My Wedding Day Look: Head to Toe

I looked and felt amazing on my wedding day! I had a very short engagement and my wedding was on a B.U.D.G.E.T girl, so it took a lot of planning and skill to pull this off! Yes, at times I was stressed and unsure, but here I am, a young woman who got the look for less hunny!

If I can do it you can too! It is totally possible to look AMAZING on your big day without spending thousands of dollars. So I'm going to break down my wedding look, head to toe, and show you exactly how I pulled off this fabulous look for less than $1,500, dresses included!

I have hunted down purchase and info links for you to use just in case you are interested in any of the things listed below. Be sure to click the hyper links to be taken directly to the site you need.

Hair:

I wanted an effortless pin up. Initially I wanted my natural hair to be styled and I did do a test run but ultimately I went with weave. My reason for this was to avoid my hair puffing up with humidity or just not co-operating in general.
I got a full sew in with a closure for my big day. I purchased the bundles & closure from West Kiss hair on Ali Express. I heard about the hair/ company from watching Malibu Dollface on YouTube and he did not let me down! I loved the hair. For $156.84 I got 4 bundles of 12, 14,16 & 18 inch hair with a 10 inch frontal. I originally purchased the hair to make a wig. When it came time for the wedding I took the wig apart, washed the hair and got it installed. I decided to go with a closure instead of the frontal that came with the original set of bundles so I purchased it separately

from the same AliExpress vendor for $38.75.
My hair was installed and styled by Nicolette Shegog, aka @HairoineQueens on Instagram. She traveled to my house for the install the day before and on the wedding day she styled my hair at the venue. The cost of the sew in with closure install was $135.

Hair Total: $331

Makeup!

Inspiration photo

The makeup for myself, the wedding party and my mother was done by Chicago Makeup Artist Tanisha Renae. She has done some really fabulous work for me before and after the wedding, including my baby shower face and my cousin's prom look.

I sent her the makeup look I wanted, which of course I
found on pintrest. We got married in the evening so I wanted something sultry and romantic. I have included the pin-spiration picture and as you can see she hit the nail right on the head.

MUA info:
Professional MakeUp Artist located in Chicago. For Bookings email Me TanishaRenaeArtistry@gmail.com
*The rate I was charged was $85 for my beat + lashes. Contact Tanisha via email for inquiries, I believe I got a friends and family discount.

Makeup Total: $85

Jewelry:

This is the only area where the details are a bit fuzzy but only because I can't remember specific prices. I got my statement necklace is from the special occasion line at Charming Charlie. The price for this was between $17-$20. The earrings I wore were a Valentines day gift from Hubby. These were from Zales. 

Dress:

The Wedding dress is usually one of the most expensive items bought during this process. It still was for me but I got my dress on a huge bargain. I went to several bridal stores, David's Bridal was the first but I ultimately got my dress from House of Brides for $600. Now, let me explain how this ghetto blessing happened. First off, the dresses at this store are usually at least double that price, but I was lucky enough to come during a sale. Second, my dress was discontinued and the last one at the store, so I bought it "off the rack" aka, as is, you cant order a brand new one. Thank god I had lost all of my baby weight and the dress was a damn-near perfect fit from the start. It only needed a few tweaks.

House of Brides does do alterations in store but the price of this is $400 to start. Now, if you are made out of money this might not seem like a high price tag but to me it just wasn't do able, especially since I only spent $600 on the actual dress. Paying $400 to fix a few things made no sense at all. So I went to a neighborhood,

family owned bridal boutique for the alterations. Evita's Bridal in Blue Island did all the alterations I needed for $135. This included cleaning, bust hemming, installing a new zipper and bustling. I was also able to get my Cathedral veil off the rack from Evita's Bridal for $80. I had this cleaned prior to the ceremony.

In addition to the alterations i mentioned before, Evita's made a change that totally altered the look and feel of the dress. Originally the only bling on the dress were the small crystals down the back of the dress. At the waist there was nothing but pleated fabric and two ugly flowers. Well, we cut the flowers off and added a Beaded Sash from Amazon for $24.90. This made the dress look like it was easily worth an additional $500, I swear! A lot of bridal shops have these sashes but they are extremely over priced. If you want one check out Amazon and Etsy for a better deal. The quality of this $25 belt was AMAZING. Evita's even removed the beading from the ribbon sash and sewed it directly on to the dress for me.

Dress + Alterations Total: $840

Under Garments:

You have to have the right undergarments on during your special night. This can make or break your look. I found a bra that would give me support on under my dress, as well as something to keep my breast pads in place because I was still breastfeeding my daughter. I ordered the Dominique Backless, Strapless Balconet Bridal Bra #6377 from Target for $39. The shape of this was perfect for my dress and fit better than anything I found at more expensive stores. 
Underneath the dress I also wore a hoop skirt from Amazon, which was $19.99. I asked the store associate at the bridal store which hoop skirt would be best to buy since the ones sold at House of Brides were extremely over priced.

Under Garments total: $58

Reception Dress:

I did get a dress to wear during the reception. I changed into it after

all of the important pictures were taken. I didn't have a big budget left over for the reception dress because I didn't initially plan on getting one. I literally got this a few days before the wedding. I picked it up at Macy's and it did exactly what I wanted. It allowed me to move around, dance and get some relief from that hot, tight ball gown! Not to mention it was really sexy. You can find this City Studios Off-The -Shoulder Gown in the junior's section of Macy's for $79. 
My initial plan was to wear my Betsy Johnson heels with this dress but by the time I changed my feet were killing me. I wore my "bride" flip flops from Target instead. It may not have been super formal but I was able to dance comfortably in them!


Reception Look total: $79

Shoes:

Like any die hard fan of Sex and The City, I wanted to buy a cheap wedding dress and get married in an expensive pair of shoes. For Carrie Bradshaw it was Manolo Blahnik, for me it was Jimmy Choo. But the engagement and wedding came around and mommy did not have Jimmy Choo money! So I searched around and eventually landed on these beauties. 

I ordered these Besty Johnson Prince d'Orsay Evening Pumps from Macys.com for $69.99. These shoes are surprisingly comfy and they look amazing in person. I wear a size 9 but ordered these in a size 10 and the fit was perfect. They are extremely shiny but they aren't covered in glitter, which is a plus. I love the look of glitter but not the aftermath.

Shoes: $69

My total wedding look, head to toe, costed $1,482!

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