Tips For Doing Your Own Wedding Makeup

I have a lot of makeup. The majority of my eye shadows are in the brown family (so browns, blacks, nude, etc.). That's what I feel comfortable in. Occasionally, I'll buy a purple or silver for highlighting, but you're not going to see me rock blue. Ever. If I can help it.

I love doing my makeup for date nights and have it down to a science where it doesn't take all that very long, looks perfect, and makes me feel like me.

But wedding makeup, something that needs to look good in photos for the rest of time, it's so much pressure. That's why people go and get it done for their big day, but I have two problems with that. The first is that it can be very costly (for my cousin's March wedding, it was $69, plus tip) and second, you run the risk of it not being what you want, or what you're used to, and then it doesn't look like you.

For my cousin's wedding, I had my brother's best friend's sister come over to do my eye makeup. I absolutely love the way she does her own makeup, and I was in awe of how she did mine for our engagement party. So was everyone else. I got so many compliments that night. Plus, since she's basically my little sister, she did it completely for free.

I ended up doing the rest of my makeup myself, but the eyes are what stand out and what make you look like you or not.

If you're going to do your own makeup for your wedding (or one that you are in), keep in mind that you need to have a heavier hand than you would for a date night. You are going to be in a lot of professionally taken photos and you will definitely benefit from more makeup than less.

And, if you do decide to do your own, definitely use the right products. A makeup artist will generally have more expensive product than you. You don't need expensive products to look amazing, but I'm going to advise against 99 cent shadow.

So, personally, what makeup do I think you need to have in your arsenal to do your own? 

Face: Definitely L'Oreal BB Cream. I am obsessed with this right now. It is absolutely the most amazing face product I own. I applied it around 10am and the photos I'm in at midnight still show my face shine free. This stuff really lasts. As far as a pressed powder, I use CoverGirl but that's because I've gotten very used to the shades so I won't stray from it.

Cheeks: Use a cream blush. It will last a lot longer than a loose powder blush. I know a lot of people who apply it using a foundation wedge, but I actually use a tissue and my fingers. It's a bit trickier, I guess, but it is a lot more sanitary in my (unprofessional) opinion.

Eyes: You definitely want a primer. In the photo above, I'm pretty sure she used an Urban Decay eyeshadow primer, but for date night I actually just use a Nivea lip balm in the dark blue top. I don't see a difference. For mascara, we used one by Tarte, which is the best mascara I've seen ever. It is a bit pricey, but it's worth it. I didn't use liner this night, but when I do, it's always the Nano eyeliner from Sephora. Best $5 you will ever spend. And as far as the actual colors, I'm pretty sure she used MAC but I don't want to link to any product or color because I actually had my eyes closed.

I absolutely loved how my makeup looked, loved that I looked like a dressier version myself, loved that it all came out of her makeup bag (so we didn't have to spend anything), and I loved that it saved me $75 by having someone I know do it.

If you have an occasion coming up, I highly suggest heading over to YouTube, watching some tutorials, and practicing. A bit of practice and you'll be able to do your own makeup -- and you can spend your money on other things .., like getting your hair done for your wedding.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Do you prefer to do your own makeup or would you rather pay someone?

This Groomsman Gift Idea: Homebrew & Personalized Mug post, which is sponsored, is written by Pete. For all his posts, check out this link.

I'm arguably the worst at thinking of gift ideas for people. Actually, let me clarify that: I'm the worst at thinking of gift ideas for women.  I usually wind up just cooking a meal Lisa likes or just buying her a functional gift, like a bag of socks or a three pack of undies or something, you know, that you actually need.

When it comes to guys though, buying gifts is insanely simple: Booze. That's it. Pretty much every guy on Earth loves beer and has a favorite brand and style. This applies to liquor as well -- most guys have a favorite -- mine is bourbon ... just sayin', in case anyone wants to buy me booze for no good reason.

This leads me to today's topic: The groomsman gift.

Beer is the perfect gift for any occasion -- birthday, anniversary, Christmas, Flag Day, Arbor Day, or just any random day of the week just to celebrate the fact that you woke up to live another day. The greatest words ever spoken were by the person (rumor has it that it was Benjamin Franklin) who said "Beer is proof that God loves us."

And it is also proof that you love your groomsmen, you know, like, in a brotherly way.

There are a bunch of ways to do this -- from the pedestrian (giving each groomsman a 6-pack) to the original (actually brewing something special for the occasion).

You could also find a middle ground between the two and buy each groomsman a 22 oz. bottle of something special. If you go that route, I'm assuming you already know what each of your buddies favorite beer style is. If you don't, then find out. You can then go to your local bottle shop or beverage distributor and get a different bottle for each groomsman.

Brewing beer for your groomsmen is the most involved option and not a last minute idea. If you know how to brew, then you already know it takes three to four weeks to make a beer that's drinkable and fully carbonated.

If you don't brew, and you have a friend who does, perhaps he/she can brew up a batch for you.

A friend of mine just got married and his brother-in-law brewed three different beers, put them in pony kegs, and drove them down from New Jersey to North Carolina for the wedding. They were a hit!

You could also take a trip to your local microbrew pub and buy a couple pony kegs filled with deliciously fresh and dreamy craft beer. Ah man!

All this beer talk making me crave a fresh one ... hold on I'm going to the fridge.

Nice! I popped open a new beer I've never tried -- Starry Hill Boxcarr Pumpkin Porter. Been trying to stray away from IPA's for a little while.

Anyway, back to this groomsman gift idea.

While beer is the best thing ever in the history of the world, it's even better when drank out of a hilarious beer glass.

Groomsman Gift Idea: Homebrew & Personalized Mug

Lisa had a personalized mug made for my dad that had a caricature of him drawn on it, so every time he reaches to pick it up he gets to look at a hysterical cartoon picture of himself. Have one made for each of your groomsmen, and hand it to them with their beer one at a time, waiting long enough to give everyone else a chance to crack up before handing out the next one.

The mug Lisa got for my dad is the aptly named Mug on a Mug from Groovy Groomsman Gifts. You email them a photo and any text you want on the mug (a name, nickname, date of your wedding, whatever) and their artists work their magic. The mugs are free-handed and take about four weeks (the same time as your beer), so this is definitely a gift you have to think about ahead of time.

The photo we sent it for the mug is on the left. The proof sent back from Groovy Groomsman Gifts is on the right.

These mugs hold 15 oz. of liquid, so keep that in mind when you're figuring out how much to brew and gift. They're heat treated to help with durability, but the company does suggest hand washing. Placing this in the dishwasher or soaking it in a sink for an extended period of time may shorten the lifespan of the mug. Since the beer you brew won't last that long, you want the mug to last as long as possible.

We were so impressed when we got the Mug on a Mug. It looks so much better in real life than in the photo they sent over (and the photo was pretty good). In real life, you can really see the details and shine ... and the face does look just like my dad.

As far as timing goes in regards to how to best unveil this gift for maximum effect, I'd probably do it the morning of the wedding, when it's just the guys getting ready and drinking beers.

Before anybody has a chance to crack their first freshie you can say "Wait! I've got something very special for all of us to drink!" Hystericalness will then ensue.

Personalized Groomsman Gift Beer Mugs Alternatives

Like I said above, these take about four weeks to get to you. So, if you're searching for groomsman gift ideas now and love this idea but don't have four weeks, it's okay. You can't get this one, but you can still get the ones below instead.

• Personalized Frosted Beer Mug with Your Custom Photo
• Personalized Beer Stein Mug Custom with Your Photo
• Personalized Engraved Wine Glass

More Groomsman Gift Ideas

If you're still not sold on these, we have a few other groomsman gift ideas that might interest you.

• 6 Wearable Groomsman Gift Ideas
• Top 10 Groomsman Gift Ideas
• 5 Gag Gifts For Groomsman Who Love To Drink

BRIDAL BABBLE: Would you give this homebrew personalized mug groomsman gift to your groomsmen?

How To Create Your Wedding Seating Chart

Putting together your wedding seating chart can be really stressful. For me, luckily, it wasn't. But that's not usually the norm. People generally agonize over it, making huge charts with names and sticky notes all over it.

It really doesn't need to be that complicated. I put together this post to show you just how easy creating your wedding seating chart can be.

How To Create Your Wedding Seating Chart

Decide if you are assigning seats or not.
You have three real options when it comes to your wedding reception seating. You can:

1. Do first come, first serve.
2. Assign tables and let people sit at any seat they want at that table.
3. Assign people an exact chair at an exact table.

The first method is employed at really casual affairs. If your wedding is really casual (where you don't mind if most of your guests show up in jeans as long as they leave having had a good time), you can just let people sit wherever they want.

The third is just a little too rigid. Your guests can make their way to a table, find an open seat, and sit there. They will probably sit next to their date because that's what people do, but you don't have to choose the person on the other side of them.

The middle option is what most people go with, so that's what we're going to focus on.

Figure out how many people can sit at a table.

Ask your vendor how many people can comfortably fit at a table. For our venue, it was eight to ten.

Set up a Word document with "tables."

With ten being our max, I set up word document. I made columns and wrote "Table 1" and numbered one through ten under it. Each number represented a chair at the table.

Go through your RSVP list and assign seats.

I then picked up our RSVP cards to go through them. I had decided that Table 1 would be my immediate family and Table 2 would be Pete's. Other than that, each table was fair game.

The first RSVP card was Pete's sister and her husband. Two spots at Table 2. Next was my dad's sister and her husband. Two spots at Table 3. Next was my cousin (from my mom's side) and her husband. Two spots at Table 4. Next was two of Pete's dad's friends. Two at Table 5. Next was my brother and his wife. Finally. Two spots at Table 1.

I went through the RSVP cards one by one, assigning people to a table as they came up from my stack. I didn't push anyone to the side to get back to them later. I made sure to find them a seat and then moved onto the next RSVP card.

When a table got to ten, it was closed and time to open another table. No one else could sit there. No one could be added and no one could be deleted. It gets way too complicated if you try to move everyone around every time you try to sit someone else at a table.

Create escort cards.

Once everyone has a table, create escort cards with the name and table number on them. Be sure to set them out alphabetically because that's how people have been taught to check for their names at weddings.

If you'd rather not do individual cards, you can create a big poster at the ballroom's entrance with everyone's name and table number.

Keep in mind that your guests won't really be sitting all that very long. They'll sit to have their meal but for the most part, they mingle. They'll be on your dance floor, getting drinks at the bar, and having fun in your photo booth. So don't stress too much over the seating chart and who is sitting where because those seats don't get very much use anyway. Spend your time thinking more about what food you're gonna have or what band you're gonna hire. Those decisions weigh more heavily on your wedding than who is sitting where.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Do you have any tips for creating a wedding seating chart?

What Asking A Woman's Father For Her Hand In Marriage Is Really Like

This post is written by Pete. For all his posts, check out this link.

Hey, you wanna hear a story? I hope so 'cause I'm gonna tell it either way. It would behoove you to continue reading because, for better or worse, it will elicit an emotional response from you. I know for a fact that I'm going to have fun writing it because in doing so I will have the chance to relive a very exciting moment in my life -- the day I asked Lisa's parents (not just dad, folks) for Lisa's "hand in marriage." Like most of the medieval, archaic, and sexist customs associated with the marriage process, I kind of laughed out loud thinking about this one.

Being fully aware and incredibly annoyed by this fact, I decided that I would sit down with Lisa's mother and father, and ask both of them if it was okay for me to marry their daughter. To merely ask her father, as far as I am concerned, would have been a disgusting form of disrespect to her mom ... and I kinda have this thing about respecting the people I love. Side note: If it wasn't for both of our mothers, Lisa and I would have never even met.

I was nervous, I made excuses, and I subconsciously invented things to do that prevented me from having to have the "talk." The good part is that nobody knew I was doing this because nobody knew when or even if I was going to do it.  Why did I procrastinate like this? See my post on "heel dragging." It's pretty much akin to popping the question, but without the ring. By asking for permission, you pretty much become engaged on the spot.

Eventually it got to the point where I said to myself, "Okay, this is really dumb. Man up and knock it off."

I asked myself, was Lisa the one? Check. Am I going to marry her? An emphatic check. So then what was I waiting? Just DOOZ it man! So I did.

Back in those days, Lisa and I were living in different counties in New York. We would alternate Wednesdays to hang out. I would go up to see her one week, she would come to me the next week, etc. So on one particular week when it was my turn to travel to her, I told Lisa's parents I was coming up and was wondering if I could speak to both of them before Lisa got home from work. I assume they had to know what that meant. I remember the drive up, thinking about what this was going to mean, and what was to follow. I had a series of amazing visions, beautiful projections of scenes in the future. I remember feeling like that day marked a definitive changing of chapters, where the page would turn from boyhood to manhood.

Best of all is that it felt great. I was so nervous, I was sweating. But it wasn't out of fear, it was out of anticipation, it was out of excitement, it was born out of the visions I mentioned, the unknown, a brave new world where I had no idea what was going to happen, but I knew for a fact that it was all gonna be good.

When the time came, the words flowed out more easily than I had anticipated, more than likely because I spoke them with conviction. To be sure and confident in what you say always makes saying it much easier. The fear disappears.

And the reactions were varied by both of Lisa's parents. When I had finished speaking, Lisa's mom proceeded to tear up, speaking words that will make me smile until my last day (Lisa's note: My mom actually later told me that her emotional reaction is basically why most people don't also ask the moms). Lisa's dad then stood up, went to the fridge, and returned with a Corona for each of us. As he handed me a cold one, he said immortal words, "Welcome to the family, you're gonna need a lot of these."

BRIDAL BABBLE: Did you ask your lady's father for her hand in marriage?

Text Your Save The Dates

Usually, you should send your save the dates out as soon as you pick a date. The sooner you can book your friends, the better. If you're looking for a hard date, shoot for six months for a wedding at home, about a year for a destination wedding (or if the majority of your guests are traveling).

But what if you don't have time to send out save the date cards. What if you're going from engagement to walking down the aisle in under six months?

My solution: Text your save the dates.

I'm totally serious here. I came up with this idea and completely fell in love with it.

If your wedding planning time is short, it's not exactly feasible to send out save the date cards. Why? Well, there's the time factor. You just don't have time to design and order save the date cards, wait for them to ship and arrive at your door, then address and send them out. Then, there's the cost. With a short planning time, that means you also only have a short window of time to save to pay for your actual wedding. There are more important things to spend money on than stamps for your save the date cards.

Texting your save the date cards is completely free (I mean, standard text rates apply, of course, but everyone I know has unlimited texting so that's a moot point).

Photo by Derick & Christy Photography; Edit by yours truly

How do you do it?

• Find a nice photo of you (or, in my case, one with character. This was us at our friends' wedding in September, and the photo was taken by our wedding photographers. Truth is, yes, those are our dancing faces. We dance around the apartment all the time and apparently, we look just like that. Although probably not with the matching pointer fingers up in the air. Or maybe with them. I'm too busy dancing to notice). 
• Edit it using a site like PicMonkey.com (That's what I used to edit the one for this post). Be sure to add the important info, like your date and wedding location.
• Save it and email the image to yourself.
• Open your email from your phone and save the image.
• Text it out to your guest list.

For someone like your Great Aunt Edna who doesn't have a cell phone, you can just give her a call on her house phone. I'm sure she'd love to hear from you.

Then, hurry and start designing your wedding invitations. You'll need to send those out soon.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Would you text your save the dates to save time?

Top 5 Wedding Registry Items A Man Needs

This post is written by Pete. For all his posts, check out this link.


Let me be honest: I've always considered wedding invitations the same thing as an invoice. I just wish people would call a spade a spade and say, "We're celebrating our love. Would you mind checking out the registry to see the gifts we want all of YOU to pay for?" When I expressed my opinion about wedding registries to Lisa, she somehow managed to perform some complicated mathematical mind trick on me that, for a minute, almost made me say "Oh yea, I had it ALL wrong."

Once I accepted the fact that we were going to have a wedding registry, I decided I’d make it as fun as I could. When we went to Bed Bath & Beyond to register, the first thing we did was sit down with a sales associate who helped us pick out our "regular" plates and "fancy" plates. I was already lost. Personally, I was hoping we could just pick "lifetime supply of paper plates and plastic cutlery" because cleaning sucks, but that was not an option. In a perfect world we could also have disposable pots and pans too.

When the sales associate was done confusing me (probably because I wasn’t paying attention), the fun part began -- we were set loose on the store with a barcode scanner and left to our own devices.

As we moved throughout the store, I slowly began to realize that there was some really useful and functional stuff a guy could use that's reasonably priced. In retrospect I guess I could say that I almost found a happy medium in this whole "registry" idea ... almost. Most of the stuff was reasonably priced too, and I also made sure to ask myself "Do I really need this or do I just want it?” If the answer I gave myself was the latter, we didn't scan it. If it was the former, I'd find a brand of said item that was the best deal. Now that the back story is out of the way, I'd like to share my list of the Top 5 Wedding Registry Items A Man Needs. Yeah yeah yeah, I know, before you even say it, some of you are going to say "Oh a guy doesn't need that." To which I reply, "You need to mind your own biz-ness" (haha).

Top 5 Wedding Registry Items A Guy Needs

1. A blender/food processor combo. 
The one that sealed the deal for me was the Ninja MEGA Kitchen System 1500 because it had a (pizza) dough blade attachment. So instead of scanning a blender AND a food processor, we were able to find one item that did both, and it costs less than buying each item individually. Eh, by conceptualizing the process in this way, I felt less guilty about having to do it at all. And best of all, a blender/food processor is so functional. You can feed yourself in so many ways! With just one machine you can make a pizza and a frozen cocktail to go with it. Done.
(Lisa's note: We actually use this every day to make smoothies for breakfast, pizza for dinner, hummus to snack on ... whatever the case. It is by far the most used item we put on our registry.)

2. A SodaStream. 
Yes, you need a SodaStream. Well, at least I did, and this is why: bubbly water on demand. If you're a soda drinker, this thing will pay for itself in no time. Personally, I use it to make one half of my favorite drink of all time: whiskey and soda. I also love making real ginger ale instead of drinking that crap they sell in the store that has no business having the word "ginger" printed anywhere on the label. I make my own ginger syrup from fresh ginger root, squirt a little in a glass, hit it with bubbly H2O, and BOOM! Best. And don’t get me started on the Moscow and Kentucky Mules I make ... HEEHAW! (Or whatever sound mules make. Or is that a donkey? ... Whatever, it's funny).

3. An ice cube tray that makes gigantic ice cubes. 
I forgot the name (Lisa' note: It's the Tovolo King Ice Cube Tray), but you know, those huge ice cubes people put in cocktails so your booze doesn't get watered down so fast? One of those. I had no idea how I lived this long without one of these, and they're cheap too. Gone are the days of saying "Ah, I wish there was a way to make my expensive bourbon ice cold without watering it down so fast." Well, I don't know if you say that, but I did for a while ... until I got a gigantic ice cube tray.

4. Cocktail glasses to put those gigantic ice cubes in. 
Nothing says class like drinking a cocktail out of an actual cocktail glass, even if it's the wrong one. Eventually we'll have people over who drink wine, but until then I use our stemless wine glasses to drink beer or an Old Fashioned because I just like the way they feel in my hand.

5. A pizza peel. 
Trust me, the pizza peel does more than just pull pizzas out of your oven. Same with a pizza stone. Anything that needs to be baked in the oven can be placed on the pizza stone with the pizza peel, and it'll cook extra fast since the pizza stone heats it from the bottom too. And when whatever you're cooking is done, you can just slide it right back out of the oven with the pizza peel. Hell, I've even used my pizza peel as a chopping board! I loathe uni-taskers. They're a waste of money, space and resources, so trust me on this one.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Ask your grooms. What are the wedding registry items your man needs?

DIY Engagement Gift Idea

I always say, when someone gets engaged, you should immediately gift them a box of thank you cards. Random gifts of congratulations will arrive and, honestly, it's easy to lose track of who you need to thank (while you're looking at venues, creating a guest list, deciding on invitations, picking colors, and you know, the million other things you need to do once you're engaged).

So it's really nice for a bride who has already been there to give a little gift for the newly engaged bride-to-be.

I put together a really simple DIY Engagement Gift Idea. It's actually from items I had at home already, which means you probably do too. As soon as you get the call from your friend that she's engaged, you can put this together and have it ready to give her the very next day.

DIY Engagement Gift Idea

What You'll Need:

• Bridal magazine (You can actually request a free issue of Bridal Guide here. Then, just hang onto it until someone gets engaged.)
• Notepad and pen (I used a jotter from Night Owl Paper Goods when I planned. I liked it a lot better than other notebooks because it has a flexible wood cover. I was able to toss it in my purse for a bridal expo and not worry about the cover getting tattered and torn like paper would. But, since it was flexible, it was able to move around the other items in my purse.)
• Chocolate (My chocolate of choice was Nestle Crunch bars. When I started to stress, I would eat one and instantly calm down.)
• Coffee (for the late nights. My current obsession is Starbucks' Caffe Mocha VIA sticks, so I would say stick those in, but any sort of bagged or boxed coffee works.)
• Thank you cards.

What You'll Do:

Write a note in the first page of the notebook. You can go with a long letter of encouragement or a simple "I'm here if you need anything." But, when you offer that, be prepared for the 3am phone calls (because yes, a bride will make those).

Put all the items in a bag (or box if you're mailing this) and include a card from you to the bride. I actually had a really cute Hallmark card that goes perfectly with this gift. The front says You have got to take a break from Pinterest and the inside says Take a break from everything except fun today. Seriously, how many times have you wanted to tell a bride to step away from the stress of the perfect Pinterest wedding and just enjoy the planning because it goes by so quickly. This card definitely says that for you.

BRIDAL BABBLE: What else would you add to this engagement gift idea?