Beach waves for a destination wedding

Jessica Alba's Beach Hair

Are you having a destination wedding? Or is your ceremony or rehearsal dinner outdoors, or near the water. Think about styling your hair in beachy waves for an event. It’s such a modern, feminine look perfect for destination weddings, summer rehearsal dinners or going out in the heat.
If you’ve never been swimming in the ocean you might not realize that salt water is a natural beach wave styler. The salt from ocean water dries your hair into textured waves. You’ve probably seen what these waves look like. Many celebrities like Kate Hudson, Lauren Conrad and Jessica Biel opt for the loose beach wave look.
If you’re no good with styling your hair, creating beach waves doesn’t involve many tools. You just need a salt spray hair solution, a blow dryer and a diffuser. A diffuser is that funny thing that comes with your blow dryer with spikes. It goes on the end of the blow dryer and helps to softly dry waves into your hair. It’s my best beauty tool.

Kate Hudson's Beachy Waves

So if you don’t live near the ocean you should pick up some salt styling spray. Charles Worthington Charles Worthington London Big Hair Salon Shine Texturizing Salt Spray has a good affordable salt spray. Or you can make it yourself. A good DIY beach wave salt spray recipe is here.

We all know weddings involve THE dress. The big pretty dress you’ve dreamt about your whole life. But weddings also require a few more dresses. For your rehearsal dinner, bachelorette party, bridal shower and honeymoon, you will most likely wear a dress. If you’re like me you usually get to the day of the special event, look in your closet and frown. Nothing fun to wear. Nothing cute to wear. Well start thinking ahead. What will you wear to the wedding related events? See some options below for honeymoon dresses, rehearsal dresses, bachelorette parties and wedding showers.
Maxi Dresses

Maxi Dresses are great for the honeymoon. Chances are you’ll be somewhere warm. You don’t want to be informal, but you also want to be cool. Maxi dresses are a great option for feeling cool and still feeling like you’re at a special occasion – your honeymoon.
Summer Dresses, Sun Dresses

For bridal showers and engagement parties, a casual dress will do the trick. Check out strapless or short dreases. Tea length is also a great option. Choose a knit fabric or something light, so that you don’t feel like you’re going overboard. It is a celebration, but it’s not the wedding, yet!

Rehearsal Dinner Dresses

I think a great idea is to wear one of your wedding colors for your rehearsal dinner. And you can wear a satin, chiffon or more formal material. Think cocktail dress. Of course if you’re having a barbecue or a casual affair, wear what makes sense.

Bachelorette Party Dresses

A lot of girls will all wear dresses the night of the bachelorette party. I’ve seen girls wear all the same color which is really a fun and girly thing to do. Bachelorette parties  are a great opportunity to wear something edgy and sassy. I love that one shoulder two tone dress from Alloy above.

Sex and The City, Peacock gone wrong

Well, Carrie Bradshaw attempted a peacock touch to her wedding. (Remember that headpiece?) She was most definitely not successful, but that doesn’t mean Peacock theme weddings are not beautiful. The rich peacock green is a wonderful accent color that can match browns, golds, yellows and many other colors. It could be an effervescent spring theme with touches of lime and peacock green. Or your wedding could be an elegant affair with deep, rich tones of chocolate and peacock.

Whatever you choose there are some dazzling and affordable ways to integrate some lovely feathers into your wedding.

BCBG Dress - Peacock Inspired

Peacock boutonniere

Peacock wedding favor

Well, I consider myself in bridal beauty. I have my own bridal beauty agency, and I am constantly researching emerging bridal beauty trends. One trend that I have been very excited about is the bridal “down do” or “downstyle”. Brides wearing their hair down shows femininity and a relaxed, romantic vibe.

How do you wear your hair down at your wedding, without feeling too relaxed, and not formal enough? I recommend hair extensions. And there are a lot of amazing clip in extensions out there, so you don’t have to actually get extensions sewn into your hair. In fact there are clip in human hair extensions that you can curl and style just like natural hair.The other benefit of extensions is they are typically well behaved - not frizzy, and shiny and smooth, so they really look glamorous.

By choosing hair extensions you can really have a beautiful hair look that goes above and beyond your normal hair style. You can have cascading curls and big, full volume.

Recently Heidi Montag tied the knot and she opted to have her long, blonde locks down. I suspect she’s sporting some extensions.

Heidi Wedding Hair - Clip In Extensions? Probably.

And, even though the marriage was ill-fated, Jennifer Aniston’s long wedding hairstyle was positively Grecian Goddess-like. Notice how the veil and pieces of hair are intertwined. Again, this look can easily be accomplished with clip in extensions.

Jennifer Aniston's Wedding Hair, Down and Goddess-Like

I found a very affordable and reliable provider of human hair Clip In Hair extensions at Zystal.

Check it out!

I’ve been a blogger disgrace this last month. Very sorry, but I’m ready to impress with a good deal for your bridesmaids or for a bachelorette party. ELF makeup is awesomely cheap cosmetics, that is also fun, trendy and great for gifts. They are having a promotion for Free manicure sets, great for a bridesmaid gift.

These sets could actually be the basis of a cheap and chic bachelorette party. Have a pink party, and paint pink nails, drink pink boxed wine and wear pink bathrobes!

Or hand them out at the rehearsal dinner so your maids can paint their nails before bed, for an easy night before the wedding. It will be a great way to anticipate the big day.

I’ll talk more soon, Promise!!!

XOXO

Brynn

An extra 50% off clearanced items.

I was skeptical about this bridal deal. But American Bridal is offering 50% off already clearanced items including edible favors, favor boxes, spoon favors, favor bags, candle favors and a lot more. They also have discounted bachelorrette party and wedding shower invitations, and bridesmaid gifts on clearance. Jewelry for the bride and the bridesmaids - you name it is on clearance. I don’t know how long the sale will end, probably until the supply runs out, but I suggest you take a look at this sale ASAP because you could shave off about $100 - $200 from what you were planning on spending on favors, bridal party gifts and more.

Go here and enter coupon code: clearance50

Here’s some photos of the sale items:

Bachelorette Party Invites

Pretty Brown Favor Boxes

Scented Aroma Bath Beads Favors

Non-Traditional Wedding Bouquets

The wedding bouquets below may be off the beaten path, but that path is still beautiful. Wheat stalks, wire and old jewelry are just some objects that can be converted into an elegant and surprising wedding touch.

Unconventional and elegant wire wedding bouquet

Beautifully unique summer or fall wheat wedding bouquet

Vintage jewelry wedding bouquet

I love the vintage jewelry bouquet. This would be an incredibly cheap option, as you could comb through your local Salvation Army and thrift stores, for fun costume jewelry. You could also incorporate your mother and grandmother’s jewelry that you didn’t want to necessarily wear around your neck. A jewelry bouquet would be great for a winter wedding in a traditional church. It’s very regal and stately. It’s also a style that indie brides and unconventional brides will love, for it’s off the cuff nature.

The wheat stalks bouquet tugs at my heart strings since I grew up in rural North Dakota. I find the simple wheat stalks with the lavender stalks mixed in absolutely breathtaking. For a hometown, small town wedding this would be beautiful. A wheat wedding bouquet would also be a nice touch for a Summer or Fall wedding which has golds, greens and earth tones incorporated. But as you can see the wheat presentation is so pretty it could really work for any wedding theme.

And the really wild and unconventional bouquet is the wire bouquet. I found this at Etsy.com as part of Refinerii’s collection, so check all the bouquet’s out. This is for an edgy bride definitely. You can really push the limits with this bouquet. I envision this as a winter bouquet, with some crystals attached. An excellent bouquet choice for the bride who doesn’t like girliness or frill.

Well, enjoy these ideas. Post others if you have them! I’m always looking for great bouquets to showcase.

Hollywood wedding hair

Sorry about the mini-hiatus. My wedding makeup business has been booming the last two weeks. I’m the founder of Brynn Andre Beauty, an onsite wedding makeup and hairstyling company in Minnesota. Since many brides are getting ready for Spring and Summer weddings, I’ve been doing trial runs and bookings like crazy.

I have bridal makeup on my brain for sure. I recently wrote an article for Minnesota Bride Magazine online. It’s all about wearing your hair down for your wedding. I outline what down-do you should choose, based on your wedding theme and style. Check it out here, written by MN makeup artist,  Brynn Andre - Me!

Hollywood Wedding Down-do

Here’s a downstyle worn by the stunning January Jones from Mad Men. I am obsessed with this look. The hollywood waves are gorgeous. To achieve them, use a medium sized barrel curling iron and wrap the curls forward - not backwards. If you form the curls backwards, or away from your face, you will get a more Farrah Fawcett curl. Wrap the curls towards the face for a Hollywood curl. Make sure you let them cool, as hot hair is still malleable, and may lose its shape if you move around too much.

Next thing I love about this look is the peach lip. I know this is a love or hate it look, but if you can pull it off, I think its absolutely a beautiful spring color. It makes most skin tones look creamy and rich.