Bridal Beauty Style: Say Yes to More than the Dress

As any bride will tell you, one of the most important parts of preparing for your big day is the dress.  It has to fit you amazingly and just be perfect.  Fashion Reverie spoke with Randy Fenoli from TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress” about finding that perfect gown and beauty look to match.  “I think bridal trends are going everywhere!” explains Fenoli.  “The number one trend in bridal is diversity, if you cannot find it out there, then you’re not looking hard enough; there’s bohemian, there’s sexy, there’s traditional, there’s any look that you want.”

Fenoli, who is considered a wedding dress expert, first was drawn to evening wear, but after realizing that there isn’t a lot of non- red carpet evening wear being worn he took to bridal. “… A bridal gown is the single most important garment a woman will ever wear, unless she’s going to the Academy Awards and winning the Academy Award, but other than that it’s her moment to really say ‘I’m a women, I’m getting married, I’m walking down the aisle towards the man I love more than anyone on the planet’ and she wants to look beautiful, so I think the dress is really important.”

But the journey isn’t over once you find the dress of your dreams. It’s important to find the perfect balance between your dress’ accents, your accessories and your beauty style.  We spoke with the team backstage at Ines Di Santo about not interrupting the gorgeous back view of a dress with long tresses; however, at Marchesa, wildly flowing locks added a bit of dimension to the breathtaking couture gowns.

“I always look at the gowns first,” shares Italo Gregorio, lead hairstylist at Ines Di Santo. Ines Di Santo’s daughter and partner, Veronica explained more about the collection.  “This collection was very much inspired by art deco, it’s a very strong current in the collection and it continues to be over time. You’re going to see some emphasis on geometric lines and more structured beaded concepts.”  With all the gorgeous illusion-backs Veronica and Ines trusted Gregorio to enhance their collection with a pretty up-do. “I didn’t want to make much of a statement with the hair, I wanted it to look a little un-done … there’s a freshness to it,” confided Gregorio.

Frances Hathaway created a court of Louis XVI “modern Marie Antoinette” face for Di Santo’s collection.  “To encapsulate the feeling of a modern take on Marie Antoinette, I’m using pastel shades in lilac and mint green with an overlay of gold iridescent powder.  We have beautiful cheeks in berries and pinks; then a stained lip, again done in a very painterly way. It certainly does not follow the lip line but is concentrated as far as color and density in the center of the lip.”   “The colors are very bridal, they’re gorgeous.  They’re light and airy and the way I applied it was very fashion forward.  But, in real-life you’d just blend it more.  I’m doing it for a show, so when the girls pass by you’ll have that impact,” Hathaway shares … “If you want to copy this look you can use the same color palette, but make sure to blend the edges so it’s not so “runway.”

Akemi Tamaribuchi, lead stylist at Marchesa, also stresses the importance of basing the rest of your look on your gown.  “It’s Marchesa, it’s beautiful, it’s detailed, it’s got appliqués, so we wanted to blend some of that thinking into the hair,” explains Tamaribuchi.  “We’re prepping the hair with Kérastase Mousse Bouffante which is an all-time important base for any kind of bridal work.  It’s really flexible; it works great on every kind of hair.  Then we’re generously applying Kérastase VIP texture spray.  It’s our new secret weapon. Then we’re using a really subtle curling iron technique. We’re just taking long lean vertical sections and wrapping the hair around the iron in a figure eight pattern leaving out the ends, which gives this really sort of imperfect wave. Girls want to be more contemporary and this technique gives a more casual quality to the wave.”  After creating the wave, Tamaribuchi creates a small chain link in four to six places around the head.  “We’re placing that just above the ear and below the occipital bone, which gives us this sort of detail of support similar to the appliqués on the gowns.  It’s a really smart, super effective way to get some volume and dimension in the overall shape.”

The free flowing hair was paired with makeup artist Kimberly Soane’s face.  “The designers wanted to create a bride that was fresh, with a bit of a modern runway twist. We did flawless skin with a pink flush on the cheek, a wash of pink on the lip with a creamy matte finish, full naturally shaped brows, not overly defined and the eyes you’re seeing shades of a grey, heather, taupe tones and the definition is tight, lined with lots of mascara.”

To add a little something extra for the runway, Soane added a high shine gloss finish on the eyelids.  "So that's where you're going to get this really cool effect because the rest of the skin is matte or creamy finish and then you're going to get this high wet shine on the eyelids which is so unique. " explains Soane.

With so many options on the runway, you can't go wrong.  Choose a ball gown, a short sassy dress, a long lace number with sleeves or even a pant suit like Naeem Khan presented.  However, keep in mind that any look can be made or broken in the details.  Your accessories, hair, and makeup, are probably the most overlooked, but should be considered just as important.  They need to complement the dress and more importantly you!!

—Janine Silver