed or we've got a piece of confetti caught on our tongue!

So, here's my suggestion for confetti-quette... :

First things first - Does your venue allow confetti?

Now, if your venue says that they don't wish to pick up confetti, what do you do? Please don't do it anyway, you wont be allowed to get married there again! ; ) No, really, there are alternatives. Here are just a few:

Bubbles - these are gaining in popularity now and really can look so magical in a photo!

Bird seeds - these will VERY quickly get eating by the doves that you will no doubt want to release outside of the church! ; )

Do people bring their own confetti?

The only way to ensure you get a confetti shot is to provide it yourself. This way you're certain that confetti will be at your wedding venue! This also means you have control over the colour, size, and material of the confetti. You could choose between artificial petals and real petals. Biodegradable petals. Pink petals to match your colour scheme. Dried hydrangea petals or rose petals to match your bridal bouquet? The possibilities are endless.

Who gives the guests your specially selected confetti?

This could be handed out by Ushers? This is a task that is easy for little guests to do and will help them feel part of the wedding. After all, it's a special day for everyone. Alternatively, you could leave a basket by the exit door from the ceremony, for guests to help themselves? Or you make some Martha Stewart style confetti cones and attach some ribbon. You could then hang these on the backs of chairs. Decorative and useful!

Confetti containers?

Usually confetti is placed into little cones, but even with this, the options are many! You can make cones to match your colour scheme. You could simply have a wicker basket with the confetti, and guests can take a handful. Very rustic! There are other options too. The infamous CAOS of RockMyWedding had some lovely heart-shaped confetti pouches. Heck, you could stick the confetti into little organza bags if you want to!!!

If you want to crank up the fabulousity though, you can get confetti cones custom made. 

My lovely sister made these for us,

you can find something similar here: 

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6880356

How much confetti?

I think two handfuls is enough. One practice handful - the one where you get it on your tongue and have you eyes closed. One handful, worthy of place in your album, with the caption 'confetti shot' beneath it! 

Who gets confetti?

If it's an intimate wedding of say less than 50. I don't think it's entriely unreasonable to give it to everyone. If on the other hand, your guest list is pushing 200 (or more), this might become a logistical nightmare on the day. For the purpose of the confetti shot (and let's face it, that is the ONLY reason you're even considering confetti-quette), I'd say a minimum of enough confetti for half your guests. In hindsight, it would have been sensible for us to have more confetti available...we were lucky and got a good shot. I wouldn't leave it to chance though!

When to throw

Just after you leave the venue and everyone joins you! That way you get a photo of lots of your loving guests, as well as the beloved confetti!

Now, all that's left to consider is where you'll place that beloved 'confetti shot' in your house after the wedding day!

For the love of Bobbi...

OK, this is my first post...and interestingly it's about cosmetics. I do love make-up, but I have to confess, I'm more of a collector, more than a user. In fact, scratch that, I'm just a hoarder! I can't lie!

It started with collection 2000 nail polishes - remember those things - the lovely glass bottles of multi-coloured gunk! I had all the colours and sometimes painted each nail a different colour...hmmm...

I then progressed to MAC, I gathered so many of those little pots of powdered colour! I loved them, the vibrancy, the texture, the staying power...until I met Bobbi! It was on a recent trip to Clarins, that I overheard a lady at the Bobbi Brown counter, asking about a Bridal Makeover. Did someone say 'free'... ordinarily, I'd ask for two! : ) In this case, one makeover was quite enough...the products were fabulous...

When I say that the make up lasted for 10 hours, I mean it didn't move for TEN HOURS ladies! It is like miracle make-up. I went back the next day and bought a few of the products that the make up artist used (she was like a secret Dita Von Teese - a story for another day)

I bought the following:

 * Long wear cream shadow - FANTASTIC!  I've never used cream eyeshadow before, but I can honestly say, if ever I'm feeling serious about applying my make-up, this will be on my MUST list.

 * Corrector - this worked like a concealer and was brilliant, only better. I have used a range of concealers, from MAC to Sleek and have never really been impressed...until this! It was, again, fantastic!

 *  Eyeshadow - the texture of this eyeshadow was brilliant. The colour is really deep and came straight off on to my brush with just one stroke...simply I loved it and will be adding to my 'collection' of eyeshadows from the Bobbi Brown range!

As much as I love Bobbi, I will still remain the kind of girl that mixes and matches from different brands to find the very best products. We can't all be good at everything and I believe the same is true of cosmetics...Bobbi wins on the eye make-up, but Chanel still has the lipgloss in the bag!

Mrs O

x