Wedding–Caroline and Paul, Fanhams, June 2011

Coming a close second to being asked to do another make-up artists make-up for their wedding day is being asked to do one of your longest standing friends when it comes to making me nervous!

I don’t often get nerves when it comes to make-up, maybe nervous is too strong a word? Being totally unbiased and seeing my client as a canvas is important. When you know someone as well as I know Caroline it becomes a little trickier. Especially as in all the years (which is many) that I’ve known her, she has barely worn any make-up at all. In fact, we laugh at the contrast between my 42 step getting ready routine compared to hers- Wash hair, shake it dry, powder, eyeliner, mascara, Vaseline. By which point I’ve done one eyebrow.

So creating a look for her really meant I had to view her as a client and not as my pal.

Caroline wanted to look different on her big day. This did make it easier as I wasn’t limited to trying to recreate a different variation of her everyday look.

As it turned out, it was so easy to do (can you believe it, I’d never done her make-up before?!). So on her trial, she let me have full creative control. Caroline is extremely symmetrical which always makes life easier. I gave her smooth, glowy skin which I highlighted and contoured, a defined eye with a soft smoky edge and plenty if mascara and individual lashes. We really groomed her brows which were already a fab shape but a tad light to frame a stronger eye so just the smallest amount of powder through them made a huge difference.

These photos take you through the majority of the getting ready process. I hope you’re able to see the step by step process of building up the definition on the eyes.

We were given a huge conference room in the beautiful Fanhams Hall Hotel with plenty of natural daylight. All images belong to fantastic photographer Rachel Otterway.