Hair and makeup are not something I am good at. I have about four hair styles I can do, and one of them is from a cosplay. Not only would I need bridal hair and make-up on the ship, but I would need it for both of our park portrait shoots as well.
I needed help.
Since the park portraits were the start of this whole thing, I started there.
It’s not hard to be better at hair and make-up than me. I’m pretty sure Duffy is better at hair and make-up than me. I DO have a couple of friends who are very good at it though. However, I didn’t want to ask one of them to have to show up at a Disney resort at 3 am to help with hair and make-up. Even if they said yes, which I know they would have, what if they had car trouble or got sick? There were too many things that could go wrong. I needed to find a professional, with a company and a reputation.
I reached out to the Disney Fine Art Photography team for a list of cosmetologists they partner with. However, I couldn’t find anyone on the list I had a warm and fuzzy feeling about. I’d seen people talk about a company called FairyTale Hair and Makeup on the Disboards, and heard great things about someone named Stacie who worked there. So, I looked up FairyTale Hair and Makeup, and I looked up Stacie. Not only did she have tons of amazing reviews, I liked all the pictures I saw of her work. Good enough for me!
I contacted her through FairyTale Hair and Makeup. They sent me a contract to sign, and I had to put down a $100 non-refundable deposit. I had my mom and my friend Lacey read over the contract before I signed it, and then I sent it in. The internet recommends doing your hair and makeup trial two months before, so I picked a random Thursday in January.
Now I just had to decide on what type of hair style I wanted, and figure out how to make my hair on the ship match the park portraits as closely as possible. Thankfully Lacey doesn’t seem to mind she has spent most of our friendship helping me make sure my hair doesn’t look stupid, and she would be on the ship with us anyway. So, we planned on her coming to the hair trial, and I made sure it was okay with Stacie ahead of time.
I had a folder of hair style ideas I’d saved on my Google Drive. Lacey and I sat down and went through them to see what we liked. Originally, I had wanted my hair in a braided sort of up do, until Jay mentioned he always likes my hair better down. So, we threw my original plan out, and Lacey and I decided on a half up, half down, with a braid worked in. We did a rough version of it to make sure we liked it, and we used the tiara I already had.
I planned to buy a new tiara before the hair and makeup trial, since the one I own is great for theme parks, but it’s not very bridal. I lucked out and got gifted two from one of my friends who was getting married before me, but decided not to use them. I had a feeling which one I was going to use, but packed both to take with us.
We saved $50 if we could come to Stacie’s house for the appointment, so Lacey met me at my place, and we drove out there together. We were early so we sat in the car for ten minutes, where I realized I hadn’t grabbed my checkbook. I knew FairyTale Hair and Makeup had a 4% credit card processing fee, so I didn’t want to pay card if I could help it. Thankfully Lacey was better prepared than I was, and had cash for the shopping we were planning on doing later. So, she covered me and I paid for our Target run.
We walked up to the door and Stacie answered it almost immediately. SHE IS ONE OF THE NICEST PEOPLE I HAVE EVER MET! She offered us water and snacks, and she had everything set up and ready to go on the kitchen island. Well, I think it was an island. It might have been a table, but I feel like it was an island.
I showed her the pictures of the hair style, which I hadn’t realized until the day before were actually from her portfolio in the first place, and we talked through some options. There are apparently lots of different methods for curling hair! I didn’t understand a lot of it, but Lacey did. Stacie suggested setting, then dropping the curls to combat the humidity, and it seemed like a logical plan to me, but I’m probably not explaining it correctly.
So, we started with the hair. Stacie went above and beyond in explaining every single step to Lacey. She showed her what to do and how to do it, and even what kind of special bobby pins to use. We also spent the whole time talking about all things Disney. When you put three annual passholders, that did the college program in one room, there’s lots of fun stories to swap!
We moved onto make-up before we finished the hair, because we needed time for the curls to sit. I had spent tons of time searching the internet for bridal makeup ideas and I just couldn’t find anything I really liked. So, I showed Stacie photos of make-up on me.
Okay, ignore the Wonder Woman part of this,” I said, pulling the photo of the make-up I had done at Sephora for Not So Scary in 2018.
“Like this, but better?”
“I got you.”
It was much harder to keep the conversation going while she was doing the make-up because I felt like I was messing her up by moving. Trying to sit still to put the eyelashes on was tricky, and the lipstick was almost impossible. I fidget a lot!
We got it done, however, and moved back to the hair chair to drop the curls. Stacie once again talked Lacey through how to do all of it. Then we took a look at the two tiaras, and wound up deciding on the one I thought would be the one I wouldn’t use. Stacie pointed out things Lacey and I hadn’t noticed, and when we tried the one I originally liked better, it hurt my head. So, I’m glad I brought both!
Once the tiara was pinned in place, and all the curls were dropped, we were done! Stacie directed me to the mirror on the wall (her house is as fabulous as she is, by the way), and I saw myself for the first time.
Oh.
My.
Duffy.
I have never looked so good in my entire life, and that includes my Wonder Woman cosplay.
Stacie then took a ton of photos, both so she would have them for her portfolio but also so she could reference them two months later when she comes to my hotel room at like 4:00 am to do this all over again.
We also took a selfie of the three of us.
Jay has been very firm on not wanting to see anything to do with the dress, or even do a first look, so I didn’t think he’d want to see the hair and make-up. He decided he wanted to, so Lacey staged this when we got home.
Honestly the hair and make-up trial was some of the most fun I’ve had in the whole wedding planning process. I’m just sad Jay missed out on it! I’m also genuinely sad my Mom won’t get to meet Stacie. I cannot say enough good things about her and anyone getting married in the Orlando area should reach out to her and FairyTale Hair and Makeup for your hair and make-up needs, whether you’re getting married at Disney or not! I feel like we were there an hour longer than we should have been, because we were all having so much fun.
Out of pocket expenses so far:
Cruise Fare: $4,944.06
Invitations and Postage: $89
Disney Fine Art Photography: $2875.50
Fairytale Hair and Makeup Deposit: $100
Hair and Makeup Trial: $180 ($150 base plus tip)
Total: $8088.56
