A Little Life Saver + crushing on Renny Vasquez

So, in my quest to make my wedding a success, I decided not to have my hair and makeup done professionally. I'm the type (like a lot of you) that wants a certain look and other people just seem to make you look like they want you to look. The professionals are really good at what they do but have never really been good a what I want them to do. On my wedding day, i don't want to be disappointed, look different from my normal self, have to fix what I already paid for etc.

I'm not worried about my hair, i do it all the time and know how to make it last all night. My makeup, on the other hand, never seems to last as long as I'd like it to. I've always relied on Instagram and YouTube to get ideas and tricks of the trade when it comes to makeup. This morning, I was looking at Renny Vasquez's Instagram and I was like HOLY....his models were looking terribly flawless and natural. I said to myself, "Mia, this is what you should look like at your wedding".

Here are some of his pictures from Instagram. These girls look so great!
His website is HERE and you can find him on twitter, facebook and Istagram

I saw that he was using and airbrush system called Belleto so I thought I'd at least try to get the same one that he uses. That's a step in the right direction. I can't get him but I can use some of the same products. I'll have to do my best with what I have to work with right? So I checked out the website and the systems for about $500 a piece for the starter kit. For that much I might as well hire a professional! I'm a girl who likes a deal so I kept searching and found out that Belleto was on Hautelook today and I got the whole thing for $110! Score! I got the dark kit with yellow undertones, I think. I figured I could do my Mom, Gma, sister, cousins and friends with it.

If you're looking for flawless coverage for big events or light coverage every day, you might want to look into this while it's on sale. Check out Belletto Studio to find your color and HauteLook for the sale. hurry though because it ends soon!

Engagement Party!

My fiance and I had a Halloween engagement party on the Saturday before Halloween. When I first brought up the idea, Al wasn't too happy about it. He didn't want Halloween and the costumes etc. to get in the way of celebrating our engagement. I felt the exact opposite. The only reason we would be having a party was to celebrate our engagement, so to me,  the attire or date didn't make it less about us. Well, in the end, we had a great time, all of our friends were dressed up in really funny costumes and we have great pictures to remember it all.

I have always been a huge fan of Halloween. As a little girl, my mom always took us trick-or-treating. We lived in a great neighborhood where everyone participated and it was a blast. When I was 6, we moved into a small neighborhood where nobody did trick-or-treating. Lucky for us, my mom and dad used to take us back to our old neighborhood so that we could trick-or-treat. When I was about 11, we had this huge, ugly conversion van (sorry Dad, but it was ugly...he loved that van. Secretly, so did I). My parents would invite all of my friends to pile in and they would take us all to my old neighborhood and we'd have the best time! Well when I got to the 8th grade, I finally decided that I was too old to go trick-or-treating so my mom agreed that I could have a Halloween party! I was so excited and we turned our garage into a spooky...garage? I dunno, it was fun. Cobwebs, bats, dry ice cauldrons, skeletons, black lights, the works. My friends and I had a blast, so we did it every year. Fast forward to my grown up self, I have a warm place in my heart for Halloween. I tried to explain this to Al but he just ended up agreeing to it...probably to shut me up about it! lol

Here are a few pics :)

Here's what our invitation looked like...

This is the front of the invite (I love sugar sculls)

The invitations were inside this paper bag with a candy bag that I stamped with this cute little skull. I hand delivered all of these invites to my friend's doorsteps. It was a little creepy for them to find something random on their porch but that just adds to the Halloween theme right? 

I saw this in a magazine so I did it with a few of my friends. They are just spray painted shoe boxes.

Here's how mine turned out, before we added the pumpkins, bats, spiders, skulls and lanterns 

I made these lanterns by spraying vases white and putting halloween tights over it. The vases were from the dollar store, the tights were from Walmart. 

My Mom and I had the best time planning our costumes :)

Here's Al shopping for beverages...Frugal McDoogle! 

Here's a little treat for our guests to take home. 

Our friends was very generous and let us have the party at her house.
These are some of the decorations that we put up outside.

I made my costume the day before the party by gluing all of the leaves around my parent's house (that my Mom didn't want anymore). I also bought some leaves from the dollar store. 

and this is me trying on my top and being sad that I still had to make the bottom :/ 

Here's how my Eve costumed turned out. 

This is my super cute older sister dressed as a little girl at a sleepover. 

Here's the cake that our friend made , or actually, this is after we ate the top two tiers :)

I love paper lashes...it's like when's a good time to wear them? Halloween! 

Flo and Steve Urkel 

Here's my friend who was a peacock.

Sha nay nay lol!

Edward Scissorhands 

Cher and...a guy with an afro wig :)

Al was Grandmama! lmao

I Should Be Ashamed :(

I should be, but I'm not! I haven't blogged since October. What was I thinking? I'm so thankful that a lot of you have pushed me (guilted me) into starting again. I love to do it, I love talking to all of you and  responding to emails etc. I got busy with wedding planning and neglected my precious little blog space. Not to worry, I have tons of pics to share!

Comment or email me FollowMeToFashion@gmail.com and let me know what other stuff you guys wanna know about the wedding, my life, or whatev.

Also, if you aren't already, please follow me on Instagram @Gstarmi. I post photos pretty often there!

Let's start with some more dress options, those are always fun!

I tried on so many head bands and accessories and this ribbon was so annoying hanging down my back.

This dress is by Amsale and i thought it was really interesting. Excuse the weird way I'm standing...

 

I really like the scalloped neckline on this dress. I love lace so this was right up my alley.  This dress is by Modern Trousseau and it's called Field.

This jacquard dress was definitely one of my favorites. I probably would've picked it if I were having a fall or winter wedding. I just thought the fabric was to thick and heavy for May. It was by modern Trousseau and the name is Regan.

it had pockets!

Here's how I want my hair...some variation of one of these. I'm doing my hair and makeup for the big day so I have some playing around to do to see what looks good on me. I know a want soft curls and a low bun.

The top left picture is what i like, maybe a little messier than that though.

Of course i'm into braids, and I know I want a low bun so this might work.

I like how her hair is sort of swirled into this bun so I can maybe recreate this into a lower bun...

I love love love this makeup! It looks so natural and soft even thought they clearly contoured and highlighted the hell out of her face (in a good way). I don't want to look too overdone but I definitely want a flawless complexion like this! I need to practice, lol!

            

My 10 Year High School Reunion

Last weekend I had my 10 year High School reunion from West Charlotte...the best high school in history. I can't believe it's been that long since I've graduated from high school. It's pretty awesome that I'm still very close to my 2 best friends from high school and have a lot of the same friends. In case you're wondering, here are my 2 super amazing friends.

This is Danielle and her beautiful niece Z. She owns ZFL Dance Company. If you have kids that love to dance or do gymnastics or you're interested in taking adult dance or fitness classes, CALL THE NUMBER!

This is Jennifer and her super cute baby and puppy. She's a nurse and blogs HERE. She's the funniest person to be around and never takes herself too seriously. She's got a beautiful baby girl and has one on the way! She takes super cute pics of baby A like this!

Anyway, I'm very lucky to still have friends around that know my so well and when we all get together, it's like we never skipped a beat! 

We had our reunion at the Blake Hotel in Charlotte and here's what I wore. 

Top-Zara
Belt-Madewell
Skirt- 5/48
Shoes-Vince Camuto
Necklace-H&M

Here are the booties, you can barely see them in the pic

Julia's Wedding!

One of my friends, Julia got married to the love of her life, Derrick, last weekend! She was beautiful and I had so much fun at the reception. Julia and I went to high school together so lots of my friends were in the wedding and invited to the wedding. That really made for a good reception. We danced until the DJ made us leave! Good Times!

I had the misfortune of running late and didn't get to grab my good camera before I left the house. I ended up with some shoddy iphone pics and some after the party, kinds sweaty pics of me after I got back home. Ehh, oh well...here's what I got.

So 2 nights before, I washed and air dried my hair. 

The night before, I blow dried my hair using Tresemme heat tamer spray and this sample of Chocolat blow dry cream by Carol's Daughter. I could do a whole separate post on this stuff cuz I hated it so much. My hair felt really dry and tangled after I straightened it. When I tried to wash it out a few days later, I had to wash like three times and use a clarifying shampoo to get it out :/ Won't be using that anymore. If anybody has tried it and loves it, I will send you this bottle! 

I use DDF oil free moisturizing dew which I love love love after washing my face. The urban decay naked skin is really good. Def my new favorite foundation. It's lightweight and buildable for medium to heavy coverage. My color is 9.0

I used a wand to curl my hair and this is the finished product a la Instagram.

Here I am with the lovely bride with my horrible iPhone 4 camera

Here's Julia looking amazing! This pic is one of her professional shots...obviously not taken with my stupid phone. 

Here's how I looked afterwards...

My hair was completely sweaty and disgusting!

My hair was so bad when I got home :/ That means it was a fun reception!! 

Half way through the reception, I put my hair in a top knot. I added the headband when i got home lol

My dress is by Blue Juice and my clutch is from Aldo Accessories.