We are so excited to introduce you to our Ask Sabrina blog! As the premier on-location wedding hair and makeup studio in Arizona you can only imagine how many questions we receive from brides-to-be seeking tips for their wedding day. We are so happy to be be able to share those questions and answers with you as well. Ask Sabrina will publish the second and fourth Mondays of each month. If you have a question that you would like answered just email us at media@babydollweddings.com and we will ask Sabrina and answer you via the blog!
This week’s question (and our inaugural one) comes from Stacey K. in Chandler. Stacey asks:
What is the truth about a bride wearing more makeup than normal on her wedding day?
Stacey, and all brides-to-be, this is a great question! We know that you have concerns about feeling and looking overly made-up for your wedding but there are a few factors we need to consider – the length of your day and photography/videography.
First, we all get up in the morning, go through our AM routine and head out to work. I don’t know about you but my makeup looks wilted by noon (earlier if its 115 degrees in the blazing AZ sun – your makeup literally melts off your face, right?) and it never looks fresh when I get home after work. Your wedding day is going to be as long as your work day, and that’s just the ceremony and reception portion! Your makeup may look a little heavy to you but it will get you through your first look to your last dance.
Second, any photographer/videographer will tell you to make sure your features are a little exaggerated so that you don’t look washed out on camera. You can’t repeat this day and we want to be sure that it is perfect. As always, we take our cues from you so should you feel that your look is too heavy, we will talk with you about alternatives to ensure you feel natural and beautiful as you walk down the aisle.
Here at Babydoll Weddings the work and play never stop! Among the busy wedding season we were invited to participate in a gown shoot for Arizona Weddings’ newest issue (on news stands). It was a treat to be able to work some of the best wedding professionals in the industry as well as being able to have fun with them at the drop party a few weeks later. We are so excited to feature some of our favorites from that shoot and being able to show off the marvelous work of our artists and of those of all the vendors that were a part of the team.
With inspiration taken from the Spanish Colonial mixed with soft pinks and greens and a touch of some classic elements made this styled shoot a joy to be a part of. If you are a bride with more of a classic taste but still wanting a touch of bright colors or is wanting more of subtle details than you will be in love with everything about this shoot! Read more below!
As some of you may know the past three months for Babydoll Weddings has been quite hectic. With weddings, events and photoshoots; we’ve barely had time to breathe. Now we’ve been able to sit back, take a breath and dig into all of the newest issues of the magazines, look at all of the submitted wedding photos and the all of the gorgeous shots from the photo shoots. We have chosen our favorite shots from the photoshoot we were able to participate in for AZ Finest Weddings magazine at The Carefree Resort and we are so excited to share them with you!
Shots filled with deep oranges and soft pinks set against a beautiful backdrop of cacti and desert scenery made for a dreamy desert wedding. Delicate lace sleeves on a floor length gown and details of pearls and twine really made this styled shoot a mix of desert and romance. It was so hard to pick our favorites! Read more below and be sure to pick up a copy of the magazine today!
We had the great privilege of being a part of a styled shoot at the CopperWynd Resort thanks to Arizona Weddings. It is such a wonderful thing to work with such talented and kind individuals in the wedding industry. StepOnMe Photography captured all of these gorgeous shots with a stunning backdrop of the McDowell Mountains and with details of desert plants, gold and a lace gown to die for; needless to say it is a styled shoot bursting with inspiration for a desert wedding.
Our featured Real Bride for April is Julie who was married last March. She had such a fun wedding with some elements of Irish tradition and adorable ring bears!
What is your name and when was your wedding date?
My name is Julie Kotzbach and we were married on March 14, 2015
How did you and your groom meet?
Mike and I used to work together at a restaurant. He was a bartender and I waited tables. One days, after about 5 years of sort of knowing each other, he invited me to go hang out with him after work with some of his friends. I did. We hung out again a couple days later, and then started spending every day together. We got married just after 8 ½ years of dating.
We are dying to know, how did he propose?!
Mike proposed on Christmas Eve at my dad’s house. It was my dad’s birthday and we do Christmas with that side of my family the same day. Everyone was there. My dad and step-mom totally knew, and I had no idea. My dad called me into the living room (everyone was sitting around the room since we just opened presents), Mike snuck up behind me, my dad spun me around, and BAM! Mike was on one knee.
After he proposed lots of things that he’d said and had happened earlier in the day made total sense. He’s a sneaky little devil. I called my mom to tell her right away, but she already knew. Mike had gone to see my dad the week before to ask permission, and had gone to see my mom to tell her since she wouldn’t be there when it happened. He’s thoughtful like that.
What were your wedding colors? Did you have an overall theme for your wedding day celebration?
Our colors were grey and green. There wasn’t a theme per say. We found colors we liked, loved the space, and just kind of went with how I felt about everything. I guess maybe our paper gardenias became the theme since they took over our lives for a few months. Haha.
How large was our wedding party?
We had 4 bridesmaids, 2 groomsmen, 1 groomsmaid, 2 flower girls, and 2 ring bearers.
Where did you find yourdress? Would you say that finding your dress was a relatively easy or a difficult process?
I got my dress at David’s Bridal in Ahwatukee, it was the first and only store we went to. The consultant I had was great. I showed her all the David’s dresses I liked, but I should have shown her all my pictures. I tried on 4 dresses. The 3rd was a tea dress and I went in with the mindset that a tea dress was what I wanted. However, I wanted to like a long dress to compare. I put the dress and didn’t want to take it off. Surprising I went to my would-be dress pictures later, and the one I ended up getting was really similar to another once I had been looking at. Go figure.
Where did your ceremony and reception take place? Was there any special meaning behind the choice of venue(s)? We had our ceremony and reception at Chapel at the Farm in Gilbert. I had been looking for a venue and was starting to feel like I had to have a certain type of wedding. It sucked. I found Chapel and went over to the site. Then I realized I’d been there many times before. My mom and I have breakfast often at the little restaurant in front of the area. The moment I walked under the pavilion I immediately relaxed. This was the place. It was pretty, open, there was a big grass area for the kids, and we could make the space whatever we wanted.
What kind of flowers did you have in your bouquet and the ceremony/ reception?
Oh the flowers. My amazing friends came over to our house for 2 months before the wedding and helped me assemble 300 paper gardenias for the entire wedding. They were amazing when they were finished!
What was the flavor of your wedding cake? Did you have a groom’s cake?
We ended up not having a groom’s cake, even though I tried to talk Mike into getting a 1995 Chevy cake. Our cake had 3 tiers and we did a different flavor for each tier. The bottom was almond cake with almond buttercream. (I’m normally not into almond all the much, but the cake was amazing. We tried it at our tasting and I was surprised at how yummy it was!) The middle tier was chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, and the top tier was vanilla cake with salted caramel filling. We had buttercream for the outer layer with a simple white on white design. The whole thing was totally delicious! We may have had cake for breakfast the next day.
Did you provide favors to your guests? If so, what were they?
Since we got married on Pi Day, I decided to have a little fun with it. I made mini recipe cards of some family pie recipes and other recipes pie recipes I loved, and turned then them into a mini cookbook with a binder ring.
What details from your wedding that made it unique to you?
The flowers were A LOT of work but they meant a lot to me, and spending that extra time with my friends was fun. I made 2 flavors of popcorn, packed in Chinese take-out boxes, the night before the wedding for cocktail hour. I love making popcorn. A blogger friend made custom peg dolls for our cake toppers, complete with flat top for make. One of my favorite things was leaving the wedding in Mike’s 1955 Chevy. He’d worked for a month to get her back in action so we could drive her home from the wedding. The other big thing was, the lead piper from our bagpipe band played me down the aisle. Mike chose the song. His sister walked down the aisle to it, when his dad passed they played it, and now he was welcoming me to the family with the same song. It was a big deal to me.
Other than marrying your husband, what was your favorite moment from your wedding day? There are two moments. The first was the Best Man’s speech. Kyle was so funny and sweet, and he had the whole thing memorized. Apparently there’s a 12 minute version of the speech I’m dying to hear. The second was at the after party. One of our bagpiper friends dedicated a song to me before the boys started playing their set. He never plays this song in public, it’s only for very close friends and family special occasions. It was a great song, and I was so flattered he thought to gift me that way.
Did you take a honeymoon? If so, where did you go?
We are hoping to honeymoon in Vegas for our anniversary.
What is one piece of wisdom you learned from your planning experience that you would like to share with future brides?Drama will happen, you can’t control it, don’t let it suck you in. We had a lot of back and forth with the guest list. Due to venue and budget limitations we were inviting family only. We managed to sneak in a few longtime friends after getting some no RSVPs back. There were people that got upset that their invitation came before another family member’s and vice versa. If anyone (moms, dads, etc.) start pushing you about RSVPs, put them on the job. If they want to know so badly, they can find out and report back to you. It added a lot of stress I didn’t need, so I made it someone else’s problem. Put them on the wedding team and make ‘em work!
Who were some of the other vendors that were a part of your dream team?
Hair and Makeup – Babydoll Weddings
I cannot say enough great stuff about Sabrina (and her staff)!! She’s amazing! My bridal trial was great. I had no idea how to explain what I wanted. I showed Sabrina some pics and she took it from there. She talked me into my first salon hair coloring ever and killed it! My hair and makeup day of was perfect. My curls lasted all day, which is unheard of, and I felt beautiful.
Dress – David’s Bridal Bride’s rings
Gemvara (online) – Groom’s ring
The Irish Jeweler (online) – Finding the right claddaghs (rings) was hard, but a little searching left Mike and I both happy. I had to custom order his ring from Dublin and the jeweler was awesome!
Cake – Piece of Cake Desserts
Rentals & Catering – Heidi’s Events & Catering (Jillian was so great to work with)
DJ – Cerrick Entertainment (Crissy kicks ass!!)
Photo Booth – AZ Photo Box (had a thumb drive of all the pics, photo strips and individual pics, to take home with us that night!)
Thank you so much Julie and Mike for sharing your special day with us! It was a honor to be included!
Recently we joined forces with Strut Bridal. A local (now one in California) bridal dress store that specializes in plus sizes and dresses made for full figure ladies. We planned a photoshoot to show off the beauty of the dresses as well as the talents of the Babydoll stylists. It went swimmingly (I mean I still cannot believe how well this photoshoot went) and I have been sitting here anxiously waiting the photos (and for those who know me, that is incredibly difficult for I have the patience of a 5 year old). But then, finally, finally, they arrived! (It really didn’t take that long).
I am first so incredibly proud of the ladies of Babydoll who worked on the models. Sabrina, Amanda, Micky and Charly; all whom are lead stylists and all whom are incredibly talented and have their own unique style that really shines through in these pictures. Secondly, I cannot thank Anne and Ashely of Strut Bridal enough for joining forces with us and providing the dresses and some of the best models and ladies I’ve had the pleasure of working with. I also have to thank Ben of Ben and Kelly Photography for capturing these images. It’s hard enough for me to articulate my ideas sometimes so the fact that Ben was able to create and make what I saw in my head a reality is amazing and so grateful for him and his talents.
It’s hard to explain the feelings of seeing something like this photoshoot come to life and be everything you wanted. The joy of it is incredible! There was this precious brain child of a photoshoot that Sabrina and I had. We saw a need and we wanted that need to be filled. A need that has been needed to be filled for quite some time. We just hope that we are able to accomplish that with these photos. We want to promote full figured ladies and the body positive moment. We want to help change the industry and the thoughts that every women can fit into a size 2 wedding dress. But really, most importantly, we just want every woman, no matter her size or shape feel drop dead gorgeous in a wedding dress.
Alright, now that my Grammy speech of thank you’s is over let me give you some back story to how this all started. Rewind to about late summer. Sabrina, the owner and I were attending an open house. We started talking to two ladies, Ann and Ashley from Strut Bridal. A dress store (two locations now!) specializing in plus sizes of bridal and formal dresses in which Ann owns and Ashley is her right hand lady; very similar to Sabrina and I. Maybe that’s why we hit it off the way we did; but no matter how we hit it off I am so happy we did!
We stood there talking about the wedding industry and why we all loved it but there were some things that didn’t sit right with us. One of those being the lack of full figured women in magazines, advertisements, etc. After Sabrina and I got over our shock of this being true the feeling of disappointment sunk in. Not every bride can fit into a dress size is a 2 and when a store doesn’t even carry her size the frustration and sadness that comes with that is unimaginable. As we continued talking and as this news sunk in I wanted to change people’s outlook on wedding dresses and full figured women. I wanted to change the magazines’ outlook of full figured women in wedding dresses. I swear sometimes Sabrina and I share a brain, especially when she said exactly what I was thinking. We both wanted to change the minds and promote the beauty of any and every women.
After a meeting and a few months of planning this brain child of our’s was born. A brain child of a photoshoot set in the beautiful halls and rooms of Cheatau Luxe. A brain child of a shoot with four full figured models, all in dresses from Strut, each one unique in shape, color and material. A brain child that lets Babydoll stylists have full creative control and create a look all their own; a look that shows off their talents. A brain child that celebrates the full figured frame, the creativity of the artists and hopefully a brain child that can hopefully change some opinions. And I am so excited to share it all with you! Stay tuned.
How did you and your groom meet?
ias became the theme since they took over our lives for a few months. Haha.
op for make. One of my favorite things was leaving the wedding in Mike’s 1955 Chevy. He’d worked for a month to get her back in action so we could drive her home from the wedding. The other big thing was, the lead piper from our bagpipe band played me down the aisle. Mike chose the song. His sister walked down the aisle to it, when his dad passed they played it, and now he was welcoming me to the family with the same song. It was a big deal to me.
There are two moments. The first was the Best Man’s speech. Kyle was so funny and sweet, and he had the whole thing memorized. Apparently there’s a 12 minute version of the speech I’m dying to hear. The second was at the after party. One of our bagpiper friends dedicated a song to me before the boys started playing their set. He never plays this song in public, it’s only for very close friends and family special occasions. It was a great song, and I was so flattered he thought to gift me that way.
I cannot say enough great stuff about Sabrina (and her staff)!! She’s amazing! My bridal trial was great. I had no idea how to explain what I wanted. I showed Sabrina some pics and she took it from there. She talked me into my first salon hair coloring ever and killed it! My hair and makeup day of was perfect. My curls lasted all day, which is unheard of, and I felt beautiful.
