Oscar & Sandy’s Fourth of July Wedding

September 12, 2013 ~ Lady C ~ Leave a comment

Hi Beauty Babes,

Here is one of the many beautiful brides I got to work on this summer. Mr. and Mrs. Aldrete wed on the Fourth of July at The Castaway. I had my own wedding reception at this amazing venue just last year so I was super excited to hear they would be having their ceremony and reception there!

Sandy wanted a dramatic smoky eye (I LOVE when brides go smoky!) so I started off with her eyes first to avoid eyeshadow fall out.

Check out this amazing shot of their wedding rings on the heel of her Louboutin! #sexy

Here’s our smoky eyed beautiful bride

Castaway has a stunning gazebo that served as the center of the ceremony.

Sandy is a “bling-loving” bride, as you can tell from her sparkling dress, bejeweled bracelet and radiant roses.

I love this picture of them. I’m also obsessed with those floating flower balls as aisle decorations- total showstoppers!

Sandy and Oscar’s guests danced the night away under the stars at Castaway.

Check out the breath-taking cake and mirrored disco-ball stand underneath!

…and they literally had fireworks on their wedding day. Congratulations Oscar and Sandy! You two make a beautiful couple. Thanks for letting me be a part of your special day 🙂

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DS PHOTOGRAPHY

VENUE: THE CASTAWAY BURBANK

A Vintage Summer Bride: Stephanie Holland

February 21, 2013February 21, 2013 ~ Lady C ~ 1 Comment

This past summer, I worked on an outdoor, vintage-themed wedding for Thomas and Stephanie Holland. After seeing how lovely it turned out, I just had to share their photos with my readers!

Stephanie was the epitome of vintage 40’s. She did a half-up half-down hair do with victory rolls and sweet swirls. We decided to skip the 40’s red lip to give her fiance a break when it was time to “kiss the bride” and played up her deep dark peepers instead. I also gave her that dewy J.Lo glow by highlighting the center of her face and cheekbones with a Mineralized Skin Finish by MAC Cosmetics.

Waterproof mascara all the way for my brides!

Stephanie’s lovely bridesmaids kept in the vintage theme with white cocktail dresses that plumed out just below their knees. Each girl wore different colored heels in bright tones for a modern twist.

The boys wore khaki pants (smart choice for hot summer days!) and Converse kicks.

Look at these cuties!

Thomas is half-Armenian, and to honor that, he and Stephanie included an Armenian “Crowning of the Bride and Groom” as part of their ceremony, complete with the armband ties of eternity.

With the help of wedding coordinator extraordinaire Debra Meadows of Purple Meadows Events, the cocktail and reception hours included rustic decor and hints of orange. It brought out the nature-quality of the location, which was Middle Ranch. See, you can find beautiful outdoor places near Los Angeles!

How stunning is this shot with their rings?!

As it got darker, the twinkly lights came out.

The bride and groom did a small cake for themselves topped with a Mickey & Minnie Mouse (the love Disney) and offered cupcakes to their guests, which let’s face it, are more fun to eat than cake slices.

A big congratulations goes out to Thomas and Stephanie! You guys made a beautiful couple. XOXO

Makeup: Christine Guederian Redmon, Leading Lady Makeup

Event Coordinator: Debra Meadows, Purple Meadows Events

Photography: Apple & Cheese Photography

Venue: Middle Ranch at Lake View Terrace, CA

I Do! An Event for the Stylish Bride

January 24, 2013January 24, 2013 ~ Lady C ~ 1 Comment

If you live in the Los Angeles area I have some exciting news. Leading Lady Makeup will be a part of a high-end bridal show this weekend!

As a recent bride myself, I found it very helpful to go to bridal shows. I got a lot of ideas for my wedding simply by the look of vendors’ booths. I took pictures of everything I liked, from flowers to cake design and combined with my Pinterest pins, my wedding was executed just the way I wanted. Not to mention I took a million photos with my girlfriends and sister in all the photo booths!

Even if you already have most of your vendors booked, this is a fantastic place to be a bride. You get a ton of free stuff and get to taste yummy cakes all day long. Everyone loves you! You will be beaming from ear to ear. It’s even more fun when you bring your girlfriends. Don’t even get me started on the Lovella by Ines Di Santo fashion show (designer of my own bridal gown) or the giveaways!

I wasn’t always a fan of doing booths at bridal shows, but I decided to be a part of I Do! because of their amazing vendor list and beautiful location- the Langham in Pasadena. These vendors are top notch. I’ve met and used many for my own wedding and I couldn’t be happier with the quality of work. Even if you are a bride on a budget, these vendors are always willing to work with you and are truly some of the nicest people. Click here to check out who will be there!

Now for the deets:

If you are recently engaged or know someone who is, I highly recommend stopping by. Don’t feel pressured if you have never been to one before: this bridal show is a great place to network with wedding vendors and get a feel for what you want. And to get EXCITED for your big day!

Normally, tickets for “I Do!” go for $20/each but I still have a few left I can give out free of charge. Contact me with a comment below for free tickets to this bridal show!

The Wedding Series: Wedding Attire & Accessories

August 21, 2012September 26, 2012 ~ Lady C ~ 4 Comments

Hi all! This week I bring you our wedding attire and accessories. Let’s start off with my most amazing possession: this Ines Di Santo wedding gown by Lovella Bridal. My mom bought me this beauty and I am so sad I only get to wear it once. Finding the gown was the easiest part of the entire wedding planning.I went to two Lovella Bridal boutiques and this was the third dress I tried on. I just loved how intricate the top of the dress is with all the pretty jewels. I’ve never seen anything like it! I went in thinking I wanted a tight mermaid dress and instead picked this one. This is a half-mermaid, half-ball gown. It’s the best of both worlds! I felt sexy and princess-ey at the same time, haha. We ordered it to my custom measurements and I worked my BUTT off at the gym all year to keep in shape. I ended up having to have it altered to be smaller from the working out, but can’t complain about losing weight, right?

Here’s the dress below during our first dance.

During the ceremony

These are my wedding shoes. I asked my father to make me a custom pair of shoes and I can’t tell you how honored I was to wear them. My dad did an amazing job of designing the structure of the shoe. You can’t tell from here, but the bottom of the shoe is Tiffany blue and the heels are completely crystalled in Swarovsky. The “bling” was done by Devan of Blingerie Custom Crystal Embellishments.

I requested the shoes be all-leather so that they would be soft and pliable, good for dancing. There are four inches high with a hidden platform in the front. Dylan’s 6′ 3″ and I’m 5′ 4″ so I needed to make sure I was wearing tall shoes!

If you are interested in custom wedding shoes or really any kind of custom shoe, please contact Jerry Guederian at Shoe Lab. Oh, how I cried when he put them on me!

Here’s a close-up of our rings. Dylan’s is a Cobalt ring by Scott Kay. I had it inscribed with “I Love You My Hokis” (Hokis= honey in Armenian) My rings are rose gold 🙂

Here is some of my fun blingy jewelry: stretch bracelet and cocktail ring.

I wore my grandma’s pearl necklace and bracelet which she left for me before she died. It really felt like she was there with us. I miss her so much…

Here’s our good looking bridal party! I bought Cappy’s little tuxedo from a vendor cart at The Grove. The girls are wearing the Twist Wrap dress by Dessy Group in Ocean. My maid of honor, Chantal, is wearing a gown by Alfred Angelo with matching blingy belt. The boys are all decked out in rentals from Friar Tux. We got their ties from Macy’s, which matched the girl’s teal dresses perfectly.

From L-R: Angelica, Jed, Keumku, Lisa K, Chantal, Jay, me & Cappy, Dylan, Lisa G, Eugene, Corine, Allyson, John and Brian.

Wedding Series: Makeup

August 15, 2012August 20, 2012 ~ Lady C ~ Leave a comment

Next up– the makeup!

My fabulous photographer Rustin Michael took some great getting ready shots of me that I’ll share below. For my own makeup, I used Dinair’s airbrush foundation, blush and highlighter. I wish I could use airbrush foundation everyday, but I’m too lazy to clean out the gun every morning (you can’t leave product in the airbrush gun because it will damage the whole machine- talk about high maintenance). Airbrush makeup is fantastic for brides because it stays on, and floats right about your skin, as opposed to sinking into your pores, giving you a smooth glow. There is a small amount of alcohol in the foundation, which helps to dry down very quickly and stay ON like nobody’s business.

Here I’m applying a small amount of MAC’s Reflects Pearl glitter on the inner corners of my eyes, because let’s face, everyone knew I would rock glitter on my wedding day.

Here is the finished product, complete with a combination of MAC and Urban Decay eyeshadows and Ardell lashes. I kept the lips neutral so poor Dylan wouldn’t be smeared with bright lipstick all day. I’ll have a video tutorial of this look as soon as the weather cools down and my studio isn’t a hot box!

Here’s the Mother of the Bride, in all her glory. I definitely get my makeup skills from my mom. She has always been skilled with the makeup brush. I remember watching her do her makeup as a kid in the 80’s, I just couldn’t wait to grow up and do winged out blue eye liner and hot pink angled blush like she did. Mom did her own makeup that day, I helped her a little with the eyeshadow and lash application.

Yep, that’s the ring boy in the corner

Here is my bridesmaid Angelica representing all the girls’ makeup. Allyson Stagg of The Las Vegas Style Sirens (and of being my best friend) did my girls’ makeup. Knowing my love for dramatic eye makeup, she created this jaw-dropping teal and champagne smoky eye topped with MAC’s Reflects Teal glitter and whipped them up for each girl within three hours. I couldn’t believe how sexy and bold my bridesmaids looked! As if you guys don’t know already, I’m not really a fan of the “natural look.” I LIVE for jewel tones and sex-pot makeup, and that’s exactly what Allyson delivered. All of my girls looked like Playboy models, and I’m pretty sure their boyfriends/husbands didn’t mind at all. 😉

Cappy and his Godmother

I wish I had photos of all the girls, we are still in the process of editing. I’ll go back and update this blog once the photos are ready 🙂

Wedding Series: Bridal Nails

August 15, 2012August 20, 2012 ~ Lady C ~ Leave a comment

Hi beauty lovers,

We are finally back from getting married and going on our honeymoon 🙂

Now that I’ve got the house in order and our lives have gone back to normal, I want to share all my beauty experiences as a bride with you.

The first part of my wedding series will be on the nails. Here are mine below. I got these done professionally at Bellacures in Hollywood by the lovely Rebecca:

I came up with the idea and did it on my own about 8 months ago, but I knew I wanted a professional to execute it for my big day. I got the idea for the ring finger on Pinterest. It was in silver, but I wanted it done in gold so it would look like my rose gold engagement and wedding rings 🙂

This look was created with gel nail polish, and man did that stuff stay on! It lasted through the wedding, the entire honeymoon (including snorkel and swimming excursions) with a single chip or crack. I finally removed them the other day (17 days later!) simply because my nails were growing out.

HOW TO REMOVE GEL POLISH AT HOME: I soaked cotton balls in acetone and wrapped each one against my nail, then wrapped each finger up with aluminum foil and waited 10 minutes. I was able to easily scrape the polish off without much damage to my naturals.

I asked all of my lovely bridesmaids to do some form of nail art and they delivered. All the girls chose to incorporate my wedding colors, purple and teal, into their fun nail art designs! It was just so moving (to me) to see all these fun nail art designs on all my loved ones, because they all know how much I love crazy nail looks.

…And my mother SHOCKED me by getting a peach and silver glitter reverse-French nail design for her digits. I was SO excited to see this! Go Mom!

My Natural Beauty Bride

May 31, 2012August 20, 2012 ~ Lady C ~ 3 Comments

I’m here with my first bride of 2012, Mrs. Lisa Gonzalez. Lisa and her husband Dan tied the knot on April 14th and man, did Lisa looks stunning! Lisa has great skin and big beautiful hazel eyes so I was pretty excited to work with her- a makeup artist’s dream!

I love working with brides because each and every one has such different taste, and it gives me a chance to do all kinds of fun makeup. Lisa is pretty low maintenance on the daily with her makeup, and she wanted her natural beauty to shine on the big day.

I did a light dusting of airbrush foundation and used soft shades of peach for her cheeks and lips. I kept the eye shadows to a minimum on the eyes and brought out those hazel ojos with a sweep of black eyeliner, mascara and some very natural false eye lashes. Even if you have long lashes, falsies really bring out your eyes, especially in photos. I recommend them for every bride!

Here’s Flower Girl Sam helping Lisa with her earrings. So cute!

What an angel

Congrats Mr. & Mrs. Dan Gonzalez!