Rain or Shine

When looking for a venue and time of year, keep in mind the local weather conditions. If you are getting married in your hometown, it might be easy to decide. But, if you are having a destination wedding make sure to check out local weather conditions for that time of year.  Most people assume San Diego is always sunny, but if you are coming here for your wedding remember that Gray May and June Gloom are true and seaside weddings might not have that sunset you are hoping for.

Ok, so you did your research and things look very promising for the best day ever! But… 10 day forecast says rain! 😦 Ask your venue way ahead of time what their Plan B options are and whether or not they can accomodate you and your guests. If they can do a quick turn around and make sure everything is perfect inside or outside, go with it!

Besides, your photographer might get some great pictures of your rainy wedding day bliss! 🙂

How to Prepare for You Gown Appointment!

Ok, so you just got engaged….where do you start?! After picking out your venue, dress shopping is obviously the next step. 🙂 But.. how do you even go about it? Wedding gown shopping is always a new experience because, well, how often do you shop for a wedding gown? Here are the best ways to prep for your gown appointments!

1. Check out some styles online! Get an idea of what kind of look or feel you are going for for your wedding day. Places like The Knot and Pinterest are great resources for fun ideas. And once you find out which boutique you want to visit (see #2) check out the designers they carry as well!

Cymbeline Paris

2. Research your area and find a bridal boutique that fits your needs. Do you like personal attention or do you like to shop on your own? Each bridal store offers different perks, so check them out. At The Bustle, we are a small bouqitue, but our gown are carefully hand picked and we give you great personal attention with champagne and cakes!

3. Select a small group to come with you and who’s opinions you trust. It is great to have people you love come with you and share such an important moment. Make sure you pick a gown where you feel most beautiful, and not which your sister loves most. 😉

4. Come with an open mind. Your consultant is a professional and they know exactly what look will fit your style and body type within minutes of meeting you. Even if a gown might look bad on the hanger, try it on, you might be surprised!

5. Most important: Have fun! This is the biggest purchase you might ever make (emotionally and financially) so enjoy each second. Be honest, make jokes, play with accessories and feel gorgeous!

Jenna had fun with us.. so why can’t you?! 🙂

A Perfect Wedding Gown for the Perfect Venue!

When shopping for a wedding gown there are a million details to be considered.  Does the style fit your personality? Is the fit perfect for your body shape? Is it too fancy, or too simple? One of the key factors is your venue.  At each appointment we ask each bride for their wedding date and immediately following.. “Where are you getting married?”  Your venue can help decide on some guidelines for your wedding gown.

Formal Wedding

For a formal wedding consider your silhouette, especially if your venue is very grand.  You want to be able to make a statement and have a larger presence in such a great venue.  Consider a ballgown with a longer train.  This doesn’t mean you have to look like a poofy princess (unless you want to of course 🙂 ).  Modern day ballgowns have something for everyone, from feathers to classy satin.  And don’t skimp on your veil.  Make sure its cathedral length even if your train isn’t.  This will create grandeur and wonderful lines to compliment your gown.

A Formal Princess Wedding

Once you decide on your silhouette, your fabric is next! Satin is the queen of formality.  If you decide against a ballgown silhouette and you prefer something more fitted like a mermaid, satin still works well.  Against satin? A beautiful alencon lace gown will create a timeless look.  Remember Duchess Catherine? Yup! Exactly that.

A Grand Ballgown

To sparkle or not to sparkle? With a formal wedding you can go allllll out! An embelished bodice will look gorgeous, but if you just want a bit of bling try diamond jewelry, a cystal belt, a beaded bolero or a fun headpiece.  There is no such thing as too much bling in this case.

Garden Wedding

Look for a gown that compliments nature and that has an organic feel.  A slimmer silhoutte like a sheath, modified A-line or trumpet would be perfect.  These silhouttes can compliment many body types. Try to also find a gown with a smaller train such as a chapel length or sweep train.  Walking down the aisle and having your reception outside might catch on a few leaves and branches.  Once you pick your silhoutte, you can choose any length veil! A longer veil will help weigh it down in case its windy, but a short fingertip length will compliment the less formal garden feel.

A Trumpet Style

For your fabric, try to look for something that has a light feel such as an organza or a soft lace, like chantilly lace. Along with being light, they compliment an outdoor organic feel.  The embelishments on your gown can go in two directions depending on the time of your wedding.  If it is a daytime wedding, minimize the amount of bling on your gown and accessories with sashes, feathers or fun headbands.  If you are having an evening wedding a little bit of sparkle won’t hurt.  The sparkle will glimmer throughout the night!

Beach Wedding

A beach wedding requires a bit of a balancing act.  A gown that matches the casual ceremony might need to have a formal feel for the reception afterwards. Any A-line, sheath, empire (destination style) or mermaid can work well for a beach wedding.   A flowy fabric will look wonderful by the sea breeze and it will create a light airy feel in case you are dealing with major heat and humidity.

Light and Flowy

Just like the garden wedding, the beach wedding follows similar “rules” regarding beading and emroidery on your wedding gown.  Be conscious of your surroundings and time of day.  A little bit of detailed sparkle will look gorgeous against a sparkling sea, especially at sunset, but an over the top beaded bodice, train, veil, earrings, etc. might overbear the casual venue.

And a Little More Formal for the Reception

What kind of venue will you have? xx

How to Choose Your Look…Up or Down? Dramatic or Soft?

Brace yourselves! It’s a lot, but it’s the most important information to date!

Your wedding day is one of the most memorable days of your life. You want to look and feel like a beautiful and radiant bride! Your every smile and kiss will be captured, so your bridal makeup needs to be picture perfect and look flawless all through out your big day. With a salon here at The Bustle we really get hands on advice and experience for every bridal look. These simple steps will help you decide the answers to your questions: Up or Down? Dramatic or Soft?

The easiest tool to help you decide on how to wear your hair and makeup is YOUR DRESS!! The style, color and length of your dress can help you determine your options.

Hair

Let’s start with the color: Ivory and off white tend to make the skin look softer and can therefore support a more glamorous makeup style. White tends to look strong and washes out most faces so consider using softer colors to enhance your facial features.

Next, the style: The stronger the neckline of your dress, the more sophisticated your hair and makeup needs to be to match the dress’s style. A deep neckline that is off the shoulders will look great with an up-do style so that the line of the neck and shoulders is shown off. Consider also the length of the dress. The shorter the dress the simpler your hair and make up should be. Remember you are creating an entire picture! You wouldn’t wear a beautiful dress and stylish heels and then wear your hair and makeup like you do when you wear your jeans, right? Don’t sell yourself short on such a memorable day 🙂

Make up

When planning your wedding day makeup, keep in mind you will want your makeup to be appropriate for the time of day, the venue (indoors or outdoors) and complement the style of your wedding dress. It is a lot to consider, but all of that will make your look flawless. Plus, we recommend having a trial about three months before your wedding day, and most of those small details will be second nature by then ;). Once those details are confirmed, start to think about the style of makeup that you prefer. Things to keep in mind:

Night or day: Night time weddings are typically more formal than day time weddings. For an evening wedding consider a more sophisticated look. For a day time wedding makeup tends to be more natural.

Indoors or outdoors : Outside lighting is stronger, so your makeup should to be softer and more natural than makeup for an indoor wedding.

The lighting: Different lighting requires different makeup styles. Night time lighting tends to dull makeup, so a stronger look is preferable. Natural and day time lighting is more generous to makeup so, again, consider a more natural look with a softer smokey eye and lighter lip colors.

Makeup Tips and Advice:

1. Be yourself. You want to look amazing but remember you also want to look like yourself and feel comfortable with your appearance. You can look great and still stay within your comfort zone. Plan ahead and give yourself time to find the makeup look that you love and feels comfortable.

2. Highlight one facial feature. You know your best facial feature; your plump lips, your beautiful eyes or your lovely cheak bones. Your makeup should highlight your chosen feature. Don’t try to highlight more than one because it will look “too much”. If you use a bold red lipstick to highlight your beautiful lips go low key with your eye makeup or if you choose a smokey, dramatic eye, choose a more subtle lipstick or lip gloss.

3. Watch out for “seemed like a good idea at the time”. Watch out for fads. In 20 years time hot pink lipstick will date your wedding photos. You want to look as classic as possible so that your photo memories are timeless.

4. Beware of facials! Unless you have facials on a regular basis, don’t get one the week before your wedding day. Facials can bring out impurities and bring them to the surface, and you definietly do not want to break out the week of your wedding. To avoid blotches and blemishes, do not make any major changes in your skin care routine the few weeks before your wedding day. Those weeks before are not the time to experiment with your skin care. Even if you regularly get facials, have your last facial no later than a week before the wedding.

Hmm I think that’s it for now… lots of information, but it all helps.  We received all of the advice directly from our certified stylist Katrina.  She’s a great girl who sees it all! Thanks Katrina! xx

Pictures from our gorgeous bride!

We absolutely love when months down the road our brides reach out and share pictures from their most memorable day.  This bride had an amazing wedding in Mexico recently and I can’t believe how perfect her gown was for the venue, and most importantly, for her!

Jealous of the bare feet, heels aren’t always friendly!

Her necklace matched the beading so well! Love the blue too 🙂

❤

A perfect way to end a perfect day! Congratulatons to you both once more!

In the “Spirit” of my favorite holiday!

Happy Halloween to all of my witches, vampires, zombies and princesses!

This is my all time favorite holiday, one that is special to my heart in many ways.  Actually, all of us here at The Bustle are obsessed with this holiday. (We are all going out to lunch in our “scary” costumes 🙂 ) In the spirit of this awesome day here are some great wedding Halloween ideas. From haunted venues to spooky cake toppers, we wish you a freaky day! xx

For those venues, click here and see what the amazing Knot has to say!

You can chose a classy version or go all out and have fun with this scary theme! Enjoy!

Love it all!

You can still wear white and have a spooky dream wedding.

Accessorize with Etsy!

Just Google Image it and get crazy fun ideas.  I’ve been staring at ghastly pictures for hours! xx