Our Engagement/Wedding Photos in Venice and Paris

Now that we are engaged, there are so many things to think about! First we decided to take engagement/wedding photos while in Italy/Paris. We will be taking photos in Venice with a Swedish photographer- Juliana Wiklund. I fell in love with her style and she was so approachable and friendly, I really felt like we could build a connection and create amazing photos together. Then in Paris we found a local French photographer called Pierre Torset, he was so responsive to my e-mails and set out a great itinerary for us and just seemed so on top of things. It took us a while to finalize our photographers because we had to contact them, pick dates, the location, look at their style, and see their availability! Then I had to think about my dresses, hairstyle, make up, and accessories! After much debate, I finally decided to buy my clothes in HK and bring them with us and do my own hair/make-up. Juliana will be arriving a day in advance in Venice to help scout out background locations. Ideas we had for this shoot are more laid-back, romantic, soft, and US! I wanted to find those Venetian masks and use them during our sunset/evening shoot with my long gold gown. Then the next morning we could either have a nautical theme or a simple short white dress with veil and fresh flowers. Juliana suggested we could run through the pigeons in the piazza, I think that is such a perfect picture idea! We also wanted to take 'Save the Dates' photos but haven't found the letters "1/1"14" to use yet. We will be skyping with Juliana tomorrow night to discuss more details! I picked out a big statement red dress with a long train, this is for our more 'classy' Paris sunset/evening shoot at Pont des Arts (lover's bridge with padlocks), Louvre and Alexander III bridge and finish with Eiffel Tower when lights are on. The the next morning we start at 7:30 am and I picked a flowy lacey wedding dress for our wedding photos at the Eiffel tower (from Trocadero which will give us a more distant view than ast night), Concorde, Notre-Dame Cathedral (to go with the wedding theme), and cobblestone streets and views with bridges and Seine riverside. We felt that in such a romantic and classic city like Paris, we want a more classic photos with gorgeous statement dresses with big monuments in the background. Of course we don't only like those posed editorial style photos, we still want to look like us, two love birds lose in the big city of love. I contacted many make-up artists and hairstylists, but they are either unavailable or so ridiculously overpriced! I feel like I can do a really decent job myself and who can guarantee they will be able to create the look I want if I won't even have a trial sesson. Why not just practice more myself and know exactly what I want to do So I decided I will do my make-up and hair myself. Last night, I had a trial make-up/hair session and I learned many tricks and got a good sense of what would work for our photo shoot. Things to try: 1. Helena Rubenstein concealor in no.2 2. small corn hair heater 3. eyelid tape 4. blend out bronzer/blush 5. giorgio armani face fabric in 2.. equivalent to luminous silk in 5