Wedding Flowers with Silk Blooms

Photo by Helen Burnham

I wasn't that fussed about flowers for the wedding, to be honest, and I wasn't even going to bother.  But, after three sets of parents (look, it's complicated, okay?) asked what we were having, we realised that maybe flowers were a bigger deal than we'd realised and we did some investigating.

Picture by Priya Sonn

I knew all along that having a February wedding meant my options for real flowers would be limited, and that not getting married till later on the day would limit those options further (cut flowers start to die from the moment they are picked, and need careful handling to look their best if you're not getting married early morning) so I was always at least vaguely interested in silk flowers.

After doing a great deal of googling in the months running up to the ceremony, I discovered Silk Blooms,  who had by far the largest range of purple bouquets, and at extremely reasonable prices to boot.  I did some checking of their reviews, and they were unanimously positive, which gave me some peace of mind - especially as I was ordering the flowers rather late, all things considered!  Note to self: for next time, order flowers when there's more than a month before the ceremony)

Anyway, the bouquet I decided on, the Lesley, is, perhaps, somewhat more traditional than I think I would have picked had I gone for a white dress - I was interested in a long "spray" of purple orchids originally, but I realised that the drama of it would have been lost against my magenta dress - I think the mix of white roses and purple tulips (I do love me a tulip) worked well with the colour of my dress:

Picture by Priya Sonn

Overall, I can't fault the service from Silk Blooms at all, they dealt with my rather vague instructions exceedingly well (the question "can I have silver ribbon please?" elicited a choice of no less than five different wrappings to choose from, completete with links, and suggestions) and they were also  extremely helpful when I realised a couple of days later that I needed more buttonholes too.  The flowers were despatched very quickly, and arrived in perfect condition - everybody loved them!  Mums in particular loved their matching corsages.  On the day they garnered lots of compliments from the guests, and quite a few people were stunned when they realised they weren't "real"!

I like M&Ms.  Shush.

I love the fact that if I'd have needed the flowers in a different colour, Silk Blooms could custom-dye the flowers if I could tell them a Dulux colour shade that matched what I wanted, which is very handy if you need something a little different!  They also sent a little email (and not a form one, either) on the day of the wedding to wish us luck too, which I thought was a very lovely touch.

Best of all, I have a permanent keepsake of my day which looks as good now as it did then, and so do the wedding party who all had corsages, buttonholes and  bouquets of their own, in a matching design.  I currently keep my bouquet on my desk, and I'm planning to fill the vase with hundreds of aurora borealis crystals to make it even more of a feature.  Silk Blooms also do a selection of flowers for the home too, and we're thinking of investing in a couple of arrangements to put around the place as they have some fabulous ones, both modern and traditional.

What do you think of silk flowers?  I know some people really hate the idea, but I think if they're done well, no one need ever know!  I admit to being surprised at how much I liked my bouquet, and deeply surprised at how glad I am now to have even bothered with them, too. Thank you, Silk Blooms!

The Fine Print:  Purchases - Silk Blooms had no idea who I was, or if I was going to write about them (I genuinely wasn't planning to, but so many people have asked about them) - their excellent customer service comes as standard.
 
This post: Wedding Flowers with Silk Blooms originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

Honeymoon Makeup Bag

I didn't want to take a huge amount of products with me to Paris last week, so broke out a tiny sampling of tried and trusted favourites, and new bits that needed a good testing, and made do with one - ONE! - lipstick whilst I was there.  I figured, hey, it's Paris, there's a Sephora on the doorstep if it all goes wrong!

Luckily,  it didn't.  Here's what I took:

Clockwise from bottom left:
DJV Beautenizer Volume Lash Mascara: I get mine from Cult Beauty, it's simply the best tubing mascara I've used.  I love it.  I occasionally use it in conjunction with the same company's Fibrewig mascara which is better for lengthening, and hey, I get to sing Fibrewig to the Spiderpig theme for the rest of the day...

Clinique Chubby Stick for Eyes in LotsO' Latte and Fuller Fudge:  Both taupe-ish shades, though Fuller fudge has a touch more orange/copper in the mix.  These are simple, and easy to use, and are very silky to apply without dragging.  They take a bit of building up though, and I discovered that they do need a primer underneath or they crease and fade quite badly (albeit slowly).  I like them, but I don't love them, to be honest, I think I'd like them more if they were slightly more pigmented, and (ironically) a bit thinner.  I may try some of the less neutral shades and see how I like those.  

Daylight

Flash

Chantecaille Just Skin Tinted Moisturiser in Glow: I love this.  I need a back up.  It's nourishing and gives good buildable courage with just a hint of a sheen.  It makes my skin look amazing.  I need a back up (possibly in a slightly lighter shade), did I mention that?

Illamasqua Liquid Liner in Abyss: My holy grail liquid liner.  This one is nearly dead after almost two years of almost-daily usage.  I need a replacement.

Green People Mineral Powder Blush in Peach (with Louise Young blusher brush): This is a delightfully soft blusher that gives you a slight glow without shimmer.  Very natural looking, and not too much on the orange side.

  
And finally: Givenchy Le Rouge in Carmin Escarpin: I'm a shallow so-and-so, and, I have to admit, that I mainly packed this because it's an extremely stylish lipstick, clad in chrome and leather, and, well ... Givenchy were kind enough to send me a sample that had been engraved with my name:

Who can resist such luxury?  Luckily for Givenchy (and the Lippie mush), the formula is a winner too.  Lightweight and matte, with great slip, it's a fabulous red lipstick, which felt perfectly at home in Paris! Lasting time is about average for such a bright colour, but reapplying is no real hardship, let's face it!

There we have it, seven products and a brush.  What would you take on holiday with you?
 
The Fine Print: Mixture of PR Samples, purchases and re-purchases, with more re-purchases to come.

This post: Honeymoon Makeup Bag originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

#LippieWedding!

Photo by Priya Sonn (stunned-mullet faces, all our own work)

Well, the wedding was on Saturday, and, we had the best day. Seriously, the loveliest, funniest day ever. We were blessed with great weather, good friends, and getting to share our day with the people we love was an amazing experience!  And there was cake.  LOTS of cake!

Photo by Helen Burnham

There is no real post today, or this week really (I'll be back on a regular posting schedule next week) but I wanted to share a couple of our pictures with you and say a heartfelt thanks to some of the people who helped make yesterday so special:

In no particular order:

MakeUpByKaty who did brilliant makeup, and was wonderful company in the hours before the ceremony
Naomi at Neville Salon who does the best blow dries I've ever had.  EVER.  (full review soon!)
Helen & Caroline for sorting out the hen party, and allowing me not to ever worry about it.
Amy at The Beauty Slice for dragging herself out of her sickbed and making my family look wonderful.
Lovely's Vintage Emporium, where we found the most beautiful vintage wedding jewellery
Fushigi Shop, who designed, and made the beautiful gifts for the wedding party
Jack Howard for being best colourist ever, and a really good friend too.
Sheenie, who made the cupcakes, and Jane who made the wedding cake, all of which were so good people were having seconds (and thirds!)
There's also Sheonaidh, who is one of the best friends a girl ever had.  Especially to a bad-tempered unreliable midget  like myself. Thank you for being with me during the collywobbles.
Of course, big thanks to Priya Sonn for being a fun and wonderful wedding photographer. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the official shots!
There's also our friends and our families, too numerous to mention individually, who all came together on Saturday and made it such a warm, fun and friendly day.  You guys rock, and we're lucky to know all of you! 

Photo by Selena Peters

 

 

And finally, to my husband, who has my heart, is in my soul, is my partner-in-crime, and is always my best friend, even when I don't deserve it.  Being the partner of a dedicated beauty blogger isn't an easy thing, but, Matthew, thank you for always letting me have the run of the cupboard space. I love you.
 
This post: #LippieWedding! originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

Wedding Preparation - My Current Skincare Regime

Spending a lot of time worrying about a) my skin, b) breaking my nails, and c) my wedding perfume at the moment.  The wedding is eleven days away now (seriously, where the hell has the year since we got engaged gone?), and I thought I'd share some of my routines with you. Nails and perfume will come later, but for today, I'm focusing on skincare.

All I want on the day is clear, soft, glowing skin, no spots, no irritated reddened patches, and no rashes.  So, alongside some cast-iron tried and trusted favourites that can't be beaten, and that I know give results without irritation, I've taken a few actives out of my routine, and swapped them for gentler formulations.  Above you can see my AM and PM routine, which I'll take you through product by product:

Aromatherapy Associates Soothing Cleansing Balm:  My skin can get a little irritated when there are too many essential oils in  my routine, but this is an absolute delight to use, not too scented, it has excellent slip, and I do indeed find it very soothing.  I use this as my PM cleanser, as a tiny pea-sized dollop from the tube (and how much do I love that it has a tube dispenser?  A LOT, is the answer) allows me to both get rid of even the most heavy-duty makeup, and give myself a good facial massage at the same time.  My skin is left calm and glowing after I use this, with no redness.  Result!

Elemental Herbology Delicate Cleanse: I use this gently rose-scented cleansing milk in the mornings, alongside one of my beloved Washi Cloths. It's gentle, and not too bracing, which is just what you want in the mornings.  Unlike many cream-cleansers,  I don't find this drying in the least, and when I want a less-oily cleanse these days, this is the cleanser I increasingly reach for.

Clarins Gentle Exfoliator: I am of the age where I do need some actives in my routine, but at the moment, I am a bit scared of over-stimulating my skin, which can lead to increased redness, and scaly patches when I've overdone something in my routine.  The Clarins Gentle Exfoliator contains glycolic acid, an ingredient I love, but find extremely easy to overdose on, particularly when using it in products containing a higher amount of the acid.  Lactic, and malic acids actually suit my skin better, but this watery fluid has "buffered" the glycolic with other ingredients such as glycerin, which means you still get a light exfoliation effect, but without any drying. I find it suits my crazy-sensitive skin very well, and is non-irritating. I use this every morning, and then immediately follow it with a spray of

Balance Me Skin Bright Hydrating Face Mist: Chock-full of hyaluronic acid, this gently-scented spray soothes away any tingles left behind by the exfoliating toner, and gives my skin an immediate hydration boost.  It's nice to use during the day too, and makes an excellent setting spray for makeup, owing to the, quite frankly, excellent spray nozzle which sprays s l o w l y over a wide area, meaning it's not a rude awakening to spray yourself in the face!  I use this both AM and PM.

Darphin Camomile Oil: I'm very rarely without a bottle of this. For my reddened and easily sensitised skin, it is a super-healing miracle in a bottle.  I use it as a serum both night and day, no matter what other products I'm wearing, and I find it healing, soothing, and also moisturising.  This is a great choice of oil for anyone with troubled skin, and I recommend it to people left, right and centre. This is my third bottle, and I find a bottle lasts for at least a year (I tend to only use it once a day in summer), so, whilst initially spendy, on a cost per wear basis, it's cheap as chips.  I have a backup too, from Decleor, as I tend to flip-flop between the two brands for my essential oil requirements.

Kate Somerville Goat Milk Cream: This turns up  in every skincare routine I do.  Why? It works.  This is my fourth jar, and I am madder than a wet hen that Kate Somerville has been withdrawn from the UK.  Once this jar goes though, I've sworn to try something else, any suggestions?  I have my eye on the "Gentle" range from Clarins at the moment, but I'm open to ideas!

And because wedding preparation isn't limited to merely the bride, here's some products I've forced suggested MrLippie starts to use too:

 
Here we have Facial Radiance Pads from First Aid Beauty, which are great acidic pads (mixture of gycolic and lactic, with lemon and licorice too) perfect for his slightly troubled yet less sensitive skin than mine, which is helping to both even out his skintone and deal with his (occasional) breakouts gently, and Melvita Argan Oil, as his moisturiser after peeling, which again is perfect for his less sensitive skin, and also comes in a nice big bottle which favours his rather heavy-handed application style! 

Hopefully we'll both be glowing on the big day!
        
The Fine Print: Mixture of purchases and samples.

This post:Wedding Preparation - My Current Skincare Regime originated at: Get Lippie on 6th February 2013 at 6am GMT.  All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

Wedding Hair

Wedding update:

Done:
 
Bought the dress
Found the shoes
Printed the invitations
Re-printed the invitations owing to original venue closing down
Gone on the diet (a necessary evil, alas - if you're wondering why you haven't seen my face on the blog recently, it's because all my photos currently scream FAT)
Decided on the colour scheme (which is purple, grey and silver)
Considered strangling the person who told me that I can't eat my own wedding cake
Considered stranging the person who told me I can't have have artificial flowers in my bouquet
Got fed up with jewellers who don't reply to emails, to the extent where I'm refusing to work with an "artisan" ever again, and am regretting ever deciding to work with an independent jeweller at all.
Decided on the wedding perfume
Had the wedding perfume vetoed by the groom
Considered strangling the groom for having terrible taste in perfume
Booked the band
Made a deal with a local hotel


NOT Done:
Finalised the guest list
Sent the invitations out
Set the menu
Decided whether we're having speeches or not.
Sorted out the hen-party invitees
Decided whether I'm booking a make-up artist or not
Booked a series of facials
A million* other things.


What I have been doing instead of concentrating on things not done is got a bit obsessed with hair.  It started with a blog post from Kelly at Hair Advice & All Things Nice showing a picture of Kate Middleton's (I know, I know) braided bun recently, and since then I've been collecting pictures of updos like a woman obsessed, I've even set up a Pinterest page for them!  I don't want anything too sleek or structured, but I know I need an updo, because the wedding is in February, and I need something that won't droop or blow around if the weather is awful.  Someone pointed out that I have a very rectangular face (gee, thanks), so I need a bit of width and softness to offset this. 


For a look at my current obsessions, take a look at: http://pinterest.com/getlippie/hair-inspiration, now I just need a hairdresser who can work with my crazy hair!


* Probably.  At this moment in time, I'm actually getting a bit bored of wedding planning.  Heresy, eh?


This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Lippie Wedding Update - We Need Help!

 Nothing really goes smoothly during wedding planning, hmn?  At this time last week, we had everything set, the ceremony was booked, the reception was booked, the invites were printed, the guest list was drawn up, the cakes had been ordered, the photographer booked, the hairdresser arranged, the bouquet picked out, the band arranged, practically everything! Not to mention that I had literally just bought my wedding dress!

Then, a week ago today, we got  the email (well, one them, anyway) that every about-to-be married couple dreads. Our reception venue has gone bust, and can no longer honour our booking.  Now, on the one hand, we're very lucky, we still have nine months left to arrange everything , and we hadn't had to pay a deposit, so financially we haven't really lost out - okay, we have lost the money on our now useless invitations though, but we'll live - but I can't even begin to express what a kick in the teeth having to start the planning stages all over again is.  I'm heartbroken, truly.  Especially when you consider that it took me FIVE attempts just to book a damn register office!


The major problem is that our budget is very, very tight, and our guest list is long - we're having a tiny ceremony, and having only one reception that everyone is going to, no wedding breakfast, just one big party for all of our friends - so this is where you guys come in.  We need help finding a venue for our wedding reception.  I'm begging you, please help me out.


Here's what we need from the venue:


DATE:

February 16th 2013


MUST:

be able to hold 150-200 people - standing buffet-style, not all-seated.
allows live music - we already have a band arranged
allow children - just a few, but it's non-negotiable
have a minimal hire charge - we can guarantee a (very) healthy minimum spend on the night, but if one more venue gets in touch saying "Hey, we're cheap" only for me to discover that their hire charge starts at £3,500 to hire for the evening,  I will cry.  More than happy to pay a deposit too, by the way.
be in West London - we are getting married at 4pm, so travelling across London at that time won't be fun!  Chelsea/Kensington/Fulham/Hammersmith/Shepherds Bush area as a first choice, but we will consider further afield if the need arises.
Can either cater, or allow us to bring in our own food

Basically what we want is a bar, a nice comfortable bar that will let us take over the place for the evening, and let us do our own thing, essentially.  No formal wedding meal, no bloody toastmasters directing the "ceremonies",  nothing too formal.  What we're keen to avoid is a community hall, or a more traditional "wedding banquet" venue. Well, at the moment, we are, anyway!


So, please get in touch with wedding@getlippie.com if you think you can help, or if you can put me in touch with someone who can help, we'll be ever so grateful!  

I got in touch with FIFTEEN venues last week myself, do you know how many replied to my simple request for information?  One.  ONE.  There's a recession on, don't people want to take my money?

This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Engagement Bling II - Monica Vinader Mini Luna

I was devastated when the original engagement rings MrLippie and I had decided on turned out to be ... not as high in quality as we would have liked, two of them kept dulling, and marking my finger, so, it was with some regret that we decided to replace them.  I'd had my eye on the rings at Monica Vinader for a while, and initially had my heart set on the Medina Faceted ring in Labradorite, but, when we got to the store yesterday, it just looked wrong on my tiny, stumpy fingers, we we went for the Mini Luna ring in labradorite instead (which is the one on the left in the photo above).  But, because I never do things in halves (I'm an accountant, I fear fractions), we had to buy the amethyst version too ...

Personally, I love the chequerboard faceting on both rings, 

And the hammered finish on the bands:

 I also love how snugly the bands fit together, too.  Making them extremely comfortable to wear.


Best of all, when we were instore on Saturday, Monica Vinader had an engraver in-store, so MrLippie had one of them inscribed:

It reads: "Love Without Limit"

As they're stacking rings, I've been able to add one of the rings from my original set back to these two, here's how I've been wearing them recently:

And, because I've found it next to impossible to capture the blue flash in the Labradorite ring with my "real" camera, here's a bonus instagram pic (from the iphone) that does capture it:

I love these rings!  And, best of all, there's an entire store FULL of bits and bobs to mix and match with.


Yes, M, that is a hint ...  Oh, and Monica Vinader have an engraver in-store every Saturday ...


More wedding stuff soon, lots going on!

This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.