TPR Bride - Britt Austin — The Parlour Room

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, Britt Austin, who married her partner in January 2023 at Bimbadgen Palmers Lane in the Hunter Valley, NSW. Britt shares her unique and cute proposal, wedding prep and her advice for future brides to be below.

The Backstory

Ed and I have been together for over 6 years and got married on the 6th January 2023 at the stunning Bimbadgen Palmers Lane in the Hunter Valley. We got engaged in early 2022 in true Britt and Ed style - right beside a hippo at the zoo. I am hippo mad and absolutely adore them. To celebrate me quitting my job and accepting my dream role, Ed had booked a trip to Dubbo and a stay at the zoo to feed the hippo's. We got SO lucky being the only ones to book it that day. I made Ed stand at the front of the hippo encounter for over an hour before our booking, to ensure we did not miss out on one moment of the experience. We got to feed the hippo and I even got a pat. I was in tears for living out my dream, being so close to a hippo. Ed asked the zoo keeper to take a photo of us with the Hippo (great idea I thought) and next minute he was down on one knee with the hippo behind us and his mouth wide open (it’s a great shot). I couldn't have imagined a more perfect proposal.

The Inspiration…

We had 132 guests which was the perfect number for the venue. The Bimbadgen team worked with us and made the set up a breeze. Like any wedding, there were hurdles....one included me changing my dress midway - luckily the team at Karen Willis-Holmes were a dream to work with and helped me change my dress to an absolute dream gown!! I also had a surgery scheduled for a broken ankle, however we made the decision to post-pone the surgery to after the wedding and honeymoon so I wasn't in a moon boot. Naturally this had challenges like trying to dance and walk in heels, but made the whole process a bit more fun. We did have some covid cases amongst guests before the wedding and a few people got sick, but we were able to invite other friends to fill those spaces last minute, we actually ended up with more than we had originally booked!!

We always wanted a simple and modern wedding. I loved lots of fairy lights, white flowers and candles. We wanted it to be a 'clean' looking wedding and not overdone - we like simple & minimal decor and we wanted our wedding to reflect that. We did however, want to do a few unique things to ensure it was an ‘us’ wedding. We had life size cutouts of our pets - I have a bulldog called Reggie and we had his cut out made and a Reggie cake topper. We also had my partners dog Milo, a choc lab who we lost a few years ago, but we wanted to remember her on the day and of course - a giant size cutout of a hippo- because it wouldn't be a Britt wedding without one. The hippo theme did not stop there, we had a MR and MRS hippo as our cake topper which were totally adorable and custom hippo cookies as our wedding guest bomboniere (plus very large fireball shots for everyone)!

My bridesmaids wore black Billy J one shoulder dresses with Bilini strappy heels and the groomsmen and groom all wore black tuxedo's from MJ bale. I had a stunning gown from Karen Willis Holmes with harlo heels and I changed into a fun Chosen by Kyah Miami set for the reception which I absolutely loved - it was so ME. I had a white satin gown as an option but the moment I saw the Miami set I knew I had to have it.

The Prep…

Skincare

or hair and makeup, I booked 'The Boys Studio' and my goodness they were LEGENDS! I could not recommend them enough - they brought all of the energy and all the vibes to our wedding morning! I was contemplating having my hair up, but decided to have it down and wavy - which was much more me and I am so glad I did. For makeup, I wanted glowy and bronzed tones and they nailed the brief. For my bridesmaids, we knew the outdoor ceremony was going to be windy and we also wanted to show off the one shoulder strap dresses so we went for slicked low buns that were stunning. They also had natural and glowy makeup! They all looked like such babes and I adore them.

I am so glad I found The Parlour Room for my beauty prep. I tend to not do much normally, so I was a little lost when it came to beauty prep before the wedding. I still kept it pretty minimal and went and saw the TPR girls 6 months out. The space is stunning and so relaxing. I started getting BIAB nails to work out what shade I wanted for the wedding and to also strengthen my nails again as they were damaged from other types of nail treatments I was doing. I was so excited each month going in for a mani and pedi and chatting weddings with the girls, playing around with different shades and making my nails healthy again. One of my favourite shades is dolly - it is pure perfection and was fun to mix it with some other colours too and add some shimmer. I was also getting eyebrow tints and lamination a few months leading up to the wedding. I am blonde and my eyebrows are very light so i wanted to ensure it was natural and I suited brow lamination. It was great to be able to trial different shades and new treatments.

To top it off, I started getting facials at SELF. I had 2 facials before my wedding - the Fire & Ice Facial which I loved. I have very dehydrated skin and this was perfect to start the pre wedding glow and was so also relaxing. The girls assessed my skin in my appointment and also recommended some products to purchase to ensure I was giving my skin the best care at home too. The week of my wedding I had the full body scrub to get my skin prepped for my tan. This was so relaxing and made my tan sit so well. I would definitely recommend getting this treatment - I almost fell asleep.

Her advice for future Brides-To-Be…

Don't even stress! I was stressed leading up to our wedding about every tiny detail, rain, it being cold, things not going to plan etc.... it rained on our day, we had wind, nothing went to plan, my maid of honour forgot her bouquet, but I wouldn't change it for the world. I had the best day and I loved that things went wrong - it made it memorable and I was smiling all day. Do it your way! At the end of the day, getting married to the person you love is all that matters - don't worry about the big show :)