Wedding diarys #1

And so it begins...

After four years of been engaged and ten years after meeting, we have finally got our act together and starting planning a wedding!!!

 I must say I haven't even booked a venue yet and it is so stressful. All you brides to be who plan a wedding for the year after getting engaged, well I think your superheroes!!

 I've played a part in so many weddings making the bridal party glamorous, calming their nerves, even down to dressing the bride and fastening rings to ring pillows. 

I thrive on it in fact I adore it. With that in mind I expected planning my wedding to be a breeze, but so far I have found making the simplest choices very difficult. 

We have decided on going away to tie the knot simply because we thought it could be cheaper and less hassle. Although you can get so carried away with all the add ons especially at a more expensive hotel and it could work out more money than a UK wedding. 

I would defiantly advise you spend time looking into who you want to plan your wedding, it may be a tour operator or a individual wedding planner or if your clever enough and speak the lingo do it 100% your self. I've found a brilliant company called Aphrodite wedding services and they have been amazing helping me with my enquires.

 I think I have found my venue and have my (accountant) friend making me comparison cost spreadsheets!!! Now can you see why I make hard work for my self! 

 I do intend to keep up with my wedding 

diarys, as a journal to look back on after the wedding, I think that would be really nice for my children to read too.

Overdue catch up!

It's been ages since I did my last blog, I've been rubbish and neglected it, but with good reason may I add, so here's what I have been upto since then. 

    Jax is now 12 months , he started walking 6 weeks ago (10m 3weeks) he is into everything, talk about needing eyes in the back of your head! We celebrated his birthday last week with a party on the weekend and a tea party on his actual birthday, he was miserable I was stressed but everyone else said they had a fantastic time. 

Exciting times ahead for business, started back working in April, I decided self employment would be better suited for me at this time and so far I'm enjoying my new venture. The best part is we have finally got our jadetuesday wedding and events page set up.

Looking back on the past year I have done so many things I am proud off, things that I will never forget and things I can only build up to be stronger better things. 

I really love blogging so hopefully I can blog more stuff in between business and baby, Im writing this on my well deserved first family holiday where I can finally look back over the past year and be proud of what I've achieved.

Brides listen up!

If your ever in doubt about a hair trial before your big day, here's 7 pieces of my advice.

1, Speak to a few stylists about prices, date and location of your wedding. See who you feel most comfortable with, you want to trust them and feel at ease.

2, Book a trial! Book in with a few different stylists to see who's style you prefer, or book a couple with the same stylist to try different looks if you are unsure.

You may only feel you need one, that's fine, but if your going to worry about your hair and make up then have several.

3, Spend about 15-20 mins explaining your ideas, showing pictures and describing your everyday state of hair to your stylist before you begin the trial. I love spending this time with brides as I can ask lots of questions, gather information and start forming an image in my head. 

* Questions I am likely to ask and why. 

 What does your dress look like? 

    I would always try and complement the dress with the hair, For example If the dress has beautiful neck detail, I would urge the you to wear your hair pinned up rather than down, as wearing it down would cover the best feature on the dress.

How do you wear your hair day to day and how do you wear your hair on a night out? 

    You want to look amazing but at the same time wouldn't want not to recognise yourself. The pictures are lurking around for life and most importantly, a woman needs to feel comfortable to feel her best.

Is there a theme to the wedding or just a traditional good old fashion knees up?

   Us stylist would never know theses details unless we asked, if a you showed me a picture of 20s look but your wedding style was a very 50s genre then it would look out of place. I would like to add the final touches to the theme by incorporating this into hair and make up.

Back to the list now.......

4, Sometimes the stylist will ask questions throughout like would you like more volume in this top bit or less? We are more than happy to spend time working to achieve a perfect style, but there is nothing worse than a you saying yes that's fine, that's fine, all the way through till the finish look is reveled, for then you want the volume to be more or less. Obviously next time we can tweak or change, but a hair up is like architecture, all built into each other and to mess the structure at the end the will bring the whole thing down 

5. If you plan on using a veil or any other hair accessory, tell the stylist at the start as this could completly change the look. If you can lend an old veil from a friend or a shop then do. It really does tie the whole look together, any problems in this department can be resolved there and then instead of last minute on the wedding day! 

6. Get your stylist to Take pictures of your all your styles from all angles then if you are unsure or want to remind your self, you can look back on your camera and see what everyone else is going to see on the day. 

7. Dos and donts

- DO alert your stylist if you are having added hair this needs to be prepped and ready before the day and extra time will be needed to encorperate the hair into the style 

- DO, book out enough time if you want to try a few different looks. The stylist needs to know to book out her day and price accordingly.

-DO Find out if the stylist wants your hair washed the day before or the morning of the wedding.

-DONT try out radically different hair colours, you will regret it on your wedding photos and who's to say it will go exactly how you imagined. Leave that added stress till after the wedding day.

-DONT have more hair cut off after your trial, the look could completly change by any layers or a fringe you have cut or make it more difficult for the stylist to recreate the trial look. Ask your wedding stylist what you should have done for your pre wedding cut. 

*pictures I used as inspiration from Pinterest. 

Anthony Michael

British fashion illustrator and designer Antony Michael certainly has a talent worth shouting about. 

When Anthony started his Instagram account back in 2013 I bet he never expected the big things that followed. His illustrations started by designing for our old friends the Disney princesses and boy are they stunning. It's no secret of mine that I adore Disney, seeing your favourite characters with another life, rocking different looks and keeping up with current fashion trends, surly is every Disney fans dream.

Anthony spread out his work and did designs for the one and only Barbie, giveing her several different looks each of them equally fabulous. When Anthony started to illustrate celebrities such as Jenifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Kim K, was when things really went wild. He now has over 10k followers, including Jenifer Lopez, Naomi Campbell, designer Charbel Zoe and beauty/fashion blogger Carli Bybel.

He has received regrams from Tyra  Banks, Jlo and likes from Nicki Minaj. He's getting a popular guy ey???!!

Antony has worked on his own but also been Privelidged to collaberate with well known fashion illustrators Ponyy_Boyy and Yigit Ozcakmak. His ultimate goal is to have his own fashion line and boutiques I feel like we can help him on his journey and achieve his dreams. Disney will be choosing one illustrators design to make Cinderella a dress.  The winner will be picked from the top ten people that has the most likes and re-blogs on tumblr.

Cinders NEEDS to be in a one off classical Anthony Michael piece, so lets get working to make this happen.

http://cinderellamovieuk.tumblr.com/post/113868657224/cinderella-by-anthony-michael-visit-cinderella

Birthing partners

Wow what a week it has been, from saying goodbye to a friend going to travel the world, to another friend loosing her dog to a diabetic battle, then to my best friends baby finally arriving. I've cried and I've laughed, I've hugged in joy and I've hugged in sympathy. I am soooo tired, and my face looks like I'm the one that has given birth, but this week has made me look at all the most beautiful things about life.

About 2/3rds way through my pregnancy, my best friend Tuesday, gave me the news that she also was expecting, I was over joyed that with only months in between baby's we can take this journey together. 

These past 6 months have seemed to drag waiting for her little one to make an appearance, I'm too excited and my little Jax desperately needs a friend! 

After the midwife started things moving on the Tuesday, by Thursday she was well into active labour. I arrived at her house to give some kind of (just been through it) motherly support, I realised she needed to be thinking about making that awful car journey to the hospital. Every contraction I held her hand. rubbed her back or just tried to crack some jokes before the pain got that constant and unbearable that we would be getting shouted at!

From 4cm to 7cm we gave her words of comfort each contraction, passed the gas and air, and just simply tried to keep her going, she was doing great. From 7cm onwards was when the mood changed we all realised shit was about to get real and this baby was close to making his grand entrance.  As someone's birthing partner this is where you are mentally tested and it's not for the weak hearted. As Tuesday struggled on through, no words could comfort her and there is nothing you can do to help, personally I found this one of the most difficult things I've done to stand by utterly helpless while somebody you love to pieces is in horrific pain. Each contraction her body tensed, it shook and she screamed in complete agony. I wished I could of shared the pain just to make it easier for her. 

As soon as she started holding the top of her bottom I knew it wouldn't be long to go now, this seems to be a crucial piece of information for the midwife, that any minute mum is going to start pushing! 

Once the midwife could feel baby's head very low down, it was time for the last hurdle, I felt so overwhelmed with emotions, I had to turn away and control my self, after all it wasn't me in pain!

As the head started to crown with each push I started pacing the floor. I wanted to hold a leg and shout push like they do on the TV just to feel helpful. 

Seeing the head emerge from what seems like a magic trick was truly magnificent. The things our body's can do to create another life is crazy, I think god must of had too much wine the day he sketched out childbirth!  Once the head is out I looked her in the eye and whispered I can see him, his head his out, any moment and you will see your baby.  Within seconds he was out and being layed on his mummy's chest. The transformation of emotions in a mothers face goes from pain, to exhaustion, to relief, to love to amazement, to even more love in 0.5 seconds  it's overwhelming to watch. We were all hugging and crying, kissing and laughing, we weren't too far away from popping open the champayne but we settled for a mug of tea instead, and kept our excitement down in consideration for a mother and baby that had been on a tiring journey. 

Seeing somebody give birth and giving birth your self are total opposites, even though the pain in labour is one that's indescribable, making you feel like you could quite be getting ready to follow the angel and walk into the bright light! I did think enough times during, that maybe, just maybe watching somebody else do it is worse than doing it your self. I truely and utterly loved the whole experience and it's certainly one I will never forget ever, to share such an intimate moment with a friend is beautiful. 

I adore this baby even more than I thought I possible could, the feeling that I was there to help guiding him into this world and I will continue to help guide him through life. 

If you have chance and are lucky enough to share somebody's special moment and be a birthing partner then do, it's amazing and makes you realise what life is really about.

Big love to my best friend Tuesday and congratulations, you will be great just like you was in labour.

Speaking hairdresser.

Over the years I have heard some utterly crazy explanations of what a client may want or not want with the colour of their hair. So I thought a lovely post on my tips for speaking the language of hair colours to your stylist was in order.

At first, when I was a newbie to the world of hair colouring I listened to my clients explanation and rolled with it at the end of the service the client would say, well that's not what I wanted, I used to think well that's what you asked for??

My top tips,

#1   The consultation is crucial, without making the stylist run over into someone else's appointment you should spend a good bit of time talking about your desired colour.

#2   When explaining what you would like, use describing words such as warm and cool. You could even use objects to describe the colour, you may say as vibrant as post box red, or champagne blonde.

#3   There seems to be a misconception that pictures are hated by hairdressers, NO we love them. It's the easiest way to show off how exactly you would like your new look, then the stylist can offer you advise on how to adapt it to suit you. One tip when using a picture is to cover the models face, then look at the style, often people, including myself want the models face, body, clothes and make up as well as the hair.

#4   When phoning for your appointment make sure you have told them the correct service you require, *for example foils, is it full head half head or just your crown and parting area.**

 If unsure ask for a quick word with your stylist when he/she is free. Alternatively book a quick consultation at the salon to talk about any concerns or to make sure both you and the stylist know exactly what service is required, how long it will take and the price.

Doing a ombré look on somebody can take several hours where as a root touch up using a tint can take half an hour.

#5  Remember your stylist is not magic, sometimes your hair may not physically take a big transformation, due to condition or could take several weeks or months to achieve that kind of drastic result.

I hope I have not baffled you and given some of my tips for being fluent in the language of hair colouring.

Here I am...........

So, my first blog. Here goes. I write this as I am sat on my ever so comfy Tutti Bambini nursing chair, waiting for my four month old baby to settle for the night, and trust me it can't come quick enough, as I can hear my bed softly calling me into it.

I have been intrigued by blogging for around 2 years but I have always created a reason never to put fingers to keyboard, until now. The main reason for not perusing this hobby is that my writing skills are tragic; from punctuation to grammar to spelling it's all terrible. So please excuse me if there is any wrong literature in my posts, hopefully it will add some character to my blog and a chuckle to your day.

The hair me- I have been a hair stylist for nearly 9 years and it is my main field of expertise. I have done a couple of shows at London fashion week but my main hair love is wedding hair. I love the excitement of the whole experience and the knowledge of knowing that you are part responsible in making the bride as lovely as ever makes it all worthwhile. Another bonus is that your work can be seen and admired by all the wedding guests. Well if I could do wedding hair every weekend I would be heaven.

The make up me- with my love for creating the perfect look for brides, I began to look into make up and courses back in 2012. I chose a Pixiwoo course taken by Sam and Nicola (the girls responsible for real technique make up brushes) and not forgetting the gorgeous Stacey. I came back full of knowledge and inspired to build my make up kit and crack on with making brides even more delicious........... Until I found out I was expecting EEK!!!

I loved being pregnant and the whole experience, don't get me wrong you don't have to stop your dreams for a child, not at all, it was just that any spare money I had went into getting the house ready for baby to arrive, I still did as many weddings as possible, only doing make up for friends as I was comfortable doing it with my small make up kit.

The mummy me- In September  2014 Jax Harry slowly and I mean 45 hours slow was pulled into the world by a not so glamorous pair of forceps. And I love being a mummy!!!

So there's a bit about me, (actually a lot about me) and there is much more to come, I don't expect many people to read my post but if I can inspire any one, help any one or just make one person feel better reading my blog and to realise us girls are all in the same boat at some point in our lives, then I will be thrilled.