Wedding Day Tips and Tricks...

After spending an entire day aboard the "Celebration" cruise ship in West Palm with Winston Delawar Photography's crew and 2 amazing models, what we came away with were some amazing photos. We spent an entire day working on this ship perfecting these amazing wedding photos with two fantastic models. Even though, they met for the first time that morning, you would have thought they had been together all their lives.

When working on planning your own wedding, it is important to remember all the little things that can make your day even more special. Makeup, Hair, and Photography are some of the most important details to remember. Don't wait till the last minute to decide what you're going to look like on your big day. For most brides the wedding day is such a blur, but the photos are what you are left with when it is all over to look back and remember how amazing it truly was. So, to make sure you look your best in your wedding photos, here are a few tips to remember...


1.) Makeup and Hair Trial Run: When you are booking a makeup artist or a hairstylist for your big day, you want to make sure that is is someone you are completely comfortable with. Someone who will listen to what you want, and not someone who will try to create "their" vision without listening to your wants and desires. A trial run, is essentially like an interview process for you to pick the perfect people to be with you on one of the most important days of your life. Typically, you want to book your trial date no more than a month prior to your wedding, b/c anything further than that leaves too much time to change your mind, or change your hair, or get a tan... so you want to try and keep it semi-close to your wedding date so that you can plan your look accordingly.
2.) Just Be You: If you are a low-maintenance girl, why on earth would you want to wear 5 extra pounds of makeup on your face for the day of your wedding? So, keep it simple and try not to stray too far away from something that you feel comfortable with. You want to be beautiful on your wedding day, and definitely look extra amazing, but you also still want to look like you at the end of the day. The same goes for it you are a Makeup-Vixen who wears 7 colors on each eye just to walk to the mailbox... Why would you want to look extra clean an simple on your big day? You just want to remain true to yourself. If you try to create a look that everyone else thinks is appropriate "wedding day makeup" then you run the risk of pleasing everyone but yourself. This is another reason why a trial run is so important... You want to be the best version of yourself on your wedding day, not the best version of someone else...
3.) WATERPROOF/SWEATPROOF MAKEUP: This is especially important here in South Florida. Make sure, (of course) that your mascara is waterproof, because there is bound to be tears, and unless you are keeping your makeup artist waiting in the wings for touch-ups, you want to be sure that everything remains in place. However, people often forget about their skin... Make sure you are taking precautions to keep all of your makeup in place here in the hot Florida sun and humidity. Foundations and Primers with a silicone base are great, because they withstand the elements much better than regular water-based foundations. Also, ask about air-brushing??? Airbrush foundations typically photograph beautifully and last longer than typical cream and liquid foundations.
4.) Don't Forget About the KISS: When planning your makeup look, DO NOT forget about the big moment... dum da da dum.... "You may kiss the bride!" I recommend either wearing just a gloss for the ceremony, OR if color is your thing, try going with a lip-stain or something like MAC's Pro-Longwear Lip Colors, which absolutely WILL NOT transfer onto your handsome man... I wore the color "Alta-Moda" for my big day, and there were no traces of the dark plum color on my husbands face or his white shirt after the kiss... Then you don't have to worry about what you, or your man is going to look like after! And if something more subtle is your thing... try going with a lighter color or a gloss for the ceremony, and keep the lip color you choose with you for touch-ups after the ceremony for photos. You will be extremely glad for this when you get your wedding photos back and there isn't a streak of lipstick across your face after your big moment!



In any case, just remember to enjoy yourself! Surround yourself with positive, supportive people on your wedding day, and make sure you have enough time!!! You don't want to feel rushed when your racing to the alter! You are going to look beautiful to your husband to be no matter what you do, say, or wear so just make sure that you are happy with the outcome... Live, Laugh, Love... and Smile for the cameras, because today is your day!!! ;-)

Welcome to South Florida

Well, we are finally all moved in and settled in our new place here in sunny S. Florida! So far, I am loving this area so much; there is always something to do outside or an event to go to somewhere, and the photographers here are absolutely amazing!!! I have worked with Suzanne Delawar now from 'Winston Delawar Photography' on several different projects, and she and her team are all amazing!! So far in the few months that I have been living in Fort Lauderdale, I have worked on shoots on cruise ships, old hotels, on location around Miami, in Hollywood Beach, and lots of other exciting locations! I am even starting with an amazing group of talented film makers to help bring their vision to life through a series of Horror Shorts which will have lots of gorey makeup for those horror fans out there! Hopefully there is much more excitement to come, and I will be posting pictures soon, as soon as I receive them. Keep checking back with me for more updates on fun projects. :-)

The Witching Hour has Come and Gone... (October 2010

Well my favorite season has come and gone once again... So i thought I would share some photos with you of some of the fun projects I got to work on this October...

I started the month off with some vampire fun with some of my photographer friends down in Ybor City!! Here's what came out of all that mayhem!!!

These photos were taken in Ybor City as well, but I am not sure which photographers to give credit to for them, so rather than state the wrong name, I will leave the credits off for now, and you can e-mail me if you took one or the other! :-)

The first photo was taken by the fabulous Michael Sheehan, (I sited the wrong photographer the first time b/c I had mixed them up in my albums! Sorry about that Michael!) and the 2nd from my very close friend, Stephanie Curnute of Curnutte Photography LLC.

I designed these two looks for 2 of my out-of-town friends, that's why they are pictured here on me. The cat-design I did for my friend Michelle in Orlando, and it was done very simply with all eyeliner and eye-shadows. The Devil, I designed for my friend Joy, in Chicago. In this design I blocked out my eyebrows with wax before doing the actual design with lots of mixing mediums and reds and blacks! I entered the Devil design in NYX Cosmetic's 'Goddess of the Night' contest and won 1st place!!! Which means I am getting several new fun products to play with from them that I will want to test out very soon! :-)

There was loads of face painting fun this season! Something that I don't have the most practice at, but I LOVE doing it! My husband is always such a sweetheart and lets me practice all of my crazy designs on him!! (secretly he loves it more than I do!! )

I worked with Roni and Dean Davy to help get them ready for their annual Halloween Bash, which they spare no expense for! I have never seen anything like it, their front and back yards and the interior of the house were decorated extravagantly for the occasion! Roni had a little halloween village that you could tell she must have been working on for years now. They even had a rack of skull-shaped beer bongs!! Fantastic to say the least! They were both so much fun to work with, and maybe I will see them again next year.

This shoot was SO much fun, and I got to work with the fabulous Lisa Ferrennte and Jose Ayala.

Jose contacted me and wanted to have some creepy halloween fun while getting some promotional photos for his DJ career! We had a blast working on this shoot and the final results made all the mosquito bites totally worth it!! ;-)

Jose Ayala.... A.K.A.~ DJ BASH, (playing at night clubs throughout the Tampa Bay Area)

Take Possession...

Here are a few pics from the film, "Take Possession" that I worked on recently with Nicole Patterson Hair and Makeup. This is her design for the zombie/creature in the film. I went down to Ft. Myers last Saturday with Nicole to help shave some time off on hair and makeup so they could start the filming earlier. Nicole hand made the latex-based fingers that you see on the creature, and the model also has two foam-latex appliances attached to her face around the eyes to give her an even creepier effect. It was a really fun night of shooting out in an old abandoned cabin in the woods, very creepy, and it should make for an awesome final product! :-)

Flash Out Makeup and Photography

For a while now, I have wanted to open my own studio... just recently I decided that what I really wanted was the creative freedom to be able to 'create' art on people's faces, without being limited to what I could do. I also LOVE to make everyday people feel as gorgeous as the supermodel's of the world. Earlier this summer, I met photographer, Stephanie Curnutte, of Curnutte Photography LLC and we began to brainstorm ideas for what we could offer together. Out of these late night conversations, our sister company, Flash Out Makeup and Photography was born. A place where we both had the creative freedom to work and create our art, but also a place where we could offer makeup, hair, gorgeous photography, styling and more all at the same time to all different ranges of people. The pictures shown here are from our first joint shoot as a company and they feature the stunning model, Miss Katie Levith!! There will be much more to come from Flash Out in the future so stay tuned and I will keep everyone up to date here! :-)

Intoducing... The Fabulous Wendy Starkand

I recently had the pleasure of meeting accomplished stage actress, Wendy Starkand recently. For Wendy, we did some basic 'clean' makeup and styling to make her look as camera-ready and natural as we could to come up with some outstanding head shots for her to use for her upcoming auditions. Wendy can be found on stage performing at many Tampa area venues, and is an extremely talented musical theater performer. Her true personality shined through while we were working out in Plant City and she turned on her charming personality for my camera. Make sure to check her out in some of her upcoming roles,which I will post and keep you all up to date on where you can find her next!!

Introducing... Singer/Songwriter Erica DiCeglie

Some of the pictures from a shoot that I worked on with Heartbeat Productions and Kathy Porupski Photography for Erica DiCeglie's upcoming album release and website launch!!! Erica is an accomplished singer and songwriter and a fantastic person who was so much fun to work with!! Be sure to check out her work when the album launches later this year. Her website should be up and running soon, so be sure and check that out as well at http://www.ericadiceglie.com

A big thank you as well to Margie from Heartbeat Productions and Kathy for inviting me to work on such a fun shoot!!