Look (And Feel!) Great for Your June Wedding!

Jett makes sure he drinks enough water.

I'm getting married in June! Here are 10 ways I'm making sure I look and feel my best by next month!

1. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. As the wedding date comes closer, the pre-wedding jitters are going to start setting in. Water keeps every system in your body working at its best! It will also keep your skin clear if anxiety makes you break out. 

2. Sleep. Sounds easy, right? Well, not really. We are so busy getting ready for the wedding and, if you're like me, you're going to want to make sure that everything is perfect. That doesn't make for very good sleep. But, if you make sure you get between 7 and 8 hours of good sleep every night, you will feel better and, by extension, look better. Do not sacrifice your sleep!

Jett and Dorian definitely get enough sleep.

Dorian loves yoga to keep his tone!

3. Tone. I'm in decent shape; not perfect, but alright. But even if you're small, you can still look not quite "good," if that makes sense. If you want to look good (at any weight), tone. Don't just quit eating and think that will take care of it--that's the worst thing you can do! Lift light weights, do lunges, dance, walk, swim, do yoga; all of this will help tone your body. Let's face it: we're a month away from June--not a lot of (healthy) body changes can be made right now. But anyone at any weight can tone up a little bit! Toning helps your body look better and any exercise helps your emotional state--gotta love those endorphins!

4. Eat healthy foods. I would just like to start out with a disclaimer: I am not a dietician. That being said, it is common knowledge that the more processed your foods are, the less good for you they are. Get fresh fruits and veggies, whole grain breads and pastas, and cut back on the processed sugars. My biggest weakness is chocolate chips (they're so small--how could they hurt me?! haha). I am doing my best to cut way back on eating those. The more unnatural chemicals you keep out of your brain, the better your brain will function, and the better you will feel! 

Also: check your portion size. I realized that yesterday I accidentally ate two servings of quinoa instead of one just because I didn't read the package. Don't eat more than you need to--eating too much makes you feel sluggish and tired.

5. De-stress. Easy for me to say, right? If you're stressed, your wedding photos are going to have worry lines all over them! Well, not really! But the little baggies under your eyes and your skin not looking as good as it could will definitely be real.

Dorian and Jett both like watching TV to de-stress.

6. Tan. With a bottle. Do not go outside and try to cook yourself to get the right "bronzed" or "sun-kissed" look. You're just going to fry your skin (and your hair) and 90% of the time, you won't get it even anyway. And it's Skin Cancer Awareness Month and if you're outside getting cancer for your wedding, you're defeating the purpose. 

If you're going to tan, invest in a good spray tan. Yes, they're on the pricier end of things, but it's worth it. However. Do it at least 24 hours before your wedding (but not more than 48 hours). You do not want orange on your beautiful white dress. That would be devastating. 

Along with this, if you go to the pool before your wedding, wear sunscreen. The last thing you want is tan lines in the wrong place on your wedding day.

Jett thinks he knows what's appropriate
when it comes to hair products.

7. Do a hair trim/color the week before. This example is brought to you by the movie "Bride Wars." We all remember when Anne Hathaway's character switched the dye for Kate Hudson's character and Kate ended up with blue hair. The only reason that was not a complete disaster is that it was a week before the wedding. If you dye or cut your hair the day before or the day of your wedding while you're having your hair done, you might be in for a very unhappy day. 

8. Get the hairstyle appropriate for your wedding style. Now this sounds kind of stupid, but think about it: if you have a 4pm wedding, should you have a formal up-do? If you have a beach wedding should you have a hairstyle that cannot deal with wind? If you have a 7pm wedding should you have beach waves in your hair? If you're planning on doing photos outside in the summer sun, should you have your hair down so that it makes you sweat and get greasy? 

The correct answer to all of those is "no." If you want your hair up, make sure it's appropriate. I have a 4pm ceremony with photos outside beforehand. A beautiful formal up-do is inappropriate and out of the question. Yes, it's pretty. No, it doesn't fit. A low chignon or loose bun with some loose curls is appropriate. For the beach, if you have long hair, sure, it's the perfect time to have those gorgeous beach waves. But, can you handle your hair blowing around? A half-up style is probably the best for you, or if you want it up, a messy bun is perfect. 

This is the area that, having looked at a lot of wedding photos lately, I feel has the most disconnect and leaves the most to be desired, even if it's a beautiful style.

9. Best shoes = wedges. Some ladies go for the glitz and glam when it comes to shoes. If you can stay vertical on those things for 8 hours (and walk down the aisle without tipping over), go for it. But I've seen a ton of brides with beautiful shoes who kick them off halfway through the evening. Knowing what I pay for shoes, I don't feel like that's a good investment. However, going with cute ballet flats or flip flops gives you zero height. 

As a 5'3" bride, I would like height, but I can't stay in stilettos all day. Also, heels are incredibly impractical for photos outside if you're in grass. Nobody wants their heel sticking in the ground and getting dirty. 

Solution: wedges. I found the cutest strappy pair of 4" wedges for $30 that a) give me height without killing my feet because of the platform under my toes, b) I can walk and dance in them so I won't have to take them off, c) I can wear them in grass, and d) I can wear them again with shorts, jeans, or a dress. 

If you're not a wedge fan because of the way they look and you don't feel like we need to be bringing back the 70s, make sure your dress is long. Since my hem is long, no one is really going to be seeing my shoes anyway. Getting this extra length, especially if you're short or a little on the "plush" side of things, is really important if you're concerned about your image. It slims you down and gives you those extra few inches that those of us who aren't supermodels crave. ;-)

10. Have fun! Leading up to your wedding day, make sure you're having fun! If you're happy on your wedding day, it shows. If you're worried about how everything will turn out and making sure that everyone else has a good time, you're going to be miserable, which also shows. The way to know whether or not your wedding day was successful is this: If, at the end of the day, you're married to the person you were supposed to be married to, your day was a success! So have fun!

Dorian has (too much) fun!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

How Much Do Celebrities Spend on Their Looks?

This morning on "Good Morning America" there was a story about Britney Spears's spending habits. Although it was not the focus of the story, they mentioned that she spends around $2,595 per year on hair and makeup. This reminded me of a story from a few months ago on how much Kate Middleton spends on her look. I became intrigued by how much celebrities spend on their hair and makeup alone. I'm not including their personal fitness training fees or their diets. Check out some of these figures:

Celebrity Yearly Expenditures on Hair and Makeup

Britney Spears
$2,595 - hair and makeup
Total: $2,595

Kate Middleton*
$18,760 - hair (blow drys, low lights, and cuts)
$1,206 - makeup
$4,000 - skin care
$3,484 - nails
$2,832 - spray tans
*I think to assume that she wears the same fragrance every day is misleading, so I did not include that expense. Also, her orthodontic treatment was a one-time occurrence, so I didn't include that either. She probably gets regular whitening treatments, but I haven't found a story on that.
Total: $30,282

Kim Kardashian*
$13,918 - hair sessions (Philip Wolff is her stylist and she has to keep her extensions "in tip top condition." Let's assume that she gets her extensions fixed every three weeks: $13,918 per year.)
$1,285 - 24-karat gold facials
$9,636 - Fraxel laser treatment (I couldn't get a good idea of how often Kim gets these, but on this Cincinnati Fraxel site, it says that "3 to 6 treatments spaced one to two weeks apart" should do the trick. Let's assume that Kim only has 3 treatments at $3,212 per treatment: $9,636.)
$1,500 - eyelash extensions (Kim did confirm that she wears permanent mink eyelash extensions.)
$4,224 - body scrubs at the Four Seasons spa
$3,360 - mud wraps at the spa (I assumed that Kim has her mud wraps done at the same spa as her body scrubs. This is the "Body Treatments" page with prices of the Four Seasons spa site.)
$3,672 - nails (The site I cited at the beginning of this says that a nail session is 95 pounds. Assuming she goes for bi-weekly sessions, the yearly total would be $3,672.)
*I used the Google conversion calculator from pounds to dollars, since this site is in pounds.
Note: This doesn't include any makeup products or makeup sessions, which, according to this site can apparently go for $4,000 each.
Total: $37,595

Jennifer Aniston*
$7,973 - hair sessions
$49,206 - makeup (I did the math with her getting only one professional make-up session per month and buying the products three times per year.)
$10,704 - skin care (facials and "Purple Bag" products)
$1,920 - eyebrow treatments (I did not include the initial $120 fee, because I assume she has already had it. I assume she goes for an $80 treatment biweekly.)
$1,080 - spray tanning
*I did not include the speculative nose job costs. They weren't concrete, and they also are a one time occurrence. Well, I guess a two time occurrence for her!
Note: Manicures weren't mentioned in this article, and I couldn't find out where Aniston gets her nails done.
Total: $70,883

The grand total of these four celebrities' hair and makeup costs is...drumroll, please...$141,355.

This is absolutely fascinating to me. I decided to look at what I spend per year on my own hair and makeup.
$180 - hair ($30 per haircut. 6 per year.)
$4 - Herbal Essences styling mousse
$4 - Maybelline mascara
$9 - L'Oreal eyeshadow
$5 - Revlon eyeliner
$36 - Neutrogena concealer ($9 each. 4 per year.)
$36 - Maybelline Fit foundation ($6 each. 6 per year.)
$59 - Clarins moisturizer (I use it every other day at most, so it lasts forever!)
Total: $333

I am amazed! I had no idea I spend this much on my looks. I don't get my nails done (I got acrylics done 5 years ago), I don't dye my hair (again, only once in my life), and I don't pay for eyebrow treatments (another one of those things I tried once).

It is obvious that I am not "required" by society to look the way celebrities look. Whenever they show up on the red carpet, or anywhere else for that matter, they're expected to look a certain way. If they didn't, they would get completely destroyed in the media. But is it worth spending over $30,000 per year on hair and makeup? Does it make a difference? I think this might be the topic of my second social mini-experiment sometime soon.

I think this is something that "normal" women and girls really need to realize: we don't have $30,000 every year to spend on our looks. So why do we put ourselves under so much pressure to look like celebrities? If it really does take this much money to look that good, then why do we even try to compare? Magazines are full of "Get This Celebrity's Look For Less" articles, but most of those still cost a significant amount of money. For example, this Camilla Belle "Look for Less" was still about $92.

Look at yourself in the mirror today and smile. You look great!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi