As a makeup artist, I'm often called to fly out of the UK to beautiful locations for brides who want a more ambitious wedding overseas. Being a professional makeup artist, I love these opportunities as I can always mix business with pleasure. Brides now are opting more and more to get married overseas as often it is cheaper and the weather is better! This was also one of the most interesting weddings I have ever done and if you read to the end, you’ll learn why..
Georgia asked me to be her makeup artist about a year before her wedding as she was getting married in the heart of the south of France at the beautiful venue Chateau Destinee. She found me on Instagram and fell in love with my portfolio as I have worked with many influencers and the famous and she said my work just shone out above all of the rest she saw and she had researched for a bridal makeup artist for many months. A huge compliment but dare I say it was well deserved as my makeup artistry work comes first in my life and it is my life as I absolutely love it.
As it was quite a large bridal party, I was signed to be the chief bridal makeup artist and my colleague flew out with me to be the hair stylist on the big day. Even though I can and love to do hair styling, with a large bridal party, it is much better to have a specialist makeup artist and specialist hair stylist so that we can have time to devote to each speciality; this ensures perfection with the wedding makeup and the bridal hair.
Naturally I met Georgia in the UK and we had a makeup wedding trial where we created her perfect look; we analysed makeup colours that would suit her facial features and created to a dream desired makeup look so we knew on the big day that things would go flawlessly
During the makeup wedding trial, we studied every facet facial feature of her face; including skin preparation, which makeup suits her eye shape the best, options on false lashes, whether we want a matte or glowy skin, which lip shade to combine with her skin tone and makeup. We literally covered every aspect so that on the day we know exactly what she wants and how we are going to create her perfect makeup look. Typically, on the wedding day, brides are excited but also nervous so it's really important to nail every single aspect so she does not have to make any decisions on the big day as they've already been made. So crucially important.
Georgia on this southern France destination wedding went for a bronze eye makeup look with a little shimmer on the eyelid and then we went ahead with a full coverage skin keeping it nice and bronzy with a natural blusher. Also adding highlights to the prominent areas of the face. She opted for a nude colour lipstick shade to combine with her makeup, skin tone and hairstyle. She looked amazing!
I am a very fussy makeup artist and choose all luxury high end products including Charlotte Tilbury, Mac, Nars, Bobbi Brown, Laura Mercer Rare Beauty and many more. So I know when I use my makeup products on my client, they go onto the skin smoothly and flawlessly and create a beautiful quality look.
When flying out to destination weddings abroad, it almost feels like a holiday to myself and the hair stylist so we get really excited!. Even though I love working in the UK it's nice to work overseas where the whether is warmer and it's a huge change of scenery.
Myself and the hairstylist flew the day before the Destination wedding and it was located in-between Bordeaux and Bergerac with the wedding venue Chateau Destinee being in the countryside with breathtaking views. Once on arrival, we went to meet the bride and groom to chat and socialise before planning for the big day. We also met her bridesmaids and her mother to plan to get them all ready for the wedding.
On the morning of the wedding, myself and the hairstylist met with the bridal group in the bridal sweet at the wedding venue. It was a beautiful sunny day and excitement was running through the air with all of the bridal party. As a makeup artist it's really important to get the timing's absolute spot on the day as we need to allow the bride and a bridal party to relax after all the makeup and hair is done so they can ease into the big day.
So in all of my weddings, I always finish the wedding makeup at least 1 hour before the wedding ceremony to give the bride and her bridal party time to ease into their new look and relax before they get married. This makes the wedding morning run flawlessly.
The makeup artist is always the first one to arrive on the wedding day. Half way through the morning the wedding photographer and videographer then arrived to capture the bridal party getting ready so they could look back at their photos and cherish their special wedding morning . Once we were all finished, we did the final few makeup touches and congratulated the bride and wished her a fabulous day.
Aside from the wedding makeup and hair styling and making all the bridal party look stunning and perfect; we had a really interesting experience at this ancient Chateau. It was a 12th century chateau and we slept in the quarters to the side of the main residence. I'm quite a spiritual person and I swear that the quarters were haunted! There were all sorts of strange noises in the kitchen when everybody was in bed at 2am; the sound of saucepans clattering and dishes being washed at 2am and lots of people chattering! Whether it was the ghosts of the staff that used to work there years ago, who knows!. I was petrified and locked myself in my room and luckily the sun rose eventually and I felt safe again.
I asked everybody who slept in a quarters that tonight if they had heard the noise in the night and some did and some didn't.. I suppose it depends on how much wine people had drunk during the day!
All in all it was a fantastic and eventful experience and the morning after the wedding, we met up with the bride and groom and said our goodbyes to the beautiful couple.
Comments