Hair and Makeup - woohoo

So... This weekend I went to see Patricia Darquea at "A Perfect Look" for my hair and makeup pre-trial.

It was quite fun - she was not at all cheesy or superficial which I was worried about, she was actually kind of earthy.
She was very positive and her studio looked out on a nice vista (albeit of San Jose, it was still quite nice and relaxing up there).

The main purpose of posting these pictures is to get feedback on

1. the hairstyle - is the front looking too severe?
Am I being too negative about it? Maybe it's fine.
When I was walking around during the day afterward it looked nice in the mirror, but in pictures it looks kind of drab from the front.

2. The hair pins (jewelry in the pictures). Patricia has a very soft sell technique - she has all these pins available to show (and to take pictures of them in the hair).
Then, she can bring the ones desired to the wedding for purchase there at the on-site appt. These are made by a friend of hers, but several of the prices were kind of ridiculous - like $150 or so.
I hadn't really thought that much about these hair things - had thought she would propose something but not that it would be that expensive.

I just recently decided not to have a veil - partly because of cost and the need to go pick one out and buy one, and I just wasn't sure I really cared about the veil that much.


Here is the Hair and Makeup "Before Picture"
Complete with cheesy expression from me and blotchy skin. I am wearing a shirt from Zazzle with some cute Japanese-type cartoons on it, that are very cute, but probably not good for her and her website (where she sometimes posts these pictures).
You'll notice in the After picture she hides this with some lace!

(note to Kati and Kari, we need to make sure we are sitting near a natural light source - window, in the hotel room).




Here is the Hair and Makeup "After Picture"

(Sitting on an armchair across from the chair above, sun streaming in from window nearby...)


She lent me the string of pearls I'm wearing for the pictures.
These look pretty nice but if you look at the top of the dress (see pic at bottom of post) - maybe it is too much.
I was wearing Kristina's necklace earlier which is smaller, hugs up around the neck also though.

Hair pins by priority - Hair pin #1 - P1010045.jpg
I like this because it kind of matches the sequin design on the dress (although it is only seen in the back).
She did a lot of work on the back of the hair - it's all pinned up in different places and curled, etc.




Also here is the same pin I think, but placed on the side of the head. It seems weird to have them on both sides - but this does help dress up the whole head a little more (otherwise it's just decorated in the back).

P1010044.jpg



Hair pin #2 - P1010042.jpg
I like this one because it is large and follows across the whole back of the head....


These ones she tried on me but I wasn't that excited about them...
This one is nice but it's kind of getting lost in my hair.


The below is nice too, but i like the wider one above better. This looks like the hair is squishing it together.



The below is way too small by itself - I can't remember, I think she wanted to put in more of them all over...



I liked the idea of having a flower but this round white flower looks too big and potentially could make me look fatter. I can talk to my florist about her flower ideas for the hair....



This looks kind of cool as a tiara but felt a bit odd on my head.
Maybe if I was going to get two pieces, together with another on the back of the hair?



The dress - for reference - down here so we can see it but further down so harder for Dave, or Dad, to accidentally see it: