Author: Natalie Willingham/Weddings

Every girl dreams about the way they will look on their wedding day and I'm here to help your dreams come true. I breathe life into your thoughts, creating gorgeous hair and makeup to ensure that you look beautiful on your special day. I work with you every step of the way to ensure that your makeup and hair suits your personality and dress, and that you are the most stunning version of yourself that you can be. I live for that moment when a bride looks in the mirror and her eyes sparkle and her smile goes on for miles.

Idea Overwhelm

Hello there!

Today, I wanted to chat a little bit about information or idea overwhelm.

It’s super exciting being engaged and planning your wedding but with so many blogs, magazines and apps like Pinterest and Instagram, you can soon be bombarded with ideas and opinions and not know which way to turn.

So when I speak with brides about their wedding hair and makeup, I find it really useful to get them to think about how they want their hair and makeup to make them feel on their wedding day.  Forget about all of the pretty images and concentrate on how you really want to feel, deep down inside.  Think about how you want to feel when you reminisce about your wedding day in 10 years time.

Some of the themes that often come up are pretty, confident, I can forget about it, I want to feel like me, amazing, timeless, beautiful, relaxed etc.

From this I can probably assume that you want your makeup to feel great (not like a mask), you want tot look like you have amazing skin and want to keep things pretty natural. With your hair you want it to be polished but not tight or too done. And you don’t want to worry that it might fall out or drop on the day.

Does that sound a bit like you? How much easier was it to think about that, rather than wading through hundreds of photos of stunning models, that have been photoshopped?

Once you have identified the feeling, its then much easier to look at a few images and pin point what exactly about that photo you love.  If its the fullness of the brows, then it’s easier to show me a photo of full, fluffy brows etc if that’s your thing. Through this process of elimination we can identify a look that you aspire to.

Always try to keep in mind that that your wedding hair and makeup shouldn’t be an exact replica of a look you have seen elsewhere, the image should be used as inspiration so you can make it all your own.

Hopefully, these tips can help you feel in control of your decisions and make your bridal styling the positive, fun and happy experience it should be.

Natalie x

 

 

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My Mental Health Story

As its World Mental Health Day, I thought it was about time that I shared my own mental health story.

I have always tried to be genuine and honest in everything I say and do and I hope by sharing just a tiny bit of my life, it will help others in a similar position to know they are not alone even though our path through parenthood may be different.

Being a parent is hard.  But when you are an adoptive parent, life can be tremendously tough.

Absolutely nothing prepared me for the impact trauma would have on me and my little family. I’ve needed resilience by the bucket load and sometimes even then that’s not enough. You feel disconnected from the world, because there’s stuff going on that I never thought in a million lifetimes I’d ever have to deal with.  Stuff that’s shaken me to my core and ultimately changed who I am and will continue to affect me whilst we are on this journey.

At lot has changed in the thinking about adoption associated trauma in the 4 years since we became parents, and this is very slowly changing the way families are supported.

I have secondary trauma. I’m exhausted from having to fight for the right kind of help and support.  I have lost friends along the way, and find it hard to make new friends because my child needs to be parented differently.   Not everyone agrees with our approach, some think if we just hold him that bit tighter and love him that bit more then everything will be ok. And whilst that sounds lovely, in reality it doesn’t work.  So we’ve had to adjust to a life of missing out on celebrations, missed work opportunities, going to the pub with friends, to a social circle that at times just includes the two of us. By no means is this the complete story but a snapshot of our lives.  We are battle scarred but surviving – just.

So last month I made a choice.  I chose not to let this consume me. I chose happiness.  I chose to have faith in myself, to be positive, calm and happy. I’m determined to take things one day at a time, focussing on my choice and encouraging myself to twinkle again.

 

 

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