Summer is easily the busiest time of the year for weddings. P and I have found ourselves in that little period of our life where everyone around us seems to be getting married – which means lots of wedding invites coming through our mailboxes. We’ve already received 3 invitations alone this summer, and although it can be fun and amazing to witness two people share their love for each other, it can also get expensive real quick.
Obviously weddings are kind of an excuse to get dressed up, because I don’t know about you, but I don’t attend red carpet events on the daily. Strike that, I don’t attend red carpet events at all! The last time that I actually got dressed up was most likely for some charitable gala or for prom (that alone was about 6 years ago). So obviously I’m going to take advantage of the situation and go the fancy route.
But regardless of how fancy you want to get, you can absolutely by no means ever show-up the bride. That’s a huge no-no, and I would not want to steal her day from her. It’s almost as bad as someone else getting engaged at a wedding. You just don’t do it. So what exactly is the fine line between looking good and looking too good? It’s easy when it comes to the outfit. Pick a nice and breezy summer dress and you’re good to go!
Your wedding hairstyle is a little bit of a different story. It’s not your wedding, so a visit to the salon isn’t exactly necessary. And I don’t know about you, but spending any longer than 30-45 minutes putting together my hairstyle is more than I can handle. Major kudos to hairstylist that can spend hours and days with their craft. There’s no way in hell I’d ever be able to keep my arms up continously for that long.
With the low neckline of my dress (this is actually my go-to formal occasion dress that I’ve reworn multiple times with #noshame), I wanted an updo that would help to show off my collarbones. Not going to lie, I had to use some product to get these short little strands to stay in place. Granted it’s a lot easier to style now that I don’t have an extra pound of hair weighing off of my head!
I recently picked up Kérastase’s Book of Braids and just knew that I had to give my try at the Braided Chignon. Following the instructions, I washed my hair and ran a generous amount of Forme Fatale through it before blow-drying it all and running my curling iron through it. My asian hair is quite stick straight, so styling it with a wave/curl makes it a little easier to hold.
Following the rest of the instructions, I achieved the look in under about 10 minutes. Add a couple handful of bobby pins to hide my stray ends in place and I was ready to wow at a wedding but not steal the scene away from the bride. Trust me, it’s a hell of a lot easier than it looks. You’ll also have access to a ton of other braided looks that you can pick from if a chignon isn’t your thing once you sign up for your complimentary copy of Kérastase’s Book of Braids.
And if you’re worried about stocking up on the right products, your download of the Book of Braids automatically enters you to win a free tote from Kérastase that’s full of goods which are sure to make any look stay put. Woohoo! You might just be able to do with less bobby pins than my noob self did!
I’d love for you to share your favorite looks and to hear how you’d style outfit to compliment your hair-do! Best of luck and fingers crossed that you win the tote of goodies, let me know which braid from the Book of Braids is your fave!
