TPR Bride Caitlin Chander Shares Her Bridal Beauty Prep

It’s always a special time when future brides to be walk through our doors and entrust us with their bridal beauty needs. From skincare and beauty and everything in between, here at The Parlour Room we love helping our clients look and feel their best, especially when it comes to their bridal beauty journey.

For this addition, we feature TPR bride Caitlin Chander, who married her partner in March 2022 in the stunning Hunter Valley, amongst the rustic charm of Circa 1876. Caitlin shares her wedding journey below and her advice for future brides to be.

Photography: @mrhendrixphotography

Wedding planner: @huntereventsnsw

Venue: @circa1876

The Backstory

Francois and I have known each other for nearly 10 years. We used to work together and had been friends for the longest time. It wasn’t until 2017 that we realised there was something more between us and started dating. In March 2020, we had booked a 3-week holiday to South Africa, where I later found out he was going to propose. Covid had other plans for us, so he put it off for a few more months and we got engaged in October 2020. In March 2022 we got married in the Hunter Valley.

It was on a little weekend away in wine country (Hunter Valley) that we discovered this gorgeous farm-to-table restaurant that not only had incredible food, it had a beautiful outdoor aisle. He told me after he proposed that he knew that's where he wanted to get married the moment we arrived.

The lead up to our wedding was a stressful one! Covid, torrential rain and flooding hit us all at the same time. Navigating border closures, both domestic and international, was really stressful at times. When all of our loved ones touched down in Sydney, the week of our wedding, we had the wettest month on record. Thankfully, the morning of our Wedding Day, blue sky appeared, the sun came out and we had the most incredible time with all our family and friends.

The Inspiration…

When we first started to plan our wedding, the one thing we both agreed on was that we wanted to create an "atmosphere". A feeling that people would always remember when they thought about our day. While we kept the aesthetic classic and timeless, we added small touches that reflected our personalities and our backgrounds. For example, my heritage is Indian and Irish, so my bridesmaids and I wore a maang tikka (Indian head jewellery) as an ode to my Indian heritage. For our first dance, we had a duo sing an acoustic version of Toto's "Africa" as a mark of Francois's heritage.

We kept everything very chic and minimal in terms of decor, colour scheme and florals. We got married at Circa 1876, which is a beautiful, rustic-style restaurant in the Hunter Valley. The dark timber wood, forest greenery and vineyards paired nicely with white and light blush decor.

Our menus had little personalised thank you notes on the front of them so that when people sat down to eat, they'd get a nice surprise. We also had a cocktail camper on site and served "Franktinis" and "CC Spritzes" to keep everyone buzzing while we took photos. We loved the idea of an outdoor dance floor, so we had festoon lighting outside so that everyone was drawn outdoors to dance after their meals. A really special idea I got from a bridal podcast was to create your own "wedding scent", so we worked with a candle maker to craft our own candle scent which burned throughout the evening.

Dresses: @chosenbykyha and @kwhbridal
HMU: @tanyaartistry

The Prep…

Skincare

I was very lucky to have a skin practitioner who helped me cure my post-Covid skin. I suffer from post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, so the first step was to undergo a series of skin needling sessions to help rebuild the skin layers and reduce pigmentation. It made my skin look and feel plump and glowy. I also did a lot of LED Light sessions to improve the appearance of my skin and its luminosity.

I also introduced vitamin B and vitamin A serums into my skincare regime to help manage pigmentation and ageing. Keeping hydrated was essential too, particularly in the lead up to the wedding - things can get quite stressful so it's important to drink a lot of water. And sleep, of course! Z's are really good for your skin.

Beauty

A couple of months before the wedding I came to The Parlour Room for a spray tan trial. I've had maybe one or two spray tans in my life so I wanted to go somewhere that was trusted and well known. The girls were so accommodating and absolutely lovely in making sure I felt comfortable with the colour. I chose the Bondi shade. My bridesmaids and I came to TPR a couple of days before the wedding to get our spray tans and the colour lasted all the way through to my mini-moon after the wedding!

I also organised a shellac manicure and pedicure at TPR in OPI's Let Me Bayou a Drink. It is one of the best manis I've had and it lasted a really long time.

Her advice for future Brides-To-Be…

Find time during the big day to connect with your partner. It's such a busy day and it goes so fast - you want to grasp those precious moments to say to each other, "Hey, we did this! This is us forever." It's a truly special moment to look back at your guests enjoying the day you planned and share it with each other.

See More TPR Brides