Autumn wedding

We headed down to the Mornington Peninsula on the weekend to attend a close friend's wedding. It was held in Mount Eliza, at the beautiful Morning Star Estate. The weather and venue were perfect - blue skies, rolling views of the ocean, never ending lush green gardens filled with roses as far as the eye could see.

This wedding kicked off the first of five weddings we have been invited to this year, so I saw it as a great opportunity to buy a new outift because although I have lots of formal dresses in my wardrobe, most or them are dark brown or black, and I thought a wedding in a rose garden deserves bright colour!

One of my best friends is a make up artist, and she kindly booked me in to the Napoleon Perdis shop she works in at Chadstone and one of her lovely co-workers made me up. It costs about $60 to get a full make up done in store, but the great thing is that you get to choose $60 worth of product to take home with you at the end. So you spend $60, get awesome Napoleon make up and a complete, high quality make over done.

The finished product (Ignore dodgy photoshopping of the garden behind me - I had to remove some wedding guests that were in the shot!)

You can't quite see it, but the make up artist did a semi-smoky eye using shades of champagne, pink and a dark bronze, with some black eyeliner used to smudge the colour in the corner of my eyes and along the eyeline. She also used a light bronzer on my cheeks instead of a pink tone blush because I wanted a more neutral bronze shade to blend with my olive skin colour. I also got some individual fake lashes put on the outer corners of my eyes to give them a little kick (side note: I may be addicted to false lashes - I bought a pack of them to experiement with at home for $15, which gave me about thirty of them). The lip gloss I used later on was a Face of Australia lip lacquer in a a dusty pinky brown tone (my go-to shade on most occasions).

I really recommend getting a proper make over done at least once a year for a special event. It makes you feel sassy and confident and you get to see what sort of new make up is out from different companies. The bonus of being able to choose products to take home with you is a really great way to stock up on special make up treats you wouldn't normally buy for yourself, and having good quality make up it definitely something every girl should aim for if possible. I know MAC also do the redeemable product thing, but I'm not sure who else does - can anyone recommend other places?

In case anyone is wondering, my hair was done by me, so it looked a little bedraggled by the end of the night! I have fairly long hair, so I washed and blow dryed with a big round brush that morning. When I got home from having my make up done, I used a medium sized curling wand (I haven't mastered the art of curling my hair with my GHD hair straightener just yet - thank goodness it comes with an instructional DVD) to curl my hair in small sections. I then gathered my hair into a low ponytail on the right side of my head and fastened it with a loose hair elastic. Then I used approximately 879856821 bobby pins to loosely fasten the sections of hair around and over the ponytail elastic to make it look like a low, messy bun. I left a couple of bits out on the right side of my head and pinned them back haphazardly to create a soft look around my face.

Now, let's talk fashion.

                                  

First of all, ignore the roundness at my belly, the wind blew in a particularly unflattering and suspicious looking direction! The dress was purchased last week at Kamikaze, an Australian clothing boutique that is Melbourne based. This dress was $160 and is also available in black. The cut is super flattering because the waistband sits just under the bust without being a complete empire line, potato sack dress. The skirt is lined and is cinched at the waist, but skims the hips without flaring too much. The satin didn't wrinkle at all and I felt comfortable and unconstricted all day and all evening.  You can move the bow around so that it fastens at the back over the zip, but I like the side option, it gives the look a little something extra. The earrings are diamanté cheapies from Diva, that I wore a couple of years ago as a bridesmaid and  my shoes are these ones from Chinese Laundry, but they were purchased at Myer about four years ago (I'm of the opinion that every girl needs a fantastic pair of black, gold and silver heels because they go with nearly everything and she will wear them again and again because they never go out of style).

Oh, and my sunglasses are fake Dolce and Gabbana, purchased from a street vendor in Mauritius on our honeymoon last year. The huge rhinestones totally make them look legit.

Lastly, I just want to sing the praises of Kamikaze clothing boutique, where I have shopped on numerous occasions. I purchased this dress from the Clarendon St. store in South Melbourne, and it's always a nice environment to shop in. The sales assistants are welcoming, but not too pushy and they always give you their full attention when helping you out. Quite often they'll suggest accessories to go with whatever you're trying on, but they never force things onto you if you politely refuse them. The clothing there is always a classic cut and style, and the sizing is for real women (ie. not teeny tiny, ridiculous made in China styles where a size 12 is actually a triple XL or something stupid) because it's all Australian made, which I love. There are locations in South Melbourne, Elsternwick, Moonee Ponds and Williamstown. They have great styles all year round for everyday workwear and formal occasions. Check it out if you have time (the website doesn't show a lot of the collection, it's more of a highlight - stop into the shop and you will be pleasantly surprised at the variety of styles that are always available in blacks, browns, greys and gorgeous bright colours).

Oh, one thing about attending a garden wedding is that you're out in the sun for a while. If you are super pale like me, stop in at your local bargain shop and buy a cute Asian parasol to keep the sun off you while you enjoy the ceremony. It adds a quirky element to your ensemble and keeps you nice and cool. This one cost me six bucks.

                                

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