For a girl who takes only 15 minutes to get ready in the morning (simply because I never wake up on time) and never wears any makeup except for lip gloss and simple eye liner, the trial session was little daunting. Fortunately, my stylist, Christine Gardner, was kind enough to email me some reminders:

Trial Session Reminders

• Hair completely dried & cleaned
• Clean face, moisturizers are okay, as long as they do not contain Retin-A
• Bring in magazine cut outs of hair & make up styles you would like to try.
• The session will last 1 – 1.5 hours, depending on how many styles we try.
• Bring in all hair accessories. e.g. veil, headpiece, if any.
• A picture of the Wedding dress.
• We will take a before and after digital photo. Make up looks very different in person vs. in camera. Please bring in your camera, if you would like some photos of your session too.
• Wear white if your dress is white. The neckline should be similar to your Wedding gown.

I also found this article on The Knot helpful.

With flowers in mind (remember my DIY flower?), here are some hair styles I brought to the session:

The question for me more was do I want up all the way up, half up/half down, or all the way down. Since I never brush my hair in the morning, simply putting it up in a ponytail, I thought it would be nice to have my hair partly down. The only thing that would concern me is being unused to my hair down, I may be inclined to push my hair back and ruin it! I am also slightly worried about looking too messy if my hair gets wind-blown. Nevertheless, I brought those styles with me too so that Christine could help me decide.

• Up

I love the way all the different ways the brides had their hair pinned! Simply gorgeous!!

• Half up, Half down

The best of both worlds?

• All the way down

I love those curls!!

As for make-up, I want a completely natural look since I definitely want my family and friends to recognize me. Fortunately, Christine is one of the premiere airbrush make-up artists in Hawaii and is able to provide that natural but flawless look. Here’s the perfect example:

From christinegardner.com

Isn’t she just stunning?

Okay, drum roll please….so now for my BIG REVEAL!
For our engagement photo session, I decided to go with a half up/half down look.

That’s Christine behind me…working her magic!

For the actual wedding though, I’m leaning more towards all the way up, the question now becomes: high or low? Please help me decide!

• High

• Low

The best part of Christine’s airbrush magic is that it really lasts all day! And so did my curls. Though stick straight and difficult to curl as a child, my hair is now extremely easy to curl, perhaps a little too easy.  Those curls didn’t fall apart at all!  Here’s what I looked like at the end of the night: Not bad yeah?

So what’d ya think? High up, low up, half up/half down, or all the way down?! Please help me decide!