Vendor Review - Steele Salon

I might be a little biased, but Steele Salon is the best place in the Hershey/Palmyra/Hummelstown area for hair/makeup services.  Why might I be biased?  Well, I went to high school with 1/2 the staff.  One of the stylists was one of my best friends in high school.  One of the other stylists is my "fake" little sister.  I kind of love the staff there.  On a deep, personal level.  It feels like home when I walk into Steele.  So when I needed to decide where to get my hair/makeup done for the wedding, there wasn't even a consideration.

I booked 8 appointments (me, my 6 girls, and my mom) with 3 stylists, plus a makeup artists for me.  Easy-peasy.  We were given Rachel (my stylist/close high school friend), Staci (my "sister"), and Mindi; Sara did my makeup.  Rachel has been styling and/or playing with my hair for at least 10 years, so she knows the texture of my hair and what works and doesn't work for me.  There was no doubt in my mind that she would do an awesome job on my wedding day look.


Me and Rachel.  I look 10.  And thrilled.



Done.  With the feather.

We arrived at Steele at 9am.  And we basically took over.  My dad dropped off bagels from Panera, we brought champagne, and the salon also had champagne and coffee and water for us.  There were 8 of us, plus BM Abriel's baby boy and her mom.  We were easily more than half of the people in the salon all morning.  They had on a fun mix of music, and we basically spent the morning talking, laughing, eating, and sipping mimosas.  Kind of a perfect morning with my best girls. 


 "Sister" Staci and BM Stephy



My sister/MOH Callie, making a mimosa



BM Abriel with her son and her mom


Unfortunately, no one got a picture of our spread, but we had tons of stuff there!  We were there till about 1.  During the time at the salon, I was calm and relaxed.  It didn't feel real yet.  And time was moving at a normal pace.  In fact, it kind of seemed like it might have been crawling.  I just wanted it to be 4:30.

Anyway, this is supposed to be a vendor review, not storytime.  Steele Salon was great - accomodating, friendly, quick, and - best of all - talented!  Each of my girls looked absolutely beautiful.  The stylists really listened to what each girl wanted, and everyone ended up looking like a perfect version of herself.  Definitely, definitely, definitely - if you're looking for a salon in Central PA, go to Steele. 

*all photos courtesy of BM Mel or BM Tina

Practicing Pretty-fying

I had my hair and makeup trial this weekend!  It went really well, and I love what we worked out.

For my hair, I knew I wanted to wear it down and curly.  Not super curly, nothing too structured.  Plus, my hair feather clip would come into play.  I took some inspiration photos with me to show my stylist.  My stylist is Rachel, at Steele Salon.  Rachel and I were very good friends in high school, and up until about a year ago, I still came back to Hershey to see Rachel when I needed a haircut.  I wouldn't trust anyone else to do my hair on the most important day of my life!  So, based on the photos I took her and what we talked about, here's what she came up with:

side

side with feather

back

You'll see the front-on shot in a second.  For my makeup look, I wanted to keep it pretty natural.  I don't wear a lot of obvious makeup on a day-to-day basis, and I don't want to totally overdo it on our wedding day so that Matt doesn't even recognize me!  My MUA, Sara (also at Steele Salon), asked me about what I wear usually, and also about our wedding colors.  Based on what I told her, she used a very subtle powder foundation, a bit of bronzer, and easy on the blush.  For my eyes, she did a neutral smokey eye, and used some dark green to play up my eyes and also to tie in with our wedding colors.  And for my lips, she used a slightly pinkish gloss.  Again, I was really happy with the way everything turned out!

from the side

full-frontal

After my hair trial, I went for an hour-long dance lesson with my dad, and then out to a windy dinner at an outdoor restaurant.  My hair stood up and my makeup lasted all night!  Rachel is going to curl my hair a little bit more on our wedding day, since my appointment is at 9am - she says this way even if the curls fall a bit throughout the day, it'll still look good.  That's just one more reason I love Rachel - she's such a little smartie!

*all personal photos

I'm Complete!

My look, that is.  Finally!  I finally decided on the shoes.  Remember?  I was all torn and indecisive?  I made an executive decision, ordered the shoes, and loved them.  So?  Here are the ones I chose.  

(personal photo)

I love them, and when I showed them to my sister/MOH, she loved them, and Mom loves them.  I ordered them from Sonja's Brides.  I'm not sure it's something I'd do again.  The shoes were $65, which is a good price.  But then shipping was $15!  For one pair of shoes!  It seemed a little extreme to me, but I couldn't find them anywhere else on the web, so I sucked it up and paid it.  When I got them, I tried them on immediately (right after a mile walk home in 99-degree heat) and they were slightly too tight.  I thought I'd exchange them for a bigger size.  But to exchange them, I would've had to pay to ship them back, pay a $15 restocking fee, and pay to have the new pair shipped to me.  So that would've put these shoes well over $100, which really seemed extreme.  So I tried them on again when my sister came up for my bachelorette party, and they felt much better.  I decided to keep them as is.  I know, I know - my feet will swell on my wedding day, I'll be standing for the whole ceremony, blah, blah, blah.  I plan to only wear these shoes for the ceremony and for pictures - max, 2 hours.  They'll be fine.  I'm gonna work on breaking them in between now and the wedding, so I should be ok.  So, yay, shoes - DONE.

If you remember, the bracelet that I ordered from Etsy seller sparklyshoes.  Apparently, after making mine (which was a special request that she make a bracelet instead of the necklace she originally had) she now sells the bracelets, too!  So I guess it worked out for both of us!

(source)

And, of course, my hair feather, from Etsy seller PowderBlueBijoux.  I love, love, love this hair clip. 

(source)

AND, I found a clutch that I want to use, too!  Another Etsy purchase, this time from seller syl2830.  I kept it exactly as is - navy blue with a brown letter.  

(source)

And, as you know, I got my opal ring back, and we got our wedding bands!  So that's it!  My look is complete!  I'm debating about showing you the dress....stay tuned to see if it pops up in a future post!  Before the wedding, that is...

The PWC

I've learned recently, in my perusing of the many bridal blogs out there, that many (if not most) brides undergo the PWC shortly after their wedding. What is the PWC, you ask? Why, it's the Post-Wedding Chop! A carefully-planned, long-looked-forward-to haircut that many women "reward" themselves with after months of growing out their hair in order to achieve the perfect updo for their wedding day.

Four months from our wedding day, and I'm already considering mine.

Say you: I thought you already had short hair?
Say me: I do. But I'm considering going a bit shorter. (eek!)

Ok, a bit of history. 2 years ago, I actually did have a PWC - after my sister's wedding. My hair was really long before her wedding. This picture was taken 2 days before her wedding (that's me with my brother-in-law):

I know, right? It was soooooo loooong. I look back at those pictures and I'm shocked. Because now, my hair is like this:

This picture just taken this past weekend, at a friend of mine's baby shower. So 2 years ago, after Callie and Anthony's wedding was all said and done, I set out to chop off my hair. It ended up being about 7 inches, which was (unfortunately) not enough to donate to Locks of Love, but it was enough to cause me sit in the chair right before Rachel snipped it and think, "Oh boy...do I really want to do this?" As soon as it was over, though, I was SO glad I did it!

I love, love, love my short hair. What's even better, is that Matt loves my short hair. Every now and then it gets on my nerves. Like when it's 100 degrees out and it's tsicking to my neck but I can't pull it up because it looks too weird. Or like when the curls don't curl just right and it ends up looking like this weird bumpy mess. Otherwise, I think it's a very flattering style and I had no intention of growing it out.

But then Matt slipped that ring on my finger and all of a sudden it was like "Oh my God, I'm gonna have to get my hair done for the wedding! I shoudl start growin it out so I can have that perfect updo!" It was like a little moment of panic. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought, "You know what? No. This short hair is so much of who I am now. To have long hair juts for the wedding wouldn't feel natural." So...it's staying short.

And yet, I'm still considering the PWC. I'm thinking about going even shorter than it is. Something like this:
WHAT?!?!? Like I said, I'm considerig it. I doubt that I'll have the nerve to go through with it. Plus, since my hair is naturally curl-vy (it's not quite curly but it's definitely more than wavy). I'm not sure this cut would stand up to the weird shapes my hair tends to take. Unless I straighten it every day, which I'm not totally sold on doing. Straightening my hair adds about 20 minutes to my morning routine and, um, I like to sleep. So the PWC may not be a part of my after-wedding ritual, as it seems to be for many brides out there. But we'll see. I may surprise all of us!

Hair Accessories

My hair is about shoulder length. It's got some natural wave/curl to it, and I used to use curl cream to enhance that and kept it curly. About a year ago, though, it seemed that the curl fell out of my hair, and now it's just sort of this weird, wavy mess. If I try using curl cream now, it just ends up doing really strange things. So I have been straightening it. They say your hair changes every 7 years or so, so I guess I was about due. I'm sad, though, because I loved my curls. Anyway. Because of the natural wave in it, it holds "manufactured" curls really well. So I intend to wear my hair mostly down and have my stylist gently curl it - almost finger-curl style, if you will. Very laid-back but pretty. Kind of like this:

I just can't decide what to do as far as accessories go. I'm not really a veil kind of girl, but I find myself being drawn to the birdcage veils that seem to have come back into fashion. I am considering something like this:

But my hair would be down, with just the side (probably the right side, which would be "facing" the congregation during our ceremony). I'm just not sure if the birdcage fits with the style of my dress. My dress is kind of "hippie-ish" and ethereal; the birdcage veils evoke more of a vintage-y vibe to me. So another option is to just do the feather fascinator and skip the veil altogether.

My other thought is to skip the feathers entirely and try something like a headband. I like this one:

It's the one on the bottom right. The pattern matches the beadwork on my dress.

I'm torn.