My Romantic Boho Bridal Look

Mark and I got married on July 28, 2018! I’m so excited to share my boho bridal look with you. When we got engaged, I started wedding planning from scratch.  I hadn’t ever really given much thought as to what my wedding would look like. Honestly, I didn’t have a secret Pinterest board outlining my dream wedding (although looking back, that would have been helpful!).  I knew I wanted something a bit non-traditional, but I had never gotten into the specifics. It was the same with my bridal look: I had no idea what I wanted to look like for my wedding!

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning if you click a link and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission.

Photo credit: All photos in this post were taken by the talented photographer Jean-Laurent Gaudy and you can find more of his work here. 

The one thing I was certain about was that I wanted to look like myself on my wedding day. Yes, a more polished and glamorous version of my everyday self. But I still wanted to look and feel like myself.  I knew that we would revisit our wedding photos over the years and would display them in our home for our whole lives. So, I wanted the bride (me) to actually look like, well, me. That meant no crash dieting, no bridal bootcamp,  no magazines telling me I wasn’t going to be beautiful for my wedding without their 10-step program, and just generally no dramatic changes to my appearance.

Although I call my look “boho bridal” in this post, I was really going for something  ethereal, romantic, feminine, a bit undone, and very A Midsummer Night’s Dream. TBH, calling it “boho bridal” in this post is just easier.

I got ready for my wedding with the help of Avery-Christine Golson, who did my hair, and Monique Chiavaro of Makeup by Monique, who did my makeup. 

Wedding Makeup

When it came to my makeup, I stuck  with the theme of wanting to look like myself. I absolutely love makeup, but I tend to gravitate towards makeup like Glossier (especially cloud paint) that makes me look like an elevated version of myself without looking or feeling like a mask.

I know a lot of women wear airbrush foundation for their weddings, but on a regular day I usually just wear tinted moisturizer and was worried that going the full spectrum to airbrush foundation wouldn’t look natural. Monique and I opted for a light application of foundation, a flushed cheek, heavy lashes (I had lash extensions put in prior to my wedding), eyeliner on the top lid only and a pink berry stained lip.

Monique did a great job of making me look and feel like a bride, without going too heavy on the makeup. And my makeup lasted all night (and I mean ALL night – see the end of this post for evidence, lol)!

Boho Bridal Hair

I knew I wanted my hair to be at least partially down for my wedding. I have a round face, which is something that I have been self conscious about my entire life. Although I wear my hair up from time to time, I actually almost never wear my hair up in photos because I feel like it draws more attention to my face shape. I’m sure you guys can tell that I have a round face, but I still feel a bit more comfortable having my bangs across my forehead and my hair framing my face.

Avery and I decided that my wedding hair would be half up and half down, with long loose waves, and a braid at the back. I’m sure there is a special name for the type of braid I had, but I haven’t watched enough YouTube braid tutorials to know 😂. I wore clip-in extensions from Rapunzel of Sweden, which you can find here. Don’t be deterred by the website’s name – I love their clip in extensions!

My clip in extensions are the color #1B, which is a black-brown shade that is one shade lighter than black. To be honest, this is not my natural hair color. My natural hair color is more of a medium brown, but I have been dying my hair this color for years. Well, other than a period in college and law school when I had blonde hair, which some of my friends STILL swear suits me better than dark brown. I don’t believe them.

Early on, I had decided that I wasn’t going to wear a veil. I felt that a veil probably would have been too formal for our venue and our wedding’s overall vibe. I wanted to do something with flowers in my hair but I hadn’t settled on the specifics.

Those of you who follow me on Instagram may know that I agonized about whether or not to wear a flower crown pretty much until the week of my wedding. The original plan – conceived a week or two before the wedding – was that I would wear a half flower crown resting on my braid at the back of my head, and Avery would place individual wildflowers around the front of my head. That all got turned upside down when we saw the incredible half flower crown created for me by Sarah Monteiro of Farmhand Flowers.

In a game time decision on my wedding day, I decided that my half flower crown was too beautiful to be worn on the back of my head. Instead, I wore the half crown on the front of my head and Avery placed wildflowers throughout the braid on the back of my head. I’m so happy we went in that direction. I’m absolutely in love with how my wedding hair turned out.

Wedding Nails

This wasn’t very “TEAM BRIDE” of me, but I went to get my nails done alone a few days before my wedding. Things were out of control hectic and we had a ton of out of town visitors staying with us. I just needed to get a mani pedi and some peace and quiet. I got a gel mani and pedi in a slightly off white color that would last me through the wedding and honeymoon without chipping. 

My Getting Ready Robe

While getting ready for my wedding, I wore a white floral fringe-trimmed robe from Plum Sugar Pretty. If I can offer brides-to-be one piece of advice for their pre-wedding getting ready session, it is to have something cute for you and your bridal party to wear. A few years ago, I was a bridesmaid in a wedding where the bride told us to just bring any white collared shirt to wear while getting ready. She later told me that her getting ready photos were basically unusable because everyone looked sloppy, wrinkled and mismatched. I’m really happy that we splurged on floral robes for me and my bridal party because we felt cute and comfortable and the photos turned out great. 

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Wedding Earrings

My earrings were also a last minute decision. I absolutely love statement earrings so I brought multiple pairs with me to try on once I was fully ready. Since it was the first time I was going to be wearing my wedding flower crown, I wanted to have multiple options to try on.  I decided to wear this pair of floral drop earring from BaubleBar.

My Wedding Shoes

I actually found my wedding shoes before I found my wedding dress. I am a HUGE fan of everything Charlotte Olympia. Her whimsical and feminine bags and shoes truly have a sense of humor and I’ve always felt they were perfectly my style. When I saw these daisy glitter stilettos with adorable tiny enamel ladybugs on each shoe (!!!), I had to have them. I bought them a year before our wedding and figured they would probably match any dress I chose.

Our wedding ceremony and cocktail hour were outdoors on grass, so I put these clear heel protectors on my shoes. I was amazed at how they kept my heels from sinking into the grass all day and night without damaging my precious glittery stilettos. 

My Wedding Dress

I had no idea what my wedding dress was going to look like until the day I bought it. Before my first wedding dress appointment, the only thing I knew was that I didn’t want to wear something strapless and I didn’t want an exaggerated mermaid shaped gown.

The result was that I tried on hundreds of wedding dresses with my very patient best friend in tow. I tried on so many dresses that I eventually started doing repeat appointments solo because I was pretty sure I was driving my best friend crazy.

Before I started trying on wedding dresses, I thought about wearing a red dress, a yellow dress and even a beaded floral dress. But, honestly, once I tried on a real live wedding dress, it was hard to picture wearing anything else on my big day. I always thought the wedding dress industry was a total racket until I got engaged and started trying on dresses.  Then I discovered the wonderful world of alternative bridal stores and wound up with a short list of 6 finalists in the running to be my wedding dress.

I ultimately wore Sarah Seven’s Sonoma gown because it felt like it was made for my body. Originally, I passed by the dress on the rack but the sales associate at Sarah Seven convinced me to try it on. I’m obviously so glad I listened! To be honest, I kept trying on dresses for months after to see if I could top this dress and eventually decided that I couldn’t. When my dress arrived, it didn’t need alterations other than getting it hemmed and adding a bustle. I’m not even sure if I used the bustle – my wedding day is such a blur! 

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My Sarah Seven dress is white lace, lined in the front but with some sheer detailing, and has a sheer back down to my tailbone. It has a small train and a slit in the front lining, which gave it a glamorous effect but also made it easier to walk in!

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Late Night Look

I wasn’t sure if I was going to change into a party dress at my wedding, but I had one hanging in a garment bag in the venue just in case. After hours of wearing a long dress with a train, it was starting to cramp my style. I changed into this dress from Finders Keepers the Label so I could dance the night away. And I did! 

If anyone wants to share their wedding look with me, I would LOVE to see it! 

xx

Vicki

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