Bridal Traditions: No Thanks!

I’ve not talked about it in a while on here, but I’m getting married to my wonderful fiance in August this year.  We’ve been engaged since October 2014 so we’ve had plenty of time to plan the big day and we’re ticking off more and more tasks as it approaches.  Less than four months and counting now – eeek!  Undoubtedly as soon as you tell people you’re planning a wedding, they make certain presumptions about what you might or might not be doing with your day.  So today I thought I’d touch on some bridal traditions and whether I’ll be sticking to them or not!

French Manicure

I am so not a french manicure person.  When I was younger I used to think they were really sophisticated and made several failed attempts to do them on my own fingernails with a bit of sellotape.  Big mess.  But since then I’ve totally lost interest.  They’re just not for me.  Nude nails in general in fact, are not for me.  Give me bright and bold.  Shiny and sparkly.  Black and gothy.  So no, I will not be going for the traditional French fingers or nude nails on my wedding day.  I’ve not quite decided on what I will get just yet but I reckon it’ll be something bright and in your face.

Natural Make Up

I decided not to get a make up artist because I’m not half bad at doing my own face and I’ve never been totally happy when someone else has done mine so why start now on the day when I want my make up to be totally on point?  Instead, I am using the money that I would have spent on a make up artist to put towards buying myself some lovely bits to do my own.

But recently I’ve found myself getting a bit worried about what style of make up I’ll wear on my wedding day.  Whenever I Google “wedding day make up”, which I do embarrassingly often, I am met with a slew of natural make up tutorials and now I have started to feel the natural make up pressure.  I wouldn’t say I often wear natural make up – I like the fact you can see colour on my eyeshadows and pink on my cheeks.  So really I don’t know what I’m worrying about.  I need to do my make up like I would normally and just make sure I don’t F it up!

So on our wedding day I’ll be turning to my trusted faves, and I won’t be afraid to rock the slightly smokey eye, the bold liquid eyeliner and the contouring.  The only thing I’m not allowed to wear is bright lipstick – as Andrew hates it.  Men!  So I’m on the hunt for the perfect lipstick that is like a better version of my lips.  Any tips ladies?

Expensive Flowers

I love flowers, I really do.  I love having them in the house and they really brighten up my day.  So much so that I never want to put them in the bin and they end up moulding in the vase.  Lovely.  But for my wedding day, I’ve never felt the need to spend a fortune on elaborate arrangements.  Instead, our flowers will be picked from the garden the day before or the day of the wedding and made into rustic looking, handmade bouquets and arrangements.  Lovely!  I am getting one custom piece made by a florist but you’ll have to wait and see what that is…

Bridesmaid Dresses

Google bridesmaid dresses or look at the bridesmaid dress section on any website and you can pretty much guarantee what you’ll see – floor length or knee length pastel coloured, pleated dresses with a little bit of bling dominate the shelves.  All the bridesmaid dresses I’ve seen recently have been in totally insipid colours – tan, salmon, baby blue – and none of them are for me.  Like my nails, I want the bridesmaids to be in something bright and summery – this will be an August wedding after all!

So I’ve found that instead of looking specifically at bridesmaid sections on websites, I’ve been looking at occasion wear or wedding guest sections.  You get a lot more choice and a lot more exciting colour options.  I am not totally eschewing tradition though, and will have my three lovely bridesmaids matching!

So that’s that – traditions are mostly out the window for our wedding!  What do you think – any bridal traditions you love or hate?  Let me know!

♥ JH

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