If it fits your budget, consider treating your bridesmaids to a special day of pampering. These ladies have been special people and close friends throughout your life. Since you will be soon transitioning to marriage, it's only fitting to give them a royal treatment.
One of the best rewards you can give them is their own special pre-wedding spa day, at a fabulous retreat. A day devoted entirely to getting all their bodies feeling good, talking girl stories, and becoming beautiful.
You need to be a realist though, a bridesmaid day of pampering is all dependent on the bride's and bridesmaid's financial situation. If it stretches the budget for the wedding, have the bridesmaids over for dinner and dessert instead, the bridesmaids will understand. The bride should treat the bridesmaids if it works with her budget. If that doesn't work see if everybody wants to do it and go Dutch. But, if it becomes a burden to any of the bridesmaids, it's best to save money for the wedding.
The "Bridesmaid Day of Pampering" often starts out with the girls meeting for brunch. It could be brunch at a nice restaurant or luncheonette. It could also be having a brunch at the bride's or maid of honor's house. Make sure you have the special brunch things like omelettes, eggs benedict, lox and bagels, danish, link sausages, fruit cup or fruit soup, special coffee and maybe a fruity champagne or mimosa. You could opt for a special lunch or dinner afterward instead. The brunch also could be set up at the spa, if the spa allows it. Talk to the spa and talk over the possibilities.
Next it's off to the spa. You will need to coordinate with the spa about two weeks beforehand to discuss the treatments for the day, so the spa can be prepared for the day. Ask if the spa can provide a nice discount for you since you are bringing along a number of ladies. If possible try to have the bridesmaid day of pampering on a slower day if the bridesmaids work does not get into the way. The treatment schedule should be worked out with the spa.
The treatments might start out with the brides and bridesmaids all getting facials, then next maybe manicures and pedicures, then maybe all get a massage followed by a body wrap treatment. Then it's a little break and all hop in the hot water spa or tub followed by a light lunch break. In the afternoon everyone gets their haircut and then their hair styled, do not forget to bring pictures of wedding hairstyles you like. And maybe end with everybody getting wedding makeup lessons. You want to be sure to take pictures of the fun day and make sure everyone gets their own copy. The schedule of treatments can go in any order, depends on who is available when and an order that everyone likes.
Before making an appointment for the bridesmaid day of pampering, the bride or the maid of honor should have a meeting with all the bridesmaids. The goal is to formulate a bridal party look that is altogether and elegant for the wedding day. The look should be very professional that will make a stunning vision to the wedding guests, and for the wedding photography and videography.
The bride should share what her look is going to be for the wedding day, what type of wedding dress she will wear, how her hair will be styled (updo, half do, down, or plans to wear a wedding veil), talk about the makeup she will use, what jewelry and any accessories for her hair. She should also share her vision of how she would like the bridesmaids should look, particularly the hair. At this meeting, the bride or maid-of-honor should share pictures of hairstyles and makeup possibilities and to promote the hairstyles that the bride prefers. Pictures can be obtained from various sources, online hairstyle galleries, wedding related websites, bride and hair style magazines. The bride should address makeup and bridal jewelry, accessories, and shoes to wear as well.
After the bride makes her case for the look for the wedding party, the bridesmaids should first hear the bride out, they should try to go along with the brides decision but the decision is ultimately up to the bridesmaids. The bridesmaid should try to accommodate the brides wishes, but if they don't want to wear their hair a certain way or wear specific jewelry that should not be forced into a decision they don't want to do. The bride might consider bringing a wedding hair stylist to this meeting or a makeup artist as well.
There are five aspects of the bridesmaid's looks, color scheme, bridal dress, hair dos, makeup, and bridal accessories. The goal is to have at least three of them look similar and the other's can be different. Many bridesmaid grouping will have similar body types and some groupings will have different body types. For some families there may be sisters and cousins that have similar body types, while in other bridesmaid groupings the bridesmaids may have all different body types. One bridesmaid be big busted, one tall, one an olive complexion, one a dark complexion, another a small frame. In this grouping the bridesmaid may look better if they each wore a bridesmaid gown according to their body type. Have all of them wear the same color dress and the same style of jewelry.
Hairstyles may be an issue too. Most women tend to wear long, medium, or short hair. Women with short hair is very difficult to create an updo, unless she wore a wig or added extensions to her hair. Also some women have naturally curly, some straight, and a few might even have a hair issue, there are some women they even don't have hardly any hair from heredity to a health issue. In this case you might want to incorporate hats for a consistent look. If the hair can't be all the same you want to push everybody wearing similar jewelry. Try to also match the jewelry to the style of the wedding dress and jewelry that goes well with the color dress, maybe jewelry with colored gemstones that match to the color of their gowns.
If the "Bridesmaid Day of Pampering" is not in the cards, you may focus more on instructional directions at the meeting. The bride and maid of honor could dig up some hairstyling and applying wedding makeup instruction from demonstrations using Youtube or can possible order a tape they like from an online bridal website or try to find a tape at their bookstore or possibly even rent a tape from their local library. Have a fun get together and maybe enjoy a dinner, dessert, and coffee afterward.
There is nothing like having a professional wedding hairstylist and wedding makeup artist though. Every women has their face shape whether it be round, oval, squarish, or somewhere in between. Every women also has different skin tones and hair color and is wearing a specific dress type. The professional hairstylist and makeup artist has more of a basic knowledge of what looks is best on each women, also there are techniques involved in putting hairstyles and makeup on and the professionals can teach the techniques whereas pictures often don't tell the whole story.
There are some websites that the bride or maid of honor can print pictures of different hairstyles and makeup from. Below are some of the websites that you can print off or view on the computer screen. After all is said and done, the bridesmaids should all print out the looks that they like and bring the pictures with them to the "Bridesmaids Day of Pampering" and bring the pictures along to show to the hairstylist and makeup artist. Bring along a picture of color and style of the bridesmaid gown too.
Websites with Bridesmaid Hairstyles or Wedding Makeup
www.a-bridesmaid.com
www.beautifulhairstyles.com
www.becomegorgeous.com
www.bestpicturesof.com
www.bridesmaid-hairstyles.net
www.just-hairstyles.com
www.latest-hairstyles.net
www.updoprincess.com
www.weddinghair.com
www.weddinghairstylegallery.com
At some weddings, the look may be influenced by the wedding theme such as a Victorian Style Wedding, or a Cowboy Style Wedding. After the meeting the bride and maid of honor should try to find an appropriate date that would be good for all, to book a bridesmaid day of pampering.
At the bridal day of pampering, the bride might consider picking up special bridesmaid favors for the event. There are a lot of different options for the bride to think about. Some ideas of what favors to give include canvas tote bags, jewelry rolls, jewelry, jewelry boxes, cosmetic bags, toiletry bags, perfume, duffle bags, hand bags, purses, lunch totes, gym bags, coolers, bridesmaid flasks. key chains or key rings. Electronic gadgets also have become popular for bridesmaids gifts in recent years including MP3 Players, IPhones, IPads, Blackberrys, and Kindles.
Some brides might consider personalized bridesmaids gifts with monogrammed initials or names on them. Gifts such as Spa Bathrobes, Luxurious Towels, Slippers, Baseball Style Caps, Fancy Sweatshirts, and Parasols. These type of gifts will be cherished for many years long after the wedding.
Bridesmaid Favor Websites
www.americanbridal.com
www.beau-coup.com
www.bridesmaid-gift.com
www.bridesmaid101.com
www.mybridesmaidsgifts.com
www.rumors.com
www.sweetmemorybaskets.com
www.weddingaccent.com
www.weddingfavorsunlimited.com
www.weddingstand.com
www.wherebridesgo.com
So, if it can fit into the budget, consider a bridesmaid day of pampering to thank these ladies for being important people in your life. Some have heard the saying, when you go on a "Bridesmaids Day of Pampering" you start the day as a girl and you end the day as a women. See you on the other side!
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