So…yeah, I’m a fashionable girl. I love clothes and make-up, I read the magazines, I’m in on what’s on trend and what’s not. I love everything about being a chick. Being a girl rocks. But…I wouldn’t call myself girlie. I’m more of a ‘boots and leather and tight pants’ kinda girl, more of a ‘today I feel like a gypsy so I’m gonna wear a belly shirt and a maxi skirt and a ton of jewelry’ kinda girl or more of a ‘throw on a short skirt and heels and then look forward to taking it all off the second I walk in the door’ kinda girl. I love the show of it, the idea of it, the act of putting it all on…but I’m all talk. I adore getting ready for an event, (and I can make anything be an event). I like taking my time and planning out my outfit and hair and make-up and accessories for fancy times out but then I remember that I have to then behave like a Lady. No legs propped up on the table, nope. Those legs need to be crossed at all times, shoes must stay on, no fidgeting… I’m like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, minus the ho part of it all. So when it comes time to get ready for a funeral or a wedding, something that I’m really not in control of how I want to look, but rather how I need to look, I can step up to the plate and take a damn good swing, but boy do I get exhausted running those bases.
So I’ve decided to share with you what I wore to a recent wedding of two of my junior high school friends. It was a weekend long wedding extravaganza that ended with a Monday night wedding. And, knowing I had to be a Lady on Monday evening, allowed me to let some of my other colors shine during the prior festivities…
First there was the Saturday night dance party blowout, where I chose to be the Lady in red…and gold…and leopard.
With an extremely smokey eye…
Who found herself behind the DJ booth with her 7th grade boyfriend for most of the night…
…when she wasn’t going hard on the dance floor. (Ahem, not necessarily very Lady-like…)
Then there was Sunday brunch. More laid back, chill but still very fun. I went with a little flirty, quasi-bohemian vibe…
And a bold lip.
But once I got all of that out of my system I knew I needed to bring my A-game to Monday night. I needed to be Lady Abbey.
And that’s what I’m about to share. Big time. Because, frankly, you may not see me looking this Lady-like again in a super long time. So it needed to be documented and talked about. In detail. A lot.
Ya’ll ready for this?Dude. I tooootally looked all sophisticated and stuff. Fo Realz
Here’s the complete ensemble…(in bad lighting and messy bathroom, obvi.)
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| (Dress-H&M, Shoes-Target, All accessories-H&M) |
To begin the ‘getting ready’ process, I started with my hair, putting it up in a top bun with a bow (oh-so-girlie), and I’ll talk more about that later. But then came my favorite part…the make-up. And I felt that for this occasion and this dress, I needed to call upon a little Hepburn, Audrey that is. The Ultimate Lady. I went with a Breakfast at Tiffany’s vibe with both the hair and the make-up.
I did a heavy wet-lined and winged upper lid, a little light brown shading at the brow bone and below the lower lash line and white liner in the water line to open up my eyes, lots of top lash, a strong brow, a little soft pink blush right under the apples of my cheeks and a soft, matte pink lip. Done! Exactly what my vision was. Awesome.
But then I remembered I had to get out of my old Wildcats t-shirt and into my Lady-dress…which needed to be slipped over my face and head…that now had a ton of makeup on it and a giant bun and bow perfectly situated on the top of it.
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| (I wonder if Audrey ever had this problem…) |
Got the dress on, with help from my husband and I think the only reason why my hair didn’t get messed up was because I used roughly 1/2 a bottle of hairspray to keep everything in place. (And the rest of the night I had to look down on my cell phone that was misted with a tacky film of the stuff. Note to self- remove phone from countertop when planning on weathering a hairspray storm.)
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| (Hooray for hairspray!) |
So… here’s an arial shot of my head taken as we headed to my mom’s to drop off the kids.
I used a bun doughnut that I got from H&M to bulk it up, otherwise my bun would be terribly tiny and incredibly un-Ladylike. And because, even when I’m pretending to be a Lady, I like things a little un-done, I made sure to mess up the bun by pulling at it a bit, which I think gave it more character.
And the accessories can be seen here….(Really, this was just an excuse to take the shoes off one last time before I wasn’t allowed to.)
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| (Like I said before, the shoes are Target and everything else is H&M…pretty sure that’s a toiletry bag that I’m using as a clutch, but it works!) |
My mom snapped a quick pic of us before we headed out…and actually, we both seem a bit uncomfortable in this picture, don’t we? Maybe he wanted to take his clothes off too…
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| (But I say we clean up quite nicely when forced to do so!) |
It is amazing what a different outfit can do to you though. It can completely change the way you think about yourself and behave…for a moment, at least. I began the evening sitting up straighter, feeling pretty, which then progressed to feeling awkward and on edge, then progressed to wanting to strip down, and then later progressed to my head hurting from all the bobby pins and hairspray…
(Being a Lady is hard damn work.)
And because I can’t resist a bathroom mirror selfie, this is me about 2 hours in to show you all that everything is still on!! Yay for no indecent wedding exposure!!
But then this happened…somewhere around hour 2.5?…
See. This is what happens when I’m told to sit still for too long. AND siting next to a girl, one of my oldest and dearest, bestest friends, who I know would walk through fire with me…or a bamboo field in this case.
I mean…I could spend some time explaining the meaning behind this picture or I could just let it speak for itself…
But here are the moments before (in case you were curious), which are generally as important as the moment itself, I believe…if not more.
Yeah…we had a lot of time to kill while all the sophisticated photos were being taken behind us…
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| (We look sophisticated, yes?) |
It was a great night. It’s always nice to see old friends, have an excuse to get out of the house and put on something different. I really did feel quite nice that evening. And considering we’ve now all seen that I was three totally different people over the weekend and trampled through a forrest at some point, we know that I cheated and let a little bit of my un-Ladylike self be visible through all the hairspray. Because really, at the end of the day, they’re just clothes. It’s just make-up. It’s just hair. None of those things define who we are. But they are a way for us to play and tap into all the different parts of ourselves that linger under the surface. There’s a Lady trapped inside each and every one of us. (You too, sir.) Sometimes you just have to suffer through some blisters and bows to find her.
Or…come home, kick off those heels, take out all the bobby pins and remember who you really are.
Just a bunch of messy things that, when held together properly, can put on a damn good show for a few hours.
Abbey Wade is a lifestyle blogger from the Charlotte, North Carolina area. On her website, MyEverydayChampagne.com, she shares custom recipes, tips on food and wine pairing, fashion advice and makeup fun... all under an approachable budget and timeline. Stop waiting for a special occasion to feel like you're in one ;-)
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