Ashes to Ashes: July 2013

Badhai Ho! You have set your wedding date! Now all you have to do is get the invitations done, choose the décor, theme, venue, budget, clothing, wedding party, other functions etc etc etc. A bit overwhelming isn’t it? Don’t worry with the help of wedding planners, eager relatives and helpful friends you guys will be all set.

And I’m here to give you a little help with your D-Day styling. Over the time that I have been a bridal makeup artist, I have seen how colour plays an important role in bridal styling and venue décor as well. I take this extra step with my bridal clients during our trial to make sure she will glow on her wedding day.

*Remember if there is a colour that you love and it makes you happy then go all out and choose it.
Here what I want to achieve is simply to help you make a more educated decision. Your wedding day is probably going to be the day you are photographed the most and with different gadgets. You will have professional still photography, candid, video, camera phones and digi Cams and the dreaded flash photography. And both of you want to look glorious in all those pictures.

Choosing the right colour for your bridal attire is the key to great styling. Your makeup, décor and hairstyle can then be based on what you’re wearing. For my reception I had the entire venue in pink as the colour highlighted my best features and made me glow and hey why not have more of it then. My husband had a lovely pink pocket square for our church ceremony to tie into our colour theme of pink and silver, and at the reception he had a lovely tie dye Dupatta with hints of pink to go with his champagne silver Sherwani.

How did we decide on colours? Well I simply went to a store for bridal outfits and chose a variety of wedding outfits to try on. I had it in my head that I wanted an outfit in blue, making it unique. But when I held the outfit against me and wrapped the Dupatta around my head, I realised, Gaakk! It made me look older. After about an hour of trying different colours on I realised the ones that made me look every bit a blushing bride were onion pink, peach and champagne (Silvery gold). It was also clear to me that I had to look at different shades of colours to zero in on the perfect one. I tried hot pink and pastel pink and it didn’t look as good on me as the onion pink did. This means you can wear your favourite colour on your wedding day; you just have to choose the right shade for yourself.

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While choosing “your” colour, its best to think about how it will translate on male attire as well, in case you want to do the matchy matchy thing, like we did. My husband loved the pink idea because I loved it (I know, I’m a lucky lucky girl). We added the silvery gold colours as it complemented both are skin tones.

Ideally your bridal designer will help you with choice of colours, but it’s always nice to do some homework before your go in for the design appointment.

If you don’t already know what colours look good on you, a great way is to do what I did, just walk into a store and start putting things on and see how they look. Here I’ll give you tips so that it won’t take you an hour and avoid any too late nasty surprises.

What you want to look for is;

1) Do these colours make my skin glow or wash me out? i.e. make me look pale

2) Does this colour enhance my assets (eyes, skin tone etc.) or enhance my little imperfections (pimple marks, pigmentation etc.)?

3) How does my body look in this colour?

4) How will my husband, wedding party, venue décor, invitations look with accents of this colour?

And once you understand your skin tone it will help you short list some colours to start with.

If you already know if you’re a cool skin tone (i.e. more pink) or if you’re a warm skin tone (i.e. more yellow) then half your work is done but if you don’t, follow some of the steps below.

1) Put on Silver and Gold jewellery one at a time and see which one complements your skin tone better?

2) You can put on WHITE outfit and an OFF white outfit and decide which one give you a better glow?

3) And at last, step out in natural light and check your inner wrists. Are your veins blue or green?

Now if your answers were Silver , White and Blue, then you are a cool tone. Cool skin tones look great in bluish reds, mauves would be ideal.

And if your answers were Gold, Off White and Green, then obviously you’re a warm tone. For you Peachy Pinks , yellowish greens, olive green, earthy colours would be best.

The Colour Theory Wheel

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So let me reiterate, you can choose whatever colour you please, however choose the shade that suits your skin tone and fulfils all the requirements above. Because once you choose the right shade, everything falls into place. From Makeup to décor and lighting becomes easier. And you will glow on your wedding day.

For further assistance for my lovely bride to-bes, here are some websites

http://www.seventeen.com/fun/quizzes/beauty/skin-tone-quiz

http://www.nairaland.com/310694/understanding-coolwarm-neutral-skin-tones

http://12blueprints.com/warm-and-cool-and-colour-analysis/