My Formal Tips

It's that time of the year again where all the senior high school girls start blowing up all their money for new dresses, hair, nails and jewellery, while all the guys man up to ask for a date! Yes...I'm talking about formal! One of the biggest, and most memorable nights of your high school life. I cannot believe that it's been almost 8 months since I had my formal. It feels like just yesterday when I was frantically looking for that perfect dress. I remember stressing about getting my make up and hair done while time was quickly slipping out of my hands. I'm not going to lie, getting ready for formal was one hectic ride, but it was all worth it for a night that ended on such a good note. So, since many school formals are coming up soon, I decided to give some tips and advice for formal through my own personal experiences. 



DRESS

I began looking for a dress approximately 4 months prior to my formal and found one 2 months before. Although I had bought one quite early on, I was vigorously looking for the perfect one everywhere - online, in-stores, you know name it, I've searched it. So for my advice when looking for a dress, make sure to give yourself plenty of time before your formal to look. If you find your formal dress earlier, this removes a lot more stress for you (I'm not saying you won't be stressed though). Because if you think about it, your make up, hair, shoes, clutch and jewellery all need to match with your dress. Therefore, if you get your dress earlier, you will have plenty more time to decide what sort of accessories you'd like. Another thing is, always ask for your friend's opinions if you're unsure of something. I know I struggled on deciding what sort of look to go for, but with the help of some friends, it definitely made things a lot easier. 

In terms of where you get your dress, of course, it's always best to buy it in-stores as you are able to try it on and such. However in my city, we had very limited places to shop for a formal dress. Thus in these circumstances, it is okay to look for a dress online, which is where I ended up buying my dress. One of the risks of buying dresses online, however, is whether or not the site is trustworthy, and if the dress fits you or not. So when buying a dress online, make sure to measure carefully and if you don't mind paying extra, use the custom measurements if available on the site. Also, make sure it delivers a few months prior to your formal, that way you have plenty of time to alter the dress if needed. In order to determine which site is trustworthy, make sure you look at reviews everywhere. I find that the best place to look would be on Facebook as the people who bought the dress from the site would often post photos of their dresses onto the page. Some of the sites I'd recommend include:

www.jjshouse.com (which is where I bought my dress)
www.lightinthebox.com
www.jovani.com
www.genealogydresses.com
www.dresstherapy.com
www.merledress.com
www.thecelebritydress.com

I'd also recommend wearing long dresses as it is quite a formal event (hence the name) and they are a lot more elegant than short dresses. And also, when are you ever going to have the opportunity to wear such extravagant dresses?

MAKE UP

Make up is probably the next most important thing after the dress. If you are planning to do your own make up, then I would highly recommend to use a foundation with an SPF lower than 20, as it does not leave a shiny complexion on your face with flash photography. Using shimmery eyeshadows will also help with brightening the eyes and is definitely suitable for an elegant night like this. Before applying lipstick, I would also recommend using a lip pencil as this would make the lipstick last longer. With that being said, make sure to bring your lipstick with you for any touch ups during the night...trust me, you WILL need to touch up on your lips! However, even though you do save quite a lot of money if you do your own make up, but for me, I would recommend getting it done by a professional. Think about it this way, yes it's quite expensive to get your make up done by a professional, but when are you ever going to get an opportunity like this? In some ways you take off a lot of stress since you won't need to worry about ruining your make up and chances are, they'll probably end up doing a better job than you because they know their stuff. If you're planning to get your make up done, then I would recommend going to those department store groups, because in return, they give you the amount of make up products that you paid to do your make up. I went to Napoleon Perdis to do my make up and it cost me $80, but along with that I was also given $80 worth of products of my choice, which is pretty decent considering the fact that they were high end as well. 

HAIR

Same goes with hair, it would be nice to get it done by a professional as you'd rarely get any opportunities like this. However, one thing I do find a bit of a rip off with getting your hair done by a professional is that unlike make up, you don't get anything in return. It'd be nice if they give you a free straightener or curler...but I don't think that's going to happen. Though if you'd like to save some money, try practise doing your hair on your own or even get a friend to do your hair for you! Make sure you experiment with different sorts of hairstyles though, that way you would have explored all your different options. Also, if you're planning to use a heating tool for your hair, I would recommend to do your hair first just to avoid melting your make up off. 

ACCESSORIES

Now with the accessories, let's keep it this way,simple is best. Don't overdo your jewelleries unless you want to look like an ornament or some sort. Throughout the night, people are generally paying more attention to your dress and so there is no need to go all out with jewellery, although it is still important as it adds that little oomf towards your look. I also find that silver jewellery goes with ANY sort of dress and I'd definitely prefer it over gold. Gold makes you look a bit too...mature, which is definitely not the look you want to be aiming for. Last but not least, make sure that your shoes and clutch match! 

OTHER 

So now, I'll just make a few other key point information in which I believe will come along very handy towards the night! 

- Make sure you plan everything early on in the day. You don't want to plan everything near the time of your formal because trust me, you don't want to be rushing to get everything done. And if you're going to be travelling to your appointments, you definitely don't want to be stuck in peak hour so make sure to book them earlier on! 
- Take many, many photos! With everyone all glamoured up on such an extravagant night, you'll definitely want to be able to capture every moment of it.
- It's okay if your feet are sore from your heels, because I remembered by the end of my formal night basically all the girls were bare foot. 
- If you can't find a date, don't stress over it! You'll have just as much fun without one anyway. I'll be honest here, the only difference with having a date and not, is that you may not get a corsage, no biggy! 
- If there is an official after party, be sure to go to it! Despite whether it'll be expensive or not, I'd definitely recommend going. Chances are, your whole year level will be going and talking about it for a whole week or so, and you don't want to be the one that missed out on all the fun do you? Even though it might be quite expensive, you've already spent so much on your make up and such, so another extra $30 or so wouldn't hurt. Let's put it this way, you can't buy a memory back. 
- Last but not least, HAVE FUN!! It's your last year of high school (well for the year 12s), you get to glamour it up, you're with all your close friends, so why not make the most out of it? 

I hope that all this will help you out with preparing yourself for the night, although I must admit it was quite a big handful. Nevertheless, have fun and make the most out of your great night!

Stay tuned to see more updates on my blog! 

xx Trulyvonne