For a long time, I didn’t think about the possibility of combining my wedding makeup artistry with my work in counseling and education.
But then, at one of the first weddings I ever worked, I was standing next to my client’s future mother-in-law, both of us watching my client step into their wedding gown.
“You know,” she said to me, “I really underestimated all of the emotions of today. I’ve never felt so many different and contradicting feelings all at once.”
And the more weddings I worked, the more I saw what I think she meant: weddings have an incredibly unique way of bringing up a huge range of feelings, beliefs, challenges, fears, expectations, dreams, and hopes that we often don’t even realize we’re holding.
But without really solid, specific support (and strategies!) all of those emotions can have a HUGE impact on not just the wedding day itself, but the entire planning experience - and, of course, ourselves and our relationships after the day is over.
I started in the wedding industry as a makeup artist back in 2016, and I fell in love with helping people feel beautiful during their most important moments. Alongside my artistry, I had professional training and a full-time career in higher education, coaching, and student advising and counseling. My work was not only to listen to and support others without judgement or shame, but to help them develop the skills, strategies, and tools needed for things like decision-making, relationship-building, communication, and self-awareness.
Before I even realized or thought about it, my wedding clients started picking up on my emotional support skills as a really central part of how I worked with them.
My reviews from brides and their loved ones would talk about their makeup and how they looked…but overwhelmingly, they would describe how they felt working with me. They would share about not just loving their eyeshadow or lip color, but about how they felt seen, safe, and supported from the first emails right up through squeezing my hand before walking down the aisle.
And I knew that even more than the “beauty” expertise or service, it was the emotional support and connection that was helping them feel beautiful.
I believe that weddings - the experience of getting married and of transforming from individual to spouse - can give us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take a first look at as much of ourselves, our relationships, and our lives as we can. Whether we want to plan a meaningful celebration that unites families, discover how to communicate more clearly with a friend or family member, or even learn more about our own beliefs and values, I see over and over again that there’s something about weddings that can open those doors like nothing else.
My dream with First Looks is about celebrating a different kind of beauty.
Because the joy I get from helping people open and walk through those doors - and from watching them face and embrace change, growth, fear, hope, and connection - THAT is the most beautiful work I could ever do.