Category: wedding

hair, life, makeup, wedding

My Beautiful Budget Wedding Part 2: Accessories, Hair, and Makeup!

christinahopgood
Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue… and a silver sixpence in her shoe.


1. Jewellery

 My jewellery was fairly simple: a necklace with one bauble, and my diamond earrings which were a 21st birthday present from my parents.  No bracelets, and nothing flash.  My necklace was actually my mum’s, and was certainly not diamond and certainly not expensive.  I chose it because it was simple and matched my dress without overpowering it.  Same for my earrings.  I didn’t want huge dangles or baubles, although they are nice sometimes!

I think that you don’t need to buy expensive things for wedding accessories, as cheap alternatives can be found in lots of accessory shops.  Don’t go for diamonds!  You’ll worry about them all day!  My only expensive thing was my earrings, but they were also special to me for other reasons. 
Because I used things I already had, and borrowed items, my jewellery didn’t cost anything.

Here you can see the necklace and earrings, just simple solitaires.  Also this is a good shot of my hair and makeup.


2. Garter

In keeping with my family’s tradition (well, me, my mum, and my sister-in-law), I wore my mum’s blue garter for my wedding.  It is old, borrowed, and blue, so that knocked three things off the good-luck-list!  And we didn’t have any garter tossing at the reception.  Ew.

3. Stockings and Petticoat

I just bought normal stockings from the shops.  I tried stay-up hose a few weeks before the wedding (I don’t like the tight feeling round my tummy with regular stockings), but stay-up they did not!  They were probably around $10.

Even though my dress was quite full, I wanted a bit more poof so I wore a petticoat I bought years ago for Lolita.  Lucky too, since I was considering getting rid of it! It was a Dear Celine fluffy marshmallow petticoat or something.  I’d had it forever so I’m not counting it in the price.

4. Hair

For my hairstyle, I decided to go to the salon.  I found photos online of this actress with a lovely hairstyle, and took them along to the hairdresser.  Turns out this lady is called Dianna Agron, she’s a year older than me, and she is an actor in Glee.  Who knew.  But she has nice hair.

The problem was that my hair is MUCH longer than her hair, so it looked a bit different on the day.  I wasn’t entirely pleased with my hair.  I wanted it to be a bit more floaty and pretty and voluminous, but the hairdresser hairsprayed the living daylights out of it and it was like a hardhat.  But it was fine in the end.  When we drove in the little car it got extremely tangled.
The hairdresser cost me $60 I think.  I also paid for Shona’s hair, so it turned out to be $120.  The hairstyle got very knotty (she did a lot of teasing), but it stayed put all day.

4.1 Hair comb

My hair comb was placed to match Dianna Agron’s photo.  I bought it from a little booth shop selling sparkly baubles, and it cost me $40.  I also bought one for Shona which was a little different.

5. Makeup

Makeup was the one thing I was the most stressed about.  I went to and fro between wanting to have a makeup artist do it, to wanting to do it myself.  I’ve had someone do my makeup twice before.  Once for a fashion shoot, and once at the makeup shop. Both times, I really hated her looking at my face so critically, and I felt like they made me into a face I didn’t recognise.  I wanted Charles to recognise me as I walked down the aisle.

So I researched different products and different techniques for applying makeup.  My favourite YouTube channel and website for this was MakeUpGeek.  Marlena really knows about different skin types, and how to make your products work the best.  I bought some products (a blush by NARS, a Lancome foundation, a Lancome waterproof mascara, and some other miscellaneous bits and bobs) and practiced applying them.
Then one day, I did a “trial run” of my makeup right before going in to teach.  Another teacher said “Did you just have a makeup trial for your wedding?  Because it looks so lovely!” and then I decided I’d do it that way.
It was a bit scary, but I was pretty happy with my face in the end.  I just looked like me, a bit more pretty!
So I’ll estimate that I spent about $150 on makeup (those high-end products are pricey), but I did it myself.  It last the whole day!


Costs:
Stockings: $10
Hairstyle: 60+60 = $120
Hair comb: 40+40 = $80
Makeup: $150

Total: $360

Next post: The Church, Decorations, Photography, and Flowers!
beads, dress, life, wedding

My beautiful budget wedding! Part 1: Dress and outfit.

christinahopgood
As most people know, Charles and I got married about 2 months ago.  

In Australia in 2011, people were spending around $36,000 on their weddings.  Crazy right?  I have never even HAD that much money.  Our wedding cost MUCH LESS THAN THAT and in this series of four posts I will show you how.
1. The Dress
I never intended to spend too much money on my dress, because I don’t have much money.  But of course the dress has to be special, because you only get married once (hopefully)!
Even though I like sewing, I decided against making my own dress.  That would just be way too frustrating!
I did the rounds of the wedding dress shops with my mum, and was mostly disappointed with what was on offer.  Everything was entirely too huge and heavy and expensive.  
Eventually I found a dress I loved, which was the Justin Alexander 8465.  It was also $2000.  This really upset me, because I *really wanted it*, but could not justify the price.
The dress hem hit just above my ankle, the shop girl called it a “waltz length dress”.  It’s a very 1920s movie star dress – so obviously it was for me!  It had intricate beading all over the bodice and some of the skirt.  The waist was ruched satin. Love love love.
I decided not to buy the dress.  But then one night I was mucking around on the internet and found a cheap knock-off website called Your Wedding Dress – which has since mysteriously disappeared (there are plenty of others just like it).  They had the same dress for sale for $180.  Ten times cheaper!  I thought, if I buy it and it’s great, I win.  If I buy it and it sucks, that’s only $180 down the drain.  And I’m sure I can make something else out of it if it really sucks.
And it came and it didn’t suck!  There were a few differences.  Firstly, it was a bit big.  Secondly, there was no beading on the dress.  Both of these things I could fix.
I took the dress to a tailor and got it taken in.  $200.

I hand sewed on little crystals and glass pearls.

In the middle of every lace flower, I sewed some beads.  This actually took ages and was really fiddly but it was worth it in the end.

2. The bolero
Then I realised that my wedding was going to be in August in Canberra – not exactly warm!  We reached something like 15 degrees that day.  So I bought some little boleros for me and my bridesmaid from Etsy.  It was really hard to find something appropriate, but I finally found Vara.  She worked with me to find the right shade and texture of yarn, and used our measurements to make two matching boleros.  It wasn’t much, but it did help in the chill wind!  She was a pleasure to do business with.

3. The Veil
As for my veil, I made that.  It was not too hard!  You need a clear hair comb, and a big rectangle of tulle, and then you gather it and stitch it on.  And round the edges.  And sew on beads if you want (I didn’t).  I think I roughly followed this tutorial on CraftStylish.  But I didn’t hem the veil, as I wanted a more floaty look.  I also made a thick plaited ribbon decoration and glued it to the top of the comb, instead of flowers.
4. The Shoes
My shoes were actually a gift from Charles, so they didn’t cost me anything.  But I think they were around 90 pounds from London’s Irregular Choice.  They are called the Mrs Lower shoes.  I wanted these cute shoes because I knew my dress was shorter!  I’ve heard of brides with floor-length gowns wearing ugg boots!
Here is a link to Irregular Choice’s Wedding Collection.  There are lots of beautiful shoes there! And as you can see, mine is still for sale.
I love my shoes.  They have clear heels with gold leaf inside in the shape of a rose.
So how much is this wedding costing me so far?

Dress: $180
Alteration: $200
Beads: $20
Bolero: $70
Tulle and comb for veil: $10

Total: $480
If you want to include the shoes, the total comes up to around $580

Next post in 2 days: The accessories, hair and makeup!

blog, life, news, sewing, wedding

Past events! Wedding photos! Upcoming projects!

christinahopgood
So things have been fairly quiet around here recently on the ol’ blog.  But I have plans to come back in a big way in the next few weeks!  Here’s what’s been happening with me:

1.  I got married!  Charles and I finally married on the 18th of August.  We had one attendant each, and had a church wedding, and a beautiful reception at University House.  It was all perfect and I was really happy.  Our photographer is a good friend of both of us, and he also happens to be an amazing photographer.  We were so comfortable taking pictures with him since he’s our friend.

We had a photoshoot in a little pine tree glade behind the church.

This is at the University House library. 

Here we are looking serious.

After all the festivities, we took a couple of photos under these picturesque lights.

Our photographer’s website can be found here!

2.  We moved house!  Because Charles lived overseas until 6 weeks before the wedding, we just never moved in together until we were married.  We now are essentially house-sitting for our friend’s dad, whose house used to be full of kids until they all moved away, and he’s always overseas or interstate for work.  So we’re alone in the house most of the time.  We have one big bedroom that’s OURS, and we share a kitchen and bathroom.  Luckily it’s really close to our workplaces.  But we can’t fit all of our stuff there, so our poor parents’ houses are still full of our stuff!

Now for the upcoming projects!!
Not all of these are confirmed or particularly well planned, but…

We are going to start a YouTube channel!
That is us, as in Charles and I.  We hope to make some V-logs about interesting things we do, funny things that happen, music stuff, and projects.  We got a new video recorder so we have no excuse!

Frocktober!
Frocktober is a month-long event which usually fundraises for Ovarian Cancer research.  But I’m not sure if they’re running it this year.  Either way, I thought I’d challenge myself to wear a dress every single day during October.   Now you may think “That’s easy, she wears dresses all the time!”.  This is true.  The challenge will lie in me actually photographing and blogging about what I wear every day.  For a start, I’ll be overseas and on a plane for the first three days of October.  I don’t know how that will work.  Plus, being photographed every day will challenge me to be interesting with my outfits.

Clothing Production!
I’ve decided to go to the local tech and become trained in clothing production.  The course is one semester full time, but I’m going to try to do the part time option for a year.  This will help me be able to become a seamstress and hopefully start my own business.  I’m looking forward to sharing projects on my blog, meeting new people, and getting away from ANU for a while.

Other than that, I’ve got some travel lined up for a wedding, lots of teaching to do, and my house to make into a home.  Thanks for reading, will blog soon!

shoes, shopping, wedding

Yumetenbo and Wedding Shoes!

christinahopgood
This post is mostly a stream of consciousness and some shoes I like.  It has opinions.
So I find most “Bridal Shoes” kind of ugly.  I don’t really like the satin-covered look.  Doing a quick google search of “wedding shoes” and a couple of clicks later I get this: 
Which is pretty much an embodiment of all the stuff I hate about wedding shoes.  They often seem to have that shape – elongated and pointy at the toe, stiletto heel that’s not high, boring back and strap.  Not only are these fabric-covered, but also embroidered!  Lumpy.  Other types are mostly strappy heels, which I also don’t like.  My toes are not for public display.  I suppose these heels would be comfortable, which is a massive plus on a day when you don’t want to get sore feet.
I know some women get the shoes covered to match their gowns, and I agree that it’s a nice idea.  But by the same token, there are lots of amazing normal shoes that I’d love to have for my wedding.  Normal shoes might be better because you can actually wear them again.  Normal shoes won’t be damaged forever if you get them wet or *gasp* muddy.
Ideally, I would like these Baby, The Stars Shine Bright shoes for my wedding.  They’re the Princess Drop Chandelier shoes or something like that.  They’re out of stock everywhere.  I think I saw them in Paris but never bought them 😦 Silly.  I love the gold filigree touches.  A very elegant shape too.
So today I was browsing Yumetenbo – a site I often browse but have never bought from.  It’s all in Japanese.  Some girls can manage to navigate well enough to buy but I’m not that confident yet.  I found some lovely shoes I’d totally wear to my wedding (or anyone else’s)!  The great thing about this online store is that a lot of the shoes are available in many colours!  Click on the pretty pictures to go to the websites!

Probably these would be good in beige or white, depending on the dress colour.  I love double straps – super cute.
Just simple Mary-Jane pumps.  SO MANY COLOURS.  These would go with any outfit.
I love these.  So simple and elegant.  The bow is detachable so you can wear them as normal pumps or as cutie cute cute pumps!
And inevitably I start looking at other kinds of shoes…
 
These have an interesting wedge heel.  I think it’s totally weird but also awesome!  Plus, more double strap action!  I’d get it in pink or in spots!
 These shoes are just gorgeous.  I’d be almost as tall as Charles in these!  I love the red shoes best.  Most of my wardrobe is red or black.
Oh dear!  It just occurred to me!  Maybe I just love the shoes because the models are so cute!  Look at them!  Awwwwww!
dress, wedding

Mind: blown

christinahopgood
I just read this blog over at Painting The Roses Pink about lolita weddings.  She posted up the usual stuff, churches, cakes, invitations, and dresses.  But some of the dresses blew my mind!  They’re by a Japanese brand called Sugar Kei, which as far as I can tell, rents out amazing wedding attire.  Maybe that’s what Japanese people do for weddings – rent dresses instead of buying.  Sounds sensible, but a bit sad to give it back afterwards!  Anyway here’s the eye candy:

Speaking of wedding dresses, my parents brought my Nana’s wedding dress from 1940 home from Melbourne.  She left it to me when she died in 2009.  She actually wanted ME to get married in it a few years ago, but I politely explained that I wasn’t getting married and I also wanted to buy my own dress.  It’s 70 years old so quite dated!  It’s a bit damaged, but in pretty good nick for something so old.  I might steam the creases out and take photos some time!
Dresses!