Today I realised that I am uttering this excitement more than ever in a perfectionism when it comes to my appearance that day. After I made sure that my daughter’s outfit was tip-top and that my husband’s appearance will be top-notch, I started ticking off the details of my silhouet. I found it somewhat harder that on other occasions, since I’m four months pregnant at this point. I’m not going to dwell on the complete picture yet, just for a little tension :-). I’d rather give you a peek into my preparations during this last week, I think they will be recognisable to many girls and ladies living up to such an important event.

Monday: Pj’s and high heels

I was working from home today. Which usually means: “homewear time, baby!”. This was also the case today, with one difference: I wore these very high heeled Karen Millen sweethearts all day long underneath my not so very flattering pj’s. I will do so for the rest of this week, to avoid the well known “new shoes agony” on the big day.

I also invested in a pair of very strange items, as shown below…

These invisible pads by Bama cushion the front of my feet, thus making walking in high heels noticeably more comfortable. This should help me pretending that I’m very much allright wearing this high heels in my in my pregnant condition. Thanks to air cushion technology with fine air passages, these pads should provide me with softness and a perfect fit. I wonder if they will do the job.

Tuesday: Nail Couture

A girl has to be neat from head to toe, or, from hand to toe, as I worked on today. I went to my favourite nail parlour, Nail Couture 43, and picked a coral red from their wide range of Gelamour colours, #004 Seductive Sun. My outfit will be salmon pink with golden accents. I found it necessary to create a lively contrast when it came to my nails, hence the coral red.

It goes without saying, that my toes will have to be adorned with the same colour. I went on a quest at Di and Parfuma and found myself a holy trinity: Essie nail laquer “Color Binge”, Chanel‘s famous “Le Top Coat” and Elegant Touch “Rapid dry for Nails”. This last one needs to be applied after the top coat and is a great help for impatient ladies such as myself, since it dries your polish in 60 seconds and adds some vitamin E at the same time.

Wednesday: Balayage

Today I gave in to temptation of two things I promised myself  I would never ever do (again). One: cutting my hair in layers, two: colouring it. Partly, Pinterest made me do it. These thousands of picture perfect balayages, ombres, dipdyes and highlights cannot leave a girl unmoved. Also, these shades of blonde always work out better on layers.

But the biggest incentive was the fact that I would like to create an over the shoulder messy fishtail braid on the day of Eriq and Sven’s wedding. Adding a subtle balayage to my already blonde hair will give some extra dimension and playfulness to the fishtail.

So, here we are:

The cut and balayage was performed at Salon Jules. The colouring products are by Vitality’s, which are very hair-friendly and guarantee radiant shades.

Thursday: Extensions

My customers and colleagues in beauty know, that I love to work my magic on my models hair using handmade clip-in extensions.  I have a wide array of hair colours in stock in by now, it becomes quite an addiction, I have to admit. I use clip in extensions to create more volume and/or length in updos, and to secure the curls in loose hairstyles. Sometimes my extensions addiction results in somewhat over the top creative projects, such as for example the “hair throne” photoshoot on my website.

As I mentioned above, I want to wear my hair Saturday in an over the shoulder fishtail braid. I will need some extra volume and length to create a fishtail worthy of its name. For this purpose, I “fitted” different colours of extensions today and, I must say, I found a nice colour blend with my own locks.

If you would like me to create a custom-made set of clip-in extensions especially for you, please let me know

Friday: Baby Belt Glamour

Pregnancy and glamour are not always an obvious match to make. I try very hard not to give into the pregnancy look, and keep glamour on my side as long as possible. This sometimes asks for some secret interventions, which are not secret anymore, since they are published on this blog

For starters, I have to wear compression stockings, type 2, all through my pregancy. This is to avoid having to much varicosity after these nine months. I wear Mediven Elegance in black, skin tone and white, even throughout summer. Mmmm, sexy…

Secondly, I have an “outie” belly button, which means that it pops out because of the pressure of the uterus on the inside against it. Ow yeah, nice…  What a lucky coincidence, that my compression stockings also support my belly, so that it covers up the outie when I wear them.

Saturday, however, I won’t be able to wear my ever so loved compression stockings, since they would show in my beloved Karen Millen stiletto sandals. I had to find an other solution for this nuisance of a belly button. I went to my  favourite place at this moment, the orthopaedic shop, and they sold me a baby belt by Anita (which is a nice looking, oldschool brand from 1886, with a sound history, hence the picture above). It is made of breathing microfibre, and is in fact designed to prevent back aches during pregnancy. It feels heavenly supporting, which I like (I’m a push up type ;-)).  It works magical on the outie as well! I find it awkward to show my belly here in public, but here is a beautiful model showing it for you:

It doesn’t look very sexy, but acceptable when combined with a fine set of lingerie (which I find a bit awkward to show here as well, but bought a way too expensive Chantal Thomass set ;-)). Glamour finds its origins underneath your clothes, darlings.

Saturday: The Big Day

After enjoying the most emotional wedding I have ever attended, I did’nt feel like posting pictures about myself anymore. Suddenly, all of this felt very superficial. These guys made us all cry several times during the day, because of their spontaneity, humour, softness and inegrity. I think that this picture says it all:

Anyway, I think I owe you guys some pictures of the finished look. Here they are.

Rutile is the most common form of titanium dioxide and well known for its habit of forming needle-like inclusions within other minerals, especially Quartz, in the form of long and slender yellow straw-like crystals. These inclusions can range from scattered needles to dense parallel fibers within a host mineral. A well-known form of Rutile is in the form of dense golden-yellow needles of Quartz included within transparent, colorless Quartz. This interesting combination is known as Rutilated Quartz, and is used both as a collectors mineral and gemstone. The name Rutile is derived from the Latin “Rutilus”, in reference to a common color habit of this mineral.

Pieter designed a graphic golden ring to make this stone radiate. Subtle, though, because of its size, quite a statement.

Me, Frances and Sylvie treated the ladies like queens and gave them te appropriate fifties pinup inspired make-up looks. What else is there for a girl to do, when the sweetheart or hubby is out there on the field yearning for that perfect muscle car, hotrod or kustom. We want some pinstriping too, don’t we?

It is always a delight to be part of Frances team, since she is an über perfectionist just like me. This results in a genuine and matching overall picture of pastel vanity mirrors, a collage of inspiring photoframes, a toile cirée on the make-up table upto a perfect vintage Las Vegas style tissue box. And then I din’t even mention our matching outfits, sponsored by Pinup Girl Clothing. We were wearing pencil skirts and dresses with a floral print with matching cross over front tops. F-f-f-f-fresh!

All of this resulted in an audience of ladies and gents watching our make-up activities and enjoying the cute and at the same time appealing look of our boudoir. We did not only draw the attention of passers-by and our clientèle, but also of the lads of the next door barbershop. Let’s say, that they didn’t mind us parading next to their booth nor did they take offence to the blonde beauties changing outfits behind the rotan screen. Some form of spontaneous burlesque, I suppose?

The biggest part of the heat was created by our old lady, the sun, however. She treated us with some sky high temperatures of about 30° Celsius. Steamin’! I tried to cool my feet in an ice bucket, which helped a bunch.

This movie was made as a teaser for the upcoming party. Originally, I was asked to do hair and make-up of the actors, who are all friends of Joris and Stijn. Eventually I ended up “acting” myself, since the girl who was normally playing the role of Donna couldn’t make it that night. I wore a wig that looks horrible, but hey, it was strange allright. I also did the hairstyling and make-up for Timo Sassen, playing the role of Audrey dancing to Mulatu Astatke. He has a moustache from himself, which gave the shot just that extra bit of strangeness.

The blooper version shows my expressive mimic… damn, didn’t know I could do dis.

Pieter and me at the Raar Haar Feest (Strange Hair Party) in april 2014. I wore three hair pompoms that Blonde made for the show of Stephanie Bösl, fashion designer, for her graduation collection at the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp. The dress is vintage, from a market stall at Rockabilly Day, an annual rockabilly event in Assenede, Belgium.