by Alice Atkinson-Bonasio

Created on: October 21, 2008   Last Updated: September 20, 2010

Wedding planning is all about saving yourself some worry. You take care of everything well in advance so that on your wedding day you can concentrate on being the radiant center of all attention.

It is exactly to save themselves this worry that many brides end up overspending. They think that by hiring a professional to do something then nothing can go wrong, which is not always the case. Sometimes a little careful thought and thinking outside the box can mean you have more fun and save yourself some money.

When I got married I thought about hiring a makeup artist, but much like finding the right hairdresser, unless you know someone or get a personal recommendation, it is difficult to trust someone with something as crucial as your wedding makeup and many brides feel intimidated by a professional and end up not telling them what the look they would like is. The result can be terrible, as the wrong makeup will clash with your dress as badly as the wrong shoes would.

What I decided to do instead was team up with my chief Bridesmaid and make an appointment at professional makeup shop MAC. The assistants in these shops are actually trained as makeup artists and many of them work there as a first step in that career. For a small fee (redeemable against products) we each had individual 1-hour appointments with an assistant who helped us find the look we were looking for and then proceeded to build it with a range of products.

My bridesmaid and I watched each other being made up and learned all the techniques we would need to recreate the look. At the end the assistant also detailed it all on a chart for us to keep and refer to.

We bought a range of lovely products and on my wedding day had great fun doing each other's makeup, and I was thrilled with the result. I believe this solution would work for most brides as neither my bridesmaid nor I actually wear makeup that often, so it could not be said we had an unfair advantage.

All our brushes and products cost a fraction of what the fee for a makeup artist would have been and we both learned something new, had great fun, and were left with plenty of makeup goodies to play with after the wedding too. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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